TheFishTeen
New member
Awesome build! Could you post some more pictures of the filtration room in a more full view, so we can see the whole thing? Sorry if you have already.
A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build
- Thread starter Dustin1300
- Start date
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I've not really posted any full pictures yet because as there has always been a section that's still a mess since it's an ongoing project. I was planning on doing some programming on the Apex for a while today as well as starting to organize the abundance of wires I currently have. I'll try to get pictures later and hope you are following along!
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Ammonia Dosing Begins...
Ammonia Dosing Begins...
Started with my first dose of ammonia this morning. Added 1/8th a cup and will see where that gets me. I'm still skimming but just don't quite feel right turning off a skimmer on a saltwater setup
Don't quite remember ammonia stinking this bad in my old chemistry classes!
Skimmer starting to produce some good skimmate considering what the system includes. The fuge has been running without filtration for a bit so expecting skimmate to slow after a little while.
Ammonia Dosing Begins...
Started with my first dose of ammonia this morning. Added 1/8th a cup and will see where that gets me. I'm still skimming but just don't quite feel right turning off a skimmer on a saltwater setup
Don't quite remember ammonia stinking this bad in my old chemistry classes!
Skimmer starting to produce some good skimmate considering what the system includes. The fuge has been running without filtration for a bit so expecting skimmate to slow after a little while.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Ran across a great volume calculator that takes in several factors including sand/rock and thought I'd share. With rock/sand and plumbing all considered my system holding roughly 285 gallons.
Calculator Link
Calculator Link
That's a great calculator. Thanks for the link. I've always wanted to find a similar calculator and it's super that it gives you the entire weight of the proposed system becaue if your're doing what we are doing then it is very imortant to know the weight so the floor can be suppotred enough. Your setup is looking great!
We will be starting ours within the next week with the building of the addition. Wife finally let loose of her stash and gave me the $$$ for the materials! You gotta watch these women and their stashes...I thought I got all of it when she bought me the 450 tank for Christmas! Now she says the rest is up to me.
We will be starting ours within the next week with the building of the addition. Wife finally let loose of her stash and gave me the $$$ for the materials! You gotta watch these women and their stashes...I thought I got all of it when she bought me the 450 tank for Christmas! Now she says the rest is up to me.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
The calculator is great and considers most of everything you need to. Hope you continue to follow along as I can use as much input as possible and share your build thread once you have one up and running
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The calculator is great and considers most of everything you need to
Will do. We decided that we are going to build the addition ourselves (wife has construction background and so do I...before we got stupid about 10 years ago and built a trucking company!) so the materials get ordered on Monday and work will start, pending weather here in MT next week. Yesterday was 70 but rain today and maybe next week....if you don't like the weather here wait 5 minutes and it will be different!
We're following your build and Steve's. We are supposed to be out of town for a couple of weeks, but that got put off until May so we might as well get started!
SPotter
Active member
Started with my first dose of ammonia this morning. Added 1/8th a cup and will see where that gets me. I'm still skimming but just don't quite feel right turning off a skimmer on a saltwater setup
Don't quite remember ammonia stinking this bad in my old chemistry classes!
Skimmer starting to produce some good skimmate considering what the system includes. The fuge has been running without filtration for a bit so expecting skimmate to slow after a little while.
Nothing like the fresh smell of ammonia in the morning!!!!!
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Steve, the calculator has inputs for the pounds of rock and if you pay attention to the 'Net System Volume' it updates volume with displacement of water from the rock/sand!
SPotter
Active member
Yeah I saw that but I also remember reading something that not all rock displaces the same amount of water based on how porous it is. I could be and probably am wrong but I thought I read something like that.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I'd think the calculator is still quite accurate. More porous rock is going to weigh less in relation to it's size visually, but the mass would still be the same I'd guess. Either way, it's the only calculator I've seen that has any rock calculations and gives me a better idea than I can come up with myself
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
After re-calibrating my refractometer realized I was using too much salt so I did not do my batch of testing last night to see where the cycle stands. Dialed in the SG this morning and dosed ammonia this morning and is at 1.5 ppm. Will test Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate as I'm excited to see where it stands.
I got the MP40s hooked up yesterday and is my first experience with one myself as I always had Koralias before. All I can say is WOW! I've got to do some research but what is the most popular mode that most run? I like the nutrient export mode but not sure that is a good mode to run all the time. Currently I have the two mounted on the end of the aquarium side by side. Have a feeling that with coral in there that I'll need to dial them back.
Current flow to frag tank is returns (~700-800 GPH) plus MP40s (~6400 GPH at max). That comes out to 7200 GPH and actual tank area excluding the overflow is ~114.7 gallons. That comes out to 62.77 times the volume for water movement so I'm thinking I'll need to dial them back some but will have to see.
I got the MP40s hooked up yesterday and is my first experience with one myself as I always had Koralias before. All I can say is WOW! I've got to do some research but what is the most popular mode that most run? I like the nutrient export mode but not sure that is a good mode to run all the time. Currently I have the two mounted on the end of the aquarium side by side. Have a feeling that with coral in there that I'll need to dial them back.
Current flow to frag tank is returns (~700-800 GPH) plus MP40s (~6400 GPH at max). That comes out to 7200 GPH and actual tank area excluding the overflow is ~114.7 gallons. That comes out to 62.77 times the volume for water movement so I'm thinking I'll need to dial them back some but will have to see.
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Great Build. I know most of the people run theirs in reef crest mode. I will be using 4 MP60s in my build and more than likely will be using that mode anti synced.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to give it a try when I get home. Until I have coral in the tank it's really hard to tell what mode I'll need. I'm planning on 4 MP60s in my DT too but that's later down the road. Maybe at MACNA they'll release an MP80 capable of 10,000 GPH:eek2:
What type of orientation are you planning on having with the PHs? Back, sides, etc....
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
I set the pumps to Reef Crest mode and Anti-Sync and so far not as many waves or movement. Like stated earlier I likely will have to see once I have coral in the tank. Below is a picture to reference to see how I have them oriented. With them on the same side of the tank it does not make sense in my mind that they'd be in anti-sync mode on the same side together. I'm open to moving the pumps to a different location if it'd make more sense but feel like one should always be pointing towards the overflow, maybe I'm wrong? I'd love everyone's thoughts/opinions on it.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
After some further reading this seems to be the case. If you mount on same side you are better off putting in sync mode. Putting it back to sync mode and re-enabling reef crest seems to be better so the waves are canceling each other out.
Dustin1300
Reefaholic
Got another small shipment in today of back-ordered items...A couple GEO 420 media reactors for carbon/GFO. Should I wait until cycle ends to start using the two media reactors? Hopefully I don't have to use these very much once I get the ATS online and built
Cycle progress....Nitrates I marked at 5 from tonight but they are truly between 2.5 and 5. Nitrites are slowly starting to rise....I've not dosed any ammonia since yesterday morning and it seems to be staying right around 1.5 ppm. (Ammonia is blue, Nitrite is red, and Nitrate is green)
Cycle progress....Nitrates I marked at 5 from tonight but they are truly between 2.5 and 5. Nitrites are slowly starting to rise....I've not dosed any ammonia since yesterday morning and it seems to be staying right around 1.5 ppm. (Ammonia is blue, Nitrite is red, and Nitrate is green)
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