SithRico's RedSea Reefer 250

sithrico · Apr 23, 2017

JustAnt said:
Looks good but where will you put you ATO water reservoir?

I'm either going to put it in the closet under the stairs. The wall the tank is in front of is our storage under the stairs. I can just drill a hole for the tubing. The wife likes the idea of buying an ottoman to put on the left of the tank and just storing it in there with all my "fish stuff". That will work for more seating and easy of access.

sithrico · Apr 29, 2017

New video about my aquascape.

sithrico · May 11, 2017

Ok the build will be slowing down. Got laid off work after 15 years. Now I need to focus on getting another. I'll try to keep updating as much as I can. Just have some videos I can put out. Still need to get substrate, and salt to get the Reefer set for the cycle. The day will come. In the meantime enjoy some YouTube.

rantipole · May 11, 2017

Best of luck to you in the job search!

Cheers,
rant

sithrico · May 11, 2017

rantipole said:
Best of luck to you in the job search!

Cheers,
rant

Thank you for your support.

Scurvy · May 13, 2017

Sorry to hear of the lost job... its never easy especially with a family. Good luck!

sithrico · May 13, 2017

Scurvy said:
Sorry to hear of the lost job... its never easy especially with a family. Good luck!

Thank you. We will do what we can. I'm able to purchase last bits I need to cycle the tank and get it running. Fish and corals are going to be limited now that I'm going to have a smaller budget for them.

sithrico · May 13, 2017

Last pick ups I ordered so I can start the cycle.

Salt - IO Reef Crystals. Want Coral pro price thought.
Fritz Fritzzyme 9. Going to try something new for a Bactria in a Bottle. Plus half the cost.
Neptune Break Out Box
Neptune probe holder
Hanna Alk checker
4 filter socks the RedSea kind, due to points I had.
Tropic Eden Miniflakes 2mm.

I'm glad I had these on the list because the list wasn't going to be strayed on. I did change the salt and bacteria brands, but others are successful with these. It also gives me the opportunity to try new things.

sithrico · May 17, 2017

The plan so far. Sand is scheduled for delivery on Thursday. Rinse the sand and rock. Get the final touch ups on wire management. Change DI in the rodi system. Then time how long it takes to make 1 gallon of rodi water. This will be Thursday. Friday gets the Apex probes wired up and close to ready for the start. Saturday I will turn on the rodi unit and slowly fill the tank. Time how long it takes to fill and figure out how many gallons of water I have. Then start the nitrifying cycle. With the FritzZyme I will basically follow Dr. Tim's directions for the fishless cycle. Then my thoughts are I should have the ammonia down to zero by the next Saturday. Hope this plan works out. Like the A-Team. I love when a plan comes together.

Cherub · May 17, 2017

that video two, the rock fell because it needed a third leg support not because you sprayed it. you're lucky it fell when you sprayed it and not inside the tank when you turned on a powerhead. good luck! I'm enjoying your build

rerana · May 17, 2017

sithrico said:
The plan so far. Sand is scheduled for delivery on Thursday. Rinse the sand and rock. Get the final touch ups on wire management. Change DI in the rodi system. Then time how long it takes to make 1 gallon of rodi water. This will be Thursday. Friday gets the Apex probes wired up and close to ready for the start. Saturday I will turn on the rodi unit and slowly fill the tank. Time how long it takes to fill and figure out how many gallons of water I have. Then start the nitrifying cycle. With the FritzZyme I will basically follow Dr. Tim's directions for the fishless cycle. Then my thoughts are I should have the ammonia down to zero by the next Saturday. Hope this plan works out. Like the A-Team. I love when a plan comes together.

Nice build. Rinsing the sand will help with reducing the dust cloud. I had a terrible dust film everywhere when I put my sand in. Just be careful if you are using live sand, you don't want to kill all of the bacteria using fresh water to rinse.

sithrico · May 17, 2017

Denvercherub said:
that video two, the rock fell because it needed a third leg support not because you sprayed it. you're lucky it fell when you sprayed it and not inside the tank when you turned on a powerhead. good luck! I'm enjoying your build

The third leg isn't glued on. It will be a crutch that holds it with the sand and acrylic rod.

Cherub · May 17, 2017

sithrico said:
The third leg isn't glued on. It will be a crutch that holds it with the sand and acrylic rod.

right that was my point. you were spraying this mass with a hose with out it being stable and it fell. Just saying at least it wasn't in the tank.

sithrico · May 25, 2017

Here is a diagram I used to make an RJ45 to 3.5mm audio jack. This helped me connect the Kessils to APEX for controllability.

sithrico · May 25, 2017

Seeded the tank tonight. Found something out about Fritzzyme9. The bottle states 32oz treats 80 gallons. I purchased on Amazon and looked at the image to figure how much I would need. Tonight when calculating how much to put in I found that the bottle states equations for an established tank. I'm short on what I need. The new tank recommendation is 4oz per 5 gallons. Established tank is 2oz per 5 gallons. Kinda a big difference. Tonight I went to the website to check out what it recommends. The website states what the bottle states.
FritzZyme 9 (Saltwater)

Size Treats up to
8 oz (236 ml) 20 gal (75 L)
16 oz (473 ml) 40 gal (151 L)
32 oz (946 ml) 80 gal (302 L)
1 gal (3.78 L) 320 gal (1,211 L)
Why not show the starter recommendations?
I added 750 ml to the tank which adds up to 63 gallons. I have 61 gallons water in the tank. I also added 2ml of Ammoina Cholride from Dr Tims. It put the ammonia level at .8. I did this for food. I still have 1/3 of the FritzZyme 9 left. If nothing I will add the rest tomorrow.
Let's see what happens.

sithrico · Jun 9, 2017

Changed my ATO to the refugium. Drilling glass is less difficult than I thought. I was really nervous and not sure if I could actually do it. Came out looking good though. One thing I never thought of was hard plumbing the refugium into the manifold. Can't really do it because I wouldn't be able to get the pipe to fit. I'm using Teflon tape in place to keep the leaks away.