Adtravels 90 Gallon reef

[adtravels]

After a 2 year break from the hobby I have got a new tank to mark a milestone birthday!

I plan a nice open tank with SPS and the odd LPS (and knowing me an anemone somewhere).

The Tank
36x24x24 (90 gallon) tank with a rim and corner overflow that id drilled at the bottom.
I chose this as it has given me the best results in the past with noise reduction.
24x20x18 sump with and RO chamber built in but no refugium.
The stand and canopy were hand built for me given the specs.

Using the system volume calculator and taking into account baffle height, live rock and sand the net volume is somewhere around 320 litres.

Equipment:
Light- 2x Gen3 radion XR15's
Return- Eheim compact 3000+
Flow- 2x Tunze 6095
Skimmer- Tunze 9410 DC
Chiller- Hailea HS-66a
Controller- Apex 2016 version
WXM module
Doser- Kamoer 3 channel (soon to be DOS)

I have some Fauna marin Bacto reef balls to get things going and have been curing some LR for 2 months.

 

[adtravels]

The Tank

 

[adtravels]

Try again, been a while

 

[adtravels]

The Sump

 

[adtravels]

A temporary job on the Radions

 

[adtravels]

now the scrappy wiring job!

 

[Denadai]

Nice start !!!

 

[adtravels]

Interestingly, yesterday was filling and aquascaping. The apex fired up first time and was easy to calibrate (this is my second apex) apart from the dreaded conductivity probe. We will come to that in a moment.

The Rock was bonded with epo putty, it's cheap and very easy to use. The sand was soaked and rinsed in ro for two weeks. The life on the rocks is all still alive as I had the rock submerged just prior to fixing and this process took less than an hour. It was them covered in fresh salt water.

I then put in a small 6025 whilst I made up more salt.

After the tank was filled I found all the plumbing worked which was a relief and fired up the radion and tunze 6095 ( still not programmed properly).

The issue with the cond probe was one of calibration and it's still not right, I even have a special probe jar that allows the probe to be inverted whist calibrating so no air bubbles can get trapped. Also the probe was thoroughly dried before calibration and read 34.6 salinity in the 53us/cm solution. When placed in the sump it reads 28! The cable is isolated so I have just about trouble shot as much as I can.

I am not too worried as my trusty refractometer read 35ppt and this was backed up that when I tested the fauna Marin salt mix for the Ca Alk and Mag they ALL fell exactly within the stated ranges stated on the box which was reassuring.

That being said I am not sure where to go with the salinity probe. The only thing I can think of was it got a bit of a bang which could have upset it?

Anyway I will monitor this week and see.

 

[MichaelW]

The apex cond probe is touchy and can be hard. It is best to let it "soak" in the tank for a couple of weeks before attempting callibration again.

 

[sahin]

Looks like a very promising build. Good to see you're back.

 

[adtravels]

Looks like a very promising build. Good to see you're back.

Thanks, I read every page of your latest build whilst waiting for the tank, a good source of inspiration!

 

[adtravels]

some of my scape shots please feel free to critique

 

[adtravels]

end view

 

[adtravels]

I have the skimmer running really well now after some initial noise which Roger on the Tunze forum helped me remedy.

I am dosing Fauna Marin Bacto balls at half dose and red sea nopox. Initially my phospate measured 0.16ppm and nitrate was 0 and 2 ppm so I will test again midweek to see if there has been a change. My fish (convict tang, bocolor blenny and shrimpgoby) are in and doing well as are the snails crabs and peppermint shrimp. Also the live rock has 3 colonies of porites that are green and purple, they are all colouring up and recovering from the point of death they were in when I received them. I am dosing 10ml of randys 3 part each day and alk is holding steady at 8.5 so their is some consumption of the 3.
Temp is between 27 and 28oC, I have to keep it higher as i live in a hot place where a chiller is required.

I am thinking some hardy SPS frags in the next week or so...

 

[adtravels]

Everything seems ok, I have purchased a 3rd xr15 but this time a g4, I will put it up soon.
I also have a tunze calcium dispenser on order.
I had to remove a bicolor blenny that liked nipping my sps frags And also have green mandarin and a dusky wrasse.

I have been dosing FM colours as well.

 

[sahin]

Nice start. I like the Tunze skimmer; whilst not as well known as the more popular skimmer brands, they work well and produce some good foam. With regards to the scape; I perhaps would have had a separate smaller island near the front...only for the extra SPS frags we cant help but buy lol but otherwise the negative space is nice as it makes a better visual impact. Otherwise all is well. Look forward to seeing the tank progress.

 

[kevin.st]

I would think that you need more rock to glue coral!

 

[scar79]

Nice start. I like the Tunze skimmer; whilst not as well known as the more popular skimmer brands, they work well and produce some good foam. With regards to the scape; I perhaps would have had a separate smaller island near the front...only for the extra SPS frags we cant help but buy lol but otherwise the negative space is nice as it makes a better visual impact. Otherwise all is well. Look forward to seeing the tank progress.

It is funny that they aren't really known as well for their skimmers since they (according to their own media) were the first to produce a commercial venturi protein skimmer back in the 1960's. I've used their nano skimmers and have had zero complaints.


Digging the rockwork! Clean and simple - it will grow in nicely

 

[adtravels]

Thanks all l went with the tunze over a vertex due to favorable reviews, especially the one on reef builders. Aside from initial noise it has been great.

I may place another small island to the left as that was the plan until I ran out of LR.
The islands would over lap though so I am not sure it wood look great.

The apex 2016 had been great despite some reservations, from reading their forum. My only grumble is the salt probe but that is almost certainly user related.

Hope fully get some more frags in soon.

 

[adtravels]

update

I have several changes and upgrades. However i need a better lens to take some pictures of the tank as my current camera is not cutting it.

I have about 20 sps frags and mini colonies from Indo and Australia and several fish and inverts now. The fish list is a convict tang, a Kole Tang, and exquisite wrasse, a green mandarin and a pair of sunburst anthias.

I have been really fussy about dipping corals on this tank and only spotted some red bugs on one frag which I removed and dipped.
Growth has bee steady and mostly encrusting as expected.

I purchased a new chiller as mine was a few years old and not broken but I wanted a second one for redundancy.
I purchased a tunze calcium dispenser but have taken it offline as it was problematic with two part dosing.
I bought a radion xr15 pro G4 for the middle of the tank and run the two G3 at 100% and the G4 at 70% all sps ab+.

I also removed the sandbed last week because i did not like the look, had some dino/cyno issues and an found some magnetic particles in my sand. This has allowed my to up the flow significantly and the algae is subsiding.

All in it is going pretty well for just over 2 months. I am really happy with the FM pro salt and colour elements.

I stopped nopox dosing as it was getting tiresome and have moved to FM bacto balls only for now in an effort to really simplify things.