Reefsi 240 gallon In-Wall Build

[Reefcubes]

He already eats that's a good sign! Good luck with the fish, I will track the progress.:thumbsup:
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He seemed way out of place last night. Anyways last night I did I put a towel over the tank and let him be until this morning about 8am I turned the light on, he didn't seem startled at all, seemed way more comfortable with his surroundings. I fed him a mix of brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and spirulana, he ate a good amount, mostly brine shrimp. I also put a new piece of seaweed on a clip for him as well as a 2 gallon water change to suck up the stuff that had settled on the bottom. He didn't seem to care to much that my hand was in the tank when doing the water change. After that I left him alone and I wont be back until later this evening, I told my GF to feed him before she leaves for work around noon

 

[efrainz28]

Today got some more work done on the build. Trimmed the tank out and some little odds and ends. Yeah the dog is a Golden Retriever, to be honest its the best dog a man could ask for. They have a great demeanor and are very smart animals.

Trimmed with 3 1/2 Modern Casing and 3/4 cove on the inside. It was tough to miter the casing and cove at the same time because i had attach the cove to the casing beforehand.




Put the bulkheads in. Nothing much but a picture lol




Hate to admit it but I bought a Glass Cages aquarium. Due to the fact that I had a 180 marineland leak on me and a 80 perfecto leak as well. I could have went other routes but decided to go with Glass Cages. I do have to say I was impressed with the build of the tank. There where no bad silicone lines, all bracing was spot on, and the tank was built square and all the sides aligned correctly. I did go Starphire Glass on the front panel.

Next week Ill build the sump and all the goodies arrive! Ill keep everyone posted!

End of day 4.

Have you found it difficult to place coral with out having a front access panel?

 

[Reefsi]

Achilles tang update:
He is eating well Green seaweed, Red seaweed, and Brine shrimp. I am throwing spirulana Brine at him for more nutrition and will also try some pellets this week to get some more vitamin to him and try to build a healthier immune system. So far so good though he has been eating well as far as I can tell.

As far as accessing the tank from the back, I find it pretty cool because every other tank I have ever had I have had to access it from the front so finally seeing the back is awesome I think. But to answer your question, yes its tough because you cant see when the return pump is on. So to place all the corral and see what your doing all flow has to be off, once the flow is off though I find it some what easier and cleaner. Would I do it again? Absolutely

 

[Reefsi]

Out of town in Venice, La right now actually fishing for some yellowfin tuna ill post up some pics when we get in later! We come down here for business every month or so and when the weathers nice, you bet your arse were fishing!

 

[Reefsi]

Will be posting pics tomorrow of my DT, QT, and Achilles tang.

Update:
Removed 8 of the 12 chromis so far, It was a pain in the arse.

 

[Atomic081]

Cya at the frag swap!

 

[xclusive252]

I love the setup following, can you please post a pic of the check valve on the Calcium reactor. Ty

 

[Reefsi]

Check valve in the CO2 line? Check valve of effluent or the valve to control the water in?

 

[jamroz37]

updates?!

 

[Reefsi]

Here is a few pictures. Sorry been lurking in the reef fish section for info on my Achilles Tang.

He is in QT right now!


Good picture of some Monti Digi, honestly It just keeps getting redder..


I know I gotta snap more pictures and to be honest just been a lack of time. Plus there not that great because the iphone sucks at taking pictures.

 

[Reefsi]

This picture is about 10 days+ old I will try to snap some good photos tomorrow and try to find time to post them. I do plan on getting on a regular routine of posting updates.

 

[Atomic081]

Looks amazing!

 

[Reefsi]

So update finally, with the weather breaking and all finally getting some time to do things. Put the Achilles in the tank today after 4 weeks of QT almost. He is doing great and took to eating like a champ. I had somewhat of the start of an algae problem so I went lights out for 2 days and it started to fade all of my SPS colors, but the algae resided. Strange that I even had any type of algae outbreak, but then again thats new tanks for ya! I kept my parameters very steady and my PO4 never broke 0.02 although my nitrates hit about 20ppm and is what I believe led to the bloom. Anyways TONS of coralline popping up all over the tank which is great. Been keeping up with 10-15% water changes per week. here are a few pics to enjoy!

3 clams! Got the big one the third week the tank was running and took a gamble because he was a steel. He has increased color and is seeming to stay very healthy. The other 2 are completely browned out and I put them in the tank 1 week ago, already showing great signs of as far as coloring up goes.


Tubastrea I purchased.



AT




Whole tank shot. You can sort of see the algea growth.



Also bought a par meter this weekend from BRS. It arrived and I am going to use it tonight to test the par out. So far I tried it at the surface at it was 1600-2400. Under the surface of the water was about 900, then took one 16 inches down and it was about 515. I do a map with all the readings soon!

 

[Reefsi]

Par readings I just took. It was a quick reading for now. Tomorrow I will have 3 maps, one in the AM, Miday, and Kessils on alone. The readings I took were.

- Just above the surface.
- Just below the surface.
- 5"
- 10"
- 15"
- 20"
- bottom



Im pleased so far. That is running the ATI powerblue ATI coralplus and 6x Kessil at 100% intensity 75% spectrum(1(bluest)100(whitest))

 

[zoomonster]

Looking great and looking like someone has been busy buying frags. Looks like if they were all half grown you'd have a full tank.

Did you end up using all dead rock to build that tank with no fresh live rock added?

 

[longdinhquang1]

Cool. I am in

 

[Reefsi]

Yeah I did end up using all dead rock. I used one good piece of LR to seed the whole tank. I think I introduced the algae from a frag I got from the DD section on LA. Came in with some nuisance algae and I sort of disregarded it. I did all my corals for 10min in CoralRX and inspect every piece so Im confident I have no other nuisances in the tank. The best part about it is I know I have 0 hitchhikers in my tank that will surprise me down the road. Would I go dead rock again? Absolutely
The algae is definitely receding which is great. I think what happen was my tank cycles through ammonia and nitrites but never really had a dramatic increase of nitrates. They eventually built up and BAM had an algae bloom kind of. That or it was me changing my salt mix up which I here can lead to a bloom sometimes(switched to aquavitiro salinity). Its receded about half of what it was at one point, but thats just a new tank. I keep PO4 at 0.00-0.02 checked with Hanna meter and Milwaukee and they usually match up if not 0.01 off.
Other parameters
Temp: 79.9-80.4
PH:7.89-8.17(normal day fluctuation)
SG: 0.026
ORP:362 atm Ozone reactor set to 400-420
Alk:155PPM/3.1 Meq/L /8.68 DKH (Hanna)
Ca: 450PPM (Red Sea)
MG: 1400-1450ish
NH3: Undetectable
NO2: Undetectable
NO3: 20PPM

 

[Reefsi]

I have found that since the nitrates popped up my colors have increased and this may be because I keep my PO4 so low. I have also noticed corals from my LFS have increased color dramatically while stuff from LA, JF(jasonfox), and VA have had mix results. The corrals will bleach(To much light) and then recolor up very quickly. My reasoning is because my LFS uses LED's and the places I order from do not.

I have been feeding for both my corrals and fish.
FISH
Chopped clams from the store
Brine shrimp soaked in selcon
Blackworms
Mysis Shrimp soaked in selcon
Nori

Coral
Oyster Feast
Phyto
Rods Coral food(maybe once a week)

I have noticed great PE especially at nights its quit awesome I should try and snap some upclose pictures at night.

 

[Reefsi]

Some new acans and misc. photos.

Just after they arrived and were put into the tank yesterday.








Just a picture to show how much coralline has developed in just 8 weeks.



My Achilles







Top down



Cool Monti I picked up, Im usually against getting big colonies.

 

[jamroz37]

It's looking good man! Love the tang