SPS Dominant Reefer 170 Full Triton Kessil/T5 Hybrid

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Tank just turned 3 months old including a short 2 weeks cycle with seeded rock and sand.

Sent in second ICP test and first NDOC test today.

Will be interesting to see results. I followed the instructions from last ICP in detail including the 6x 15% water changes each week. So much for no water changes.

 

[infinite0180]

I received the UV unit yesterday and hooked it up at Noon, by evening, there was noticeable clarity and reduction of dinos after blowing them around with a turkey baster and removing the grate on my overflow.

I am using this UV unit. "Aquashield 10W UV Sterilizer/Clarifier - Universal"

I placed it in the round hole which would normally host a filter sock (I do not use a sock) and it clamps onto the glass divider in my sump. Easy. Since it has it's own pump, there is no plumbing involved. Install took all of 10 min.

I started my blackout this am. Will see...

Hows that UV working? I have reefer nano and was thinking about adding this. I havent heard much about it though? Your glass staying cleaner?

 

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Hows that UV working? I have reefer nano and was thinking about adding this. I havent heard much about it though? Your glass staying cleaner?

Yeah Dinos are gone. My water is sparkling and my glass is staying cleaner for a lot longer. Not sure how much the UV contributed, but Im leaving it on cause I feel it is working out.

 

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BRS is blowing out these Giesmann Infinity lights at 40% off. I just ordered one.

https://www.giesemann.us/440.html

https://www.giesemann.us/files/giesemann/products/light/Infiniti/Infiniti-schwarz-Gesamt.jpg

I got a par meter and my red sea LED 90 is coming up a bit short on my goals for lighting by itself, so have been trying to figure out a solution. If all my acros and SPS was center tank near the top then it would get me into the 250-325 range but anywhere towards edges or down is fading off and I want a bunch of SPS in the top 2/3s of the tank.

I considered 2 LED 90s, they would just fit next to each other, but then its another 100% LED solution.

I plan to not use the metal halide in the Giesmann as it will basically be over the red sea, but to use the 4xT5s and hang it above the red sea. Its a bit janky but it seems to fit better than the other units that allow a drop in LED.

 

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Hows that UV working? I have reefer nano and was thinking about adding this. I havent heard much about it though? Your glass staying cleaner?

Well Dinos are not actually gone but they are beat back for sure. My light acclimation ramp is over and at 100% blue on LED 90, so started ramping white which includes red spectrum and that is making some green algae appear, which I scrubbed with toothbrush and then some dinos came back in the low flow areas. So not yet a major problem but they are waiting for their chance. If I were to do the UV again I would go bigger power, bigger flow.

Also learning some things about the RED SEA 90 lights. For one, they took their measurements 7" from the water but the bracket wants to sit by default at 8" which affects PAR. They also used 100% blue and 100% white when taking measurements.

So to crank up PAR I had to crank up whites and that seemed to make the algae grow.

So now Im backing off the whites and lowering my lights to 7".

We'll see.

Everyday is a new adventure in this hobby

 

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Yeah cranking the whites is not a good move. I'm now at 23k setting which is only 10% whites and 100% blues. Some hair algae but in control. Hair algae is so much better than Dinos. Params are good.

7.9 alk
.05 P
1.5 N
450 calc
1400 Mag

SPS are opening up and getting fuzzy but some algae on a few tips, not going to worry. Color is also getting much better. Good track.

I'm trying hard to go slow with interventions and do a slow surf on all this. Feels like things are seeking a good balance. Water is clear and smells clean.

More things coming next week.

Adding some CUC as I think mine is too small.
Adding corals as well. Stay tuned.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

(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.

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

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


Latest equipment list:

RedSea LED 90 Display Light
Sicce 6.0 SDC wifi return pump (Love it!)
2 Vortech MP10WQD powerheads
Neptune WMX module for Vortech control
Neptune FMM module for ATO control
Kessel H160 Tuna Flora Fuge Light
Tunze 9004 DOC skimmer
2 Neptune DOSE Units - 3 channels for Triton, 1 channel ATO
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

Stocklist - Lightly stocked

Fish
1 Midas Blenny - That's it for fish ATM

LPS Corals
1 Blastomussa
1 Favia
1 Duncan
1 Acan frag
1 Scoly
1 WWC Hi-C Cyphasteria

SPS Corals
WWC Bomb Cyclone Acropora
WWC Hulkster Acropora
WWC Aussie Toxic Slimer
Jason Fox Fruity Pebbles Montipora
WWC Blue Digitata Montipora

NEW SPS!
WWC Nuclear Grapes Acropora
WWC Pink Passion Acropora
WWC Blue Limeade Acropora

Inverts and other
1 pincushion urchin
3 hermits
Maybe 10 or so snails
At least a dozen small feeder shrimp (great cleanup crew)
Plenty of copapods

Macro
Chaetomorpha
Gracilaria

Things that did not make it (Died)
Pintail wrasse - from velvet
Gramma - from velvet
Elegance Coral - ECS
Ultimate Stag Acropora - bleaching from tip down

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.

Don't forget stock up, big time on triton products. So your not running to LFS or the net for supplies

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Beautiful set up, comrade

 

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Beautiful set up, comrade

Thank you!

 

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Just got back from 10 days vacation and I was excited to see that the tank was on autopilot over vacation. I took advice from this forum and measured out each days food into small cups and put in freezer for pet sitter. I did not use an auto-feeder.

Just before vacation I had ended my battle with dinos (UV and 36 hrs blackout), stabilized my params and upgraded my cleanup crew in a big way by adding 4 Mexican turbo snails (algae monsters), 3 in display and 1 in sump, 2 emerald crabs (great in the nooks and around frag plugs) and a few small hermits and other snails.

This cleanup addition decimated the algae that bloomed after the dinos were beat back. They are hired but I do wonder if I have too many now to sustain.

Coralline is also taking hold in a big way. I had added Coralline in a bottle and highly recommended.

I returned to this! I scraped the front glass but left the rest as is.

Only issue was a Mexican Turbo knock one of my acros off its mount an into a hole in the rock never to be recovered.

 

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A week away from 4 month mark including cycle.

Ten new SPS arriving tomorrow from Battle Corals!

Stock added before vacation....Kudos to Pacific East Aquaculture for the amazing corals and awesome cleanup crew.

- Neon Lime Psammacora
- Black Cherry War Coral Favites
- Elephant Skin Pachyseris
- Alien Eye Chalice
- Lizard Eyes Acan
- Rainbow Lobophilia

 

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I just started up a hybrid light setup which consists of my original Red Sea LED 90 (7" off water) sitting on its intended tank mount with a Giesemann Infinity with 4 T5s and No Halide sitting at 14" off water.

Using the PAR meter with the red sea at 80% blue and T5s 14" off water I am getting @350s 6" down and 225-280 range mid tank and 150-200 on sand. The light is way more evenly spread through the tank now when the T5s are on, so I have many more good placement options for my SPS.

I just started acclimating yesterday with T5s coming on for 2 hours midday while ramping LED 90 from 100% Blue to 80% Blue during T5 period. White staying at 50%.

Open to any advise on a good way to acclimate.

Excited to see results.

I also got 10 new SPS frags from Battlecorals. They look awesome, here are a few.

 

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Today is the 3 month anniversary of light on in the tank. Feels like 3 years though. I've been so involved in this process it's a bit obsessive.

Things are getting easier though. My tank is loving life right now. 3rd ICP test sent in today.

Getting some more fish finally tomorrow and some more corals as well.

 

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I added a Milestones section to the first post of this thread to summarize what has happened so far. I'll keep it updated there but at the moment, these are the Milestones.

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

 

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I've been an amateur photog for a long while but this macro tank underwater thing is new. Starting to figure it out, will be a fun progression alongside the tank.

 

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Got some new corals for my LFS. I'm very impressed with my LFS actually. I got my first SPS colony, which is really helping my tank not look like just a bunch of tiny little SPS frags.

I'm reaching SPS saturation at the moment. Adding a few more LPS as well to fill out lower 3rd. More pics coming.

Oh yeah, I finally got some more fish. A gorgeous blue wrasse and a needle nose hawk fish. My many little feeder shrimp are going to be toast. The two new arrivals are slaying them very efficiently. I fact they were chasing them right out of the tank and through the cover since they are small.

3

 

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Things are good..now it's just about waiting..I hate waiting...

 

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I am finally upgrading my build with a breakout wall hanging electrical panel. I started a separate build thread on that here...

Hang on Wall, Low Profile, Electrical Breakout Panel with GFCI

So I'm 5 months (operational) into my Reefer 170 build. The tank is oriented caddy corner and I had originally put the Neptune and Energy 8 inside the cabinet. This worked but as the tank has evolved more and more power bricks and cords are building up in back of the tank. That and I also now...

www.reef2reef.com

 

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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 at 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

 

[splitting_lanes]

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

I have the long piece installed and the short piece on order. The long piece fit perfectly, no need for anything to hold it in place.