Devoted Reefer 250

[pelphrey]

Before Sand -

After Sand -

New addition -

Moved the black frag rack to the back of the tank. One magnet is strong enough to hold it up!

Got my water storage container project done -

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Looks ever better with sand.

 

[pelphrey]

Had a jumper, this guy been with me since the beginning. Sad to see him go!

Progress on the new manifold -

Reactor is glued and ready to go into the tank. Bottom tee will feed my Santa Monica RAIN2 scrubber.

Hope to have this done soon, been putting it off way to long!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Had a jumper, this guy been with me since the beginning. Sad to see him go!

Progress on the new manifold -

Reactor is glued and ready to go into the tank. Bottom tee will feed my Santa Monica RAIN2 scrubber.

Hope to have this done soon, been putting it off way to long!

Hate to see the jumper. Stinks...

The manifold looks great though!

 

[pelphrey]

​

 

[1$adream]

Hi Pelphrey

Great build and info.
I was interested on how you converted the fittings on your reactor to hard pvc plumbing?

What parts did you use?

 

[pelphrey]

Hi Pelphrey

Great build and info.
I was interested on how you converted the fittings on your reactor to hard pvc plumbing?

What parts did you use?

It is a 1/2" slip to threaded adapter. I used 2 or rings on each fitting on the thread side that I screwed into the reactor.

 

[pelphrey]

​

 

[sithrico]

Is it 45lbs or 60lbs sand in the tank and is that enough? I noticed it shows 15lb bag of mesoflake? I figure you bought it at premium aquatics and don't see a 15lb option. I was thinking of going with 2 30lb bags of the mini-flakes. Just hope the Gyre doesn't blow it around. I used that in my JBJ, mixed with the Reef-flakes. My goby can't filter through the Reef-flakes. Sand is the last purchase then I can get my tank going. Great looking manifold to by the way.

 

[pelphrey]

Is it 45lbs or 60lbs sand in the tank and is that enough? I noticed it shows 15lb bag of mesoflake? I figure you bought it at premium aquatics and don't see a 15lb option. I was thinking of going with 2 30lb bags of the mini-flakes. Just hope the Gyre blows it around. I used that in my JBJ, mixed with the Reef-flakes. My goby can't filter through the Reef-flakes. Sand is the last purchase then I can get my tank going. Great looking manifold to by the way.

I mixed a bag of the meso flakes with the bag of reef flakes in a 5 gallon bucket, I used just over half of the bucket. I would estimate that I have 30-35 lbs of sand in the tank. The Meso flakes come in a 15 lbs bag, the Reef Flakes come in a 30lbs bag, you are correct it came from Premium Aquatics. I doubt 1 30lbs bag of the mini flakes would be enough, but I could be wrong.

Hope I can finish up the manifold soon, this project been on the back burner for months now. The ATS and reactors are covered in dust now!

 

[pelphrey]

​

 

[pelphrey]

Tidal Gardens had their live sale over the weekend, I decided to pick up a few frags. I am running the two Kessil 160's with the intensity and color going up to about 60%. The frags are in the middle of the tank width and height wise. I had planned to stick the plugs in the sand, but my sand is to shallow! So I stuck them on some rock and let them be. If I have ID'd any incorrectly please let me know, also if you have better placement suggestions I would love to hear them!

Pink Birds Nest
Purple Stylophora
Neon Green Stylophora
Purple Pocillopra

Neon Green Stylophora

Purple Pocillopra

Pink Birds Nest

Purple Stylophora

 

[pelphrey]

I've been putting a lot of thought into my lighting. I am happy with the Kessils and to be honest I don't know that I can let them go completely. I just don't know if the 160's will pack the punch I feel like I will need or provide the spread needed down the road. With that said I've tossed around a few ideas. I would love to hear opinions on swapping out the 160's for the 360's or potentially the AP700. If you have any experience of even an opinion I would love to hear it!

Red circles show the new SPS frags that went into the tank yesterday -

Kessil lighting schedule -

As always, if you see something wrong with placement or my light schedule please let me know!

 

[smokin'reefer]

Nice progress. I caught this thread a while back and looks like you've been busy.
I was looking for those larger water tanks a couple of months ago and swore I thought the bigger ones had free shipping then. I better jump on some 40's while the getting is good.
Just switched my sand to the topic Eden and really like it. I stuck with the Mini flakes because I think I lost a plate coral because caribsea had to many large chunks.
I made sure to follow this time so I can easily reference your work.
Thanks for sharing. I know it has to be time consuming to document as you go.

 

[pelphrey]

Nice progress. I caught this thread a while back and looks like you've been busy.
I was looking for those larger water tanks a couple of months ago and swore I thought the bigger ones had free shipping then. I better jump on some 40's while the getting is good.
Just switched my sand to the topic Eden and really like it. I stuck with the Mini flakes because I think I lost a plate coral because caribsea had to many large chunks.
I made sure to follow this time so I can easily reference your work.
Thanks for sharing. I know it has to be time consuming to document as you go.

Thanks for stopping by! The 65 and 75 gallon Ace Roto Mold containers used to ship for free, I guess Rural King finally caught on and started charging shipping. That is why I went ahead and got another 40 gallon, they do charge shipping on it, it is like $12 for me. Had I bought something else and passed the $100 mark the shipping would have been free.

It is always fun to document, from time to time I'll go back and review what I've done. Not to mention this will better help me in the future when I do an upgrade. An upgrade isn't planned for a few years though!

Do you have a build thread?

 

[Scurvy]

My .2 on your lighting.... With your Scape I think you'll be more than fine with what you have. Unless you're looking to grow SPS at or near the bottom then you have enough power in those 160's. Those new Tidal Gardens frags will love it if you get your intensity up towards 80% so longs as you have a little No3 in the water.

If you're considering upgrading now then you might as well go ahead and do it. Otherwise you'll always be wondering "what if" or "should I"?

I'm on my 1st ever tank and I started with (2) 160's. I made that decision based solely off of Nathan Willards tank. After a few months I added a 360 in the middle of the 160's. That was cool and definitely made my couple SPS pieces happier. In hindsight, had I just cranked up the 160's i probably would have had the same result. But hey, I'm an Newb and what did I know? LOL I was afraid of killing corals having no prior experience.

A couple months later and many, many T5's rule threads read I decided to go for a highbrid setup. I'm loving the setup I have now but did I need it? Probably not. I'm a tinkerer by nature and have resigned myself to knowing I'll always be messing with something. Patience isn't a strong suit of mine but I'm learning, Mostly the hard way

 

[pelphrey]

My .2 on your lighting.... With your Scape I think you'll be more than fine with what you have. Unless you're looking to grow SPS at or near the bottom then you have enough power in those 160's. Those new Tidal Gardens frags will love it if you get your intensity up towards 80% so longs as you have a little No3 in the water.

If you're considering upgrading now then you might as well go ahead and do it. Otherwise you'll always be wondering "what if" or "should I"?

I'm on my 1st ever tank and I started with (2) 160's. I made that decision based solely off of Nathan Willards tank. After a few months I added a 360 in the middle of the 160's. That was cool and definitely made my couple SPS pieces happier. In hindsight, had I just cranked up the 160's i probably would have had the same result. But hey, I'm an Newb and what did I know? LOL I was afraid of killing corals having no prior experience.

A couple months later and many, many T5's rule threads read I decided to go for a highbrid setup. I'm loving the setup I have now but did I need it? Probably not. I'm a tinkerer by nature and have resigned myself to knowing I'll always be messing with something. Patience isn't a strong suit of mine but I'm learning, Mostly the hard way

Thanks for your input! I don't really know what direction I am going to go on with coral just yet. If I have good success with SPS I know I'll add more, I won't have any coral on the sand bed, or that is not the plan but I probably will have to put some pieces lower into the tank. I know I want the lights hanging from the ceiling, I may get a piece of 8020 and ceiling mount the 160's for now until I can make my mind up.

 

[wowkingjames]

Enjoyed the thread, loved the set up. ;Happy

 

[pelphrey]

Enjoyed the thread, loved the set up. ;Happy

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[pelphrey]

My original plan was to run the @SantaMonica RAIN2 off of my return pump. With such a small sump foot print it was finally decided to run the scrubber off it's own pump. I've had this ATS for a few months now and it is time to get it into the tank! I did need to pickup a few PVC parts to complete this job, while I was at it I bought the Hanna Alk tester.

Last weekend I noticed a small drip coming down from my reefer return standpipe. After talking to @Broadfield I drained the overflow, pulled the standpipe and made sure the o-ring was still intact. After verifying that there was no damage to the 0-ring I re-installed and turned the pump back on. The leak was minimized to a much slower drip, on Sunday I entered a ticket with Red Sea. On Monday Amanda with Red Sea emailed me, I provided pictures of the parts and the leak and she sent out a new return stand pipe. I haven't installed the new pipe yet, the leak has since gone away for now. I wanted to be pro-active and get the ticket entered and a new pipe in just in case.

For the ATS I super glued two 1/4" pieces of acrylic together as the base. I then super glued a 2" PVC table top fitting onto the acrylic. After that I used 2" PVC to a 2" PVC tee with a 1/2" threaded output. I am using a MJ1200 to run the ATS with a valve to control flow. None of the PVC fittings are glued together for easy removal.

The ATS hasn't been started yet, I will test nitrates and phosphates before I turn the scrubber on. Both of those levels are always low for me, I don't want to strip the system completely so I will monitor.