Making a comeback - lots of questions.

[Jgoal55]

Well, the time has come to begin planning my set up to eventually buy all the right components. I am already decided on sump and filtration - that will hopefully be arriving early part of 2021.

In the meantime, I'd like to figure out a few things as I know much of the tech has changed since I've been gone, so here go the questions:

Auto Water Changes and ATO

I've decided I'll be going with the Profilux Controller system and all of its components that will be necessary to accomplish what I want from this tank (which is the least amount of maintenance possible).

In other words, I want as much automation as the current tech allows for. The main thing I want to accomplish is automatic water changes. However, the storage tanks will be one floor below the aquarium (in the garage). When building the house I ran some 1/2" Pex tubing inside my walls from the second floor down to the first in preparation. What kind of pump will I need to get the water all the way up for the change? Will the GHL dosing pumps work for a second floor? About 15 years ago I used a Barracuda pool pump - I'm hoping that's no longer necessary. LOL

Have any of you ever used Jandy (pool equipment) auto-valves for saltwater?

As for the ATO portion, I assume its a better idea to fill a reservoir under the display (from the downstairs water storage tank) every couple of weeks or so, and use that as my ATO reservoir, than to constantly fill the display with water from downstairs, right?

Water Storage Tanks

The tank volume is right around 210g. Knowing that I will be performing auto water changes on a daily basis, how much water volume do you think should be changed daily?

That will help me determine what size water storage tanks I should get depending on whether I want 2 weeks of water, 3 weeks, etc.

Rocks and Cement

Is Marco rocks still the go to spot? Is Haitian shelf rock still around? I'd like to find rock that is porous and light and that can create lots of "shelves." Would appreciate al recommendations.

What reef cement is being used to create the aquaecapes these days?


That's it for now. Thanks in advance for the help and I am looking forward to getting back to this and sharing a build thread soon.

 

[Bernie21]

I'm following along. I've been out for 5 years and plan on making a return next year or the following, but like you, wish to invest in as much infrastructure as possible. So tagging along. I'm hoping you help me get that push over the edge back!! Sorry I don't have answers for you, as I'm further behind on my quest back.

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[Jgoal55]

I'm following along. I've been out for 5 years and plan on making a return next year or the following, but like you, wish to invest in as much infrastructure as possible. So tagging along. I'm hoping you help me get that push over the edge back!! Sorry I don't have answers for you, as I'm further behind on my quest back.

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Haha. No worries. I've been out for about that long as well save for a nano I ran for a while in my office.

Looking forward to responses. This forum seems to have slowed down a bit since I was last active.


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[Sharpimage]

Are you putting the sump in the lower level or just the storage tanks?
Ato, I use a tunze osmomolator. I believe it will go 15 feet vertically, so no need for a smaller top off tank under the stand.

Return pumps are generally dc now. Smaller and quite. Not sure about 15 foot of head pressure though.

Ato water changes can be done by neptune dos, genesus renew, litremeter, and stenner. I'm sure there are others, but thats what I can think of. I use a dos and find it loud.

Auto water changes are generally 1%, so 2.1 gallons.

Last I checked you can't get Haitian reef rock unless it is from a hobbyist.

 

[Dono]

Look into TANK DEPOT for the storage tanks. I use their 75gal variation for storing RO and mixing saltwater for my ATO and AWC. They have solid bulkheads that make plumbing them easy and they arent that pricey.

I have my tanks about 40-50 feet away in my garage and ran the lines (RO tubing) up into my attic and dropped them down the wall behind my tank. It's being run by an APEX DOS and has zero issues. I would assume any controllable peristaltic pump would work (Versa/DOS) without issue. My tank is 350gal, so I try to do 10% weekly but to prevent pump burnout, I scaled it down and just set myself with 4gal/day and APEX took care of it all for me spreading out the intervals throughout the day.

Marco is great. My tank is a mix of Marco Base Rock, Real Reef Solutions / Carib Sea Branch rock, Real Reef Solutions shelf rock, and some beautiful live rock (Haitian/Tonga) that I found at some local shops. Aquarium Kingdom III in Oakland Park has some absolutely BEAUTIFUL LR pieces in their storage tanks. The only pest I've picked up from it was dinos/hydroids. Dinos got knocked out immediately with UV and hydroids worked themself out (the tiny white that pop up on the glass).

 

[Jgoal55]

Are you putting the sump in the lower level or just the storage tanks?

Just the storage tanks. The sump will be under the tank in the stand.

Ato, I use a tunze osmomolator. I believe it will go 15 feet vertically, so no need for a smaller top off tank under the stand.

I love the Tunze. I'll have to give it a test run to see how it handles itself. If not, maybe a small ATO container in the stand that gets filled by a stronger pump when needed isn't a bad option.

Return pumps are generally dc now. Smaller and quite. Not sure about 15 foot of head pressure though.

Ato water changes can be done by neptune dos, genesus renew, litremeter, and stenner. I'm sure there are others, but thats what I can think of. I use a dos and find it loud.

Auto water changes are generally 1%, so 2.1 gallons.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to start researching all these options. I've heard good things about the litremeter.

Last I checked you can't get Haitian reef rock unless it is from a hobbyist.

Oh well. I'll have to chisel away to make some awesome shelf pieces. Too bad. Love Hatian rock.

Look into TANK DEPOT for the storage tanks. I use their 75gal variation for storing RO and mixing saltwater for my ATO and AWC. They have solid bulkheads that make plumbing them easy and they arent that pricey.

Awesome. Just browsed their site. They have some pretty perfect solutions.

I have my tanks about 40-50 feet away in my garage and ran the lines (RO tubing) up into my attic and dropped them down the wall behind my tank. It's being run by an APEX DOS and has zero issues. I would assume any controllable peristaltic pump would work (Versa/DOS) without issue. My tank is 350gal, so I try to do 10% weekly but to prevent pump burnout, I scaled it down and just set myself with 4gal/day and APEX took care of it all for me spreading out the intervals throughout the day.

That's good to hear. If the peristaltic can handle it, that's an easy way to do this quietly (not a main concern, but it helps) and efficiently.

Marco is great. My tank is a mix of Marco Base Rock, Real Reef Solutions / Carib Sea Branch rock, Real Reef Solutions shelf rock, and some beautiful live rock (Haitian/Tonga) that I found at some local shops. Aquarium Kingdom III in Oakland Park has some absolutely BEAUTIFUL LR pieces in their storage tanks. The only pest I've picked up from it was dinos/hydroids. Dinos got knocked out immediately with UV and hydroids worked themself out (the tiny white that pop up on the glass).

Awesome. Thanks for the leads. Funny that you mention UV. That's something I hadn't even remembered to add to the equipment list. No good reason why, but I thought they had kind of fizzled out. Are most reefers still using UV?