Hi folks,
I thought I would share my progress so far in case it helps others with planning or upgrading a tank.
My tank is going on 4 months now. It was built around a Red Sea Reefer 170 (Hydra 26HD Light) that I reset with all of my lessons learned.
You can read about my aquascape experience in this thread.
My goals,
I started by building custom plumbing. I did this for two main reasons
Tip: Don't skimp on unions in your plumbing. Make sure you can remove any major section for maintenance and cleaning in the long run.
To further reduce visible wires, I run everything immediately out the hole in the back of the cabinet. I use velcro straps to hold wires together. On the back of the cabinet, the wires all connect to a pair of power strips I have attached to the back of the cabinet with velcro tape.
The Nero 3 Powerheads were picked both for their performance and the fact that they only have a small inline controller (I use the phone app to control them). This avoids the large controllers associated with most powerheads.
The Kamoer X1 Pro Dosing Pumps also help reduce wire clutter by supporting chaining on one wall plug. One pump plugs into the next and that one plugs into the wall. Again, both are controlled via a phone app.
Everything controllable by phone and Alexa
To enable phone and Alexa control of all components, I use a pair of Kasa Smart Wi-FI power strips, 6-outlet. These are really amazing. From your phone or using Alexa, you can turn anything on/off, schedule on/off times (useful for refugium light), set a timer to turn back on (prevents forgetting to turn Skimmer back on after adding certain supplements), and allows easy labeling of each socket.
More specific control of specific hardware is provided through their respective apps on the phone. This includes apps for Kamoer pumps, Seneye and myAI for Hydra Lighting and Nero Pumps.
No maintenance during the week
I feed the tank myself to enjoy the fish, so I have not deployed an auto feeder.
Otherwise, the tank operates a full week+ with no interactions. I have a 5 gallon bucket behind the tank for the ATO. The filter sock usually makes it until weekend maintenance, the skimmer is also making it a full week. The Kamoer X1 is auto dosing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef, which has kept my Alk at a steady 8.5. The carbon and CO2 media both last over a month, so no issue there. I suppose the one other thing I do aside from feeding is rotate the Cheato occasionally.
Minimal precipitation (clean sump)
The tank previously ran on Kalk in the ATO water with 2-part dosing support as needed. While likely I never refined this process to perfection, it was a precipitation mess in the sump (white, crusty stuff all over). In time, the Kalk would build up on the pump and surfaces of the sump. It was very difficult to remove and did not look good. Tropin Marin has kept my parameters more stable and zero precipitation so far.
Basic tragedy prevention
While something like an Apex would offer even better awareness of the tank conditions, I have decent insight into trouble. Some of these would be useful even with an Apex.
Basic tank startup
Day 1
Day 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 - 14
Week 15
Each week I did 5-10g. water changes (10-20%)
Feeding 1 Frozen Hikari cube each day (Mysis shrimp and Spirulina alternating), plus 2 small feedings of Hikari MarineS and Seaweed Extreme
I have not had an ugly phase yet. The rock and sand bed have remained clean throughout.
Thanks for reading. I'll look into a video for Youtube to walk through the system in more detail. Then I can more easily demonstrate the various tweaks I've made to using the system.
Thank you,
Tom
I thought I would share my progress so far in case it helps others with planning or upgrading a tank.
My tank is going on 4 months now. It was built around a Red Sea Reefer 170 (Hydra 26HD Light) that I reset with all of my lessons learned.
You can read about my aquascape experience in this thread.
My goals,
- Fewer wires and parts overall
- Everything controllable by phone and Alexa
- No maintenance during the week
- Minimal precipitation (clean sump)
- Basic tragedy prevention
I started by building custom plumbing. I did this for two main reasons
- The manifold reduced the need for additional pumps to feed reactor and refugium, supporting the goal of fewer wires and parts.
- I think it looks really good (we spend a lot of time in the sump, it should be nice)
Tip: Don't skimp on unions in your plumbing. Make sure you can remove any major section for maintenance and cleaning in the long run.
To further reduce visible wires, I run everything immediately out the hole in the back of the cabinet. I use velcro straps to hold wires together. On the back of the cabinet, the wires all connect to a pair of power strips I have attached to the back of the cabinet with velcro tape.
The Nero 3 Powerheads were picked both for their performance and the fact that they only have a small inline controller (I use the phone app to control them). This avoids the large controllers associated with most powerheads.
The Kamoer X1 Pro Dosing Pumps also help reduce wire clutter by supporting chaining on one wall plug. One pump plugs into the next and that one plugs into the wall. Again, both are controlled via a phone app.
Everything controllable by phone and Alexa
To enable phone and Alexa control of all components, I use a pair of Kasa Smart Wi-FI power strips, 6-outlet. These are really amazing. From your phone or using Alexa, you can turn anything on/off, schedule on/off times (useful for refugium light), set a timer to turn back on (prevents forgetting to turn Skimmer back on after adding certain supplements), and allows easy labeling of each socket.
More specific control of specific hardware is provided through their respective apps on the phone. This includes apps for Kamoer pumps, Seneye and myAI for Hydra Lighting and Nero Pumps.
No maintenance during the week
I feed the tank myself to enjoy the fish, so I have not deployed an auto feeder.
Otherwise, the tank operates a full week+ with no interactions. I have a 5 gallon bucket behind the tank for the ATO. The filter sock usually makes it until weekend maintenance, the skimmer is also making it a full week. The Kamoer X1 is auto dosing Tropic Marin All-For-Reef, which has kept my Alk at a steady 8.5. The carbon and CO2 media both last over a month, so no issue there. I suppose the one other thing I do aside from feeding is rotate the Cheato occasionally.
Minimal precipitation (clean sump)
The tank previously ran on Kalk in the ATO water with 2-part dosing support as needed. While likely I never refined this process to perfection, it was a precipitation mess in the sump (white, crusty stuff all over). In time, the Kalk would build up on the pump and surfaces of the sump. It was very difficult to remove and did not look good. Tropin Marin has kept my parameters more stable and zero precipitation so far.
Basic tragedy prevention
While something like an Apex would offer even better awareness of the tank conditions, I have decent insight into trouble. Some of these would be useful even with an Apex.
- Seneye: Warns me PH and Temp changes
- InkBird: Audible alarm for Temp changes
- Watchdog Leak Detector: I have 2 of these. One in the cabinet and another on the floor behind the tank. Audible alarm if water is detected.
- Power Failure light: These plug into the same outlet as my power strip. If the power goes out, they product an audible alarm and flashing light. This is helpful if the power goes out while I am sleeping.
- Double Eheim Heaters. Either can fail and the other can maintain the temp.
- 3M Command Strip Broom hangers work great for hanging tools on the door. Easily removed later without leaving any marks.
- I tried NFC tags on the door. Those are the white circles. You can program them easily with your phone to control things like the Kasa powerstrip. The idea was to label them and then I could just touch them with my phone and turn on/off the skimmer, return pump, etc... This can be made to work, but honestly I end up just asking Alexa to do the same thing anyways.
- I added the Green Killing Machine UV system (very inexpensive) when my cloudy water phase hit during cycling (24/7). It cleared up in a day and has not returned.
- I spray painted all the walls of my ATO (Refuguim) black with Krylon Fusion (recommended by community as reef safe). The goal here is to reduce any light spill from the Refugium LED and prevent unwanted growth in the sump.
- Everything is attached to the walls of the sump with 3M command strips or Velco tape.
- The return chamber (under refugium) is full of MarinePure balls to greatly increase surface for helpful bacteria.
Basic tank startup
Day 1
- Added Rock structure and CaribSea Special Grade
- Added Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt Rodi water
- Let settle for a day
Day 2
- Added FritzZyme Turbo Start (using fish for ammonia, no other startup additives used)
- Added Seachem Prime (double dose, every other day, 1-2 weeks(until ammonia levels safe))
- Same day, added 2 Clown fish (eating fine from day 1 with no signs of stress, quarantine tank ready if needed)
- Monitoring Ammonia with Seneye
- My PH is low in winter at about 7.8. This will naturally keep my toxic ammonia levels lower, but in case PH spiked for reasons and increased toxic ammonia, the Seachem Prime would prevent harm to the fish.
- Kept lights on 3% just to add some shaping to the rock structure and make watching fish a bit more enjoyable
- My ammonia levels were safe within a few days, I don't recall exactly
- Added Vibrant after first week, kept adding for first 8 weeks. (substituted Microbacter7 a couple times)
Week 3
- Switched to full lighting schedule
- Turned on Skimmer and Filter sock running (did not want either collecting the FritzZyme bacteria)
- Added Clean up crew (fighting conch, 10 trochus, 2 blue leg hermits, 1 nassarius)
Week 4
- Added UV system (cleared up cloudy water)
- Added BRS Carbon to Reactor
- Added anemones, GSP and rock flowers
- Added Yellow Tang and spotted tail blenny
Week 5
- Added CO2 Media to 2nd Reactor
- Started dosing Tropic Marin AFR
- Added 6 line Wasse
Week 6 - 14
- Added random corals throughout
- Disassembled, moved to garage for 4 weeks, then disassembled and rebuilt in main house. Most stressful thing ever. (HW floor refinishing)
Week 15
- Turned on Refugium and added Cheato
Each week I did 5-10g. water changes (10-20%)
Feeding 1 Frozen Hikari cube each day (Mysis shrimp and Spirulina alternating), plus 2 small feedings of Hikari MarineS and Seaweed Extreme
I have not had an ugly phase yet. The rock and sand bed have remained clean throughout.
Thanks for reading. I'll look into a video for Youtube to walk through the system in more detail. Then I can more easily demonstrate the various tweaks I've made to using the system.
Thank you,
Tom
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