ZipAdeeZoa's Reefer 170 Build thread

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Hello everyone!

I'm incredibly excited about this tank, I've fantasized about getting a reefer 170 for many years. Two years ago my girlfriend surprised with me a used reefer 170 and since then I've been slowly accumulating all the bits and pieces as well as working on improving my reefing skills with my fluval evo 13.5. Admittedly part of the delay was me putting it off purely our of fear of failure. However I've been getting past that. As of this righting The scape has been made and cemented, the tank and apex are running, the tank has been cycled via table shrimp/stability and some hermits and good hitchhikers (micro brittle stars and limpets) were added last night.

My Evo taught me many lessons and I look forward to implementing them all here! Looking forward to sharing this journey with you all!

The plan is a softy dominated tank with quite a few LPS and maybe 1-2 easier SPS. I will also only be adding captive bred fish. Planned fish are 2 pink skunk clowns, 1 radial filefish, 1 orchid dotty back (have that one in my frag tank right now), and 1 black cardinal.

Setup:

Tank: Redsea Reefer 170
Light: AI Prime 16 HD
Pump: Cor 20
Heater: cheapo 150 watt preset aqueon- switching to something nicer when I decide on one.
Skimmer: Redsea reefer skimmer 300.
Controller: Neptune apex with ATK, LDK and AFS.
Powerhead: Ecotech MP10 with battery back up.
Rock: Caribsea life rock ( 1x arch, 1x cave, 1x shelf, 3x base). Shapes held together with Marco 400 cement. Base rocks set in the sand.
Sand: Caribsea Fiji pink (1x 20# bag).
Salt: Redsea Coral Pro.
RODI: RODI buddy (50GPD+ booster pump).

 

[Ron Reefman]

Looks like you are off to a good start!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Looks like you are off to a good start!

Thank you!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Well I finally found the tanks first fish! I've decided I'd be happy with either the pink skunk or the orange skunk clownfish and as luck would have it my go to coral dealer just received the orange skunks! I ordered them and a cabbage coral because I think they are awesome and underrated! Unfortunately I got a call from them saying there was a website error and they didn't actually have new frags so the wait continues for a nice cabbage coral

The owner asked if he could switch it for anything and honestly I had been eyeing goniopora and alveopora on the site. I've always liked them but after seeing massive colonies in Thailand I knew I had to have one! I totally forgot to mention the specific piece I was eyeing on the site but I trust March to pick a nice one! The fish and lone coral should arrive tomorrow, most likely while I'm at work but there will be someone at the house.

I'm incredibly excited!

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

Well everything arrived in great shape! I would like to specify I said asked for a goni OR an alveopora but they sent me one of each!

the orange slunks are in good shape although they are a little smaller than I thought (I saw them in a video they posted and thought they looked small because of forced perspective but they are actually just tiny!

Small enough to need some modifications to the over flow- with some zipties and some left over mesh from the red sea DIY kit I used for my evo I was able to clown proof each overflow.

both fish seem active and healthy, hopefully they stay that way! I may grow them out a little while before I put my dotty back in with them, I don’t think he’d cause trouble but why chance it, plus I want the clowns to be in complete isolation for at least 2-3 weeks. Lights where only turned while the fish were introduced so I could get a good look at them and see what I was doing, turned then off right after.