LR's Red Sea Reefer 170

[liverock27]

I have been away from the hobby for about 5 years now, but after our move last summer I started looking into setting up a new tank in my home office. I decided I didn't want to do another large tank and after a lot of research went with the Red Sea Reefer 170 system(34g tank w/9g sump). After deciding on the tank I slowly went about buying all the gear/equipment I wanted for the tank. My first purchase was an Apex Controller and most of the other purchases were bought to work with it. After months of gathering equipment I was finally able to fill the tank with salt water on January 3rd of this year(2019).

Equipment:
Neptune Apex Controller
Apex WXM Wireless Module(use w/MP10s and Radios)
Apex DOS Dosing System(dosing 2 part) w/FMM Module
EcoTech Radio XR30W Pro w/Diffuser upgrade
2x EcoTech Vortech MP10WQD
Reef Octopus eSsence S-130 Protein Skimmer
Reef Octopus VarioS-2 DC Pump
Eheim Jager 150W Heater
2x Bubble Magnus 1.5L Storage Container(2 Part dosing containers)
VCA Return Line upgrade w/2 Random Flow Generators
BRS 5 Stage RO/DI Unit
30-35lbs of BRS Reef Saver Dry Rock
30lbs CaribSea Special Grade Arag Live Sand

I am dosing ESV Two Part and Magnesium and using Red Sea Pro Coral Salt Mix

 

[lmm1967]

Nice clean setup.

With that salt and nothing in the tank - do you want to be dosing anything at this point?

 

[liverock27]

The first big problem I ran into was with the skimmer and the height of the water in the sump. The manual said it was good in water between 7-9", but at 9" inches it just spit out tons of foam even when the valve was closed. I ended up cutting some light diffuser to place under it and now with 8 pieces(about 2.5") the skimmer finally seems to be working correctly. The first 6 pieces are zip tied together, but the last two are just sitting on top of those. I need to fix that, but at this time I do not want to bother the skimmer while it breaks in.
I also added 6 of the MarinePure Ceramic BioFilter Media Cubes to the sump. There is no room in this sump for a refugium, so I am hoping that these cubes can act as a safe zone for Copepods. After my cycle finishes I plan to seed the tank w/Algea Barn's 5280 Pods and then follow up w/continual doses every few months.

 

[liverock27]

Nice clean setup.

With that salt and nothing in the tank - do you want to be dosing anything at this point?

Thank you! I wish I could have fit everything in the cabinet, but it is just way too small.
Sorry I should have said that my plan is to dose the ESV two part once needed.

 

[12scanlon]

looks good. what do you plan on stocking this tank with?

 

[liverock27]

looks good. what do you plan on stocking this tank with?

Thank you.
A SPS dominate mixed reef is my goal. Acros are my favorite corals, but I also enjoy the movement LPS add to the tank. I am sure a number of different zoas/palys will also find a home in the tank.
Fish wise I am limited due to the size of the tank. A clownfish pair is a must have, but after that I haven’t made up my mind. I am thinking about doing a Zebra Barred Dartfish trio as well since it would be something different than what I have kept in he past. If I can get a large population of pods going in the tank I would love to do a captive bread mandarin, but that is along ways off(if ever).



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[liverock27]

I was able to get my Radion XR30w Pro setup last night. I added a diffuser to the light even though at 9" off the tank and such a large spread out of the box I don't think it was necessary. I am using the EcoTech tank mount and it went together very easy and so did programming it to my Apex. I am going to be running the Coral Lab AB+, but for now I am going to leave the lights off. I don't see any reason to have the lights on during the cycle, so once it is done and I add fish I will slowly start using the new lights. It was just impossible for me to leave it in the box for that long.

 

[liverock27]

Not much new this past week on the tank. Ammonia is at 0, Nitrites are almost at 0, and Nitrates are at 25. I am still adjusting the skimmer, but I think I have finally found the right height it needs to be in the water. Before the foam would reach the bottom of the neck, but would collapse before anything reached the cup. Now it is putting a little yellow water into the collection cup, but nothing much due to no bio load in the system.
I did swap out my homemade ATO container for a Trigger System 5 gallon reservoir.
I'm going to be traveling for work a lot the next three weeks, so I am hoping after I get back from those trips I can look at doing something with the tank. Watching a box of water can get boring!
I have never used either company, but for this tank I want to try out Algae Barn and their 5280 Pods and OceanMagik Phyto to help establish a copepod population and ARC Reef's coralline algae in a bottle to help jump start the coralline. Since I started with Reef Saver rock from BRS I want to see how using these two products will compare to my old systems that used live rock.

 

[sharis100]

Algae Barn is great. A local company also great for phyto and copopods is Heisenberg Aquaculture. They were at the last meeting and I think they are on this forum. https://www.heisenbergaquaculture.com/

 

[liverock27]

Algae Barn is great. A local company also great for phyto and copopods is Heisenberg Aquaculture. They were at the last meeting and I think they are on this forum. https://www.heisenbergaquaculture.com/

I wasn’t aware there was a local company, thank you! I will have to reach out to them.


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[AquariumSchmo]

Algae Barn is great. A local company also great for phyto and copopods is Heisenberg Aquaculture. They were at the last meeting and I think they are on this forum. https://www.heisenbergaquaculture.com/

+ @liverock27

I just bought some at Southern Aquatics in Roswell. According to their website, they are also sold at Optimum Aquarium in Kennesaw. Not sure how many pods are in there, but the sticker on them doesn't lie... there are a "boatload" of pods.

 

[liverock27]

+ @liverock27

I just bought some at Southern Aquatics in Roswell. According to their website, they are also sold at Optimum Aquarium in Kennesaw. Not sure how many pods are in there, but the sticker on them doesn't lie... there are a "boatload" of pods.

I had a chance to talk with the owner via email and I am gong to pick up both types of pods and phyto the first of the week to seed my tank.


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[liverock27]

I meet up with Kevin the owner of Heisenberg Aquaculture and purchased a few bottles of different pods and some phyto. Kevin is a wealth of knowledge so it was great talking with him and the bottles really do appear to have a "boatload" of pods in them. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this helps me to establish my pod population after starting with just dry rock.

 

[liverock27]

Still no fish or coral in the tank, but I do have a few snails and hermit crabs to look at. The tank has finished cycling and after I return from my business trip next week I hope to pick up a pair of clownfish.
I do have a few updates when it comes to equipment. I was able to pick up a few used items that I had planned on purchasing down the line, but couldn't pass up due to the price.
First is a Aquatic Life T5/LED Hybrid fixture. It allows me to use my Radion XR30 along with a bank of two T5s in front of it and 2 behind it. I am running all ATI Blue Plus bulbs for now.
The other equipment I picked up was in a package deal and it was a second Neptune DOS and a Neptune Dual Reservoir. I don't have the second DOS hooked up yet, but I plan to use it for Magnesium and Amino Acids.

 

[liverock27]

My Clownfish arrived today, so I finally have something to look at in my box of water. I ended up picking up a pair online from CultivatedReef.com. They had a big selection of different Clownfish and Holly was awesome to do business with. I went with a pair of DaVinci Clowns and couldn't be happier with their coloring and markings. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the pair, but they won't stay still. I will definitely be reaching back out to Holly when it is time to start adding corals because she has a big selection of really nice SPS for sale.

 

[liverock27]

I rented a PAR meter from BRS and had a chance this afternoon to test out my lights. Almost the entire tank sits between 200 and 320 PAR, including most of the sand bed. The rock work ranges from 250-320 with most of it around the 280 mark.
I am using the CoralLab AB+ setting on my Radion at 55% intensity along with 4 24" ATI Blue Plus T5 bulbs. The light is 9" above the top of the tank.

I was hoping to be between 150 and 300 through out the tank and in 250-300 on the rock work to support SPS, so I am very happy with these results. The $50 to rent the meter was well worth it and now I am hoping to add a few test corals to the tank over the next week.

I have also been testing Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium each day for the past 5 days and have the dosing set(for now) to keep the tank at 480 Calcium, 8.4 Alkalinity, and 1480 Magnesium.

 

[liverock27]

I picked up a number of coral frags from some great members the last two weeks and once I get them up on the rock work I’ll get some pictures.
My custom top from Top Lids finally arrived the end of last week. It looks great and the design is perfect for my needs with the auto feeder.

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[civics14]

that top!!! wow, it looks amazing!

 

[liverock27]

that top!!! wow, it looks amazing!

Thank you. It wasn’t cheap and I had to wait 3 months for it.


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[liverock27]

Corals are all looking good, but ran into a few problems.
The first is one of my DOS Dual Container sensors seem to be broken so I had to send it into Neptune to have them look at it. I have the second DOS Dual Container so that is running my two part and for now I am using a separate container to dose AcroPower(just 1ml per day for now). I was going to dose Magnesium as well, but since the demand is so low I have decided to dose Tropic Marin Part C instead with that last dosing head.
The second problem is a little outbreak of diatoms, but that is to be expected. I cut back on feeding, will do an extra water change each of the next few weeks, and Im going to run GFO for a few weeks once my order arrives from BRS this week.


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