UPGRADE! 75 Gal. To 150 Gal. To 240 Gal. What is next?

[djstud]

Wrong Filtration. When I built my 240 gallon system I was not planning on using it as a coral reef tank. It was going to be a freshwater tank or a FOWLR saltwater tank. I built the filtration with two Wet/Dry Filters. This has worked very good over the years for what I was using it for. Now that it is a reef tank I am going to have to make some changes.
Since I do not have a true sump I have very little room for my Protein Skimmers and Refugium. I am using a HOB Refugium that is way too small for the system. I have two Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmers running right now. I have put one in each of the Wet/Dry Filters.
I am planning on keeping one of the Wet/Dry Filters running on this tank. It super oxygenates the water and is great for nitrifying bacteria. I will be removing the second Wet/Dry Filter and replacing it with a Trigger Systems Ruby 36S Sump. This sump is 36" x 15" x 16" and will give me plenty of room for a refugium. I will continue to run my Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer in the sump. The plan is to purchase a new Protein Skimmer that can handle the water volume for a 240 gallon reef aquarium.

I am using two Sicce XStream 8000 pumps for tank circulation. I am very happy with these pumps as they work very well as long as you keep them clean.

I am using two Blue Line HD Pumps on my return lines. I will keep one of these on my Wet/Dry filter and keep the other one as a spare. I will be purchasing a submersible DC return pump for the new Trigger Sump. I am not sure which pump to buy so any suggestions would be great.

The last thing to note is that I do have a 35 gallon mixing station in my downstairs shop. I have this hooked into my RD/DI unit with an inline shut off valve that you turn by hand. I open the valve and the mixing tank fills with RO/DI water until the float valve shuts it off. I then shut off the inline hand valve. Once this is done, I add the appropriate amount of salt. I have a heater and a circulation pump running to mix things up. I check the salinity with a refractometer and pump the water into the display tank as needed. Once this tank is empty I open the valve and start the process over again. This works very well, and I only had to purchase one tank instead of two.

 

[djstud]

I have been fighting a terrible case of green hair algae. I should have taken a photo of it when it was bad. This is how it looks now after a 4 week fight. I had a lot more live rock in my aqua scape than this. I removed every piece of algae covered live rock that did not have a coral living on it and removed it. I let that rock dry up. I then put all of that rock in a Clorox bath for 2 hours and rinsed them a lot. I then let them dry over night. The next day I rinsed them again and let them dry. I then removed all of the live rock with corals and cut the corals off of the rock. I then glued the corals to the clean dried rock and placed them back in the tank. I left 4 to 5 of the larger pieces of live rock in the tank the whole time. All I did to them was to manually remove the hair algae. I had a small spike in Ammonia, etc. but nothing bad.

 

[djstud]

Among all of the supplies that I purchased from a friend of mine was a ReefKeeper Lite Plus. I know that is is an old system but it works fine. I installed everything this past weekend.

 

[djstud]

I also mounted 2 inverters near my control panel. I have a couple of marine trolling motor batteries that I can use if the power goes out. I will be able to run a circulation pump on one and a heater on the other. If the power is out for a longer period of time I have a large generator that I can fire up. We do lose electricity where I live if we are having a winter blizzard.

 

[djstud]

Here are a few photos of my tank as it is now. I plan on adding more corals in the near future.

 

[djstud]

Is there a reason why I shouldn’t drill a new sump for an external return pump?

 

[ShepherdReefer]

what a great start, thanks for sharing.

 

[djstud]

On February 6th I noticed that the return bulkhead in the overflow portion was starting to leak. These bulkheads were installed approximately 10 years ago. I attempted to tighten it with no luck. I tried regular pliers, vise grips, channel locks, etc. with no luck. I could not get a good grip on them. I ordered 2 new bulkheads from Bulk Reef Supply for these return lines. Regular shipping said 5 to 6 days. Next day shipping at $42.00 also said 5 to 6 days. I live in the middle of nowhere. Why pay $35.00 more for the same arrival day. I was going to have to run my 240 gallon reef system without filtration. I kept the circulation pumps and the heater running on the tank. I also placed some filter media, from the filtration, into a canister filter and ran it on the display tank. This will give me more nitrifying bacteria in this DT. I placed a small pump, in each filter, with a hose going to the intake portion of the filter. This kept water moving through both of these filters. I put 1/4 teaspoon of liquid ammonia into each filter to keep the bacteria alive. My bulkheads arrived one February 12th. Installed the new bulkheads and cleaned both return pumps. I tested both filters and the DT for ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrates. I had a small spike in ammonia in one of the filters. Nothing to be alarmed about. I turned on the system and there were no leaks.

 

[djstud]

The two Sicce XStream 8000 Circulation Pumps were moving too much water. Sand was being blown around no mater where I placed them. I started going through some of my old gear (I have a lot since I set up my first saltwater aquarium in 1983). I have three of the Current USA e-flux Wave Pumps that run 1050 gph each. Two of them work fine and I ordered a new impeller for the third. I believe that these will work better plus two of them will be controllable.

 

[djstud]

I also added two Penn Plax B11 Silent Air Pumps to this system. They take two D batteries each and do not run unless the power goes out. If the power does go out they will help to keep the water oxygenated.

 

[djstud]

I purchased two ADJ PC-100A Power Strips on Amazon for about $30.00 each. It is much easier than tracking down cords to unplug something. I have extra room on these power strips for my UV, Protein Skimmer, etc..

 

[djstud]

I purchased a Trigger Systems Crystal 36 Sump from BRS. Pretty excited to get this plumbed into my filtration.

 

[djstud]

I am running two CPR Aquatics Wet/Dry Filters on this tank. They each have a Blue Line HD40 External Return Pump. They are hooked in tandem so that everything evens out. I did this because I live in the middle of nowhere. Everything has to be ordered through the mail. 1 to 2 day shipping is usually not an option for me. If I lose one of my return pumps, I can shut a couple of ball valves and run one filter. This gives me time to get a replacement pump.

The only drawback of using the Crystal Series Sumps is the the acrylic is not colored on both sides of the refugium. The algae is going to bleed over to the other chambers. I purchase a piece of Black Acrylic 24” x 36” from Menards for $20. I cut them to size and siliconed them in place.

 

[djstud]

I am going to continue to use my Blue Line 40HD return pump for this sump. That way it matches the other filter and I already own it. They are rated at 760 gph with 21 feet of head pressure each. I drilled holes in the return chamber for the two bulkheads. One for the return pump and one for the tandem line.

 

[djstud]

I removed the CRR Aquatics Wet/Dry Filter and replaced it with the new Crystal 36 Sump. I am happy to say that there were no leaks. I have 2 Two Little Fishies 150 Reactors that I will be using for this build. One will be for Carbon and the other for Phosguard. I have two LifeGuard Aquatics Quiet One pumps for these reactors. I am running the Carbon all of the time but the Phosguard will be ran as needed.

 

[djstud]

I own two Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmers. I am going to use one of these in my new sump. I know that it is not rated for a 240 gallon reef tank so I will replace it at some point. Not sure which one to buy at this point.

I have been using a HOB Refugium that is not big enough for this aquarium. I will be moving everything from my refugium to the middle section on my new Crystal 36 Sump. Looking forward to getting this done.

 

[djstud]

I have a refugium light that came with the CPR Aquatics Aquafuge HOB Refugium. I built a small wooden support so that it would work for my refugium area. I transferred everything from my HOB over to this one. I added a bag of Agri-Alive Live Sand since this refugium is a lot bigger than my other one. I plan on ordering some copepods and macro algae for Algae Barn to give this refugium a boost..
My Protein Skimmer is still breaking in.

 

[djstud]

Here is a list of equipment that I am using on this reef system.
- 96” x 24” x 24” Acrylic Aquarium with 36” Metal Stand - Titan Aquatic Exhibits
- Trigger Crystal 36 Sump
- Blueline 40HD Return Pump for the sump
- CPR Aquatics Wet/Dry Filter
- Blueline 40HD Return Pump for the wet/dry filter
- Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer
- Coralife Turbo Twist 12x UV Sterilizer
- Eheim 300 Watt Heater
- Inkbird Heater Controller
- Eflux Dual Wave Pump kit 1050 gph each
- Sicce XStream 8000 Circulation Pump
- Two Little Fishies 150 Carbon Reactor with Quite One Pump
- Two Little Fishies 150 Phosphate Reactor with Quiet One Pump
- Reefkeeper Lite Plus Controller
- Aquafuge Refugium Light
- Current USA IC LOOP 48” Dual LED’s with HUB Controller x 2
- Ice Cap ATO
- ADJ Power Strips x 2
- Penn Plax Silent Air B11 Pumps x 2 for Power Outages
- Power Inverters x 2 for Power Outages
- 12 Volt Trolling Motor Battery x 2 for Power Outages

 

[djstud]

It is time that I post some photos of my Fish, Corals, and Invertebrates.

 

[djstud]

Here are the Corals.



I am having an algae issue. I added some Turbo Snails, and Blue Legged Cortez Crabs. Hopefully it will make a difference. My Nitrates are at 0 ppm and my phosphates are at 0.02 ppm. I started up my Phosphate reactor yesterday to keep the phosphates from climbing.