Spidey's Red Sea 3XL 900 build

Spiderwoman

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Welcome to the 3XL 900 build!
It's been 10 years from my last post here, a lot has happened with a few moves etc, but it's time to give you guys a new build.

3XL 900 was ordered on 11/17/2019, it arrived at our LFS Nemo's Reef on 12/27/2019, and since then it's been under customizations. Today the tank was delivered, and the cycle started.

Tank: 240 gallon total water volume
25.6″ wide x 25.6″ high x 79″ long

Filtration and flow:
- Vectra L2 return pump
- Red Sea 900 skimmer
- 2x Jaeger 300w heaters
- 2x MP60's
- 2x Neptune WAV

Lighting:
4x Red Sea ReefLED 90's with arms
Lighting update summer 2023: Switched the 4 ReefLED's out and put in 4x Radion Gen6 XR15 Blue's in place.
Lighting Update Dec 2020: Added 3x Radion Gen5 XR15 Pro LED's and switched the ReefLED's from the arms to a custom built floating canopy with the Radions.
Tunze 8831 refugium light

Controller:
Neptune Apex
- 2x DOS (using 800ml VOSS glass bottles are reservoirs)
- VXM Module
- ATK v2 plumbed to our RODI unit
- Breakout box
- Door sensor
- LED cabinet light
- Leak sensor
- Solenoid Valve
- AFS
- Probe holder
- Trident arrives next week
- Aqua UV 57 Watt UV sterilizer

120lbs of Caribsea special reef grade
3 custom build live rock structures
Vortech Battery backup

Custom built drawers to hold all equipment.
Additional matching cabinet is being built and it will house tools etc.
 
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Spiderwoman

Spiderwoman

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Day started with an empty space, and it soon filled up.

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Spiderwoman

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Things learned during the past week:
- need a skimmer stand to raise the Red Sea 900 skimmer higher. Microbubbles are (@#&$(*%&#(*$
- Neptune salinity probe doesn't like microbubbles, it will show you crazy high salinity levels that change throughout the day. Will need to calibrate to tank water after you've validated the 1.025 level with 2 different tools. I will use a Milwaukee MA887 Digital Salinity Refractometer and a manual refractometer.
- I'm still surprised that our RODI unit keeps up with the daily evaporation. We're on well water and the water is ice cold as it first hits the whole house RO unit and from there goes to the AWI 4 stage RODI unit. even with a booster pump, the rate of RODI water is fairly slow.

Line to our RODI unit is in the crawlspace going under our kitchen, breakfast area, and then to the water changing station. There will be a outlet cover over the hole in the wall once the install is finished, but for now it's covered with tape in an effort to keep our 4 curious cats away from it.

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Spiderwoman

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The cycle was started on Wednesday with the aid of AlgaeBarn's NitroCycle and Fritz TurboStart 900. Yesterday I noticed a weird looking algae bloom on the sand. We're still using the acclimation cycle on the lights, so I've used filters to get the bloom to show. Dotted pattern on sand that isn't shaded with the rock work.

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Our tank has been going through its cycle phases, so not much new had happened. We decided to take our time and not rush things other than using the NitroCycle and TurboStart. We could have used just TurboStart and get first fish in fairly quickly, but I felt that it might be better to go through the full cycle, so the ammonia source was used.

Skimmer is off...
1/22/2020 NitroCycle and TurboStart 900 was added
1/23/2020 NH3/NH4 was already 2+ ( that's the highest on this test)
1/25/2020 NO2 tested at 1+ (highest on this test) and NO3 too had a level of 10
At this point a weird spotted algae bloom was starting
IMG_1731.JPG
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1/29/2020 this nasty brown algae started covering the whole tank
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...
2/2/2020 NH3/NH4 finally at 0, NO2 1+ and NO3 40-50
2/3/2020 ran a stick through the surface of sand and the water got nice and cloudy, switched the filter floss in the sump, added a strip of filter floss over the bubble trap to catch the finer particles that get past the socks and cups. Have been changing that daily and cleaning the socks.

2/5/2020 added more TurboStart
2/8/2020 added a skimmer stand and started the skimmer
2/9/2020 NH3/NH4 0, NO2 0 and NO3 40
Algae bloom is fading nicely on its own

The skimmer is starting to produce nice foam and not overflowing like it did during the first week of run. Also the micro bubbles are gone thanks to the correct water level.
You can see the nasty dark stuff that is still being pulled from the water with the blue filter floss.

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Spiderwoman

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I also added some microalgae in the refugium and turned the refugium light on auto. Ordering pods and a small clean up crew today.

Later this week the UV sterilizer should arrive and get installed. Also the extra cabinet and Neptune Trident will be installed at the same time.
 
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Lucky for you! My algae boom is still here with me. This brown crap sucks! Was hoping it would die off by now.
It freaked me out first, and that's why I stirred it up. I think the key is not to react to it more than that. It WILL die off eventually.
 

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It freaked me out first, and that's why I stirred it up. I think the key is not to react to it more than that. It WILL die off eventually.
That’s what I keep telling myself. Tank looks bad! Hopefully it will be sooner than later.
How was TurboStart? See any changes?
 

Glott3133

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Beautiful tank. I really like your patience in doing a project of this size. It's hard not to jump in and start buying a bunch of fish and corals; or trying to rush the cycle process.

The algae blooms have come and gone in my tank, with no action on my part. The brown is the most frustrating because it looks so bad. But it does go away on its own. A good cleanup crew helps, too.
 
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Beautiful tank. I really like your patience in doing a project of this size. It's hard not to jump in and start buying a bunch of fish and corals; or trying to rush the cycle process.

The algae blooms have come and gone in my tank, with no action on my part. The brown is the most frustrating because it looks so bad. But it does go away on its own. A good cleanup crew helps, too.
Thank you! If this was our first and only tank, I probably would not have done the NitroCycle part and just jumped on the bandwagon of TurboStart in and fish following the next day. Luckily I've been way too busy with work and we have 3 other tanks, so it's been easier to take our time. Also wanted to do this right and have everything quarantined first. Currently 2 fish are in quarantine.
 
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