Reef Savvy Retirement Build

[Methos]

Luckily the guy who did the concrete footings for my fabric building knew a guy who does moving for industrial clients. They came out yesterday and we got the tank into place. They used an old industrial lift, raised it to position on the crate bottom, and slid it right into the wall onto the stand. Don't think I mentioned this but I glued down half inch foam board on the stand.

The biggest thing I discovered yesterday was I think I'm losing some hair on the back of my head!

Now the fun begins.

Beautiful tank but I had to meantion that I love your timberframe home.

 

[Jimbo327]

Beautiful tank but I had to meantion that I love your timberframe home.

Same. Wow, that home and the surrounding.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Thanks but only the living room is timber frame. The rest is post and beam with attic trusses. Would have been too expensive to do the whole house timber frame and I didn't want to carry a loan.

Funny thing is we did the back porch timber frame too because we started right at the beginning of the lockdown crap and the increase in lumber made the cost the same (house was already framed out and up by then). Originally wasn't supposed to be that way.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Return and closed loop plumbing finished. Turning her on today. Can't believe this is finally done. Only thing left to do is set up the auto water changer--and the Ca reactor eventually. And set up the controller.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Everything is up and running with no leaks. Here's a pic with lights on (just the CoralCares). Will leave them off for a few days at least but curious how quickly the tank will develop since the refugium has been up for a year now.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

I have three MP60s in there now and that may be all I need. I've got one on the bottom side pushing water to the overflow (the one you can see in the pic above) and two in the back pushing water through the rocks towards the front glass. The lowest flow area appears to be the front bottom corner below the overflow.

Also, there is a lot of wasted space in the overflow section so I am thinking of putting some material in there to make it a cryptic fuge.

When I turned the lights on to take that pic above I noticed I was getting a lot of micro bubbles in the return. The return pump was creating a vortex and sucking air so I added a 45 degree fitting to the intake and that solved the problem. There are still some micro bubbles coming from the skimmer so I'm going to need to put bubble trap material in there too where the skimmer section flows into the return section of the sump.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Frags have been moved to the tank and lights turned on w/ a 14 day acclimation period. Corals are used to 4 hrs of direct sunlight per day right now. Also added the regal angel I got from Marine Collectors a week or two ago. Giving him time to settle in before adding the rest of the fish.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

One thing I don't think I've mentioned is that the 1" gate valve on the refugium overflow likes to leak from the gate dial mechanism periodically. It'll leak a drop every few minutes for a week then stop for a week or two. When it does, it leaks maybe an ounce of water each time. At some point I am going to swap out for a normal cut off valve.

Also, interestingly, the check valve seems to prevent the refugium from leaking down but not the main tank when the pump is off even though they share the return line. Probably needs cleaned. The return outlets are right at the surface on both tanks so don't really need the check valve anyway. At least I know my sump can handle the worst case scenario now.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

After 15 months the fish are finally in their new tank. This has to be one of the longest moves ever. Yellow tang made it but needs to be fattened up on seaweed. Color is a little pale. She was a bubble algae eating machine and the rocks that were in the stock tank were covered in it 15 months ago. But with no light for 15 months the algae was gone. The only CUC left in there was one hermit and bunch of Asterina stars. And the rocks were covered in vermetids--which I have successfully kept out of this build so far.

I gave her some old nori I have on hand and she's loving it. I definitely would recommend that anybody doing this in the future treat the holding tank like a real tank and provide a little light and some care. I basically ignored it other than top off and feeding for the whole 15 months. Not the best for the fish, which is probably why I only have 2 of the 4 Chromis left and lost the Cherub angel. Also, the auto feeder I was using in the beginning would clog due to humidity so they were probably under fed for the first month until I got up here full time.

Put the order in for the rest of the fish from Marine Collectors: Powder blue tang, red flame hawk, mystery wrasse, five dispar anthias, copper band butterfly, and an emperor angel juvenile. Also plan to add about 10 more green chromis but Marine Collectors does not do these fish so will QT them myself like the others were--Tank transfer and praziquantel treatment. Have some metrodinazole now too so may use as well.

Lastly, have a package of frags coming from Battlecorals and this should be about it for stocking. Maybe one more torch on a shelf behind the torch on the left. Can't see from the pic but there is a large flat rock back there.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Have had the Profilux up and running for the last week but it really is just an aquarium monitor right now. Everything is so decentralized on the tank that I have not needed it to actually control anything yet.

My pH is remarkably stable, varying from 8.2 at night to just above 8.3 during the day. The whole house ERV must be doing it's job keeping the air fresh. I used to get down to 8.0 at night w/ the CO2 scrubber on. However, in that house, the tank was in a living area and we had 2 kids in the house as well.

It's possible that the deep sand bed is adding buffer capacity as well. Can't remember what my pH was like on my old deep sand bed tank but I only measured weekly then. Back then aquarium controllers and pH probes for your tank did not exist (and I didn't have enough $$ to get one anyway).

Surprisingly, the temp probe is about 2 degrees off. It says my tank is 78 while my heater controller probe says 80 so I used a glass thermometer to verify. The Finnex heater controller is actually the accurate measurement.

The fish room is really warm and humid with the tank in place but so far the tank has stayed only a degree above the temp set point. I do have GHL fans but I don't see the point in setting up if things are stable. I will say working in there is not as comfortable now. With the door closed it is about 78 and pretty humid. I think I will need to come up with a solution for next summer.

The ERV does pull the humid air out but the return air empties into the living room and only passively moves back into the fish room. And the only space for that is under the door and around the fish tank. Cutting a vent somewhere is probably the easiest fix.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Got my Genesis water change system up and running today. I really like it and have it set to do a 15 gal change over the course of the next week. Eventually I will do 20 gal per week I think. It's a shame COVID put them out of business as it really is the best auto-changer out there.

I have it taking water out of the refugium (left bucket, and putting new water back into the refugium (right bucket). This buffers the gallon removal from the sump so the ATO is not really triggered. By the time the one gal removal transfers to the sump return chamber the system has already dumped the one gal of new water into the refugium.

Decided not to also use the Genesis auto top off (which would be shut off during changes) because I already had a Tunze pump hard plumbed into my RODI plumbing and their pump requires their auto top off system to operate (electric is supplied by wires you connect to a little box--it does not have it's own plug).

Right now system is running in basic mode (which means I set every week). I could add a float switch to my mixing tank and have it run continuously until empty. Then it just shuts itself off when the switch is triggered. Either way, I'd have to reset every two weeks as that's all my mixing tank can hold (50 gal).

The Brute tank is to collect old tank water for QT, dipping, emergencies, etc. Once full, water will run into the dry drain I had installed when we built the house. This goes to an underground gravel drainage pit so I'm not putting saltwater into my septic system and is controlled by simple ball valves so I need to pay attention.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

One thing I forgot to mention, I added two bottles each of purple helix and pink fusion coralline algae spores last Wed. I had started a previous system with ARC reef live rock and it had the most vibrant pink coralline I ever saw. At that time they were cultivating it but still trying to get the bottling process down. Hoping I get some of this back.

Also, I added my Battlebox from BattleCorals to the tank. Was going to QT but two of the frags had some tissue loss due to rough shipping--they were too big and rubbed the bag. After a day in my 40 gal tank I moved them to the main tank. QT tank is filled with old tank water but with all the coralline everywhere the alk and ca drops fast because the tank is not dosed. There were no big hitchhikers like vermetids or aptasia so I moved them. Knowing Adam extensively QTs everything going into his systems made this an easier decision to make.

Those two frags (rainbow style and Battlestag)have stabilized for now--no new tissue loss. The most expensive frags are doing good. About done with corals now.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Have to say I am pretty impressed with the pink fusion and purple helix. One week after addition and this is what I have all over:

A little fuzzy because I tried to zoom in. Thinking that having the 125 refugium up and running has really helped jump start this as everything is already stabilized. Only difference is that now I am not dosing nitrates anymore since I have some fish in the system and have significantly increased balling dose (40ml/day right now).

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Also turned the kessils on today @40% color and intensity. Adds the perfect shimmer and not too much shadowing because of the CoralCares, so objective achieved there I think. Tested par with my old 200 par meter and am getting 200 on the bottom and 400 at the top of the rocks. This is not an LED par meter so actual par is probably a good bit higher in reality.

 

[nickm]

Just love the Reef Savvy builds. I need to get my build tread on here.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

One side effect of the coralline explosion is I am having trouble dialing in parameters. In the space of two weeks I've gone from 16ml per day of balling salts to 103ml per day and am adding an extra 55ml per day bolus dose of alk in an effort to get it back to 8. Sitting at 7.2 now so at the bottom of my comfort zone. Many of the frags are starting to take off in growth too.

I may need to set up the DaStaCo sooner than later but it looks like there is no longer a US distributer for them. Going to have to source parts from elsewhere. I should be good to start but the brand new reactor is already 6 yrs old since I bought it in 2018, so the peri tube on the pump my be permanently pinched. I haven't even opened to box again after checking it upon arrival back then.

My nitrates have also dropped down to 0.2 so Ive started dosing nitrates again @12ml per day. 20 per day would be enough for 1ppm per day dose to my system. Will increase my phyto and oyster feast feedings to twice a day and see if that helps but I need more fish. They are on order.

Last thing I've had to tweak was my water change pump. Had to swap out for a bigger one (Eheim 1260) as the Eheim 1200 could not push enough water to the metering bucket within the required 90 seconds once the level in the reservoir dropped below 30 gal. I've now set the auto changer to 20 gal per week, which I think will be my final change frequency/amount. That's a 5% weekly water change.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Man, it's been a year already. Some updates:

Set up the DaStaCo a month or so ago--I love it!

Fish are doing good but my emperor seems to only like sps so most of my colonies are gone. Doesn't seem to care for Pocillopora, Porites and, so far, a test Montipora I put in there. At least he leaves my LPS alone so I have added another torch and hammer.

I did have some issues with a wirey Bryopsis. Did a fluconazole treatment over 8 weeks and got to 3x the recommended dose and still never really got rid of it. I stopped because my SPS started going down hill. Not sure if this is what introduced the taste for SPS to my emperor or his tasting is what caused the downhill slide.

Ended up adding a ton of emeralds, rubies, and pitho crabs. Between them and the fish they keep it in check. It's still there but not overtaking everything. There is more in the refugium but the crabs there seem to have it in a steady state.

Here is a full tank shot. Someday I will trim it out.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

Some things I have been disappointed with:

--My RD3 100 watt return is only giving me 2x tank turnover per hour. Doesn't really seem to be an issue though. Been thinking of upgrading to a new RD eco high pressure 200watt or maybe an ABYZZ A200.

--The MP60s drive me nuts. Snails constantly get in them and make them pop off the glass. Guess I could use the foam covers on them but then I'd need to clean constantly. Also, the dayside's are too heavy for the tabs to keep them hung. The sticky tabs constantly give out and the dry sides fall. Never happens with the MP40s (same with the snail issues) so pretty sure it's the weight. Resolved this by supergluing the tabs to the tank.

--Also, the dwarf ceriths from reef cleaners have been a pain. They find their way down my overflows into the sump and jam up the fleece roller. Always seemed to happen in the middle of the night making the motor skip, clicking constantly. Finally got most of them out so I think that is fixed. Other than this, the fleece roller is awesome and easy to change out.

 

[Clarkjw2002]

List of fish I have added:

5 Bartlett's anthias
Emperor angel juvenile
Copper Band butterfly
Powder blue tang
Mystery wrasse
3 more green chromis

Also have an Aptasia eating file fish in the refugium.

Had some issues with the Marine collectors fish. Lost the emperor and powder blue from them and started holding the other fish in an observation tank for a few weeks afterwards. The PB and Emperor I have now I actually got from Tank Stop and QT'ed them myself w/ tank transfer and prazi/metro prophylactics.

I will say that everything I have gotten from Tank stop I have been pretty impressed with. Also got the Chromis and Aptasia eating filefish from them. Did lose some Chromis to Uronema during tank transfer but once I got them into observation they did great. Even have one with half a tail as he was succumbing to Uronema but immediately recovered in the observation tank (which was the original frag tank during my move).

I also lost the flame hawkfish and mandarin from Marine Collectors while in the observation tank. Pretty sure some bacterial or fungal pathogens are getting through their QT procedures. I will say the Copper Band I got from them was truly feeding when I got him and I have never had an issue with him not eating. This is definitely one fish I'd recommend buying from them due to their pickiness.

Also, one of my original Chromis is developing yellow dorsal and anal fin tips and chin. He seems to be courting as he is doing dances with the smaller Chromis that come by his little spot. He must be 4 or 5 yrs old now.

 

[BurgerFish]

I like your tank.