Stefan's 150

[stefan09w]

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. I'm going to do my best to update this thread as much as possible. I currently have a Red Sea Reefer 170. It has been set up for roughly 1 year. I have had intermittent success with this tank, but I hardly took any pictures or documented anything along the way. So my main thinking when creating this thread is two things really. 1. To have invaluable documentation of my tanks progress. 2. invaluable recommendations by fellow reefers. We are currently building a new house so the new tank (new to me at least) will be in storage until March or April. That gives me plenty of time to plan and acquire things I will need.

Ok some of the good stuff. I will attach a picture of the current setup (picture is old) and pictures of the tank I just purchased yesterday.

New Tank: so far. all purchased used from my LFS. Was a tank they serviced.
Planet Aquariums 60x24x25 I believe this puts me in the neighborhood of 150ish gallons
Also have the white Elegance stand/ canopy
3 Gen4 Radion xr30 pros
No other equipment

Current set up:

Redsea Reefer 170
Hydra 32hd
nero3
apex el- with both ph and temp prob
Aquaamax q-2
jaebo dc return pump- cant remember the size i believe to be in the neighborhood of 500-900 gph.
Jager heater
Inkbird temp controller
Kamoer x1- dosing AFR(4ml per day)
BRS- CO2 scrubber with BRS CO2 media

Also have a Neptune DOS not in use.

Tank parameters: Running TMP salt mix
Temp-77.3-78.6
PH7.89-8.02
ALK-7.5
Calcium-460
Mag-1480
Nitrate-3 ppm
Phosphate-.07

Any input on new equipment would be appreciated as I am in the planning phase still! Thanks again!

-Stefan

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Cool! Following!

 

[stefan09w]

Quick update! I have the tank in my possession( by "possession" I mean stored at work). Thinking About plumbing. The tank has a left hand corner over flow which has two 1" drains and two 3/4" returns. I'm a little confused on how to do the return lines Correctly. In specifically the portion of the return line that connects to the overflow box. I will try to attach a picture.

On another note we have completed our pre drywall inspection for the house. The house is starting to take shape. I will attach some picture of the area I plan to place the tank. Structurally I believe it will be fine but I'm not an engineer. I may add some extra bracing before to be safe. The tank will be sitting over a steal beam that spans the basement.

The tank was an afterthought when we purchased the house. We are building with a large builder in our area and making any changes, structural, electrical, and plumbing for the tank will unfortunately have to take place after the fact.

I plan on putting my mixing station and eventually AWC system in the basement blow the tank.

 

[stefan09w]

Here's a picture where the return attach to the overflow box. Looking for guidance on plumbing this portion correctly. There is another one on the right side of the overflow box.

 

[MySonWantedAHamster]

Very nice! As far as the plumbing, I deferred to the LFS to do the plumbing, but what my PA 150 has is a PVC elbow followed by a threaded Loc-Line that sits in that channel to return the water from the return pump. Following your progress.

 

[stefan09w]

Closed on our house April 25th. Got the tank moved in and started work on plumbing. Have most of it complete. attached our some pictures of the progress. Also downloaded mobius and got the xr30's updated and online. Wow was that a giant pain. Also had a random power outage and now have a dead EB832 on my other tank. Plan on sending it out this week for repair so it can be used on the new tank.

Other updates... I went with all Jebao pumps. Might regret this decision in the future. Didnt follow my normal buy once cry once policy. Time will tell.

Thinking I should go ahead and build one wall downstairs in the basement for additional support. This wall will eventually be a wall for the full bathroom in the basement anyways, and I would be able to sleep at night knowing there is extra support.

Let me know what you guys think.

 

[stefan09w]

Got the power supply back and now in operation. Built the scape using marco's dry rock, super glue and mortar. I plan on transferring rock for old tank to this one once cycled.

Leveled the tank and leak checked it. Tested sump level for power outages and various failure scenarios. Water level gets pretty high in the sump but doesn't overflow. And began to fill with RODI.

The tank has been salty since roughly fathers day.

 

[stefan09w]

Well 4 months flew by. Here is a quick update of everything that has changed. After the tank had cycled. I transferred just my two clown fish. They spent the next few weeks in there as I monitored the tanks parameters. Once I was sure everything was good I transferred the coral and blue damsel. I also added two pre quarantined tangs. One Tomini and one Scopas. The Scopas came in under weight and never ate and didn't make it. I was originally supposed to get a whitetail bristle tooth instead of a Tomini but it didn't make it through quarantine due to a tank crash at the vendors facility (huge bummer). With a gift card I have now ordered a Melanurus wrasse and a longnose hawkfish. They still haven't arrived yet. I went to my local fish store during a fish sale and picked up a really small one spot fox face, leopard wrasse, salfin wrasse, fire fish, royal gramma, and a small convict tang. I acclimated them to the reefer170 and observed them for 45 days only treating with prozipro I was prepared to set up another tank I had to treatment with meds if need be. I have since transferred them to the main display. Everyone is eating like pigs and model citizens.

Other purchases have been 12 corals from SBB and 9 or 10 corals from WWC. Below are pictures. I am debating getting a better camera. The cell phone pictures arent cutting it.

Let me know what you think.

 

[stefan09w]

Corals were pale after the transfer and nutrients were low. I have gotten the nutrients up and stable. PO4: .05-.07 and NO3 is 8-10. Now running and Avast k1 kalk stirrer. dosing 700ml a night. seems to be keeping up with the small demand as well as a bump in pH. Running between 8.0- 8.2. Using the Neptune dos for this. Also have the powder AFR ready to go. The aquamaxx Q2 skimmer cup literally shattered on me one day during removal of the skimmer cup. Now I'm running a Reef Octo classic 250 int. This skimmer is a beast. Started skimming right out of the box. Using the reef diapers for mechanical filtration. These are cool but still hate changing them. There might be a filter roller in my future. Now running a Neptune trident. None of the measurements seem to be accurate but I'm using it to monitor the trends of the parameters. Added a few more corals. I had one sps frag that RTN'd and one that STN'd (still hanging on by a thread).I attribute this to the alk climbing to the high 10's with high par and low nutrients. I have since measured the par and brought the XR30's down to 45% with modified AB+ schedule. I let the alk come down gradually and im now able to monitor it with the trident .Everything is coming together. I have one last fish to add who is in QT. A Yellow coris wrasse.

 

[stefan09w]

 

[stefan09w]

 

[stefan09w]

 

[stefan09w]

Got a new Camera. Trying to get better at reef photography for documentation.

 

[MySonWantedAHamster]

Tank is looking great! What camera / lens did you pick up?

 

[stefan09w]

Tank is looking great! What camera / lens did you pick up?

Thanks! I got a Sony a6000 with the kit lens and a sigma 56mm 1.4. These pictures are with the sigma. I think it’s more of a portrait lens. So I don’t think I will be getting any macro shots. But they look way better than what I was able to do with my iPhone. Just need more practice learning the art of photography. A hobby inside the hobby lol

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thanks! I got a Sony a6000 with the kit lens and a sigma 56mm 1.4. These pictures are with the sigma. I think it’s more of a portrait lens. So I don’t think I will be getting any macro shots. But they look way better than what I was able to do with my iPhone. Just need more practice learning the art of photography. A hobby inside the hobby lol

That's a really good camera, definitely one I've looked into getting before.

 

[MySonWantedAHamster]

Thanks! I got a Sony a6000 with the kit lens and a sigma 56mm 1.4. These pictures are with the sigma. I think it’s more of a portrait lens. So I don’t think I will be getting any macro shots. But they look way better than what I was able to do with my iPhone. Just need more practice learning the art of photography. A hobby inside the hobby lol

Photos are looking great! It's definitely an art mixed with a lot of manual settings adjustments haha. I picked up a used Canon 5D Mark iii a few months back and spend a lot of time browsing the R2R photography forums now.

I know we have similar size tank, curious what you have stocked in yours so far.

 

[stefan09w]

Photos are looking great! It's definitely an art mixed with a lot of manual settings adjustments haha. I picked up a used Canon 5D Mark iii a few months back and spend a lot of time browsing the R2R photography forums now.

I know we have similar size tank, curious what you have stocked in yours so far.

I'm also spending a lot of time in the photography forums lol.

I have a lot stocked. maybe one too many-You will have to let me know what you think. I don't plan on adding anything else. and my nutrients have been stable with this bioload.

Tomini tang- pretty much fully grown
yellow tang- small biota guy growing out
convict tang- also smaller growing out
Fox face- Medium sized
Yellow coris wrasse
Ornate Leopard wrasse
Salfin wrasse
royal gramma
springeri damsel - had this guy in a previous tank
two percula clowns- had these guys in a previous tank
and a fire fish

rough invert numbers. A lot of these guys moved from old tank to new.
1-pincushion urchin
30-Astreas
5- Trochus
1- tiger conch
30-cerith
10-nerite
5-Hermits
8-Emeralds
2-Nassarius


What do you have?!

 

[MySonWantedAHamster]

Nice, I like your stock list – I bet it’s an active tank and fun to watch. You’re right, you’re probably at the sweet spot of size/numbers, but don’t get me wrong I’d try to squeeze in a few more haha . How are your Tangs together? Do you buy your fish in Columbus or order online?

Here’s what I have so far in my 150
Powder Brown Tang
Longnose Butterfly
Magnificent Foxface
Longnose Hawkfish
Coral Beauty Angel
Dispar Anthias x2
Six-Line Wrasse
Yellowtail Damsel
Ocellaris Clownfish x2

Inverts
4 - Pincushion Urchins (GHA issues)
1 - Tuxedo Urchin
7 - Emerald Crabs
1 - Porcelain Crab
1 - Serpent Star
1 – Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1-3 Peppermint Shrimp
Lots of snails and hermits

 

[stefan09w]

Nice, I like your stock list – I bet it’s an active tank and fun to watch. You’re right, you’re probably at the sweet spot of size/numbers, but don’t get me wrong I’d try to squeeze in a few more haha . How are your Tangs together? Do you buy your fish in Columbus or order online?

Here’s what I have so far in my 150
Powder Brown Tang
Longnose Butterfly
Magnificent Foxface
Longnose Hawkfish
Coral Beauty Angel
Dispar Anthias x2
Six-Line Wrasse
Yellowtail Damsel
Ocellaris Clownfish x2

Inverts
4 - Pincushion Urchins (GHA issues)
1 - Tuxedo Urchin
7 - Emerald Crabs
1 - Porcelain Crab
1 - Serpent Star
1 – Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1-3 Peppermint Shrimp
Lots of snails and hermits

I do want a longnose hawk lol. And you reminded me I do have a skunk cleaner shrimp. I have bought everything locally from Matt's corals. I made probably two big purchases and used my old reefer170 as an observational QT for 45 days. I did treat each batch of fish with prazipro. My original plan was to buy all fish online and pre quarantined, but after months of failed attempts by one of the major online vendors I lost faith and just bought local. through the process the only fish that made it to my door alive was the Tomini tang. I haven't lost a single fish I have bought from Matt.