Red sea Reefer 170 deluxe build

[Meat locker]

Hello reef2reef. First time on here and back into the hobby. I've been reef tank sober since 2014, but I have now relapsed . I started this amazing hobby back in 2007. I have had soo many tanks and the most expensive learning curve of my life. This will be my 9th reef thank build. Ranging from a 4 gallon cadlights nano to a massive 240 gallon custom in wall build.

 

[Meat locker]

I was barely able to get the green light from the wife to do a small tank again for the kiddos. I needed something simple and can keep me away from diy as much as possible. After much research I settled with the 170. It should be arriving friday.

 

[Meat locker]

I have some old equipment laying around, but I did purchase a lot of new. I've dusted off the old reef keeper lite and was bummed when I learned digital aquatics abandoned the hobby. Hopefully it all still works.

Here is the equipment list so far:
Old RKL
Sicce 3.0 for return
Bubble magus curve 5 skimmer
Vortec MP10
Cobalt 150w heater
Aqua medic reefdoser EVO 4 pumps
Simplicity 3x2L dosing resovior.

I will be using 40lbs of caribsea life rock shapes plus I have some old rock being rinsed in ro after a bleach treatment.

40lbs of caribsea aragalive sand.

I plan on dosing 2 part B- ionic at startup plus trace elements.

I will use ROX 0.8 carbon in media bags.

For cycling I'll try out Red Sea Reef Mature Pro Biological Supplement Kit

 

[Meat locker]

Some pics. I have also revamped my ro/di system. Still have to build a ro/di resovior.

 

[SPR1968]

Well that looks great so far and thanks for sharing all the pictures

And welcome to R2R as well, it’s great to have you with us !

 

[Meat locker]

Thanks! I will add more as I go.

Just noticed I have this thread in the wrong section. I almost went with the nano aio and forgot the reefer isnt aio. If any moderators see this thread can move it to the right one.

 

[Meat locker]

Some aqua scaping

 

[Meat locker]

Shipping freight is a nightmare. Tank should have come in, but it's just sitting at a terminal in Fresno. I might cancel the order and build one from scratch with a sca 145. At least I can drive to pick it up.

 

[Meat locker]

Soo... next available day they can get a lift gate to my place is Friday. I called marine depot and requested to cancel the order. Look for a new build thread in a different section..haha

 

[Meat locker]

Ended up sticking with the reefer 170. Should be here friday. More pics. Cleaned up the ro di system. Made my ro tank.

 

[Meat locker]

Tank came in. Everything looks good. Decent build quality. I'm a little skeptical of the overflow/return assembly. Feels a little flimsy. Hose barbs that came with the sicce 3.0 are way too large for the return line. Hopefully my heat gun can fix that. Also dont like the return nozzle. I have some parts lying around I might be able to rig something up.


Made the refugium mod. Set it to 8 inches in height as ppl recommend that's the sweet spot for the curve 5....

 

[SicZ06]

Nice! Keep up the good work

 

[Meat locker]

Some progress today...

 

[Meat locker]

Tank is running. Got the lights installed and programmed.

Skimmer is running full blast to break in.

Dialed in the overflow to quiet the system down.

Sicce 3.0 is loud and vibrates likehell. Have it set to the minimum flow setting to quiet it.

Bummed the cobalt heater shorted me a suction cup. It's got some work to do. Tank is at 65 degrees. Wish marine depot had the 200 watt in stock at the time. Went with the 150. I have another cheap one in the mail along with my 20g quarantine tank set up.

Once the tank temp and salinity is dialed in, I'll start the cycle kit. Hopefully tomorrow.

Total system volume after sand and rock displacement is roughly 40 us gallons.

 

[Meat locker]

Skimmer still haywire. Started the red sea reef mature today. Changed the stock sock to a 100 micron one to polish up the water. Definately helped. Not happy with the icecap salinity meter. Off by at least 4 degrees. I dont really have anything else on hand but a meat thermometer to compare to. I hope the cobalt is accurate enough until I can get another thermometer. Loosely set up the RKL probes. Calibrated the probes the best I could.

 

[TheWB]

Skimmer still haywire. Started the red sea reef mature today. Changed the stock sock to a 100 micron one to polish up the water. Definately helped. Not happy with the icecap salinity meter. Off by at least 4 degrees. I dont really have anything else on hand but a meat thermometer to compare to. I hope the cobalt is accurate enough until I can get another thermometer. Loosely set up the RKL probes. Calibrated the probes the best I could.

If you’re not happy with the Icecap try the Hanna. I have it and so far it’s spot on with both my refractometer and thermometer.

 

[Meat locker]

I'll have to take a look at the Hanna. Theres a .001 difference right now between the icecap and the hydrometer. I'll have to mix up some salt water by weight and compare.

 

[Meat locker]

Day 3 of the red sea reef mature.

NH3 at 1
No2 at 0
Nitrate 10.

Had to raise the skimmer to 2 inches and I'll work my way down.

Threw in some carbon to relax the skimmer. I'll remove it tomorrow.

 

[Meat locker]

Getting frustrated and need an accurate thermometer. Soo. Got an infrared thermometer that came in. On day 1 it read everything on the money. Day 2 I'm thinking its off. Soo the cobalt is set to 78 and I calibrated my rkl probe to that temp. Ordered a hannah probe and is in the mail. Soo I think my most accurate is the meat thermometer. Shows right at 77. The infared and ice cap were diff by 2 degrees on average however the photos below show them aligned

Learned the red sea reef mature might need a day in between doses since I didnt have any live rock. Cycle might take longer but no issue.

Set up the h80. Looks cool and feels sturdy. Some wire organization coming soon.

Set up a back up 200w heater in the return set to the rkl as a back up.

Skimmer still acting funky. Had it dropped to about 5 inches submerged and was working good on 3. I spilled some ro water in the sump and it instantly freaked out. Had to raise it back up to 1 inch running max. Weird...

 

[Meat locker]

So I ordered. Temp probe from hannah. So this is what they read...

Hannah 77.6
Ice cap 78.8
Helect infared 78.8
Soo I guess were in the ball park now. Had to set to cobalt to 84 to get those temps. So i guess that means I've been running the tank at 74 to 76 degrees.

Today would be day 10, with a few days extra in between days, for the red sea reef mature. I dont know if it's just struggles with no live rock or the temp was too low. The kit has tested at day roughly 3 peramiters

NH3 .25ppm
NO2 .75 ppm
NO3 40 ppm. Should be 10

Day 10 would be...
0
0
10 ???

So I started over from day 3. Havent seen any algae blooms yet.