SPS Dominant Reefer 170 Full Triton Kessil/T5 Hybrid

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(NEW SPS!!) My goal is to build out a Red Sea Reefer 170 with modifications to run a Mixed LPS/SPS tank on the Full Triton method. Refugium as primary nutrient export with Hybrid LED/T5 lighting.

Small skimmer rather than full sized, to guard real estate for refugium.

VIDEO TOUR of Sump Mods

I am new to salt water so this is going to be a journey.

Milestones:
@ Last week April, 2019 add water, start cycle
May 12th, Cycle over - 2019 first fish added
June 6th, 2019 Lights on and LPS added
July 9th, 2019 First SPS including Acropora added
Mid July, 2019 DInos! My P and N hit 0/0
Aug 1st, 2019 Dinos beat back - UV in the house
Aug 29th, 2019 Change to Hybrid Lighting - T5 + LED
Nov 8th, change to less frequent water changes, also from Red Sea to ESV salt
Nov 11th, APEX Trident!
Nov 23rd, add air pump line to skimmer inlet to increase PH
Dec 1st, Switch from Red Sea LED 90s to 2 x Kessil A360x
Dec 8th, Add media reactor for ROWAPhos (GFO) PO4 reduction
Dec 12th Added Reefbot to test PO4 and NO3 and be able to access tests remote
Jan 2020 Added continuous water change system
Jan 2020 Added Lineatus Wrasse and Blue Spotted Jawfish



If you would like to build my sump setup in your own Reefer 170, the templates are linked.

These can be uploaded to a site like Ponoko and they will create them in the acrylic of your choice. I chose to mount the short side baffle which divides the skimmer chamber from the macro fuge with the flow coming in at the bottom and then mount the long side with the flow leaving and the top. Works great like that.

The idea and template came from another reefer's thread on Nano-Reef.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fbx673wfhpdxw07/sump_short.eps?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qowjn1px65wnbx6/sump_long.eps?dl=0

And that thread with info on dimension is here

Brian's Red Sea Reefer 170

Current Status (Jan 2019) Tank: Red Sea Reefer 170 - 34 gallon display, 9 gallon sump = 43 gallons total (with rock + sand, closer to 40 gallons water volume total)Light: Hydra 26 HDHeat: Cobalt NeoTherm 200 Watt (rated up to 55G) set to 78, + Cobalt Neotherm 100 Watt (rated up to 29G), set to 76...

www.nano-reef.com

Latest equipment list:

2 x Kessil A360x with wifi dongle
Geissmann Infinity T5 Fixture 24" 4x T5 No Halide
Sicce 6.0 SDC wifi return pump (Love it!)
1 Vortech MP40WQD powerhead
2 Vortech MP10WQD powerheads
Neptune WMX module for Vortech control
Neptune FMM module for ATO control
2x Neptune Power Bar 8s
Kessel H160 Tuna Flora Fuge Light
Tunze 9004 DOC skimmer
3 Neptune DOSE Units - 3 channels for Triton, 1 channel ATO, 2 nutrients
Full Neptune base unit with probes
Dual 150w cobalt heaters - controlled by Neptune, 1 primary, 1 backup.
10 Gallon ATO reservoir behind tank cabinet
Aquashield 10W UV Sterilizer/Clarifier - Universal
Neptune Trident
Reef Kinetics Reefbot
1 x 5" BRS Small Reactor for ROWAPhos

Stocklist

Fish
1 Midas Blenny
1 Male Bluestar Leopard Wrasse
1 Lineatus Wrasse
1 Blue Spotted Jawfish

LPS Coral
- 2 Favia
- 3 Acans
- ORA Red Gonipora
- PEA Rainbow Lobophilia
- PEA Green Star Polyp
- PEA When Planets Collide Chalice
- PEA Red Panda Favia
- 1 Scoly
- 1 Trachyphilia

SPS Corals
- WWC Bomb Cyclone Acropora
- WWC Hulkster Acropora
- WWC Jason Fox Fruity Pebbles Montipora
- WWC Nuclear Grapes Acropora
- WWC Pink Passion Acropora
- PEA Elephant Skin Pachyseris
- BC Hot Hearin
- BC SWK Super Valida
- BC Secale
- BC Bonsai Humi
- BC Day Glo
- BC Bees Knees
- BC Pink Sunrise Milli
- JF Pro Coral Rainbow
- JF Frog Farmer Red
- JF Pink Lemonade
- JF Purple Addiction
- JF Green Goblin
- Crayola Planet Tabling Acro Colony
- Pink Caddie
- JF Hot Flash
- JF Cheap Date
- CC Voodoo Majik - BM
- BC Wild Red - BM

Inverts and other
2 Big Mexican Turbo Snails
2 Emerald Crabs
1 pincushion urchin
4 or so small hermits
Maybe 8 or so snails
Plenty of copapods

Macro
Chaetomorpha
Gracilaria
Sea Lettuce

First up is RO/DI. Got the 7 stage BRS system. Awesome but I now fear overkill as I'm 0 TDS after the first set of 3 filters. I guess the water can never be too clean.

Lucky that I have a frost free water source that is before pressure reduction to the house. It has 100 psi pressure, so I can feed 100 psi to the RO/DI. I figured out I can close the input valve a bit and dial in optimal pressure. 80 psi makes water like a charm.

 

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Next up, rock work. This was a hard decision for a newbie. Dry rock, live rock, semi live rock, my head hurts. I ended up ordering 60 lbs of Real Reef Rock (the brand). It got to me wet within 2 days and I dumped it into a garbage can full of salt water. Then built a mock up of my tank (Totally worth doing IMO). And let the aquascaping begin.

The 2" tape is the border I want to keep between rock and glass.

 

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Next up, sand and rock in the tank. Then fill her up.

This tank is positioned caddy corner because I want to use the corner space for a larger ATO tank and Dosing setup than can be provided by the Reefer 170 setup.

I added some extra rock into the tank for the cycle as well. Not sure how much rock is too much rock. I see some tanks with sparse rocks and some with a lot. Advise welcome.

 

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Stay tuned for the customizations to the sump for a proper refugium. I'm a tech guy so I plan to run Neptune system and monitor and automate as much as possible.

This is the way my sump looks now. The important changes are custom acrylic baffles that raise the water level (To exactly what the skimmer needs) and also divide the sump. That gives me most of the skimmer section with a higher water level to grow macro-algae.

The most critical thing was to choose a Tunze 9004 DOC Skimmer which has a super compact footprint and fits on the right front of sump (in front of filter sock) (attached by blue round magnets). This frees up a ton of space in what would be the skimmer chamber for a fuge.

 

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One trick that I have learned from working on boats....If you look at left side of cabinet there is a gray panel mounted to the cabinet wall. This is a starboard light panel. Starboard is awesome, completely water proof and extremely easy to work with, modify, mount, unmount stuff etc. Mark out all the things you need to mount in your cabinet and mount them to the starboard, while outside the cabinet. Make the starboard mountable to the cabinet and voila!

 

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This is a good time to list out what equipment is running right now.

Sicce 6.0 SDC wifi return pump (Love it!)
1 Vortech MP10WQD powerhead
Kessel H160 Tuna Flora Fuge Light
Tunze 9004 DOC skimmer
Tunze 6040 powerhead (In the fuge - for spinning MacroAlgae intermittently)
2 Neptune DOSE Units (Not dosing yet, imminent with Triton Base Elements and ATO)
Full Neptune base unit
Dual 150w cobalt heaters - controlled by Neptune, 1 primary, 1 backup.

 

[Waynerock]

I am new to reefing and just joined, but I thought I would share progress. My goal is to build out a Red Sea Reefer 170 with modifications to run it on the Triton method.

I am new to salt water so this is going to be a journey.

First up is RO/DI. Got the 7 stage BRS system. Awesome but I now fear overkill as I'm 0 TDS after the first set of 3 filters. I guess the water can never be too clean.

Lucky that I have a frost free water source that is before pressure reduction to the house. It has 100 psi pressure, so I can feed 100 psi to the RO/DI. I figured out I can close the input valve a bit and dial in optimal pressure. 80 psi makes water like a charm.

Nice sump set up! Wish I would of thought of that before I got my skimmer kinda miss a fuge on my 170

 

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Nice sump set up! Wish I would of thought of that before I got my skimmer kinda miss a fuge on my 170

I actually ordered a Skimmer and then sent is back because I found a thread that used the Tunze 9004 and solved the space problem. Seems people like the Tunze skimmer but I have no long term experience with it so I can't comment whether it is enough for Triton.

 

[Waynerock]

I actually ordered a Skimmer and then sent is back because I found a thread that used the Tunze 9004 and solved the space problem. Seems people like the Tunze skimmer but I have no long term experience with it so I can't comment whether it is enough for Triton.

If it works well I would definitely be interested in selling the octo I got and changing some things around. Look forward to see how it turns out! Here is what my 170 looks like now but it always changes I like getting new things and growing them and trading out. With limited space its nice to start small. Check out the VCA VFG nozzle it rocks in this tank. Good luck!

 

[Entz]

Following. Looking good so far. The tank is amazing, I love mine.

What are you using for lights. I have 2 160we (brought over from an old tank) which is likely overkill for what I am going to be keeping.

 

[infinite0180]

Nice set up! How did you mount your dose? I have one coming and was thinking of putting it inside my stand. I have a reefer nano!

 

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Following. Looking good so far. The tank is amazing, I love mine.

What are you using for lights. I have 2 160we (brought over from an old tank) which is likely overkill for what I am going to be keeping.

I have the new Red Sea LED on order. Just got fish and going to let that stabilize before coral.

 

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Nice set up! How did you mount your dose? I have one coming and was thinking of putting it inside my stand. I have a reefer nano!

I have 1 inside the cabinet in the upper right and 1 on the back of the cabinet. It's super easy to mount. Get a couple of stainless screws. Mount them to the cabinet at the right spacing, the Dose hangs on the screws. Just remember to leave enough space above the Dose to be able to slide it up and off the screws.

 

[reelredfisah]

Following along about to redo my sons 170

 

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If it works well I would definitely be interested in selling the octo I got and changing some things around. Look forward to see how it turns out! Here is what my 170 looks like now but it always changes I like getting new things and growing them and trading out. With limited space its nice to start small. Check out the VCA VFG nozzle it rocks in this tank. Good luck!

Amazing tank you have there. Thanks for the nozzle advise. Do you have a link? My return pump has random flow modes, i wonder how it would work with a nozzle as well.

 

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I was testing the water and our young cat leaped from a footstool onto the top of the tank. Except, as you can imagine on this tank, he missed and almost ended up in the tank completely. Yikes, the fish freaked and almost jumped out of the tank, Ok, time to build the screen and protect from cat.

Probably the most frustrating thing I have had to do so far. The quality of the parts are good but all the custom measuring and cutting etc, You'd think red sea would cut this stuff for their tanks.

Anyway, the one tip I have is when pushing the round rubber gasket into the channel to hold the screen, you need to pin it at one end and stretch the rubber to make it thinner and then it goes in easily. The red sea instructions with no words and just an image do not convey this. Once you understand this simple thing, you'll be good.

If you are OCD like me and you want the mesh to be stretched evenly, have fun

At least they provide a lot of extra mesh for round two and three OCD madness.

 

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3 chamber 2 liter dosing container perfect for 3 part triton.

triton base elements 7 added. Parts 3a and 3b mixed into far right chamber which works out perfect at 2 liters.

Manually dosing ATM to find a stable dose before auto dose.

 

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Terrible image quality I'm sorry but iphone tank photography is ****. Gonna need to take a different approach. Right now I have...

1 Pintail Wrasse as pictured
1 midas Blenny
1 Royal Gramma

They seem very happy and 1 week 0 ammonia, 5 nitrate, .02 Phosphate.

Chaeto and Some Red Variety growing in the fuge.
Pods in the fuge and tank, fish hunting them which is cool
Added a small amount of Phyto with the pods today.

 

[Waynerock]

Amazing tank you have there. Thanks for the nozzle advise. Do you have a link? My return pump has random flow modes, i wonder how it would work with a nozzle as well.

Here is the link. I hate using the word game changer but...
They are a pretty awesome company too. You have to order 2 parts, one a down pipe and the other the nozzle it’s self. You got about 28.00 invested total and worth every penny. Check the videos they got on YouTube or there site of there nozzles in action.
https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/product-spotlight/random-flow-generator/

 

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Here is the link. I hate using the word game changer but...
They are a pretty awesome company too. You have to order 2 parts, one a down pipe and the other the nozzle it’s self. You got about 28.00 invested total and worth every penny. Check the videos they got on YouTube or there site of there nozzles in action.
https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/product-spotlight/random-flow-generator/

Thank you!