Ron Reefman's new 90g build

[crusso1993]

Yeah, it sure sounds like you had a packed day yesterday, @Ron Reefman ! Nice thing is it also sounds like you have it all under control.

I used to live in Sarasota and visited the Ringling School of Art and Design many times. I even donated some old art tools I had to the school. I think you'll enjoy your visit!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Yeah, it sure sounds like you had a packed day yesterday, @Ron Reefman ! Nice thing is it also sounds like you have it all under control.

I used to live in Sarasota and visited the Ringling School of Art and Design many times. I even donated some old art tools I had to the school. I think you'll enjoy your visit!

Elaine is into painting and we both are into photography. But we are trying to get them to do a quick animated Miata Club video or at least a new Club logo! But no matter what, I'll enjoy the visit.

So today I got all but a couple RFA's into the tank. 25 of them in end caps and most of the other 20 are small and attached to rocks full of zoas.

Then I started my aiptasia eradication operation. 2 or 3 rocks from the holding tank into a 10g tank where the aiptasia get hit with Aiptasia-X. Then an hour later they get rolled, and inspected for more aiptasia. Any rock that is currently in the new tank that we see an aiptasia on will get pulled and treated. Elaine has a better eye for this kind of search than I do. And there are now 6 peppermint shrimp in the new tank as well. I've been told they prefer young aiptasia, well, that's what they'll get. I know I won't get them all, but I'll get all the ones big enough for me to see. I've already killed 40 or 50. But the 8 rocks (3 big ones) that are still in the holding tank are all covered with aiptasia. :mad:;Dead;Hurting;Punch;Rage;Vomit

 

[Victoria M]

Both my wife and I share your preference for snorkeling.

I've only done a few resort dives and a scuba certification dive, so not that much experience in that realm. But I'd much rather snorkel, especially if it's in really shallow water where I can legally play with the local inhabitants! Elaine has no interest is scuba at all.

My wife and I go out and snorkel the big reefs along the Keys every 2 or 3 years just for a change of pace, or to see how they are doing. But we go shallow water snorkeling (1' to 6') 2 to 4 times every trip to the Keys and we go to the Keys 3 to 5 times a year. So I guess that works out to about 12 to 15 shallow water snorkels every year on average.

Our favorite spot is a small island just 1/4 mile out from a boat ramp where we launch or little Zodiac. There's about 2 or 3 acres of water that is 1' to 4' deep and the bottom is covered with sponges, broken chunks of sps branching coral (not photosynthetic) and calcareous algae. It's warm water (shallow) and on the lee side of the island given normal prevailing winds and very few others ever visit there while we are there. But we get to play with (and occasionally collect) a wide variety of interesting animals, from zoas and palys to octopus and small sharks (very rare).

This just blows my mind. I dream of doing something like that.

 

[Ron Reefman]

This just blows my mind. I dream of doing something like that.

Victoria, when the weather is right, it a little slice of heaven on earth. Even taking a break for lunch, after 2 hours of being in the water, sitting in a tiny Zodiac with my wife and having a PB&J sandwich and some watermelon slices, the sound of traffic on the Seven Mile Bridge way off in the distance, it's unquestionably the most relaxing and stress free time in my entire life! Then you sit on the side of the boat with your feet hanging over the side in the water that is so clear and shallow that you can see the bottom, and it just calls you to get back in the water!

We snorkel as long as we can. It's not that we get too tired, or too hot, or too sunburned; it's that the snorkel mask pressure against your face starts to hurt after 3 hours. You get out of the water for 5 minutes and your face feels perfectly OK. But then you put the mask back on and your face says... ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

BTW, have you looked over the snorkeling and collecting thread here at R2R? https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/snorkeling-collecting-discussion-group.412414/

Not a lot of room to stretch out, but it's just so comfortable in the warm Florida sun! We wear light weight wet suits or dive skins more for protection from the sun than to keep us warm, but it does help. Even 89 degree water draws the warmth out of your body over time. Your body wants to 98 degrees.

Me back in the water. At this spot it's about 2 to 3 feet deep. The boat ramp is at the far right end of the horizon. But from here to there it gets 15 to 20 feet deep and when the tide is going in or out, it's a strong current in the deep water, but almost non-existent in the shallows out here. The bright spot toward the island on the left is so shallow that during extreme low tides it becomes beach.

It's not a crazy beautiful, colorful bottom everywhere you look, but then you get surprised by a gorgeous yellow stony coral with 2 red feather dusters. First of all, it's VERY illegal to take (probably a $1000+ fine), and second, it's not photosynthetic, so very difficult to keep in an aquarium. So we take photos and hope it survives for others to see.

 

[crusso1993]

Victoria, when the weather is right, it a little slice of heaven on earth. Even taking a break for lunch, after 2 hours of being in the water, sitting in a tiny Zodiac with my wife and having PB&J sandwich and some watermelon slices, the sound of traffic on the Seven Mile Bridge way off in the distance, it's unquestionably the most relaxing and stress free time in my entire life! Then you sit on the side of the boat with your feet hanging over the side in the water that is so clear and shallow that you can see the bottom, and it just calls you to get back in the water!

We snorkel as long as we can. It's not that we get tired, or too hot or sunburned; it's that the snorkel mask pressure against your face starts to hurt after 3 hours. You get out of the water for 5 minutes and your face feels perfectly OK. But then you put the mask back on and your face says... ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Not a lot of room to stretch out, but it's just so comfortable in the warm Florida sun!

Me back in the water. At this spot it's about 2 to 3 feet deep. The boat ramp is at the far right end of the horizon. But from here to there it gets 15 to 20 feet deep and when the tide is going in or out, it's a strong current in the deep water, but almost non-existent in the shallows out here.

It's not a crazy beautiful, colorful bottom everywhere you look, but then you get surprised by a gorgeous yellow stony coral with 2 red feather dusters. First of all, it's VERY illegal to take (probably a $1000+ fine), and second, it's not photosynthetic, so very difficult to keep in an aquarium.

The good life... gorgeous!

(I've run over that 7 mile bridge)

 

[Ron Reefman]

I take a big sigh every time we drive over that bridge.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well here we are at the end of the week and things are moving along slowly but surely with the tank. I've been doing a lot of picking out rocks and killing aiptasia. I haven't won the war, but if peppermint shrimp like small ones better than big ones, they're in luck now. That's about all that could be left... ones I couldn't see in between zoa polyps.

So now I've set up my 16g tank to hold some corals and rocks as I move things around to start the rockscape process. The 90g DT on the left, the 16g holding tank in the middle and the 10g aiptasia killing tank on the right.

So I switched out the rock I set on the top level of the rack. It covers better and I like that it has some height. Now that rock will be removable (to a holding tank) because the top level of the egg crate platform is removable and that allows me access down inside the rest of the rack should anything ever fall in there, or die in there, or whatever. Sot the top level looks like this for now.

I have added a few bits around the edges since the photo was taken. Then I started on the next level down. Now these rocks can NOT lean on the taller platform or they would fall in when I pull out the top level platform. That mad setting this level up a bit tricky. I'm not sure how close it is to what the finished rockscape will look like, but for now it's passably. The rest of the rocks are just sitting helter-skelter all over the lower level, the sand, in the holding tank and in the refugium!

The next two levels should be easy. The only priority is that I preserve as much open sand as possible for PVC end caps full of RFA's! With any luck tomorrow will be the first rough draft of a finished rock scape. And I have lots of frags to locate into holes I've already drilled into many of the rocks. Early next week a 32" Reef Breeder Photon V2+ should arrive and I'll have both the 32" and the 24" (in use now) to light the tank. Being 30" front to back and with coral and anemones from front to back, I want to make sure I have enough PAR. Tuesday a couple more fish, 25 Astraea snails and a few more peppermint shrimp arrive.

Then on Sunday the 19th we leave for a week of kayaking the natural springs around Gainesville, Florida with a group from Road Scholars. I just hope it looks as good when we get home. We do have a cat sitter and she feeds the fish and looks over the tank. If she has any questions, she calls and we get things fixed. She's a sweetheart and also very handy with tools and problem solving.

 

[CavalierReef]

Interesting idea Katrina. I did something similar to that in a build I did long ago. I had a 180g tank and did a massive rook slope that went way up the back glass. This was before I started using egg crate platforms, so it was a lot of rock! Also, this was back before we had wavemaker powerheads so random flow was hard to come by.

Well, the return from the sump came over the back glass. Rather than nozzles I made 2 square 'S' shaped pipes that ran down the back glass inside the tank and behind the live rock. I drilled lots of holes the entire length of the pipe starting with small holes near the top and bigger holes at the end along the bottom of the tank. Then I hooked up one of those cheap flow changers that switches the flow back and forth between two out flow pipes.

I think I may have a photo of it. That tank also had a closed loop with Ocean Motion Revolution heads that came in over the top of the tank and the return from the chiller went deep into the tank as well. It was a pvc jungle, but it ran fairly maintenance free and provided lots of good random flow.

The square 'S' shape we called 'spray bars' the pipes over the top of the tank are connected to an Ocean Motion flow diverter. The Revolution heads are not attached to the ends of the 4 overhead pipes yet.

And I'll take back my comment about not using egg crate platforms... there are a couple small ones in here along with a big pvc pipe 'cave'. And not the Revolution heads are now installed on the overhead pipes. There are 4 pipes and you could set the Ocean Motion to run them one at at time, alternate between two and two, or run 3 at a time and rotate which one is shut off. The revolution head would float and when water pressure was applied, it would rotate about 15 degrees ("revolve... thus the name revolutions). So water never sprayed out the same direction 2 times in a row. The head would do a full 360 degrees over about an hour!

You can see kind of where the build was going in this photo.

This was the switch mechanism to make the return from the sump switch back and forth between the two 'spray bars'. It was cheap, ran on flow from the return pump and worked for several years. Eventually I removed it and ran the return to both bar all the time.

This was the entire system in it's prime.

Here is a close up of just the 180g tank.

Such an interesting build. Thank you for sharing your progress. BTW: by " one of those cheap flow changers ", do yo mean the SQWD

Interesting idea Katrina. I did something similar to that in a build I did long ago. I had a 180g tank and did a massive rook slope that went way up the back glass. This was before I started using egg crate platforms, so it was a lot of rock! Also, this was back before we had wavemaker powerheads so random flow was hard to come by.

Well, the return from the sump came over the back glass. Rather than nozzles I made 2 square 'S' shaped pipes that ran down the back glass inside the tank and behind the live rock. I drilled lots of holes the entire length of the pipe starting with small holes near the top and bigger holes at the end along the bottom of the tank. Then I hooked up one of those cheap flow changers that switches the flow back and forth between two out flow pipes.

I think I may have a photo of it. That tank also had a closed loop with Ocean Motion Revolution heads that came in over the top of the tank and the return from the chiller went deep into the tank as well. It was a pvc jungle, but it ran fairly maintenance free and provided lots of good random flow.

The square 'S' shape we called 'spray bars' the pipes over the top of the tank are connected to an Ocean Motion flow diverter. The Revolution heads are not attached to the ends of the 4 overhead pipes yet.

And I'll take back my comment about not using egg crate platforms... there are a couple small ones in here along with a big pvc pipe 'cave'. And not the Revolution heads are now installed on the overhead pipes. There are 4 pipes and you could set the Ocean Motion to run them one at at time, alternate between two and two, or run 3 at a time and rotate which one is shut off. The revolution head would float and when water pressure was applied, it would rotate about 15 degrees ("revolve... thus the name revolutions). So water never sprayed out the same direction 2 times in a row. The head would do a full 360 degrees over about an hour!

You can see kind of where the build was going in this photo.

This was the switch mechanism to make the return from the sump switch back and forth between the two 'spray bars'. It was cheap, ran on flow from the return pump and worked for several years. Eventually I removed it and ran the return to both bar all the time.

This was the entire system in it's prime.

Here is a close up of just the 180g tank.

Love that SCWD! I still have one. Super interesting build. Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Such an interesting build. Thank you for sharing your progress. BTW: by " one of those cheap flow changers ", do yo mean the SQWD

Love that SCWD! I still have one. Super interesting build. Thank you for sharing it with us.

@CavalierReef, thanks for letting me know you found this interesting. It's been a fun build. The amazing think to me is how well it's going so far. And so far I have NOT put a wave maker or power head in the tank! I'm not sure that can continue, but so far so good! And I have 3 small small tangs (scopas, sailfin & atlantic blue) and all 3 swim around together while foraging on the little bits of algae in the rocks that I couldn't remove by hand. They all seem to get along like old buddies!

The 'cheap flow changer' was what is called an 'educator'. It's a nozzle that has some opening in the back that allow water to be 'pulled' through by the water coming from the pipe. Kind of a venturi effect. It was so effective that with little or no rocks in the tank, it was pushing sand all over the place. Once I get the rockscape done and the RFA's in their PVC end caps placed in the sand, I may try it again. If it works and the sand can be held in place, I may try a second one. It would be kind of cool to have a tank with no wave makers or power heads... at least for awhile. Actually I'm a big proponent of very random flow (multiple wave makers) and higher flow. But until things settle in, I'll keep it kind of the way it is.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I had hoped that the bottom 2 levels would be easier. I have bigger, semi flat rocks with coral that I could just lean up. But I keep finding aiptasia every time they are in the DT for 15 minutes. And since I'm killing so many, I don't want to do it in the DT. That's why I have the 5g tank set up. And I find that there is enough Aiptasia-X in the water after a few rocks, that I have to change the water or the aiptasia I saw in the DT won't even come out in the 5g tank after an hour!

Then I ran out of Aptasia-X, but I knew I had a supply of Kalkwasser I could use. So I mixed up a heavy paste of kalkwasser and RO/DI water. It was easy to mix it just thin enough that I can suck it up with the Aptasia-X syringe. And when I put it on an aiptasia it comes out like tooth paste and it's easy to cover over the entire aiptasia, assuming it's on a more horizontal than vertical surface. Why didn't I try this two weeks ago!

 

[the_cros]

Wow. This looks like lots of fun. Maybe some day I’ll be ready to attempt a build like this. Lots of learning to do before I build a tank
I’ll be following your progress on this build.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Wow. This looks like lots of fun. Maybe some day I’ll be ready to attempt a build like this. Lots of learning to do before I build a tank
I’ll be following your progress on this build.

Thanks. It has been fun. I'm pretty sure this will be my last big tank build (if you call a 90g tank big). And it's my almost 20 years of experience at work. The total build is far from perfect, or even exactly what I want, but that one of the issues with this hobby, you have to make some compromises along the way.

If you ever have any questions, please ask. I tend to build things a bit different than most other reefers!

 

[SMSREEF]

Hey Ron,

This is an awesome build thread, and I love the new tank!

I had trouble with aiptasia a while back and I was never able to get it under control with aiptasia-x. There were just too many they I treated and they never died, or just multiplied.

I tried Franks f-aiptasia and it’s different... it forms a hard crust over where the aiptasia is. It’s a white crust that can be siphoned off a week or two later. I made sure not to get any on my coral because it will burn them.

but if you are pulling rocks to treat, this may be perfect... He has a thread on R2Rhttps://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f-aiptasia.542934/

My aiptasia problem is no more after using this.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hey Ron,

This is an awesome build thread, and I love the new tank!

I had trouble with aiptasia a while back and I was never able to get it under control with aiptasia-x. There were just too many they I treated and they never died, or just multiplied.

I tried Franks f-aiptasia and it’s different... it forms a hard crust over where the aiptasia is. It’s a white crust that can be siphoned off a week or two later. I made sure not to get any on my coral because it will burn them.

but if you are pulling rocks to treat, this may be perfect... He has a thread on R2Rhttps://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f-aiptasia.542934/

My aiptasia problem is no more after using this.

Thanks for the compliments about the build and tank! I truly appreciate them.

I used my kalkwasser paste for the first time yesterday and like you said about the Frank's product, mine hardened as well. To the point that after 30 minutes of sitting in the 'kill tank' I pulled the rock out and shook it quite vigorously at the surface of the water and it didn't wash off the way the Aiptasia-X does. I think this is going to work great! The Aiptasia-X worked for me, but I really didn't want to use it in the DT. Now that my aiptasia numbers are down, I'll work on the ones I can see and hope the 7 peppermint shrimp will work on the rest!

BTW, I harvested some aiptasia when I tore down the old tank and kept them in a small Tupperware tub. When I got my first 5 peppermint shrimp I put them in with the aiptasia. They didn't bother with them for 24 to 36 hours. But then they did start eating some of the small ones. I have my doubts about how much they would go atfer the bigger ones... maybe if they were really hungry. But everybody gets fed pretty well in my tank!

Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[Ron Reefman]

As my 'rough draft' of a rockscape continues to evolve, I've moved all of the RFAs that are in PVC end caps to a holding tank to get them out of the sand and out of the way of the lowest level of the rockscape build.

I have not confirmed this yet, but in moving my RFA in end cap around from tank to tank to tank over the last 6 to 8 weeks, I think the RFA like having sand in the end cap. The ones I've had that got filled with sand (after the RFA was well settled in, seem to be happy to stay in the end cap. The ones that have been in end caps without sand are a bit more inclined to move out. I had about 15 RFA in caps without sand and after each move 1 or 2 of them would climb out of the end cap and stay attached to the outside edge of the end cap at, or just below the level of the sand surface.

I've used everything from 1/2" CPVC (because they are smaller than 1/2" PVC) for RFA babies to 2" PVC for full size adults. It's not like I've had to move many as they really don't grow that fast. In fact, the biggest one I have currently is in a 2" and the end cap is full when I bug to retract. So I may even get to using 2 1/2" end caps!

Yesterday I kind of finished my 'rough draft' of a rockscape with my new pyramid egg crate system. I've never done one like this before so I suspect that over time I'll be doing some refining.

I set all the RFAs in end caps (25+ out of 45+ total) in the sand yesterday. I pressed all of them down so the rim of the end cap was very close to flush with the sand (some just above and some just below the sand surface). Then I pushed a bit of sand in with the smaller RFAs and more sand in with the bigger RFAs. This morning all bu a couple have cleared the sand off their faces and look happy. Later this morning when the white lights come on I'll take some pics and post them.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Both led fixtures over the tank have been programmed, but I'll probably be refining it when I get back from vacation. The trim is on the edge of the stand and I installed the bulkhead through the counter top so I can fill the top off reservoir from above the cabinet. I also installed 2 'desk holes' for electrical cords to pass down below the counter top. Slowly but surely it's coming together. But I know when I get back in a week I'll have a lot of algae to work on!

 

[TheWB]

Both led fixtures over the tank have been programmed, but I'll probably be refining it when I get back from vacation. The trim is on the edge of the stand and I installed the bulkhead through the counter top so I can fill the top off reservoir from above the cabinet. I also installed 2 'desk holes' for electrical cords to pass down below the counter top. Slowly but surely it's coming together. But I know when I get back in a week I'll have a lot of algae to work on!

That looks amazing Ron. It was one of your earlier builds that inspired me to raise my scape up off the sand with egg crate risers for better flow so I’ve been following this build with interest. I think you’ve outdone yourself with this version. From this picture it looks seamless, can’t even tell you’ve got a structure under there. Can’t tell from the picture, did you leave an opening like in your last build for fish to access to the cave?

 

[Ron Reefman]

That looks amazing Ron. It was one of your earlier builds that inspired me to raise my scape up off the sand with egg crate risers for better flow so I’ve been following this build with interest. I think you’ve outdone yourself with this version. From this picture it looks seamless, can’t even tell you’ve got a structure under there. Can’t tell from the picture, did you leave an opening like in your last build for fish to access to the cave?

Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it. And I think a 'raised' rockscape makes a reef tank work much better in terms of flow and ability to clean itself (because of the flow). And if you look, there is no wavemaker or powerhead in the tank! That will probably change in time, but for now this is working. When I only had 2 outlets from the return it was too strong and I had sand blowing around like crazy making sand dunes everywhere! Now, with 4 outlets, things are MUCH better. Not to mention that the raised rocks provide access to way more sand for those critters that use it and a cave for critters that like less light!

The rock structure is kind of open and loose. There are some holes big enough for the tangs (young and small) to get in and out with ease. I expect to do a fair amount of work with the rocks and corals over the next few months. I've got algae and aiptasia to kill off, some ugly, invasive corals to remove and hopefully I'll end up with a stronger and more stable structure. This first run was just kind of thrown together to get all my corals into a stable tank. The holding tanks I used (40g, 20g & 10g) were not as well suited for long term coral health as I would have liked. But things definitely seem to be moving in the right direction now.

I'm looking forward to the Orlando RAP in April as a chance to get some new corals and maybe a couple of RFAs as well!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Nice build! I'll have to follow along. I also have a 90, which is undergoing a "reboot" (long story). Have you ever tried the berghia nudibranches for aiptasia? I eradicated an aiptasia problem years ago with those little beasts!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I've never tried it, but in a tank that is set up and running that developed an aiptasia problem, I sure would. But since I had mine all torn down, I could inspect each rock closely. Every rock that had any went into a 5g tank I had set up and got treated. I used Aiptasia-X until I had used up what I had leftover (an old supply). Then I mixed up a new batch using kalkwasser to make a seriously thick paste. It worked GREAT. It was like pouring underwater concrete on the aiptasia. And because the rockscape isn't permanent yet, I could flip over rocks so the aiptasia was on the top surface making it easy to treat.

We just got back from a week long vacation and I need to do some work. I changed filter socks and cleaned the skimmer when we got home on Sunday afternoon. This morning I cleaned the glass. I have a number of rocks with algae I need to deal with. I'll also do a serious inspection for aiptasia.