Salty Crew 2.0

[Staindsoul]

Hello all, I'm Mitchell. I just started back into the hobby after a long break.

This 30 gallon shallow rimless will be my reintroduction back. I had a 60g cube and this tank before with very mild success. I am going to do my best to be patient and move methodically this time. I rushed the previous tank.

I'm on the chesapeake bay every chance I get to. It's is where I grew up. Salt water is in my blood more ways than one.

Info: started Nov. 17th, 2020
30g Rimless
20gL Sump
Vortech Mp10
Hydros Control 4 w/
•(2) wifi strips
•ph probe
•temp probe
•high/low level sensors
•leak detector
•dc ato pump
Eheim 1250 return pump
Sca-301 skimmer
Jager 100w heater
IM chaetomax fuge light
700W inverter-charger w/100ah gel battery
BRS 5" carbon reactor
Kamoer bluetooth dosing pump

(1) ocellaris clown
(1) storm clown
(1) cleaner shrimp

Coming soon:
Homemade power and control station

 

[Staindsoul]

Here is a few pictures of my old 60g cube.

 

[Staindsoul]

One of two water tanks came in today for rodi+saltwater. Going to build a rack in the garage.

 

[Staindsoul]

Plumbing mock up for the sump. Waiting on the baffle kit to come in before I glue up. The drain is just a dead leg for the moment. Thinking about using a tee as a dead foot.

Still waiting on my second tank for the rodi station in the garage. Got the water supply feed and receptacle feed on the wall through the crawlspace.

Moving forward slowly.

 

[saltnut]

Welcome back to reefing and to R2R. Looks like that will be a nice system. Wishing you much success with your new tank.

 

[Staindsoul]

Thanks! Stopped by the LFS for some rodi filters and got wayyy too excited looking around.

 

[Staindsoul]

Finished the rodi and fresh saltwater station. Fiji cube baffles caulked up. Plumbing glued up. Need to setup the cords, power station, and ATO.

Then I'll be ready to start moving saltwater.

 

[Staindsoul]

And we are moving saltwater!

It was nice for the future using threaded bulkhead fittings to use male adapters above the unions, but man it was a pain getting enough teflon on those threads. Took three tries. Everything else was pressure tight.

Will my 100W heater be too close the skimmer body and baffle if I move it to that section? Or will it be ok in the refugium once I'm growing chaeto?

 

[Stang67]

And we are moving saltwater!

It was nice for the future using threaded bulkhead fittings to use male adapters above the unions, but man it was a pain getting enough teflon on those threads. Took three tries. Everything else was pressure tight.

Will my 100W heater be too close the skimmer body and baffle if I move it to that section? Or will it be ok in the refugium once I'm growing chaeto?

You are looking great. I dont see any issue with heater placement.

 

[Staindsoul]

You are looking great. I dont see any issue with heater placement.

Thanks!

Our dog, angler, investigating the new addition. He has quite a bit of experience being a fish inspector. Haha

 

[Stang67]

Awesome

 

[Staindsoul]

Homemade ATO with safety cut out float is installed and functional.

 

[Staindsoul]

New and last addition for probably quite sometime. Storm Clown. Best picture I can get so far, not great. Haha

Decided this setup is going to be about these two. Maybe a blenny for clean up duties later. I'd like to keep the bio-load light.

Next up is to sit back for awhile. See if I can grow chaeto. If successful, then fire up the display light and try a test frag that has some coralline. I'm guessing thats a few months off. Try to minimize the ugly phase. See what blooms I get.

 

[Staindsoul]

Better shot of ole mean mug. Lol.

 

[Staindsoul]

Christmas came early.

Ordered an Ai Prime 16HD and the Coralvue Hydros Control 4 + level sensor. Pretty excited to get these installed.

Kicking around the idea of building/wiring an inverter/charger with 2-12V deep cell 100Ah gel batteries for the return Pump and heater. It would give an estimated 8 hours at the 128W. I have a backup generator, but it is not automated.

It's a habit now for the dog and I to check the fish and tank when I get home from work.

 

[Staindsoul]

The ai prime 16HD and hydros control are installed with apps downloaded.

They are both really cool. I'm glad I bit the bullet and bought the hydros. The temp and ph graphing with alerts will be some nice peace of mind on what's happening when Im not home. The output strip is awesome and I am already contemplating taking my home made ATO offline.

7.87 ph is low. I want to watch the graph for a week to see how it goes. Plus I am not running a lighting cycle as of yet, wonder how much that will affect the swing.

I plan over Christmas and New years to build a power and control board. All cables and controllers are slapped together in the cabinet on the right. It's not presentable at the moment. Haha.

 

[Staindsoul]

I have been tinkering with equipment and added a bi-color blenny.

Added the following:

(1) kamoer dosing pump w/kalkwasser
(1) Hydros power strip. This will be my ups battery backup strip with the inverter-charger
(1) hydros leak detector
(1) hydros dc pump for ato
(2) 1/2 rfg loclines and did away with the one 3/4 return nozzle

The inverter-charger fans run louder than I wanted, but hopefully they only cycle after charging the 100ah gel battery. We will see.

Nitrates and phosphates are running low with the current stock and setup. .2ppm and .003ppm. I am selling the sca-302 skimmer and bought a sca-301 skimmer. The 302 was rated for 180g and I feel like it's stripping too much too fast. I'm not running the lights yet. I'm assuming it would be a dino or cyano bloom right now.

Trial run on the battery, breakers, and inverter-charger. My power cabinet needs a backplate then organization details.

Spot the blenny?

 

[Staindsoul]

Update:

Added a male carpenter wrasse. Final addition. He has made the tank more enjoyable. The blenny comes out more often and the clowns are starting to stick together moving around.

Nitrates and phosphates were coming up nice and easy. 2 bio cubes seemed to be a mistake, they plummeted to near undetectable. Pulled one, dropped refugium Light to 4 hours, and skipped a water change. Changed out the sca-302 for the sca-301.

I have a green toadstool and sinularia waiting on me at the LFS. Need my NO3 and PO4 to come up some before I start the light cycle and grab them.

I never could catch the blenny eating any seaweed. Not sure if he knew what was up. Apparently he does.

 

[Staindsoul]

Update on the tank:

Nitrates and phosphates are staying steady at 3ppm and .1ppm respectively. Trying to get that up over 5ppm on the nitrates. Skipped a water change and reduced the chaeto photoperiod to 4 hours a night.

Added green sinularia, toadstool, and gsp this past weekend. The sinularia and gsp are open after the first day. The toadstool is acting like it's going to shed. Waxy and tightened up.

 

[Staindsoul]

New frags added and a couple updated pictures.