Okay so wow it's been two months since I last updated my thread. A lot has been changing in my personal life so the amount of time I could spare to keeping this updated has drastically gone down. So where to start?
I guess I will start with the basics and that's water. First I moved my RO/DI from under the kitchen sink to the washroom. I then have spent the better part of the last month working on my RO/DI system to get the best rejection rate possible as I was getting an input of 800+ and my permeate was coming out around 31+ which was eating my DI like candy. After tons of configurations and tweaks along with working with
@SpectraPureInc we found a combo that is giving me a consistent ~99.5% rejection rate. What I had to do was go back down to a single membrane instead of dual membrane which cut my water production in have and I also had to get rid of my automatic flush valve as the restriction settings on that where keeping me from better rejection. I turned my Aquatec 8800 pump to its max setting and in lieu of a flow restricter I added a ball valve in its place. This gave me complete adjustability of my water:waste production as well as letting me dial in the working pressure to 90 psi. These changes alone got me down to the single digit output however it wasn't enough to satisfy me. I ended up adding a water softener canister before the RO system which cut that already single digit product water in half. You can actually read a more complete write up of my testing
HERE .
This is what my RO system looks like now.
Next is tank changes. I have done lots of little changes here and there but nothing too drastic. For the tank I added quite a bit of corals. Nothing really big or fancy mostly just colorful corals from all over the spectrum. I did get my hands on a beautiful Black Widow nem and a Rainbow nem. Both are very gorgeous specimens.
As far as fish go I also added a beautiful Snowflake Eel and a Kole Tang.
Here's a recent pick of the display.
In my display I am using two 1/2 VCA nozzles and I also added that gorgeous Oceanbox Designs Glo fragrack. Here's a better picture of it holding all of my most recent
@WWC frags.
Now for what really excites me the most. I have been communicating (bugging)
@Crystal Reef Aquatics for some time to test out their RSR250 sump on my 170. It is a direct replacement for the Reefer 250 that just so happened to fit inside the 170 but we weren't sure how if I needed modifications or if it would be 100% plug and play. I had planned to go to RAP-California this year but things came up last minute and I wasn't able to make it. Which was a shame because I finally pestered
@Crystal Reef Aquatics enough to work with me on the sump. Lucky for me
@Sisterlimonpot was there and agreed to do me a favor and bring the sump back with him. I was dumb and didn't get the G6 ATO Reservoir when I could have. Oh well, you live and you regret. Once it was here I went to pick it up and I regret not taking any pictures of the sump before installing it. The bonds were perfect, the euro brace was beveled. It comes with 7 1/4" JG fittings for dosing/ATO and a generous ~11Gal refugium with a skimmer chamber that has an adjustable baffle. Let me tell you, this sump was quality. First I drained the sump and removed the overflow pipes so I could swap out the sump. Easy.
Then I slipped in the new sump and this is where I ran into problems.. Did it fit? yes it fit perfect within the stand and still had room to make it wider however this was a Reefer 250 replacement and as expected there were a few issues with the 170. The main issue is the the overflow drain pipes did not fit properly as parts of the brace and JG fittings interfered with proper placement. I was able to get the main drain to connect but the issue was with the emergency drain and I needed to force it on at an awkward angle that wouldn't allow me to lock it in place but worked in the meantime as can be seen here.
This was temporary until I could custom plumb it which I ended up doing. I ordered two Red Sea part # 42221, went with 1" tubing and added a true gate valve. No one locally had any red PVC so I went with plain white and painted it with Krylon Fusion. Here is how that turned out.
Finally I could sleep in piece not worrying that the pipes would leak and all the information of what needed to be changed incase anyone else wanted one for their 170 was forwarded to
@Crystal Reef Aquatics who were happy for the feedback and said they would make those necessary changes for anyone wanting one for their 170. Thats great customer service from a company that wants to make sure every person has a flawless experience.
Next was my Tunze 9004 Skimmer. It was filling up everyday due to the water volume, fish stock and the crazy amounts of frozen food I feed. This is where I hoped over and ordered an Eshopps S-120 with out a second guess or any hesitation. I have their Nano protein skimmer which worked flawlessly on my 20 Long that I new I would be getting quality from their S line of skimmer as well. Once I received it I gawked at the beauty of the skimmer. The bubble plate was so unique that it puts the Nyos skimmers to shame in my opinion.
Once in it started producing amazing skimmate and I am extremely happy I went this route and even happier at the price I got it for. This brings me to an end of my update. Here is a picture of the sump with the skimmer and I will also post some nice pictures I've taken of the coral.
FYI the butterfly was re-homed. that beautiful ******* ate a couple of acans the went after my button scold.
