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Thomas' Red Sea 170


Derbird

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Well it's time to start a new build thread :D

 

Equipment list (so far lol)

Red Sea Reefer 170

Kessil A360W

Vertex Omega 130 Protien Skimmer

2X Vortek MP10's

Either a Rio 2100 or a mag 7 return, leaning toward the Rio.

 

This is going to be a mixed reef. But let's be serious its going to be very zoanthid heavy :)

 

My only current critter is one Ocellaris clown that has been in a temp tank for two years.  Sorry little buddy.  It is the saltwater first fish I ever bought

 

I am sure I'm forgetting a ton but let it begin 

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3 minutes ago, Derbird said:

No matter how well you rinse the sand you get a white out...

 

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To help with that white out if you have a fabric filters sock versus that mesh when you have that will help a ton for the first couple days

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30 minutes ago, R-3 said:

To help with that white out if you have a fabric filters sock versus that mesh when you have that will help a ton for the first couple days

Most definitely, it's part of the joy of a new tank.  Now we cycle 

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It's alive!

 

It is much noisier then I like but I'm hoping that with some time and adjustments it will tone down a bit.

 

I also picked up a piece of live rock at Cuttlefish and Corals to introduce bacteria.  Now I just have to be brave enough to put it into my pest free system 🙄

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Looks great! I hear ya on scaping a smaller tank, especially a cube can be tricky. One thing to remember though is once your coral grows in you forget about the scape a lot...here’s my similarly sized cube before and after 😂. Hard to see all the work I put into creating some unique shapes!

 

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Also, not sure if you have used a Vertex Omega 130 before but they can be finicky to adjust (especially the little Venturi adjustment). I ended up replacing my pump with a Jebao DCT4000 with one of my pinwheels and it’s been much easier to deal with. They don’t like to be very deep (I think mine is only like 7 or less, recommended is 7.5 to 8”) so make sure you use a stand if your level is deeper in the sump.

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3 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Looks great! I hear ya on scaping a smaller tank, especially a cube can be tricky. One thing to remember though is once your coral grows in you forget about the scape a lot...here’s my similarly sized cube before and after 😂. Hard to see all the work I put into creating some unique shapes!

 

3AD430A8-0F78-4ED1-A326-40A489AD6AA2.jpeg

 

B7F49D24-BE46-48DF-962A-A4BE1B317974.jpeg

 

Looks great, I think I'm going to remove one of the larger pieces on top to allow some grow out as space

3 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said:

Also, not sure if you have used a Vertex Omega 130 before but they can be finicky to adjust (especially the little Venturi adjustment). I ended up replacing my pump with a Jebao DCT4000 with one of my pinwheels and it’s been much easier to deal with. They don’t like to be very deep (I think mine is only like 7 or less, recommended is 7.5 to 8”) so make sure you use a stand if your level is deeper in the sump.

Thanks for the heads up.  I'll have to watch it when the time comes

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The cycle has begun lol.  Boring update for sure but I'm excited.

Today's tests show

.8 NH3

0 NO2

0 NO3

With the little chuck of rock and microbactor 7 we should have Nitrites and Nitrates in no time.

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The only down side of the cycle is a little funky odor from the tank.  Jeff hooked me up with some carbon and I finally figured out a use for the mesh filter dock that came with the tank.  I really thought that was useless lol

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Loki is as already tired of me playing with a box of water instead of her.  Poor girl, its just begun

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Looking good so far.  I like the rockscape but then I'm one of the (apparently few) on here that likes a lot of rock 😄  I tend to have a fair amount of fish to try to make sure they have plenty of spots to hide as necessary.  Also more options for mounting coral... at least until they outgrow the tank.  Good luck with the cycle.

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The cycle is really going now.  Lots of nasty chemicals being produced 🤢

 

NH3 .2

NO2  .75

NO3. 40ish 😱

I'm also seeing the start to the diatom bloom in the highest flow area.  

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Time to do some water changes 

Let the fun begin 

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Coming along great!

 

Later on down the road, if you do not decide to go to filter cups instead of the felt socks, you can throw floss in the mesh bag. 

I run cup with floss and bag with floss now on the 350 since it has room for two.  I toss one of the wads out every day alternating back and forth.  If you run the fine felt socks once you are up and rolling with fish you will need to get lots of them, mine clogged daily and I was constantly rotating them because i figured finer was better and bought like 5 of them.  Now I just use them to polish once a week for a few hours.  Also a fresh sock will overflow your skimmer if you don't rinse it really well, consider turning the skimmer off for a few hours after each sock change.

You can also throw a bag of carbon on top of your skimmer lid, the air passing through whatever holes are in the lid will be somewhat cleaned by passing through it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went to Cuttlefish and corals and Jeff's team confirmed the cycle was over 😃

 

Big news though, THERE IS LIFE IN THE TANK!

 

I couldn't resist picking up a few zoanthid while at Cuttlefish. 

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I now have 5 heads of Rasta and a sweet little mini colony of WWC Twizzlers.  So many more too get, they shall all be mine lol

 

Tonight or tomorrow I will move my clown over and the switch will be completed.

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1 hour ago, Derbird said:

New toys arrived!

Vortech battery backup 

Redsea media cup ( thanks @Krux for the suggestion)

And a Redsea screen top (I've heard these are fun to build...)

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I have no scientific proof, but I explained to my wife how our single battery backup probably saved her fish in the last windstorm, and am now going to be picking up a couple more with her  blessing!

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20190223_171217.jpgScreen top installed!  It's not perfect but as good as I could get it with converting metric to standard.

I also picked up the beginnings of a clean up crew and couldn't help pick up a few new Zoanthids.  Sunny D's an Armor of God are now in the tank.

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I can't help myself =]

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