krakenwrangler
Active Member
- Joined
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- 289
Always looking nice and tight. Where did you get your dosing tubing rack?UV Sterilizer plumbed in and set at 157 GPH. ATS is next!
Whip’s Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 Hybrid Bare Bottom Build
- Build Thread
- Thread starter Whip
- Start date
- Tagged users None
OP
OP
Is that thing not the coolest thing ever?!?
It hit my email from Marine Depot as “new” and I just had to get one. It blows away every one I have ever owned.
AquaMaxx DTH-1
DTH-1 Pro Magnetic Dosing Tube Holder
Organizing your dosing lines just got easier with the DTH-1 Pro Dosing Tube Holder. The DTH-1 holds up to five lines which you can mix and match the fittings to accommodate 3/16" flexible dosing tubes or 1/4" RO tubing. With the magnetic mount, you can place the DTH-1 almost anywhere dosing is...
www.marinedepot.com
I need to get this and will order asapIs that thing not the coolest thing ever?!?
It hit my email from Marine Depot as “new” and I just had to get one. It blows away every one I have ever owned.
AquaMaxx DTH-1
DTH-1 Pro Magnetic Dosing Tube Holder
Organizing your dosing lines just got easier with the DTH-1 Pro Dosing Tube Holder. The DTH-1 holds up to five lines which you can mix and match the fittings to accommodate 3/16" flexible dosing tubes or 1/4" RO tubing. With the magnetic mount, you can place the DTH-1 almost anywhere dosing is...
OP
OP
Well... Phase II fish halfway through QT!
Purple Tang
Yellow Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Hopefully the Zebrasoma’s will play nice.
Purple Tang
Yellow Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Hopefully the Zebrasoma’s will play nice.
Wrasse-cal
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2017
- Messages
- 759
- Reaction score
- 615
Really nice looking set up! I had thought about doing something similar to you with respect to the Tongan rock on the aquarium bottom. I though wish I had seeing your result!
I'm also really liking your large refugium. How though are you finding keeping the skimmer in your return section? While the ATO should keep the water level fairly stable, are you finding any issues with performance?
As a fellow Orphek user, I like your choice of lights. If I may make one recommendation, you also have some room for some OR light bars. I highly recommend them. In Blue Plus they add a very subtle but very pleasant improvement in color versus the full spectrum Orphek.
I'm also really liking your large refugium. How though are you finding keeping the skimmer in your return section? While the ATO should keep the water level fairly stable, are you finding any issues with performance?
As a fellow Orphek user, I like your choice of lights. If I may make one recommendation, you also have some room for some OR light bars. I highly recommend them. In Blue Plus they add a very subtle but very pleasant improvement in color versus the full spectrum Orphek.
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OP
OP
Wrasse-cal (nice username BTW!),
Thanks for stopping by and checking my build out. I am loving the huge plates of Tonga. If all goes well, it’ll turn into an Acro forest in a few years (with tons of headspace to grow). Because there are huge cavities beneath the plates, I am blasting flow beneath them and up through the vents and openings in the plates. It is creating a nice flow effect and staying clean and free from debris.
Putting the skimmer in the return chamber was not ideal, but the ATK is keeping it at a consistent level. That (combined with the VarioS 8 being nice and steady) is helping the skimmer be consistent. The Deltec also has a forgiving operating window, so all of that combined has allowed me to make lemonade out of lemons.
I am super happy with the Orphek’s... SUPER HAPPY! I’m also excited to meet a fellow Orphek user. Regarding the light bars... oh yeah!... that’s the plan! I just need my bank account to recover. I will most definitely take your recommendation. Thanks for sharing!
@Whip I have a couple questions for you that I want your opinion on.
I am running my sump without the divider that comes with is as I will use it for frag grow out so my question is about your ato sensor placement. I see you put it in the return area and was wondering how that was working for you placing it there?
I am running my sump without the divider that comes with is as I will use it for frag grow out so my question is about your ato sensor placement. I see you put it in the return area and was wondering how that was working for you placing it there?
OP
OP
Manose,
The ATK Level Sensor is doing great in the return section and it hasn’t given me any issues (will be a year in April). Because it is a section with a very small amount of volume, the water level does slightly vary throughout the day causing annoying high level alarms, but the alarm clears quickly. If I wasn’t lazy, I think I could input a delay on the alarm and it would clear itself.
I have my skimmer in the return section and it automatically shuts down for 20 minutes three times a day. That’ll cause a high level alarm, but it clears quickly. Again, a delay in the alarm will reduce the occurrence of the alarm.
My salinity stays steady at 1.026, so the slight variation in level has not caused my ATK to dilute the salinity of the tank.
There was ONE time that my low level sensor got covered in crud. This caused my ATK to NOT get a signal to replenish after evaporation. Now I clean the sensors with a toothbrush occasionally AND have a powerhead in my return chamber firing off three times a day keeping it clean. I believe this scenario (crud on the optical sensors) would play out no matter where you put the sensor.
I should tell you that I removed the float-switch from the ATK sensor and am just running off of the optical sensors. I installed the float switch on the Red Sea mounting bracket inside the return chamber. This was mainly because I ran out of room; space is a little tight in my return chamber. I have not ran my fresh water replenishment to that float switch yet, so I can’t tell you what effect it has on refill. I currently refill in my overflow section. I need to reroute my ATK tubing from the overflow section to the return section, but time to do so is hard to find.
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OP
OP
New update of something kind of cool...
So almost everyone has a Red Sea ATO container sitting around because they aren’t big enough and are in the way... I repurposed mine into a new shelf! If will eventually hold my ATS, but here is the
finished product!
THE PLAN...
THE TOOLS...
THE FINISHED PRODUCT...
So almost everyone has a Red Sea ATO container sitting around because they aren’t big enough and are in the way... I repurposed mine into a new shelf! If will eventually hold my ATS, but here is the
finished product!
THE PLAN...
THE TOOLS...
THE FINISHED PRODUCT...
DS204
Active Member
Great idea! Do you mind if I borrow your idea and do the same?
I was going to use mine as some sort of storage for things like my turkey baster, syringes, magic potions, etc. But I never thought to remove the walls and use it as shelf instead. Brilliant!
OP
OP
I’d be honored if you did the same! I posted it in the DIY Forum in hopes others would find value in it.
I wanted the walls to be equal to the height of my sump, but my ATS outlet sits 1/2” high, so my shelf walls could only 7/16” high.
The funny thing was that I was online almost ready to try to get a quote on having an acrylic fabricator make one for me... I was stringing a measurement across my sump and had a “moment”. I ran out to my garage, found my old ATO container and said “why not?!?”
I hope the idea works for you. Good luck!
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DS204
Active Member
I love those 'eureka' moments! Right now I'm using it as an ATO still, but I plan to install my proper ATO to the return chamber this month and then remove or re-purpose the stock one. And now, I have the perfect solution thanks to you! Cheers.
- Joined
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Very cool idea turning the container into a mini shelf! Looking great and, of course, the sump is still gorgeous!
You have officially just blown my mind!!!;Jawdrop This could be the best mod EVER for anything;WootNew update of something kind of cool...
So almost everyone has a Red Sea ATO container sitting around because they aren’t big enough and are in the way... I repurposed mine into a new shelf! If will eventually hold my ATS, but here is the
finished product!
THE PLAN...
THE TOOLS...
THE FINISHED PRODUCT...
I am going to do this as you make some very valid points. I will not be running a skimmer as I am putting a Octo chaeto reactor over in the dry area normally for electronics and all my electronics will be in a separate cabinet next to the stand.
I will have to whole sump for frag growout
ReefKeeperElite
Active Member
What happened to your refugium light and chaeto?New update of something kind of cool...
So almost everyone has a Red Sea ATO container sitting around because they aren’t big enough and are in the way... I repurposed mine into a new shelf! If will eventually hold my ATS, but here is the
finished product!
THE PLAN...
THE TOOLS...
THE FINISHED PRODUCT...
Just read every page of this thread so far and I'm very impressed with the large amount of thought and effort you've put into it.
I'm taking delivery of an XL300 next week. You have made me realise that I need to take my time and get the initial set up and cycle nice and slowly!
How comes we never see the right hand side of your cabinet?
I'm taking delivery of an XL300 next week. You have made me realise that I need to take my time and get the initial set up and cycle nice and slowly!
How comes we never see the right hand side of your cabinet?
Peach02
Valuable Member
ditto,
also I just found this thread and finished reading through the whole thing. Love how the tank is going so far especially your plumbing and cable management.
DesertReefer51
Community Member
Hey Whip,
I've got a question regarding your ATO & AWC. Do you use an Aoex with DoS pumps for both?
I'm considering using DoS pumps for both procedures but had concerns regarding the reliability. I'm also trying to figure out if the pressure from the 20 gallons in the SW reservoir is enough to feed the DoS pump. I plan on feeding the pumps from my hard plumbing instead of punch additional holes into my reservoirs.
I started a question thread with photos of my in progress mixing cabinet.
www.reef2reef.com
I've got a question regarding your ATO & AWC. Do you use an Aoex with DoS pumps for both?
I'm considering using DoS pumps for both procedures but had concerns regarding the reliability. I'm also trying to figure out if the pressure from the 20 gallons in the SW reservoir is enough to feed the DoS pump. I plan on feeding the pumps from my hard plumbing instead of punch additional holes into my reservoirs.
I started a question thread with photos of my in progress mixing cabinet.
Mixing station ATO/Water exchange question
I'm sure these questions have been asked and I have been researching previous threads but not quite finding an answer. I am still in the building/set up stages of my XL525 and trying to set up a system that will require as little maintenance as possible. I have built a mixing station to flank...
www.reef2reef.com
OP
OP
I actually removed it because it was making my refugium cryptic and nasty. I was actually getting great growth, but other nuance algae in refugium was making it impossible to keep clean. I have since decided to install an ATS. I have it, but haven’t installed it yet (just too busy). At current, I simply don’t have an algae problem... so any urgency to install my ATS doesn’t exist. My copepods and amphipod populations have stayed very high.
Just read every page of this thread so far and I'm very impressed with the large amount of thought and effort you've put into it.
I'm taking delivery of an XL300 next week. You have made me realise that I need to take my time and get the initial set up and cycle nice and slowly!
How comes we never see the right hand side of your cabinet?
Thanks for taking the time to read my build thread. I read and read and read. Build threads are an invaluable resource and I tried to make mine valuable to myself as a log of events, but more importantly, I wanted to share my failures and successes with others to learn.
You are correct... I took it slooooow. I took the BRS “four month cycle” to a whole other level. I did a long cycle for two reasons:
1. I couldn’t decide on lights.
2. I wanted to avoid the “ugly stage”.
I will share with you... I failed on #2. After 8 months, I turned my lights on and my tank experienced an horrific ugly stage equal to a brand new tank. Now, it cleared quickly and stabilized nicely, but if I were to do it again, I’d just start out with lights on and get the ugly stage done and over.
Now, I am still a huge fan of the long cycle as my tank rock solid and ridiculously stabile. Doing a long cycle had the extra benefit of working the quirks out of my equipment without the stress of killing fish and coral. Moving forward, I will always take the time to be patient and “do it right the first time”.
Pictures from the dry side of the cabinet? Haha. My dry side is a flipping disaster. For as neurotically OCD as the wet side is, the dry side is equally opposite!
I have most of the materials and several half-baked ideas to take the dry side to another level, but I currently lack the time. When the time comes, I will take an awesome “before” photo and compare it to an after photo.
I like to hear it when people say they have read every page of my thread. I’ve done the same to a lot of other build threads and my build is a culmination of all that data presented in a way that can help others have the same or better success.
The cable management and plumbing was fun and played well to my OCD. As mentioned above, I have some work to do on the dry side.
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