xilni's 73 gallon reef tank

eggplantparrot · Mar 5, 2019

xilni said:
So placed all the frags a while back according to this layout based on lighting and flow requirements and they seem to all be happy and extended.

Zoa Island

Miami Hurricane chalice

Metallic Green Star polyps

Lemon Lime favia

Acan colony

Candy Cane

Liams Clove polyps

Blue Solomon tree

Maybe give the green star polyps their own island? They will take over an entire rock structure pretty quick ive heard

xilni · Mar 5, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
Maybe give the green star polyps their own island? They will take over an entire rock structure pretty quick ive heard

Good to know, what about the Liams Clove polyps?

eggplantparrot · Mar 5, 2019

xilni said:
Good to know, what about the Liams Clove polyps?

Not too sure but i dont think cloves are as invasive as gsp

xilni · Mar 12, 2019

A few weeks ago I started having issues with the reliable delivery of water from the service I chose ultimately culminating with me needing to walk to and from Whole Foods with 6 gallons of RO/DI water in hand which was not comfortable to say the least.

Ended up ordering the 6 stage 75 gallons a day system from Bulk Reef Supply because I came to the conclusion that it was better to eat the upfront cost and have reliable on demand water.

Needed to bring some pipes to the “reef supply” closet I messed around with earlier:

Here’s the system in question, it works great but my water pressure is floating around 50psi which is just around the bare minimum needed to reliably run the system.

It works great but I’ve decided to order the booster pump to shore up the pressure and the +75 gallon upgrade kit (which would make it identical to BRS’s 150 gallon per day system) to speed up the whole process. Looking forward to speedier water.

xilni · Mar 17, 2019

So this will be a rather large update since I’ve been neglecting to post for a while, a few big hardware changes and some livestock changes as well.

First things first, I got the 150 gallon per day water saver upgrade kit and a booster pump from BRS. It was extremely easy to install (BRS has amazing install videos for each directly on their product page) and it has really sped up the process of filling up 5 gallon buckets of RO/DI water for mixing salt water and I can also directly fill up the RS Reefer 350’s ATO reservoir quite quickly.

Sorry for the ****** pictures, but you’ll see why soon enough why I can’t get unobstructed pictures of the RO/DI system:

I also added the included switch valve so that whenever I’m done I can close it and it’ll trigger the built in auto shut off on the pump and RO/DI system.

Now the main reason I can’t get clear unobstructed pictures of the RO/DI system anymore is I added a 15 gallon reservoir for my new Neptune DOS, I have it set it to do automatic water changes of 1.5 gallons a day, set to work while I’m at work and won’t mind the noise.

It was super easy to setup, lasts me 10 days with my current automatic water change schedule and now I just have to do a monthy water change on top that targets detritus in the sump where it all seems to collect.

Another change that I made was I kept trying to determine the nature of the return pump noise which is of particular concern as this tank is in my bedroom. At first I thought I needed to add more of the silicon pads that I added earlier but I soon realized that the noise remained even when I lifted the pump off the sump surfaces. Turns out the noise was being transmitted through the semi rigid PVC tube from the return pipe to the barbed fitting that came with the RS Reefer 350.

I swapped it out with a length of soft silicone tubing of equivalent diameter and secured the whole thing with zip ties and my tank has never been quieter.