d2mini's "Essential Focus" Mixed Reef Build
- Thread starter d2mini
- Start date
DamonG
New member
Keeping eyes out on your growth, at that price, it would be good for my scrubber..In this case LifeReef designed the refugium to be taller than the sump.
Thanks.
Nice to see Jeff expanding his offerings with some color, this being his new "Signature Series".
Haha, thanks.
The Triton sump would have continued to work as far as providing additional water volume and giving me a place to shove misc equipment and grow a lot of macros. But it was designed for high flow, the fuge was massive, and was really meant to be used on a triton tank where you are draining directly into the fuge with no mechanical filtration. And yes, I did want additional room for things like a CaRx.
I always thought the Mars light performed really well and it's cheap. This guy is even cheaper at just $55.
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VJV
New member
Made some updates under the hood over the past couple weeks.
The most obvious is a whole new sump from LifeReef.
It's their CLF1 Berlin Sump with the add-on Refugium.
My old 200g had a big custom LR sump and I always thought it was designed well with just the necessities and with none of the gimmicks.
The big one is no filter socks. Instead there is a large tray for mechanical filter material of your choosing. The water enters the sump into this section with the skimmer and then flows over the filter material.
Then the return section has the Accessory Rack which holds probes, 1/4" water/dosing lines, and filter canisters which I'm still waiting on.
On the right is the refugium. Water gets pumped from a tee on the return line into the fuge, through a spray bar in front and then back into the return section from the drain along the back. The fuge has a built in emergency drain, too (the upturned 90 elbow).
I've currently got it plumbed just to get it running, but once the filter canisters come in, I may replumb and run them off a manifold rather than a dedicated pump.
I also got a new SVS3-24" skimmer to match.
For the fuge, I'll be starting that up this week with some new Chaeto.
I decided the old Mars Hydro 300 LED was just too big for this smaller fuge so I replaced it with a smaller and slightly less powerful 216w UFO style grow light. Very similar spectrum.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXIVY5V/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
This is a much smaller sump overall than the Triton sump I had. I'd say it's just big enough.
I did have Jeff add a couple inches to the width (front to back) measurement, but I also had him take a couple inches off the length of the fuge to get it to fit comfortably in my stand.
Now I have more room in the stand, like for an eventual calcium reactor.
And finally, the doser was upgraded to the GHL 2.1 and the old 2.0 will go to my office nano to replace the BRS dosers.
Hey Denis, nice sump! Really cool to see how this is going to turn out. I have a !Mars Hydro that I bought based on your recommendation earlier. The power ratings on these lights really puzzles me. The Mars Hydro said 300 but power consumption is actually stated to be 132w. Looking at the Amazon link you now post it seems that power consumption on your new UFO is actually 75w...??? What is your view?
Cheers!
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VJV
New member
Yeah, almost exactly like mine (18x13x14h). I will add a pump to make it spin faster and try to avoid over cooking with the Mars and see how that goes.
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Joe Kelley
Active member
Nice sump, very clean space!
liverock
RC Sponsor
Just found this baby Basket Star.
Amazing....been a long while since I shipped you that...wonder what the metamorphosis is .......we need input from Ron....
d2mini
Premium Member
So I've been using the same RO/DI since I got into reefing and it had seen better days.
We have chloramines in the water supply too.
So I decided to pick up a Spectrapure MaxCap 2:1 with Auto Flush when Premium Aquatics was having a sale a couple months ago. About the same time I decided to do the restart.
This time I didn't want to have it mounted inside the mixing station shed.
But it still needed to be protected from the elements, especially sunlight.
I decided to mount it to my siding, and then build a cedar shell around it.
Here's a couple updated pics showing the current mixing/AWC station and the new RO/DI.
We have chloramines in the water supply too.
So I decided to pick up a Spectrapure MaxCap 2:1 with Auto Flush when Premium Aquatics was having a sale a couple months ago. About the same time I decided to do the restart.
This time I didn't want to have it mounted inside the mixing station shed.
But it still needed to be protected from the elements, especially sunlight.
I decided to mount it to my siding, and then build a cedar shell around it.
Here's a couple updated pics showing the current mixing/AWC station and the new RO/DI.
Dennis, that is a nice setup for outdoors. Do you monitor temps in those containers? I would imagine the temps get pretty high during the long summers you have.
I wonder if storing salt water at high temps does anything to the water. Bacterial or chemical.
I am trying my best to get my wife to give up the 6×10 storage adjacent to my display. She has allowed a corner of it for me. My back deck is not far either. But it gets direct sunlight for at least 6 hours a day. 95 and high humidity would be like hot soup in a storage unit
I wonder if storing salt water at high temps does anything to the water. Bacterial or chemical.
I am trying my best to get my wife to give up the 6×10 storage adjacent to my display. She has allowed a corner of it for me. My back deck is not far either. But it gets direct sunlight for at least 6 hours a day. 95 and high humidity would be like hot soup in a storage unit
d2mini
Premium Member
I've never had a problem.
My water has always been in my hot garage or outside in the shed.
I don't monitor temps.
d2mini
Premium Member
Those are from my local Tank Depot.
Twoface14
New member
Made some updates under the hood over the past couple weeks.
The most obvious is a whole new sump from LifeReef.
It's their CLF1 Berlin Sump with the add-on Refugium.
My old 200g had a big custom LR sump and I always thought it was designed well with just the necessities and with none of the gimmicks.
The big one is no filter socks. Instead there is a large tray for mechanical filter material of your choosing. The water enters the sump into this section with the skimmer and then flows over the filter material.
Then the return section has the Accessory Rack which holds probes, 1/4" water/dosing lines, and filter canisters which I'm still waiting on.
On the right is the refugium. Water gets pumped from a tee on the return line into the fuge, through a spray bar in front and then back into the return section from the drain along the back. The fuge has a built in emergency drain, too (the upturned 90 elbow).
I've currently got it plumbed just to get it running, but once the filter canisters come in, I may replumb and run them off a manifold rather than a dedicated pump.
I also got a new SVS3-24" skimmer to match.
For the fuge, I'll be starting that up this week with some new Chaeto.
I decided the old Mars Hydro 300 LED was just too big for this smaller fuge so I replaced it with a smaller and slightly less powerful 216w UFO style grow light. Very similar spectrum.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MXIVY5V/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
This is a much smaller sump overall than the Triton sump I had. I'd say it's just big enough.
I did have Jeff add a couple inches to the width (front to back) measurement, but I also had him take a couple inches off the length of the fuge to get it to fit comfortably in my stand.
Now I have more room in the stand, like for an eventual calcium reactor.
And finally, the doser was upgraded to the GHL 2.1 and the old 2.0 will go to my office nano to replace the BRS dosers.
Sump goals
I've read so many conflicting things about the timing for adding corals in a newly setup tank - some say to wait months until the tank "matures", others just dive right in. You seem to be having great success with the corals you added after a few weeks being set up with TBS. My TBS setup is now at almost three weeks after part 2 went in the tank. Had a small diatom bloom, but that's gone. Showing a little bit of green algae now, but the CUC is eating it. I have a few fish in there, and water params seem stable (as much as anything in this hobby can be called "stable" after only a few weeks).
I'm tempted to move frags out of my previous system (which is serving as a holding tank now), but don't want to rush it. I'm wondering what your experience has been over the years with your TBS setups - have you successfully added corals this quickly in previous systems?
Also, quick sidebar for an earlier question from someone re: tanks; I took advantage of this tip I found somewhere else on this or the other site - ruralking sells Ace Roto Mold tanks and drop ships them free! You may have to wait several weeks, but if you don't have any local sources, the free shipping is a deal.
I'm tempted to move frags out of my previous system (which is serving as a holding tank now), but don't want to rush it. I'm wondering what your experience has been over the years with your TBS setups - have you successfully added corals this quickly in previous systems?
Also, quick sidebar for an earlier question from someone re: tanks; I took advantage of this tip I found somewhere else on this or the other site - ruralking sells Ace Roto Mold tanks and drop ships them free! You may have to wait several weeks, but if you don't have any local sources, the free shipping is a deal.
Heuristic
New member
Sometimes I think it's not so much the "tank" maturing as to why you should wait 6 months, but the hobbyist maturing :lol:
sde1500
Active member
This 100%. If you've had a previous successful tank and corals then no need to wait if you ask me.
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