bitwise's Red Sea Reefer 170

[bitwise]

About a month ago I decided to take the plunge on a larger system. The Reefer 170 is a 34 gallon cube-ish shaped aquarium with a 9 gallon sump. I'm quite happy with how easy it was to put everything together. Ease of setup was an important factor for me since I rent an apartment. I wanted to get up and running relatively quickly.

I've been circulating saltwater for about 24 hours now, in preparation for my TBS order coming on Wednesday.

Equipment wise I picked up some really nice new things. I'll also be reusing some things from my 18 gallon. I'll be running a 6 bulb ATI sunpower, a oversized Reef Octopus skimmer, a Sicce Syncra 2.0 return pump, and at least 1 MP10 for water flow.

 

[bitwise]

My live rock order from TBS shipped today, 25 pounds worth. The rock has a TON of life on it. The tank is not sterile anymore.

For now I just put the rocks in the aquarium. Tomorrow I'm going to aquascape and start breaking in the skimmer.

 

[seymour47]

My live rock order from TBS shipped today, 25 pounds worth. The rock has a TON of life on it. The tank is not sterile anymore.

For now I just put the rocks in the aquarium. Tomorrow I'm going to aquascape and start breaking in the skimmer.

TBS liverock is amazing. A friend of mine got her rock from him and ended up with 3 free urchins, some brittle stars, a cucumber and all kinds of corals and bivalves.

 

[SMSREEF]

I love your tank! How are you liking the ATI sunpower?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bitwise]

I love your tank! How are you liking the ATI sunpower?

Thanks! I'm loving the sunpower so far. The build quality is excellent.

 

[bitwise]

I just tested the water, and boy was I surprised.

Ammonia - undetectable
Nitrite - 0.05 ppm (had to switch to low range to detect)
Nitrate - 5 ppm

I'm thinking about when I should move things from 18g over.
Here is my 18g stock:
2 clowns
1 serpent star
2 trochus snails
4 emerald crabs
1 hermit crab
~20 smaller corals zoas/palys, lps, sps

 

[ken1977]

Is your ATI the Dimmable?

 

[bitwise]

Is your ATI the Dimmable?

No it's not dimmable. 2 bulbs are connected to one outlet plug and 4 bulbs are connected to a second outlet plug.

 

[bitwise]

I arranged the live rock. I'm happy with how it came out. I wanted a sturdy structure first and foremost. Making it sturdy without any cement, rods, or sand is tricky.

I haven't started running the skimmer yet. I'm going to start breaking that in after my mini-vacation this weekend.

ATO is up and running as of this evening. I'm keeping a very close eye on the operation of the unit, especially this first couple of days. It is the Tunze 3155 unit, which is supposed to be a very good unit. The reservoir is only ~1.5 gallons. For longer vacations I'll be taking the "metering pump" out of the mini-reservoir and dropping it into a 5 gallon bucket on the side of the cabinet.

I'm planning on doing something different than most builds of this size for the electronics. I want to have a control panel of sorts outside the cabinet. I think there are way too many controls and cords to house in the cabinet in a decent fashion. This is likely going to be the final phase of the build.

Also, I ordered a top with feed door from Artfully Acrylic. I think keeping jumpers in the aquarium is the right thing to do.

Attached photo is a side-by-side shot: 18g gallon and new system

* Photo credit: my girlfriend

 

[natedogg]

Do you work in Fresno, CA by any chance?

 

[bitwise]

Do you work in Fresno, CA by any chance?

No

 

[bitwise]

I managed to get a bunch of stuff done this weekend. My old aquarium is completely broken down. Clownfish, 2 trochus snails, serpent star, and corals are now in the new system. Everything looks really good with the exception of one of the trochus snails.

I tested alk, cal, and phosphates today. Alk and cal were nominal, phosphates exceeded the 200 ppb (~.6 ppm phosphate) limit of the Hanna ULR meter.

 

[bitwise]

More pics

 

[ljosh]

The tanks looking really good.

What bulb combination are you using for your t5s?

 

[bitwise]

The tanks looking really good.

What bulb combination are you using for your t5s?

Thanks.

4 blue plus
1 coral plus
1 purple plus

Most of those photos were taken with my sunrise/sunset bulbs (2 blue plus).

 

[bitwise]

I started breaking in my skimmer yesterday. It is a Reef Octopus 110S.

I don't have the collection cup on it right now. I found it impossible to take off the collection cup with the skimmer in the sump. I ordered some food grade grease that I am going to apply a tiny bit of to the o-ring on the collection cup. I'm hoping this makes it much easier to remove the cup.

 

[bitwise]

I'm keen on adding a few smaller fish soon. I only have a few caves in the rocks and have no sand. Also, I think I have a pistol shrimp. Whatever it is, it came as a hitchhiker with the TBS rock. I can hear a loud popping noise from time-to-time. I read online that pistol shrimp can kill smaller fish. Should I set a trap or roll the dice?

I'm interested in hearing suggestions for fish.

 

[bitwise]

I decided to put fish purchases on hold until next month because of an upcoming vacation.

I've been battling algae problems for at least the last 3 weeks. I started to get really aggressive about the situation this past Monday. I started running a large amount of GFO passively and testing phosphates daily. The reefer 170 has a shelf (actually a sponge) between the constant level skimmer chamber and the return pump chamber that all return water passes over. I have the bag of GFO sitting right on the shelf.

Also, I painstakingly scrubbed the bare bottom today. The bare bottom had spots that were covered in hair algae that was trapping detritus. I think that the amount of detritus in the aquarium has something to do with the algae.

I also cut back feedings to minute amounts.

I'm changing about 10 gallons of water a week.

I'm pretty disappointed that I've had such bad algae problems so early on. I think the algae problems can be attributed to intense lighting and higher than ideal phosphates. So many crabs and other animals (with the rock) were added to the sterile system at one time that I think the system was imbalanced. Hopefully the aquarium is now starting to become balanced. The algae growth was so fast a few days ago that clean glass would be completely covered in algae to the point where you couldn't see into the aquarium in 48 hours.

If you have any tips or suggestions on my current situation please post. My priority right now is to avoid a full blown hair algae outbreak on the rock. I know how hard that is to beat.

I'll try to get a FTS up tomorrow.

 

[SMSREEF]

The algae growth was so fast a few days ago that clean glass would be completely covered in algae to the point where you couldn't see into the aquarium in 48 hours.

If you have any tips or suggestions on my current situation please post. My priority right now is to avoid a full blown hair algae outbreak on the rock. I know how hard that is to beat.

I had the same problem when I set my tank up. I definitely stocked too fast with live rock. Using GFO, Chaetomorpha(I just tied a piece of fishing line through it and attached to side of tank), emerald crab, snails, 50% water change per week (easier with a 10 gallon I know), pre-filter floss change every 2 days has helped get it under control.

 

[bitwise]

I like the fishing line idea. I've been considering buying chaeto because it is a more natural approach than GFO. Actually, using large amounts of GFO can cause alkalinity levels to drop quite a bit in a nano tank. I saw this in my 18g.

Did you have the chaeto in the display part of the tank?

In my experience emerald crabs are able to keep hair algae at bay, but I'd like to keep this aquarium emerald crab free. I've had problems in the past with them eating the flesh of choice LPS.

Phosphate was at .06 ppm this morning, so the levels are coming down. I'm on day 3 since cleaning the glass and although there are parts that have a fair amount of algae, I can see through about 1/2 the glass clearly. This is a lower rate of growth than what I was seeing.