AJ_Tsin's 47g Shallow Rimless Rebuild

[AJ_Tsin]

After several years of being out of the hobby, I have decided to resurrect and rebuild my shallow reef of past N-R TOTM "fame" in 2011.

I have had a handful of threads in the past on Reef Central re: old videos etc. etc. but nothing too concrete or that I have really kept up with. I plan on documenting the rebuild and keeping things up to date here as I would like to become a bigger contributor to the Reef Central Community.

The system is currently almost 5 months old and I am just getting started. Hope some of you follow along and if you have any questions feel free to ask. Thanks for having me glad to be a part of Reef Central.



The 47g Rimless Reef

Current shot of the Build and how it fits into my living room.

Display

• 30" x 30" x 12" Starphire Glass Custom Shallow Rimless

Equipment

• Protien Skimmer: Vertex Omega 130
• 20g Acrylic Sump w/ 3 sections (Section 1: Filter Floss, Temp Probe, Carbon, Skimmer, Zeo Reactor, Section 2: Heater, ATO, Section 3: Live Rock, Return Pump
• Heater: 500w Titanium Submersible Heater
• Water Motion: 2x Eco-Tech Vortech MP10 (One on Wave mode, one on Reef Crest), Mag 9.5 Return Pump (7 ft. lift)
• Filter Media: 1.5 L Vertex ZEOvit Reactor w/ Korallen Zucht ZEOlite, Filter Floss, 250 ml GAC Carbon
• ATO: D.I.Y. auto top of using a gravity fed, float valve and 15g glass aquarium reservoir.

Tanks is a full ZeoVit system running ULNS. Plumbing is drilled into a basement fish room house all filtration and allows for expandability etc.

Lighting

8 x 24w ATI Powermodule T5

Bulb Array:

• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• K-Z Fiji Purple
• ATI Coral +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +
• ATI Blue +

Parameters

• Salinity Level: 1.025
• Temp: 78
• pH: 8.2
• Calcium Level: 430
• Alkalinity: 7 dKh
• Mg: 1300
• Potassium: 390
• Ammonia: 0
• Nitrite Levels: 0
• Nitrate Levels: <0.0
• Phosphate: <0.00
• Sandbed Depth: 1 in. Carib Sea Seaflor Special Grade Aragonite
• Liverock: 40 lbs (Split between sump and display)
• Total System Water Volume: 60g

Maintenance

• 10% water change weekly (Vacuum sand bed bi-weekly)
• Change Filter Floss weekly
• 250 ml of ESV Activated Carbon in media bag changed every 30 days
• 500 ml K-Z ZeoLite in Vertex Reactor running 60 g/h change 90% every 10 weeks
• Blast Rocks w/ Turkey Baster (Several times weekly)

Thats about it for the basics and the first post. I will outline some updates about livestock, corals etc. periodically. I have a growing list of high end SPS frags, Two Black Ice Snowflake Clowns and a Purple Tang and a few inverts for now.

Thanks for reading and if you have any requests, questions, or want to pop in to say hello, feel free.

 

[hersheyb]

nice setup!!

 

[sahin]

Thanks for starting a thread here. Welcome back to reefkeeping.

N-R has changed some much from when I used to be an active member there more than 10 years ago.

I modelled my tank after yours: 47G. Not same dimensions (due to space restraints etc), but same volume and same type of lighting.

I will most definitely follow your build thread. As per your reputation, you have created a VERY nice clean system. Would like to see a few closer shots to see just the rocks are setup and to gather an idea about water flow around the display.

Just one question pops into my mind for the moment and that is regarding the use the filter floss:

Do you feel there the corals or the system itself could do better without the filter floss?

- The Zeovit systems talks about the mulm feeding the bacteria and the rest being skimmed off by the skimmer.

So with that in mind, wouldnt most of the mulm be caught in the floss and not really be feeding the corals and also not being removed by the skimmer?

Would be nice to discuss your thoughts about this.

Thanks.

 

[gb530]

Picked up your link from the "Show off your Rarest/Most Colorful SPS corals" thread. Nice setup! Will be following along.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

nice setup!!

Picked up your link from the "Show off your Rarest/Most Colorful SPS corals" thread. Nice setup! Will be following along.

Thanks guys.

Thanks for starting a thread here. Welcome back to reefkeeping.

N-R has changed some much from when I used to be an active member there more than 10 years ago.

I modelled my tank after yours: 47G. Not same dimensions (due to space restraints etc), but same volume and same type of lighting.

I will most definitely follow your build thread. As per your reputation, you have created a VERY nice clean system. Would like to see a few closer shots to see just the rocks are setup and to gather an idea about water flow around the display.

Just one question pops into my mind for the moment and that is regarding the use the filter floss:

Do you feel there the corals or the system itself could do better without the filter floss?

- The Zeovit systems talks about the mulm feeding the bacteria and the rest being skimmed off by the skimmer.

So with that in mind, wouldnt most of the mulm be caught in the floss and not really be feeding the corals and also not being removed by the skimmer?

Would be nice to discuss your thoughts about this.

Thanks.

Appreciate the message. Rebuilding this thing and posting again on a few forums I am overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of people messaging me stating my original build was the inspiration for their setup. It means a lot to me and I am flattered. Glad to have you following along.

In regards to filter floss: The ZeoLite reactor is placed downstream from the skimmer and the floss meaning when I pump the reactor the mulm goes directly into the display via the return pump for some time before coming back down into the sump to be caught and skimmed away. This proves effective enough and I have never noticed it making a big difference. I would much rather have no piles of detritus or uneaten food gathering in my sump, than any other filtration method.

The skimmer is still pulling thick bacterial sludge and all of the corals have insane polyp extension so I have been relatively happy with this configuration.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

This is the fish room. Its an unfinished basement in a home that just turned 101 yrs old so theres not really anything I can do to make it clean. Its a cellar more than a basement.

Fairly messy with wires right now primarily because of the Ad Hoc Quarantine tank to the right (not pictured).


Full room.

Tank on the right is fresh RO/DI for a gravity fed ATO. Tank on upper left is the sump. You can see greyish tubes coming down through the ceiling for the overflow. Tank on bottom left is just a mixing vessel for fresh salt water. I leave a maxi jet in here and at least 5 gallons of heated water ready at all times. If you look closely you can see black e-tape lines on this tank so I can quickly identify 5,10 and 15 gallon water levels making everything easier for salt mixing water changing etc. Water changes are easy as I just syphon out into buckets and pump fresh water from below with the maxi jet. Reef Keeper Light and powercenter as well as an array of power bars are mounted. I plan on swapping this out for an APEX and eliminating all of the power bars and cable tangles eventually.

I keep fresh water, additives supplies and tools all handy on these shelves. The upper right portion close to the sump will be used to hold a plumbed in frag tank soon.

Sump housing Vertex Omega 130 Skimmer, Vertex Zeolite Reactor, Titanium Heater, Live Rock, ATO and Return Pump. You can more clearly see the overflow and return lines in upper left. You can see the angled pipe on the vertex Zeo reactor, I couldn't fit the reactor in a separate chamber than the skimmer but I wanted to make sure the mulm and output makes it into the display to feed to corals so I angled the output line over the baffle and into the next chamber.
These steel shelves have begun to rust over time, they are not stainless, the structural integrity seems uncompromised but some day I will likely have to swap them up, I have ball valves and threaded junctions throughout the plumbing upstairs so to turn things off and swap things out will be easy.

Overflow line pours down through this tower, first filter floss sitting on egg crate, then a mesh bag of carbon.

Basic ATO reservoir. I keep a Koralia going to keep it oxygenated. You can see some airline tubing that holds a siphon. Because this is elevated above the sump I can just use a gravity fed top off, this seems a bit safer to me. The RODI line on the left is clipped onto the edge of the tank so I can just turn on the tap and refill it. (I keep ATO and water mixing water in glass tanks. I just think its the easiest to keep clean and won't leach anything.)

Hang on float valve for the ATO. Heater and ZeoVit reactor output can be seen in this chamber as well.

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

[Moved]

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Here are 3 shots of the individual rock structures and how the frags are laid out. It looks really ugly right now with all the plugs and whatnot but they are encrusting quickly and hopefully all that will be gone in a couple months.
*
Left Front

*
Right Front

*
Back Middle

 

[dafil]

Man,your tanks(with 13,5g) inspired me to hook the salt water.
So clean...

 

[sahin]

Very nice! Its not ugly at all! And I can see the massive potential in your scape. :thumbsup: This is going to look awesome soon!

 

[tcbarr]

Love that aquascape. Those black ice (I think) look great!

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Man,your tanks(with 13,5g) inspired me to hook the salt water.
So clean...

Wow I didn't realize anyone saw my 13.5g studio office build. We moved offices a while ago and didn't get it set back up, but having the reef back at home is making me want to get things going in that glass box again as well.

Very nice! Its not ugly at all! And I can see the massive potential in your scape. :thumbsup: This is going to look awesome soon!

Love that aquascape. Those black ice (I think) look great!

Thanks alll. Happy with it so far.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Here are a handful of frags I have added over the past couple months.

Reef Raft Strawberry Shortcake

Reef Raft Wolverine

Oregon Tort

Red Millepora

Palmer's Blue Mille

Reef Raft Avengers

Tyree Pink Lemonade

Miyagi Tortuosa

ORA Red Planet

Big Show Toxic Sarmentosa

 

[sahin]

Woah! Those are some HIGH END SPS! :thumbsup: So jealous man.

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Woah! Those are some HIGH END SPS! :thumbsup: So jealous man.

Thanks. Pretty interested to see them grow out into colonies. Here are a few more:

Wicked Sunrise

Reef Raft Pearlberry

Purple Tipped Granulosa, still changing colour not sure where it will end up...

Neon Green Aculeus

Yellow Millepora

Pink Tipped Teal Millepora

Forest Fire Digi

Not sure the name of this one. Any ideas?

 

[whiteshark]

I love the dimensions of this tank. Nothing beats shallow reefs IMO. Beautiful setup!

 

[AJ_Tsin]

I love the dimensions of this tank. Nothing beats shallow reefs IMO. Beautiful setup!

Thanks. I agree. I love them.

Posted this over in the sps forum but thought I would share here too.

Been dosing Pohls Xtra for a week...... Dat Polyp extension.

The bottom right long one is about 1 inch long for scale.

 

[sahin]

Awesome PE. Your SPS look like they are happy with the care you are providing them.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

That's quite a collection of SPS frags. I hope they thrive for you!

 

[AJ_Tsin]

Awesome PE. Your SPS look like they are happy with the care you are providing them.

That's quite a collection of SPS frags. I hope they thrive for you!

Thanks guys glad to have you following along. I am very happy with this collection so far, I plan on adding a few more high end pieces before moving onto to zoas.