Adam's 450 GALLON REEF TANK BUILD!
- Thread starter Adamc1303
- Start date
So I stopped at this like sort of pet shop and the guy had these really colorful things. They were blue and green, orange some red oh and purple. Some of them are soft and a few are hard. He said they are called corals or something like that. Since they looked cool I figured I would buy a few... I'll post SLR pics tomorrow!
They are all doing really well!I hooked up the Genesis tonight. It took about 15 minutes. I had water prepared already so I let her rip. This thing is awesome! Anyone that's thinking of getting one definitely should. It really works flawlessly. I did a 30 gallon water change and watched it the entire time. I also want to get the auto top off they make now. If you use the one they make it connects to the renew system which will disable top off during water changes. I am sure I can manipulate my osmolator (which I have always used and really like) with the APEX to do the same but I am so impressed with this company right now and the quality of the product that I gotta try the Storm auto top off.
What I would like to have it do is perform a 3 gallon per day water change for 30 days which would give me 25% monthly. I have seen allot of tanks that used liter meters and other systems where they were always changing a little water every day and the tanks looked very good. I guess besides not stressing the animals with typical one shot water changes (not that I think it's major stress is performed and prepared the right way) it will also replenish trace elements in the water. I think this may be a crucial part of my filtration. I may go on for 2 weeks and off for 2 weeks too. I'll experiment and see what produces the best results.
What I would like to have it do is perform a 3 gallon per day water change for 30 days which would give me 25% monthly. I have seen allot of tanks that used liter meters and other systems where they were always changing a little water every day and the tanks looked very good. I guess besides not stressing the animals with typical one shot water changes (not that I think it's major stress is performed and prepared the right way) it will also replenish trace elements in the water. I think this may be a crucial part of my filtration. I may go on for 2 weeks and off for 2 weeks too. I'll experiment and see what produces the best results.
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Looks pretty cool Adam. I have heard good things about Genesis also. I wish I had that luxury.
I actually got a bunch of more stuff since I took these last week and I am due to receive a few more packages on Tuesday. After that I will have to control my self and stop buying stuff for a little while! I spend allot of money come home with a bunch of bags and the tank still looks empty! It doesn't even put a dent in it. I guess this is how it goes you keep buying and then one say you wake up and things are growing out and it's jam packed in there maybe time for an upgrade! Here are some pictures as promised i'll post more in a few days. I am also having an issue with micro bubbles I can't figure out how to resolve this. If anyone has any out of the box reasons for micro bubbles please chime in I will greatly appreciate it.
Adam
maybe time for an upgrade! Here are some pictures as promised i'll post more in a few days. I am also having an issue with micro bubbles I can't figure out how to resolve this. If anyone has any out of the box reasons for micro bubbles please chime in I will greatly appreciate it.Adam
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Everything is looking good Adam.
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
It'll be a first for me also. Really gotta talk to Dan and have a side bar about Leroy. lololol
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danfeig
.Registered Member
Adam,
Tank is looking awesome! I have a couple of questions and a big "Thank you!"
First with the Genesis... Does it drain and replace your freshly made SW at the same time or drain first then add? I have considered purchasing one to perform 7-10 gallon water changes each day. Perhaps doing 1.25 gallons every 4 hours or something of the sorts. I don't think with my tank I would need to worry too much about my ATO with those small of changes.
Most importantly, Thank You, for keeping our friend Leroy on his toes. He wears an eating! If the name is good enough for his mother, it is certainly good enough for us. Even if she calls him by another name. Leroy is his given name. That or Reefing is my middle name.
Tank is looking awesome! I have a couple of questions and a big "Thank you!"
First with the Genesis... Does it drain and replace your freshly made SW at the same time or drain first then add? I have considered purchasing one to perform 7-10 gallon water changes each day. Perhaps doing 1.25 gallons every 4 hours or something of the sorts. I don't think with my tank I would need to worry too much about my ATO with those small of changes.
Most importantly, Thank You, for keeping our friend Leroy on his toes. He wears an eating! If the name is good enough for his mother, it is certainly good enough for us. Even if she calls him by another name. Leroy is his given name. That or Reefing is my middle name.
Ha! I agree. Wayne who? It's Leroy moving forward.
Dan I really like the Genesis it's well built, thought out and works flawlessly. The metering buckets have 3 lines connected to each. It has a fill tube from the pump, a drain tube (larger diameter) back to where it gets filled from and then the regular drain tube which will go to either sump or waste. It fills both metering buckets at the same time during fill mode. Then it has meter mode where one tube drains back to where the water was pumped from. I guess it has a switch or sensor in the buckets which cause it to do this. That ensures it's exactly 1 gallon not more or less. Then you hear a solenoid click. It sounds like one solenoid clicking but it's actually 2. They are synced so well that they sound like one. When that happens it goes into drain mode. Both buckets drain at the same time.
They can both fill at different rates because of head pressure on the pumps filling them. Meaning my waste water comes from my sump which is 3 feet from the waste metering bucket but my new water come from a garbage can which is 7 feet away from the new water metering bucket, so my waste fills quicker. However the system won't move to the next stage until metering is done on both buckets. Same thing with draining. They may have different distances to drain but it will not do another change until both buckets are fully drained.
I got the renew pro model. I regret not getting the storm auto top off as well. I'm going to eventually have to order it. The Storm gets automatically disabled when the renew is working. I set my Apex to turn off the Tunze Osmolator that I use when the Genesis Renew is on. However this isn't the same because even though the Genesis remembers the settings when turned back on (It knows how many gallons are left for the water change) a button still has to be manually pressed to resume. It's a safety feature. This makes a big difference because now lazy me with an automatic water changing system has to actually press a button! Joking aside it's important because if you want to utilize the system to perform small daily water changes you need to be able to set it and forget it especially when you go away and you can't do that if you manually need to press the button every day because you have it on a system that cuts power to it daily.
I would definitely recommend this product. You will love it if you get it. Every time I show someone my fish room I end up doing a quick 1 gallon water change to show off the system. It's very well built and thought out and has allot of safety features that you just can't replicate using dosing pumps or Apex units with break out boxes. It was designed to do something and it does it well.
HTH
Dan thanks for following my build. You're tank inspired me to go big and I love the v ideos you put out. We need to chat about Ozone one day because I know you use it and I am thinking about adding it. Leroy, I like those Anthias I think me may order me some.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
That would be a smooth system if I could fit it under my stand to do the same thing. I envy you. And yes those anthias are thing of beauty. I am two species away from being complete. And you gentlemen have earned the right to call me Leroy. I should change the thread name to "Leroy's 600 Gallon Build Courtesy of Dan and Adam". :uhoh3::uhoh3::uhoh3:
I guess I left his part out. It will not work in a stand because it drains via gravity so the metering buckets must be mounted higher then the sump and waste drain.
I started using my calcium reactor and my PH dropped dramatically. I got down to 7.7 one night so immediately took it off line (good thing APEX e-mailed me). I really didn't want to have to use Kalk because I find that it really taxes all of the equipment with build up but I have no choice. Here is a picture of the "octopus family of products". I really like the way octopus builds everything. I have had so many different brands of skimmers and reactor in the past. Most of it pretty expansive and high end. I think Super Reef Octopus competes at the same level without breaking the bank. However I am not so impressed with the Kalk stirrer. I used a GEO in the past and figured I would try one with a stir rod this time, the issue is that this one is designed to run only 15 min every two hours. The life of the motor is only 1,500 hours. It didn't say that anywhere besides the manual which you read once you already purchased the thing! I wouldn't have gotten it if I knew you can't run it continuously. I'll see if it keeps up as it looks pretty small for my size tank. If it doesn't MRC has a really nice kalk reactor I would upgrade to, if i'm already going back to the pump style reactors anyway.
It's been over a week since I updated this thread so here goes. I have been adding allot of live stock lately, almost daily. I just can't get enough! I have to cool it for now though and let things grow out. Although my sand bed is empty so maybe i'll go on an LPS run. I still haven't found anyone to build my hood and skin the stand. Once that's done I want to add Reef Brite LED's to add more atinic lighting to the tank. I have 36" fixtures so I will probably mount 2 36" tubes to each fixture to give it a real pop. let me know your thoughts so far.
Thanks,
Adam
Thanks,
Adam
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Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
No complaints here.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
You're welcome adam. As quiet as kept, I've already done disobeyed the orders.
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I added VHO lighting to the tank and I absolutely love it. I need to get a new hood and skin my metal stand. When I get the hood I think I will switch out the MH/T5 fixture for SE MH pendants. I am not using the t5's right now because i just think the VHO's are so much nicer. Here's a shot of the tank. I added a bunch of clams today that I picked up at a local frag swap
