Kevind0905
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- Joined
- May 22, 2020
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The KS260 Tank Build Thread
If you saw my intro post on R2R then you know I have been away from the hobby for a number of years and that I had just ordered a Red Sea AIO. The tank finally arrived and my wife and I kicked off the build last weekend. I am going to share the journey here and hope you find it interesting. Also would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for the build.
Here are the week one deets.
The initial aquascape took place in the living room. My thought was this would make pining and gluing easier, and it did. However, getting it to the aquarium proved to be a challenging endeavor. We got a little excited and didn’t mark pieces and didn’t keep them in very good order. End result, it took two hours to re-create our scape in the tank. Another challenge was that the rock stayed in place much better on the cardboard mock tank bottom than it did on the actual glass tank bottom. Lesson learned!
Parameters end week one (and after a 50% water change).
The Red sea nitrite test tops out at 1 and nitrate test at 50. I don’t normally feel the need to estimate over those readings because they are crazy high anyway and I really just want to see that they come down when they are supposed to but the June 13 nitrates were easily two times darker than the max reading on the color card so I felt a need to record it. Initial ammonia was a 1.5g dose of ammonium chloride with a follow up dose of .75g day three. We haven’t added any ammonia since but we are feeding the tank lightly (it is currently fish-less, coral-less, invert-less).
Some other observations.
The Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt claims an alkalinity of 7 dKH but on two different mixes (50 g each) alkalinity has been 6.0 dKH so I’m dosing with sodium bicarbonate solution to get it to get it up to 8.5 dKH. Here is what the alkalinity has been doing the first week. As an aside, the pH has been rock solid ay 8.2.
Water changes
I’m too old to lug five gallon buckets of water back and forth from the water station and an auto water change system wasn’t really an option for this build so I invested in a small self-priming pump with standard garden hose connections ($70 on Amazon). I also purchased a Rainwave digital flow meter ($22 on Amazon) that has garden hose connections on it as well. The pump came with a six-foot inlet hose and I added a 25 ft garden hose (the length I needed to reach between the water mixing barrel, the tank and the closest drain – adjust length for your personal needs) and the flowmeter tells me how much water has moved to the tenth gallon. So for just over $100 I don’t have to lug 40 lb. buckets of water around the house. I’m pleased with the system and it works well. We used it to do the initial fill (about 15 minutes) and the 50% water change (about 25 minutes all in after the water was mixed).
Next steps include continued monitoring of the cycle till completion and then a couple big water changes to get the nitrates under control. Also thinking about adding the Tunze MAR-3181 Macro Algae Reactor. Planning to start with corals and inverts and stay fishless for at least 76 days and follow with fish through prophylactic quarantine treatment with Copper Safe and API General Cure and Selcon food soak.
Open to your thoughts, ideas and/or questions about the build. Also would be great to hear anyone’s experience with the Red Sea protein skimmer and the Tunze algae reactor.
More soon,
Kevin
If you saw my intro post on R2R then you know I have been away from the hobby for a number of years and that I had just ordered a Red Sea AIO. The tank finally arrived and my wife and I kicked off the build last weekend. I am going to share the journey here and hope you find it interesting. Also would love to hear your thoughts and ideas for the build.
Here are the week one deets.
- Red Sea AIO Max E-260
- Red Sea rear sump skimmer
- 260 liter / 69 Gallon
- Real Reef Rock
- Caribsea Special Grade Arag-Alive! Reef Sand
- Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt
- Two - Red Sea Reef LED 90 Lights
- Two Ecotech Marine Vortech MP40
- Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO w/ 10 gal ATO reservoir by Bashsea
- Finnex HC810M digital heater (300w)
- Red Sea Marine Care Kit for pH, Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate
- Hanna Instruments HI98319 Marine Salinity Tester
- Hanna Instruments HI772 Marine Alkalinity (dKH) Checker
- Hanna Instruments HI758 Marine Calcium Checker
- Hanna Instruments HI774 Ultra Low Range Phosphate PPM Checker
- Hanna Instruments HI702 Copper High Range Colorimeter Checker (for QT)
The initial aquascape took place in the living room. My thought was this would make pining and gluing easier, and it did. However, getting it to the aquarium proved to be a challenging endeavor. We got a little excited and didn’t mark pieces and didn’t keep them in very good order. End result, it took two hours to re-create our scape in the tank. Another challenge was that the rock stayed in place much better on the cardboard mock tank bottom than it did on the actual glass tank bottom. Lesson learned!
Parameters end week one (and after a 50% water change).
- Temperature - 78.5f
- pH - 8.20
- Salinity - 1.0257
- Ammonia (NH3) - 0.00
- Nitrite (NO2) - 0.80
- Nitrate - Nitrogen (NO3) - 35.0
- Alkalinity - 7.90 dKH
- Calcium - 392
- Phosphate - 0.05
- Magnesium – not tested yet.
The Red sea nitrite test tops out at 1 and nitrate test at 50. I don’t normally feel the need to estimate over those readings because they are crazy high anyway and I really just want to see that they come down when they are supposed to but the June 13 nitrates were easily two times darker than the max reading on the color card so I felt a need to record it. Initial ammonia was a 1.5g dose of ammonium chloride with a follow up dose of .75g day three. We haven’t added any ammonia since but we are feeding the tank lightly (it is currently fish-less, coral-less, invert-less).
Some other observations.
The Tropic Marin Pro Reef salt claims an alkalinity of 7 dKH but on two different mixes (50 g each) alkalinity has been 6.0 dKH so I’m dosing with sodium bicarbonate solution to get it to get it up to 8.5 dKH. Here is what the alkalinity has been doing the first week. As an aside, the pH has been rock solid ay 8.2.
Water changes
I’m too old to lug five gallon buckets of water back and forth from the water station and an auto water change system wasn’t really an option for this build so I invested in a small self-priming pump with standard garden hose connections ($70 on Amazon). I also purchased a Rainwave digital flow meter ($22 on Amazon) that has garden hose connections on it as well. The pump came with a six-foot inlet hose and I added a 25 ft garden hose (the length I needed to reach between the water mixing barrel, the tank and the closest drain – adjust length for your personal needs) and the flowmeter tells me how much water has moved to the tenth gallon. So for just over $100 I don’t have to lug 40 lb. buckets of water around the house. I’m pleased with the system and it works well. We used it to do the initial fill (about 15 minutes) and the 50% water change (about 25 minutes all in after the water was mixed).
Next steps include continued monitoring of the cycle till completion and then a couple big water changes to get the nitrates under control. Also thinking about adding the Tunze MAR-3181 Macro Algae Reactor. Planning to start with corals and inverts and stay fishless for at least 76 days and follow with fish through prophylactic quarantine treatment with Copper Safe and API General Cure and Selcon food soak.
Open to your thoughts, ideas and/or questions about the build. Also would be great to hear anyone’s experience with the Red Sea protein skimmer and the Tunze algae reactor.
More soon,
Kevin
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