Reefer 250 build
- Thread starter tenurepro
- Start date
tenurepro
New member
Added 3 small blue green chromis to the tank last night; they've been eating well and looking good in the QT for over 3 weeks. The three amigos or the three horsemen of the reef apocalypse ... Time will tell.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
New member
Wow... Crazy news! I come home to see how the chromis are doing when I spot am unusual fish in the tank.... It's Kayser Söze, my presumed dead black leopard wrasse! I mean I listed him as MIA in my spreadsheet last week. unbelievable. So I saw Kayser all of 3 times since I added him to the tank a month and a week ago. Last time I saw him was two weeks ago after lights out. He looked healthy picking on things in the live rock today. I quickly dropped a cube of mysis in the tank. Other fish went on a feeding frenzy. Kayser Söze of course disappeared into the Sand immediately! I guess it is true. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convince the world that he didn't exist... And just like that 'poof' he disappeared! (If this sounds weird, please go watch the Usual Suspects immediately)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ron Reefman
Active member
Glad to hear that he is still alive! My sea cucumber does the disappearing act for 6 to 8 weeks at a time, but that is his job after all.
tenurepro
New member
Ok - some sad news this morning. Found Kayser Söze dead on the sandbed. Did a postmortem and no obvious signs of injuries / sickness. He seemed thin but not deathly thin if you know what I mean. Never fun to lose a fish. I've heard leopards can be tricky. I didn't QT him based on advice of a few folks, thinking that he would be better off in the display with all the pods and live rock and sand. He may have had a parasite that contributed to this. Also he was in my nano when I intentionally dug him to Sell the tank. Maybe it was the stress of getting introduced to two different systems that did it. Either way, very sad to lose such a beautiful fish 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
New member
tenurepro
New member
Motivated by Rpc07, I decided to turn the stock ATO into a fuge. It will be fed by my phosban reactor with the aim of providing some space for a pod population. I wanted to drill two bulkheads for a main and an emergency. First time drilling the tank so was very nervous. 1/2" bulkheads need a 1-1/8" hole. I found a little glass drilling kit which came with a drilling guide. I marked the holes on the tank, setup the drill and guide and gave it a go but the drill started dancing on the glass yikes!
Ok plan b, need a better guide and to practice. Managed to find some spare tiles and after some trial and error, managed to drill a 1-1/8" hole in it - yay!
So I built a little plumbers putty dam on the ato tank, lightly clamped the ceramic tile on it and started drilling to get the hole started, then finished it off free hand ... Success
Of course, rookie mistakes where made. I penciled in the emergency overflow half an inch Higher than main but with all the mishaps and excitement, it only ended 1/4" higher. But I think I can fix this by elevating the emergency overflow nozzle a bit.
Will cover the sides of the tank to prevent light creep outside the fuge and shop for a little light and hook it up tomorrow
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
yikes!
Ok plan b, need a better guide and to practice. Managed to find some spare tiles and after some trial and error, managed to drill a 1-1/8" hole in it - yay!
So I built a little plumbers putty dam on the ato tank, lightly clamped the ceramic tile on it and started drilling to get the hole started, then finished it off free hand ... Success
Of course, rookie mistakes where made. I penciled in the emergency overflow half an inch Higher than main but with all the mishaps and excitement, it only ended 1/4" higher. But I think I can fix this by elevating the emergency overflow nozzle a bit.
Will cover the sides of the tank to prevent light creep outside the fuge and shop for a little light and hook it up tomorrow
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
pelphrey
New member
Up, we have another Union, a female threaded adaptor and another naked barbed 1/2" fitting which will soft connect the plumping to the reefer's return.
The total height of pluming and vectra is 21"
1) managed to get 3/4" male / hose adaptor on the reefer return plumbing. It took 3 attempts. What worked best is to take the o ring from the original male / 5/8" hose fitting, put a few layers of 3mm pink Teflon tape on the threads. Leak free connection to 3/4" adaptor on my vectra hardplumbing. Yay!
Did you not like the flow out of the 1/2" adapter? I am fixing to hard plumb my reefer 250 and had planned to use the red sea adapter going into the tank. My plan is to build a manifold with 2 or 3 controlled outputs and 1 output for the return unrestricted.
tenurepro
New member
I changed it to 3/4" to fit the plumbing coming out of the vectra. Is used 3/4" sch40 pvc. I wanted a hose connection to reefer and it was a lot easier to switch the reefer to 3/4. I suppose I could've gone with a 3/4 to 1/2 reducer on my pic but that would've added to the height of the pluming
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
tenurepro
New member
tenurepro
New member
Ok, it's all hooked up. First I sealed it with aquarium backing to keep light in. Used a few elbow connections to route the phosban output up and into fuge. Then ran a hose from fuge to bubble trap.
It works but it is not silent! I sounds like running water (think water overflowing over felt sock filters). Will have to research ways to make it silent. But now I have space for pods!
My clamp light is too big so will have to find an alternative.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It works but it is not silent! I sounds like running water (think water overflowing over felt sock filters). Will have to research ways to make it silent. But now I have space for pods!
My clamp light is too big so will have to find an alternative.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
pelphrey
New member
Reef Octopus VarioS-6. Was going to get the Vectra M1 but the VarioS was $65 cheaper and is controllable via the apex out of the box. There isn't a lot of information on these pumps, I'll find out soon if I made the right decision!
To resolve your fuge issue have you tried slowing down the input line into the fuge? That or adding more water to it?
To resolve your fuge issue have you tried slowing down the input line into the fuge? That or adding more water to it?
Similar threads
