RC 75 DIY Stand and Sump

[rmchoi]

Up and running

This is the new set up, fully operating. At start up, the overflow and drains discharge were overly loud. How could it be so loud with the right size return pump and the durso overflow set up correctly? I was at a loss. I ended up slightly adjusting the the return valve and slowing down the flow. It quieted down considerably. This may not be a good long term solution. I am looking into enlarging the air hole and maybe adding an air valve for adjustment.

I started this system, carbon dosing with zeovit stones and zeo bacteria. Using this on my prior tank, it worked well controlling nitrates, phosphates and keeping algae down.

Avast Marine Vibe reactor. This shakes the zeostones 2 x day on a timer and releases bacteria.

 

[rmchoi]

Aquascape adjustments

More live rock was added to the tank. This helped to conceal some of the "cut" looking edges of the live rock. I finally corrected the salinity after starting the salt mix incorrectly. Today began day 1 of the initial high dose of bacteria.





The center opening is the focal point. There is a channel of sand from front to back, to create perspective, with "fingers" of rock gradually descending into the sand.

 

[Falcao]

great looking setup

 

[rmchoi]

Flow

In addition to the Ecotech Vortech MP-40's on each side wall, I set up a 3rd Vortech MP-10 pump on the back wall. I have all 3 pumps set at different heights. The 2 MP-40 do not face each other directly, but are offset to create a slight gyre flow. The 3 pumps seem to create a turbulent, broken flow.



The 3rd Vortech pump placed on the back wall, in there center of the tank.



Hard to see the pump on the back wall, but it is placed next to the overflow box about half way down.

 

[sjeff35]

WOW! Just WOW! New guy here, but I had to jump in and say "Well Done" Everything is impressive! Can't wait to see this mature!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[rmchoi]

looking good. very clean setup....

reeftanknewbie - Thank you! I'm making a strong effort to keep the look and maintenance simple.

WOW! Just WOW! New guy here, but I had to jump in and say "Well Done" Everything is impressive! Can't wait to see this mature!

Thanks for sharing.

sjeff35— Thanks for the compliment!

 

[rmchoi]

Filtration

Zeovit 14 Day Cycle: Days 1-7

This is a blog the 14 day zeovit cycle. I used the zeovit guide as a template, I modified it to what was actually done.

Preparation

1. Fill the system with RO water and raise the water temperature to 78°F.
2. Smooth and broad flow, about 20-30 times of the tank’s volume per hour using 3 x Vortech pumps.
3. When water temperature is around 78°F add Red Sea Blue salt slowly into the current with salinity around 35%. Add live rock as soon as the salt has dissolved completely and the water is clear.
4. Approximately 20% of the tank’s contents is live rock. 2/3 of the live rock is dry Pukani rock, “cured” for the past 2 months. The other 1/3 is live rock from from the old tank.
5. After the live rock is placed, I added 1-1/2” shallow aragonite sand bed. I soaked the sand in RO water for 3-4 weeks before use and changed RO water weekly to ensure no phosphates. No live sand was used.
6. Start the zeovit reactor and the skimmer. I used .75L of zeovit stones for 75 US gallons of water tank volume. (Do not exceed flow rate through the reactor of 100 US gallons per hour maximum per each 1liter of zeovit). Make sure to run the reactor with a continuous flow.
7. Started the lighting 10 hours per day with 2 x Ecotech Radion Pro with wide angle lenses.



Day 1: Initial high bacteria dosage, based on net water volume of 75G (tank and sump)

Zeovit Stones: 750mL of stones into the reactor, with a water flow of 75 gph using a small Eheim compact pump. The Avast Vibe reactor automatically shakes the zeovit stones 2 x day to release the bacteria (mulm) from the stones.
Zeobak: 15mL
Zeostart: 30mL
Sponge Power: 9mL

DAY 2 – 3 Dosing Break
No dosing was done on these days. Continued to shake the stones in the reactor.

Day 4-14 Dose ZEObak, ZEOstart and Sponge Power (as recommended on the products label), daily for the next 10 days.

Zeobak: 3 drops
Zeostart: 3 drops
Sponge Power: .3mL

Shake the stones daily.
Brown diatoms began to appear lightly by day 4.

Day 5
Diatoms turning darker brown, except in areas having coralline algae.

Day 6
Fine filament beginning to grow, especially in areas with diatom. Diatoms still brown, but not turning darker.

Day 7
The brown diatom color is becoming lighter and starting to recede. Fine filaments growing everywhere. Looks like short fine hair. The color is white to very light green tint.
Temp 25.8C
pH 8.3
Salinity 35
Ammonia < 0.01 (maybe closer to 0.005)
Nitrite untraceable
Nitrate untraceable
Phosphate 0.05

The live rock that is dark and/or green is from the old tank. The cured rock has a light brown tint from diatoms. This rock was out off-white when the cycle started.

 

[rmchoi]

Day 10

Continue ZEObak, ZEOstart and Sponge Power daily / shake stones 2 x daily. The diatoms continue to diminish. Short fine hair algae in a very faint light green color on the live rock and sand bed.

Added dwarf angelfish (flame, coral beauty, potters, bicolor) and many small snails.

Zeobak: 3 drops /day
Zeostart: 3 drops /day
Sponge Power: 0.3ml / 2 x day

Temp 25.9C
pH 8.31
Salinity 35
Ammonia < 0.10
Nitrite untraceable
Nitrate untraceable
Phosphate 0.07 (slight rise from 0.05 a few days ago)

Day 14

Fine hair algae still on live rock with slight signs of receding in spots. Hair algae receded about 50% on the sand surface.

Day 15

The recommended dosage for 75G net water volume going forward:
Zeobak: 3 drops / 3 x week
Zeostart: 3 drops / day
Sponge Power: 0.3ml / 2 x day

Test readings:
Temp 25.9C
pH 8.29
Salinity 34.6
Ammonia < 0.10
Nitrite untraceable
Nitrate untraceable
Phosphate 0.03 (down from 0.07 a few days ago)



Observations:
Fine hair algae still present on live rock and sand. The trend I see are several spots of algae receding or it is gone.

 

[aiq25]

Very nice build. I'm looking to do a similar build in the future. Tank looks awesome!

 

[guserto4]

Very nice and clean build!

 

[Patrick Cox]

Hi,
Very nice build! I am interested in your cabinet design and have a question on the electronics section. Are you worried at all about heat accumulation in that section of the cabinet?

Thanks.

 

[rmchoi]

Very nice build. I'm looking to do a similar build in the future. Tank looks awesome!

aiq25— Thank you. So far, so good.

Very nice and clean build!

guserto4— Thanks for looking.

 

[rmchoi]

Hi,
Very nice build! I am interested in your cabinet design and have a question on the electronics section. Are you worried at all about heat accumulation in that section of the cabinet?

Thanks.

Thanks Patrick— No heat issues so far during our Michigan winter. I can feel air coming out the top holes in the back of the stand. The air is barely warm. I suspect this will be an issue summer, but not sure how much.

I made the equipment tray more narrow than the cabinet for airflow in front and back of the tray.



Then there are very large holes in the back, that line up with the equipment tray, to allow air to flow through. Also, the cabinet doors are set away from the cabinet jambs so lots of air can enter from the gaps around the sides and bottom of the doors. Should it become heat problem, I thought about adding a second temp probe in the cabinet connected to the Apex controller that turns a fan on like this Tunze at a set temperature. I'll keep you posted, when / if it warms up here :]

 

[rmchoi]

Clean up crew

On day 10, I put in about 140 various snails to work on the algae. The clean up crew package was from John at Reef Cleaners. Although it was overnight express mailed, I was very concerned about the clean up crew not surviving the literal sub-zero night time temperature. Amazingly, they all survived.

 

[rmchoi]

Screen tops

When I bought the tank, it came with the overflow, drain and screen tops. I ran into a problem when I decided to go with the Ecotech light mounts that install on the rim. Now the screens needed to be notched around the light mounts to fit. There is almost the same amount of work to retrofit the screens, as there is to make them new.

 

[rmchoi]

Problems with the ATO

Over the past week, the ATO pump start to get much louder, spitting and spurting water, even though the RO reservoir was full. I changed out the Avast pump and went with a Tunze Osmolator.

I am impressed. The optical sensor and float switch combo up is nice back up to have. Even more, I like how quiet it is. It is also nice to see the control showing the water level and pump status. One thing I wish is the alerts on the Tunze controller could be linked into the Apex to notify of the same low/high level alerts.

Having said this, the guys at Avast are great! They are going to warranty the ATO pump with a replacement. They are always customer oriented and tremendously helpful.



I believe all the controls I will have, are now complete and installed on the equipment panel doors. The controls from left to right: Apex unit, skimmer, MP10 (on back wall), MP40, MP40, Apex controller, Tunze ATO.

 

[stinkyreef]

Very nice build! The base is top notch and can't wait to see the tank mature

 

[rmchoi]

Very nice build! The base is top notch and can't wait to see the tank mature

Thanks stinkyreef - In the next few days, I plan to transfer the rest of the fish, inverts and corals from a 40G. Most of the corals will be LPS and a few SPS.

 

[dabob79]

Very nice, following!!

 

[Kbdeprima]

Nice stand!!