A 15 Year Old and His Reefer 170 Build Thread

[FromToronto]

Greetings fellow Reef2reef users! I'm a new member on this forum and have not been active since I started this account back in 2017. I'm mainly active in my local facebook reefing groups, but I've decided to document my new build thread for my reefer 170 white.

I'm eager to meet other reefers (especially ones with reefer 170's) on a global scale and I want to start off with a little introduction of myself.
I'm a 15 year old reefer that will be attending grade 11 next year. I have been reefing for about a year and a half now and have been keeping freshwater since I was 3 years old. My saltwater journey started with a 10 gallon, progressing into a 60 cube sps dominated tank which crashed when I went on vacation ( lost my WD, expensive zoa collection, RR acros, everything). I also had a 120 FOWLR tank that I got rid of due to time constraints. Beside reefing, I love my 225 gallon predatory tank with my blue base golden crossback asian arowana and my black diamond stingray pair.

Tank:
Red Sea Reefer 170
Skimmer:
Vertex Omega 130 (currently using the marineland 100 as I have it laying around and since my vertex pump is broken)
Reactor:
Phosban 150 Reactor w/ Phosguard and Carbon
Controller:
Neptune Apex Classic
Wavemakers:
Ecotech MP40ES (1 with qd wet drive)
Return pump:
Eheim Universal 1260
Heater:
Eheim Jager
Lighting:
Radion XR30 Pro w/ RMS mount and reeflink
Salt:
Aquaforest reef salt
Doser:
Kamoer x4 wifi doser
Dosing Aquaforest Components 1,2,3 (balling method)
Carbon Dosing:
Unsure at the moment.....
I did zeo on my old 60 gallon sps dominated tank, however I believe that I may just want to do something less invasive like NoPox or AF carbon dosing and then just running a chaeto reactor instead of relying on zeovit.
Sand:
Arag-Alive Aragonite 30 pounds
Biological Media
Marinepure 8x8x3" block (cut off 1") for removal of anaerobic bacteria.

Everything was moved from my old 60 cube tank that I had and I'm just reusing equipment . Dad says I can't run both tanks so I chose the reefer since I'm going to Uni in 2 years

The Reefer Tank Box

Opening the boxes

The Assembled Stand

The Sump

Here is the reefer assembled and I put the radion on there.

I am going to tank transfer the water and the live rock into my new tank from the established 60 gallon. Tomorrow is the big day (its a bit late to be moving a 60 gallon by myself right now lol).

My 60 gallon that is running has the current parameters:
Ph: 8.35
Alk: 7.8
Calcium: 440
Mag: 1500
Temp: 25.56 degrees Celsius or 78 degrees
Nitrate: 0
Phos: 0

I'll test the water a couple days after I transfer the aquarium.
Since I'm transferring, the system is already established so I'll be adding corals around 2 weeks from now.

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

Following along wow you are killing it at 15, must have a pretty sweet job[emoji6] I had a 120 FOWLR two years ago, what kind of fish did you keep? I havent seen many that stay in freshwater as well, I have two planted 120’s but nothing like those rays or an arowana!

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

For some reason the pictures are not working though

 

[Katrina71]

This is the exact tank my son wants. You guys have good taste.

 

[marvelousone]

That's nice.

 

[FromToronto]

Following along wow you are killing it at 15, must have a pretty sweet job[emoji6] I had a 120 FOWLR two years ago, what kind of fish did you keep? I havent seen many that stay in freshwater as well, I have two planted 120’s but nothing like those rays or an arowana!

I kept a volitans lion, Purple tang, Snowflake morray, and a picasso trigger. For me saltwater is more about coral than fish, so I decided that I didn't want to maintain that tank.
This is my female Black Diamond

My Asian Arowana (He's young, hasn't crossed)

A distorted pic of the female and male

Since this is a reef build thread ima keep my pics reef related lol

 

[Phelipe's Ocean]

For some reason none of the pictures are showing

 

[FromToronto]

This is the exact tank my son wants. You guys have good taste.

Great minds think alike
Get your soon hooked on reefing. I always love more fellow young reefers

 

[Katrina71]

Great minds think alike
Get your soon hooked on reefing. I always love more fellow young reefers

He has had a tank of his own for almost a year. He is 10.

 

[FromToronto]

For some reason none of the pictures are showing

Maybe try refreshing? It is showing for me even when I log out. If not it could be a glitch

 

[Scotty Buttons]

That's a pretty Arowana, I've always wanted one.

 

[SPR1968]

Great pictures and write and thanks for sharing them with us

And welcome to R2R!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks like a great setup! Thanks for sharing.

 

[FromToronto]

UPDATE!!!

Today I did the transfer
Some photos of the process:

Placing the MP40's

I used a spare MP40 to mix the salt

Draining the old tank

Reefer Half Filled

3/4 filled and the Platinum Percs chilling

Transfer and setup complete!

The process took me essentially the whole day because I was moving the whole thing by myself since my father wasn't home. This meant I had to dismantle a 60 gallon, move it, set up a board to organize my Radion power supply, apex, vortech drivers, etc, set up the reefer, mix the salt, and then set up the reefer. My RODI mixing was in the basement so moving water and my reservoir were annoying.

I'll monitor the tank for a couple days to see if anything is wrong.
That being said, I've bought some zoanthids from a local reefer and I'm going to start with a couple decently expensive zoas
1 Speckled Krak Zoanthid
1 large and 2 baby BBEB Zoanthids
Several Superman Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Seductions Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Purple Monster Zoanthids
Pics included below of the WYSIWYG Zoanthids

Speckled Krak

BBEB

Purple Monsters

Supermans Zoanthid (thats what he called it? Regardless it looks nice)

Seductions Zoanthid

 

[FromToronto]

Don't know if the pics aren't loading for you, but they haven't loaded for me

 

[FromToronto]

 

[FromToronto]

Don't know if the pics are loaded in, so I'll reupload.

 

[FromToronto]

UPDATE!!!

Today I did the transfer
Some photos of the process:

Placing the MP40's

I used a spare MP40 to mix the salt

Draining the old tank

Reefer Half Filled

3/4 filled and the Platinum Percs chilling

Transfer and setup complete!

The process took me essentially the whole day because I was moving the whole thing by myself since my father wasn't home. This meant I had to dismantle a 60 gallon, move it, set up a board to organize my Radion power supply, apex, vortech drivers, etc, set up the reefer, mix the salt, and then set up the reefer. My RODI mixing was in the basement so moving water and my reservoir were annoying.

I'll monitor the tank for a couple days to see if anything is wrong.
That being said, I've bought some zoanthids from a local reefer and I'm going to start with a couple decently expensive zoas
1 Speckled Krak Zoanthid
1 large and 2 baby BBEB Zoanthids
Several Superman Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Seductions Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Purple Monster Zoanthids
Pics included below of the WYSIWYG Zoanthids

Speckled Krak

BBEB

Purple Monsters

Supermans Zoanthid (thats what he called it? Regardless it looks nice)

Seductions Zoanthid

I'll post pics of when they go into my tank. I'm picking them up Saturday

 

[infinite0180]

Looking good my man!

 

[NY_Caveman]

UPDATE!!!

Today I did the transfer
Some photos of the process:

Placing the MP40's

I used a spare MP40 to mix the salt

Draining the old tank

Reefer Half Filled

3/4 filled and the Platinum Percs chilling

Transfer and setup complete!

The process took me essentially the whole day because I was moving the whole thing by myself since my father wasn't home. This meant I had to dismantle a 60 gallon, move it, set up a board to organize my Radion power supply, apex, vortech drivers, etc, set up the reefer, mix the salt, and then set up the reefer. My RODI mixing was in the basement so moving water and my reservoir were annoying.

I'll monitor the tank for a couple days to see if anything is wrong.
That being said, I've bought some zoanthids from a local reefer and I'm going to start with a couple decently expensive zoas
1 Speckled Krak Zoanthid
1 large and 2 baby BBEB Zoanthids
Several Superman Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Seductions Zoanthids
1 large and 1 baby Purple Monster Zoanthids
Pics included below of the WYSIWYG Zoanthids

Speckled Krak

BBEB

Purple Monsters

Supermans Zoanthid (thats what he called it? Regardless it looks nice)

Seductions Zoanthid

I'll post pics of when they go into my tank. I'm picking them up Saturday

Nice job! Looks really good. And those colors in the Zoanthids... Wow!