Reefer 250 Build. 15 years away from the hobby but I am back

hans4811 · Feb 10, 2020

Dal-Reef said:
Who else weighs there salt when making a water change? For me it helps to insure the correct salinity every time. I use Fritz salts and keep the salt stored in a sealed bucket. When mixing the salt I drop a maxi jet and heater in a my water change bucket and pour the salt in slowly. I always let everything mix for 24-48 hrs. Fritz salt is super clear with no crude on the bottom. I then check salinity, temp, Alk & PH. Works for me. What do others do for a water change.

Just do the standard 1/2 cup per gallon of RODI. Do use the heater and a small pump to mix the day before.

Dal-Reef · Feb 10, 2020

hans4811 said:
Just do the standard 1/2 cup per gallon of RODI. Do use the heater and a small pump to mix the day before.

Once you get done it a few times and get your process down it works everytime

hans4811 · Feb 10, 2020

Dal-Reef said:
Once you get done it a few times and get your process down it works everytime

Yup...made a little mark inside my Brute container holding my salt water. I fill it to that mark, 8 cups of salt....done ! 1.025 every time !

Dal-Reef · Feb 10, 2020

hans4811 said:
Yup...made a little mark inside my Brute container holding my salt water. I fill it to that mark, 8 cups of salt....done ! 1.025 every time !

Love it

Dal-Reef · Mar 10, 2020

After months of planning and weeks of building my gear cabinet is done. I am pretty proud of it.

Took my time planning it and now all of my gear is out from under the tank. I work in IT so love all the geeky stuff. I can now control everything on my tank by phone or pc.

To help with consistent network connection I decided against WIFI and have CAT6 connection from my home router to a switch in the cabinet that Apex and GHL run off of. It will help with my work traveling to know I can check on things.

I used 2 cabinets from IKEA and the cost pretty cheap and perfect for a Apex cabinet. The one on top is smaller and holds smaller gear like the Vortech controllers, Apex WXAM and Kesill XController

For the mounting board inside the cabinet I used ½ inch 2x2 piece of lamented plywood. I did a little sanding then simply sprayed painted with Krylon matt black paint.

What is very helpful is the ability to download templates from Neptune for all of their gears.

Another thing I needed to figure out was how to extend the cables for the gear and the biggest was for the Vortech’s I ended up getting cable extensions from Dan at Aqua Life Studio. Dan turns out an outstanding products and the customer services was top notch.

I picked up the Vortech holders from VCA another great company to work with

I have listed below links to most of the products I used.

Thanks to my wonderful wife for helping with this could not do it without her. Let me know what you think @neptunesystems @vca @Kessil @aqualifestudio

Links:
Cabinet Larger (Update- Link no longer works but the name is BESTA)

BESTÅ Shelf unit with glass door, black-brown, Glassvik black/smoked glass, 23 5/8x15 3/4x25 1/4 " - IKEA

BESTÅ Shelf unit with glass door, black-brown, Glassvik black/smoked glass, 23 5/8x15 3/4x25 1/4 ". Everything you need for storing and keeping things organized at home. Choose a ready-made combination or create your own, adapted to your style and belongings.

www.ikea.com

Cabinet Smaller (Update- Link no longer works but the name is BESTA)

BESTÅ Shelf unit with glass door, black-brown, Glassvik black/smoked glass, 23 5/8x15 3/4x15 " - IKEA

BESTÅ Shelf unit with glass door, black-brown, Glassvik black/smoked glass, 23 5/8x15 3/4x15 ". Everything you need for storing and keeping things organized at home. Choose a ready-made combination or create your own, adapted to your style and belongings.

www.ikea.com

Vortech Extensions

Shop | AquaLifeStudio

aqualifestudio.com

Internal wall

https://www.lowes.com/pd/23-32-in-Common-Pine-Sanded-Plywood-Application-as-2-x-2/1000068977

Vortech holders

Vortec Driver Mount | Vivid Creative Aquatics

vividcreativeaquatics.com

Mounting Templates(bottom of page)

https://www.neptunesystems.com/support/docs/

Plugs Extenders with heads that rotate

Cabinet Light

Dal-Reef · Mar 14, 2020

Just now getting around to posting about my 1st ICP test. The test was done at my 6th month anniversary setting up the tank. Everything looks good but kind of shock that its showing Arsenic

I will continue to do this every 3 to months just see what is going on. The cost is not that bad. This one is CoralVu sent stateside to Colorado. I think I will also try the Trinton ICP test but it is more expensive and takes longer having to send overseas to Germany. I have read somewhere that they may now have lab here in the states so check on that more. These test are lot more accurate them hobby grade test kits.. Everyone should try them a couple of times a year.

powers2001 · Apr 3, 2020

@Dal-Reef build is looking good. What dosing pump do you plan to get?

Dal-Reef · Apr 3, 2020

powers2001 said:
@Dal-Reef build is looking good. What dosing pump do you plan to get?

I ended up going with a GHL. The reasoning is the smaller foot print than the DOS from Neptune. I still may add DOS down the road so so I can have the Apex control it since I know have a Trident. I just would need to figure out were to mount it. I then could use the GHL for all other dosing. But right its just he GHL and I love it.

Dal-Reef · Apr 14, 2020

Wanted to share how the Trident helped keep my tank from heading in the wrong direction. Right now the Trident test 4 times for Alkalinity.

I started noticing that the Alk for the tank was trending down a little every test. I had not added any new corals to the tank and it has just been cruising along. I thought maybe the corals were using more or maybe all of the coralline algae.

So I watched it over the course of a couple of days and new something was wrong. Even increasing the amount of Alk did not help. So pulled out my Hanna Alk test and everything was correct for what the Trident was measuring. Checked the doser and it was fine. Traced the dosing line to make sure no leaks. No leaks but what I found was the output of the Alk was almost clogged. That was it. If I did not have the Trident and waited for my weekly testing I bet my Alk would have been off by 2-3 points. That would have been a big swing.

Dal-Reef · Apr 16, 2020

Tank has been up and running for 8 months so it was a time for equipment deep cleaning.

Pulled the skimmer and completely broke it down. What I like about the Red Sea Skimmer is that you can get to every piece for thoroughly cleaning. I thought about running the skimmer in bucket of vinegar or citric acid but after I got it apart I was able to really get it super clean with out a soak. It amazing how much better the skimmer is running now and pulling skim.

Pulled the Neptune COR15 pump. I also like it since you can get it completely apart. I did not run in a vinegar or acid bath and was able to get is super clean. I will need to order some seals before the next clean since they will need to be replaced once a year. I do think the flow is better now since I had to make adjustments to the overflow.

Since I had everything out of the sump I used a VCA attachment to vacuum the sump to get is super clean. Scrapped all of the sides and wiping down the walls. By vacuuming the sump I was able to do a 10 gallon water change at the same time. Everything is now super clean.

Next up to clean the probes and get them re-calibrated.
art. I did not run in a

hans4811 · Apr 20, 2020

Hey Dal, tanks looking great ! Noticed you're running one of those splitters on your return line. How do you keep it from siphoning when you turn off your return pump ? I put one on mine and the first time I turned it out, it created a siphon and oveflowed my sump ! Glad i was there and noticed it before it got too bad ! took it off....

Dal-Reef · Apr 20, 2020

hans4811 said:
Hey Dal, tanks looking great ! Noticed you're running one of those splitters on your return line. How do you keep it from siphoning when you turn off your return pump ? I put one on mine and the first time I turned it out, it created a siphon and oveflowed my sump ! Glad i was there and noticed it before it got too bad ! took it off....

Hey there.. It's called a Random Flow Generator made by VCA. I have it installed just below the water surface but do move it up and down a little to change the flow. Make sure they are not too low below the water surface plus you want the surface to tumble They are not solid pieces but have grooves around the tube that pulls in water to great the random flow. When you turn the return pump off and the tank water lowers air gets sucked in breaking the siphon. There are some videos on there site. Hope this helps Here is the link https://vividcreativeaquatics.com/product-category/water-movement/

Thespammailaccount · Apr 20, 2020

Dal-Reef said:
I had a reef tank back 15 or so years ago. Do to my work, marriage and just life being so busy I sold my Oceanic 125. Back in the day I was running a Berlin using LifeReef hardware but did keep parts of it like the skimmer and other pieces. I am did use some of it in my setup and post about that later.

One of the things I for sure did was keep all of my live rock. I knew one day I would be back. It was that old school rock you got from Marshall Island, Tonga and Florida. It was around 180lbs and just did not want to sale it. Glad I didn't since you cannot get this stuff anymore. I dried and stored in large sealed trash cans all these years. Hauling as moved around never giving up getting another tank.

Amazing

Thespammailaccount · Apr 20, 2020

Top of the line from the filter to the automation! Lol I would sell my house for that kind of rock! Great work!

Inertiatic · Apr 20, 2020

Great build thread, everything looks so clean! I didn't see your PAR meter results, did you ever get around to posting them?

Also, how are your battle corals doing? I'm thinking about ordering my first box, which did you go with?

Dal-Reef · Apr 20, 2020

Thespammailaccount said:
Top of the line from the filter to the automation! Lol I would sell my house for that kind of rock! Great work!

Thanks for the kind word brother. I am been in IT for 35 years no kids time to treat myself

Dal-Reef · Apr 20, 2020

Inertiatic said:
Great build thread, everything looks so clean! I didn't see your PAR meter results, did you ever get around to posting them?

Also, how are your battle corals doing? I'm thinking about ordering my first box, which did you go with?

Howdy... Thanks for reminding me on the PAR results. I will work on getting them posted. I learned a lot on my Batter Corals. First It was was way to early for SPS. I though my tank was rock sold at 5 months. Everything was good it just needs to mature more. I knew this tried to tell my self the tank was ready. It takes time. I have BC that are still hanging in there. Tank is coming up on 9 months and will be starting the Reef Moonshiners approach. I will keep posting here of my results. Just installed ClariSea filter roller and post on shortly I will be ordering more BC later in the year. The last order was the $300 box

Thespammailaccount · Apr 20, 2020

Dal-Reef said:
Thanks for the kind word brother. I am been in IT for 35 years no kids time to treat myself

Definitely shows in your work!

Shunopoli · Apr 20, 2020

So I was basically going to this exact setup and the besta shelf from ikea. Have two questions the board you mounted your apex to do you have room behind this? Also, is the width 22" as the besa is 23 and some change I believe? Also, how long is the skimmer cord? I am going to get that same skimmer and this is the only piece of gear I have yet to purchase and not sure it will reach to the Apex. Did you have to use and extension? If so what one?