Burningbaal

But don't take my word alone...I do know my microbiology (BSc from OSU), and I'm super over the top on researching things I'm interested in (drives my wife crazy), but I'm only one guy. Go cruise here and other forums to see if I'm right. Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Much easier to see! Ya, I'd go sbreeflights (and plan to buy one soon). There are reasons I wouldn't be the first to voice, but a fancy website does not mean they are better lights. Your can buy 3 or 4 of them for the price of one Radion 30 pro, if you're really worried , but an extra to keep on the shelf for backup There's an easy hardware hack to make the "basic" sbreeflight (or almost any cheaper black boxes) dimmable by any controller, and less temptation to keep messing with spectrum. The gyre might be less integratable. If that's critical for you, then the vortech is a winner. I plan to do some tinkering for my future tank and try to get the gyre controlled by my reef-pi, I'm sure there's a way to get it under Apex control, but it's surely not as plug n play as the vortech. One more: live sand isn't super critical if your starting with a bacteria product. I'd focus on getting the grain size you want, perhaps a single bag of live sand, and add a few bacteria starters. Prodibio, microbacter 7, Dr Tim's one and only, biospiro, fritz, others. I'd also continue to dose these and things like live rock enhance, microbacter CLEAN, Dr Tim's waste away periodically for the first year Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Formatting is tough to read, the newlines got lost. But mostly it looks like you're ok. I'd be making sure the rodi and sw buckets are more like brute cans or 55g drums than a mere bucket, that may be your plan... Just making sure. It looks like you're going the route with a separate fuge, make sure you've got the plumbing all planned for that. I'd say the API kit is fine for ammonia and nitrite (cycle), but I strongly suggest a different kit for phosphate and nitrate. Most people like the Hanna PO4 checker, but salifert and red Sea pro are decent choices. Nitrate is hard, usually elos, nyos, and red Sea pro get the most support. Then salifert. I'd also encourage you to consider q gyre powerhead, maybe swap one vortech for a xf330 or even an xf350. Different flow patterns is worth a lot. Personally, I wouldn't spend the$$$ for Radion lights, but you're not likely to dislike them, only their sticker price. Main wired if caution with them is: don't tinker with them. Set them and stop messing with it except to change the total brightness/time when coral needs dictate. Messaging with the spectrum forces the coral to adjust pigmentation. Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Yay! new tanks are so fun! Looks like you've got a pretty decent start at things; glad to see it! First thing I'd do is swap out the heater for smaller ones. Someday, the relay in the heater fails and if the way yours fail is on, you'll overheat the tank and kill everything in it. In addition (though this next part might be good enough on its own): get an additional temperature controller like the inkbird, the new one from bulkreefsupply, or put together a reef-pi with temperature control. you set these to slightly lower than the heater's set point and they kick on a different relay as needed, so the heater is always 'on', but it's only getting power when the controller allows it to. This other relay will also fail someday, but then the heater's relay is the backup. You can get an alert the tank is too hot (say, 78 instead of 75), which tells you the controller relay failed. it's time to replace the controller (or just its relay if you're handy), and no harm done. Next is to think hard about the chemipure. Since you are doing a weekly water change, and assuming you're keeping the tank and equipment clean from contaminants, and have the rest of the filtration running well, I would think it's not really adding much except a variable. a refugium to control phosphate and nitrates (in addition to the water changes) would be great if you can get it growing enough it needs harvesting. If you're going to keep it, though, I'd keep it in two halves and replace each half every other month. this way there's never a time when all of it is totally exhausted and then suddenly replaced with brand new...stability is key. If you're wanting the chemipure for the miscellaneous contaminant aspect, I'd just run some BRS rox carbon instead. Finally is on filter socks, you'll probably have a little better nitrate/phosphate control if you replace them twice a week, especially because you can use a finer sock (50 micron or even 10 maybe) without it getting clogged.

That's fairly compelling... I'd be likely to set a very narrow band it's allowed to be in... presumably it can alert you if it hits the edge of the band? Not that I'm shelling out the moolah, just curious, I guess Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Track record yes, but I just read an "oh crap" on a Facebook group yesterday, his trident had apparently crept the dosing up slightly over time and he going it was now 13 dKH without him knowing. Sort of unrelated, apparently he lost wifi to fusion at the same time and the only thing he could do to fix it at the time was unplug it. THE POINT/QUESTION: Is that threshold (say, 20%) total adjustmentor per unit of time? I assume the latter since his got out of whack Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

One thing I feel compelled to contribute: This hobby grade stuff is great, but it is far from perfect. A real chemist's equipment to measure Ca or Mg would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy and require a constant supply of pure argon to operate. No chemist would trust a salinity or pH probe left unattended for days on end. All of this is to say: I'm 100% a fan of these monitors if you can afford it, but I wouldn't ever have it control my reef. There are two things I give to a controller: 1. Time-based (lighting, etc) 2. ATO, only with failovers to alarm if the level raises or falls too much (redundancy) I probably wouldn't trust an ATO, but it's just too hard to know I'll stay on top of daily topup. If evaporation was slow enough, I'd take off my ATO. What happens when something weird happens to the trident or mindstream when it isn't controlling? You say "oh crap", get out a test kit, and realize the tank is fine. When it is controlling and goes wrong? Your tank dies from 18dKH all (or 3dKH). My $0.02 Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

I don't think it's really what you're after, but there is an open source project for a reef controller. Not as full featured yet, but if you're savvy you can add on to it (did I say open source?) Reef-pi. Giant thread on reef2reef, adafruit guides, ranthelion HAT on tindie, GitHub code repository, etc Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Yes! Feel the salt! Let the salt flow through you! Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

A good custom builder will talk through your goals with you (keeping light off sump, size of fuge, expected skimmer so there's space, etc). they'll be way better at asking the right questions than me. If separating the fuge, then you have a couple options, all require an overflow in that fuge. I'd plan for either a herbie or bean animal overflow (two or three pipes) behind a weir; that weir's critical to keep the macroalgae from blocking the overflow pipe. It can drain into the same place your display drains to, but if there's a chamber that doesn't go into the skimmer, that's probably ideal. you want the critters (copepods) from the refugium to not be skimmed out and to be blown up into the display. But you probably don't want it going directly into the return section since the water level in that section is critical to keeping salinity stable. Again, a custom builder can design a good place that keeps the fuge's drain away from other filtration, but doesn't mess with the return level. if the fuge is high enough, it can drain into the display directly, which is slightly preferable in most cases. if you use an overflow that leaves up high on the side of the fuge (as opposed to through the bottom), the fuge only has to be a few inches higher than the display. Say for example you have the display's overflow in the middle of the 4' length and a 3/4" or 1" return from the sump entering on the left of the display. You could position the fuge so the drains just pop out of the back of the fuge and over the rim of the display to drain into the display. Now, if you do this with all the fuge's drains, you'll get some bubbles in the display that aren't pretty. But if you only do that for the siphon from the fuge and send the other drains to any-old-place in the sump, you get the best of both worlds. most of the fuge water is going straight into the display, the surface skimming drains out of the fuge (that may have some muck and definitely bubbles) are going into your filtration to get cleaned up. You could run one return pump to the display and one to the fuge, this gives you redundancy in case a return pump fails, your display is still connected to life support (heater, skimmer, etc, in the sump, and 50/50 it's still connected to the fuge). If budget is an issue, you can split one return pump's output to the fuge/display, making sure you have a valve on each branch (especially the lower one) so you can tune the flow. Even more of a budget would be to only have the return into the fuge, which drains in the display, then into the sump. but you'll still only want the fuge siphon into the display, which limits the actual display water turnover, which shouldn't drop below 3x system volume, and the fuge turnover might end up pretty high to achieve that...this isn't the best plan. As for who? melev would surely do a good job, but shipping from TX can be pretty brutal. Clear Fabrications seems to be the local go-to guy in the Seattle area, I'm sure there's good PDX people too, someone else on the forum can chime in.

CRA is shutting down their tank building, not sure if that is true of the sumps or not (I was planning on getting a glass display from them). I'm probably going to buy a used glass tank for a sump and order baffles from a random local glass shop; silicone them in myself. Actually, I'm kinda doing two of them so I can have an elevated fuge, but you don't need to be crazy like me I think the only big reason to separate the fuge is if that allows it to be bigger. It could be your sump is size-restricted and the fuge can only be 5g (remember the water level is lower in a sump, so a 50g sump probably only has 20-30g of water in it). But maybe you can add another vessel nearby and light it as the fuge. Pros: Easier to keep the refugium light off the sump, minimizes algae issues in the sump/equipment Easier to make a big one (maybe you modify a 55g barrel with one or two clear walls and shine lights in the side...boom 55g fuge) Easy to dial in the flow in the fuge so you can get the sump/tank turnover you want without blasting tons of current through the fuge (which might diminish the copepod population, which is a bonus of the fuge) Sort of nice to make purpose-built things. If the fuge builds up detritus, you can shut off its flow and do a deep cleaning without impacting the rest of the system Cons: Extra plumbing, potentially an extra pump (you might need a pump to move water from the sump to the fuge, or maybe part of a manifold, or maybe it's just one of the display's drains to the fuge, which then drains to the sump, but be careful that drains always go down) Extra cost - but this is just because it's bigger (and a little extra plumbing). You'll probably want more lighting, possibly a cheap powerhead to keep the water circulating in the giant fuge another thing to maintain (kinda the counterpoint to the 'deep cleaning' point above) The general advice seems to be 10% of system water as the fuge. Many run fine with smaller, there seems to be little disadvantage to bigger. with a 125 display and 30g of water in the sump, you're probably around 125g of system water, so you'd want almost half of the sump to be the refugium. My plan (that you don't need to follow) is to have an extra tank above the sump (mine will probably be at least 50% of the display's size). I'll have a manifold pump for various sump equipment, and one of these will also pump water (up) into the fuge. I'll wrap the fuge in black vinyl so the light doesn't leak into the sump. My plan is to have that fuge high enough it actually drains straight into the display tank, but it would work fine to have it drain into the sump. So if you mimic'd my plan, you would have about 75g of fuge, 30g of sump, 100g of display water volume, so the fuge would be about 35% of the system volume. But that means for more saltwater (though hopefully it decreases the need for water changes if you're dosing Alk/Ca/etc), it means more money for lights on the fuge, more plumbing, more...lots of things. For your setup, probably finding a 50+ gallon sump where at least 12g of the actual water volume is refugium is probably a great answer, up to 20g of fuge water is great and probably still reasonable. The main thing is probably to block light from the rest of the sump, you can use smoked glass baffles or colored acrylic for this, no problem. depending on the light you use on the refugium, you might want to attach some kind of plastic hood around the light to make sure the light stays off the rest of the sump. hair algae in your skimmer is a hassle As for custom vs ready-built, I think it's mostly preference, but I wouldn't expect the cost to be super different, so if you would prefer it a few inches taller or longer, or a slightly larger filter sock area for that clarisea roller you want (for example), you might as well go custom (or build your own)

Ah, while you're gone is different. There are basically two options that work with no human involvement. 1. A whole house generator with automatic interlock, installed and permitted with a professional. It does all the work for you. Most run off propane or natural gas. 2. Battery backup for specific devices (key powerheads, usually...heater if it'll be a while). Most high end powerhead companies make one for their system, some people use ones meant for a computer. The computer ones work, but usually won't last as many hours because their designed different. You can diy battery backup to cover several pieces of gear, but it sounds like that's out of the question. I'd say you get a battery backup from ecotech for a vortech that agitates the surface. But a portable generator and an extension cord isn't very technical if you can use a lawn mower...and it can last many days if you don't run out of gas Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Simple? I'd buy a portable generator with a 15amp 110v output (around 2000 continuous watts would probably be about right) and a thick 15 amp extension cord long enough to reach from your tank to the generator outside. When you lose power, turn on the generator, plug whatever surge protector you need most (or apex, etc) into that extension cord until power comes back. Make sure a couple good power heads and a heaters are part of that. Skimmer and return pump if you can. Better? That's a long list, but melev used to have a good answer with the extension cord wired to an outlet so he could just move the plug. Better yet would be multiple 15A circuits to make sure you can power everything. Really good is a full generator that lets you keep the house warm and everything else, potentially a "whole house" generator with manual interlock. Best is a "whole house" generator with an automatic interlock (comes on when it notices the grid go down), but that's several grand. Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Refined rock curing plan https://burningbaal.tumblr.com/post/188070216872/refining-rock-curing-part-2 Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

You can kick start it early. Get the barrel you will use as a mixing station, fill halfway with 1.020 saltwater (bacteria work faster a little low), add dry rock and fill the rest of the way, then and follow Dr Tim. Keep covered to minimize evaporation. After a week or three, replace the water with 1.026 so they'll be ready for the tank. This is basically my plan for my next tank, except I'll use every variety of bottled bacteria I can find (diversity) and it'll probably be there for a few months Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Jebao PP Series Wavemaker with Controller (PP-8) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0192HNED6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_S7kYDbYX6K1WZ I think I'd get the pp8 for my 29 if I did it again. It's a slight cost addition and can be tuned about as low, but can move twice as much water when turned up Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Also, type of rock is heavily debated. Live is fine. Only drawback is cost and that you can get unwanted hitchhiking pests or nuisance algae. Dry rock generally is much cheaper, buy tends to make for a longer ugly phase in the first few months. If you start with dry, make sure you stay a cycle with some ammonium chloride and/or grocery store prawn and dosing bacteria like Dr Tim's one and only, microbacter 7, biospiro, prodibio startup, etc. Honestly, I'd add the bacteria to any new setup, then dose live rock enhance once or twice a month forever Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Pretty much. No lights needed until a few weeks in, typically. ATO isn't critical early, but I wouldn't wait to start it. Sump doesn't have to be on the ground, but it's water level has to below the display's water level. I'd try to keep the sump's rim a few inches lower than the bottom of the overflow C's external bits. If you're using a ghost overflow, this means you can have the sump fairly high. More standard systems mean you want the sump rim lower than the tank rim or the siphon doesn't start. The key: pipes draining from the display to the sump can't ever go uphill or you can get an airlock preventing the siphon from starting, which causes a flood Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

welcome! Budget builds are always interesting to me. That bio-wheel won't do much once the rock is cycled, just one more thing you have to maintain, so I'd pull it out. if you want any stony corals, you'll probably want to find another powerhead or two. since working on a budget, you might look at the jebao powerheads, maybe the pp4 that I have in my 29g. That light will probably do fine for soft corals and a few stony corals like cyphastrea or elegance or even duncans and euphyllia would probably be fine. Have you added any bacteria? If not, I'd highly suggest adding something like Dr Tim's one and only or biospira or Microbacter7 or something, it'll take care of that ammonia cycle much faster, and they do really well at the lower salinity you've got. Speaking of that salinity, what are you measuring with? did you mix it in the tank? Typically people mix in a differen vessel (like a 5g bucket or 32g brute can) and transfer into the tank, that way the salinity is perfect before it goes in the tank. At any rate, you can bring it up by topping off the evaporated water with newly mixed saltwater. What evaporates is the water (not the salt), so we normally top off (daily) with fresh (RODI) water, but when the salinity is low, topping off with saltwater is a perfect way to slowly raise the salinity.

FWIW, I generally suggest people buy the tallest tank they can manage, I find it's the best way to enjoy the reef while standing and while sitting (and for kids). Things to be careful in going too tall: it gets expensive because the glass has to be thicker It can get hard to reach into the tank for maintenance. Less of an issue with my height and orangutang arms, but those plastic grabbers work well too. if your lights aren't up to snuff, it can be hard to keep corals down low, but mostly this isn't an issue with modern LEDs and there are lower light corals that would be very happy You may lose height to the ceiling, which can make it hard to get the lighting out of the way when you're working in the tank If the tank is too low and the sump is underneath, it can be very hard to get equipment in/out of the sump, usually an issue with the skimmer

Used can be a great answer. Being new mattress it a little tough, but one of these guys might be a great start. Ask them to show you the gear running. Not just to see it run, but how to run it. They might be willing to show you how to disassemble each piece for cleaning and maintenance 1. figure out what they're selling, in detail 2. figure out if it fits your space/desire (size, etc) 3. Check on reviews and forum discussion for each piece of gear to learn if it's high quality 4. Check on prices (new and used) for each piece to decide if it's worth buying at the listed price Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

I'd absolutely do the custome sump, for sure, no doubt in my mind. Melevsreef is known for them, or Jason Gregory (east of Seattle, you can find him on the Pacific Northwest reef keeping Facebook group). You can also make your own, especially if you find an old tank (just add the baffles/etc). As for pumps, everyone loves the vortech, maxpect gyre, tunze, and Neptune WAV. I am satisfied with my jebao pp4 (but you'll need a bigger one). For your return pump, most seem to love the ecotech vectra, reef octopus various, and some like the Neptune Cor. If you're made of money, the abyzz is top-notch. Lighting is a dangerously debated topic. Almost no one regrets buying ai Hydra, Radion, kessil. Some prefer T5 hybrid setups with mostly LED. I think the less-concentrated LED is best and negates the need for T5. I expect to buy sbreeflight.com and do a little hardware hack to control them with my reef-pi, you can spend about half as much on the actual Chinese black boxes (eBay, Amazon), which are similar to sbreeflights, his website describes the differences. Skimmers...reef octopus, nyos, skimz are popular. Refugium light is probably either kessil or Chinese import grow lights Your first task, though, is to buy rock and start curing it. You'll have to choose rock (or buy used from Craigslist), marcorocks are popular and relatively cheap. Cover it in saltwater (about 1.020) in a brute can with a powerhead and heater (set to mid eighties Fahrenheit), add ammonium chloride or a grocery prawn and bottled bacteria. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/macna-2019-dr-tim-hovanec/ https://www.melevsreef.com/video/cooking-live-rock Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Oh, don't neglect a good system for mixing water! My tap water is clean enough ( nothing interesting but chlorine and under 30ppm, I can get away with RO only, but rodi is universally acclaimed as the only good answer. you want a way to keep about 20-30% of your system water as ready-to-go saltwater, you'll use it got title water changes, but it's key for fixing a problem (something died and is toxic, your friend spilled their beer in the tank). I'd plan to have a full 32g brute can of saltwater at all times and up to that much in RODI. Rodi is the limiter (most can only generate 75-100 gallons per day), so having plenty of hand is good. You'll top off evaporated tankwater with it, and need it to mix the next batch of salt water. If you've got 125g system water ( 125 display minus rock and sand, plus sump's water as a guess), you could have 30g of saltwater to do a quick 25% water change while you mix the next 30g that was RODI for another 25% change and can reproduce that RODI in half a day... Great place to be Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

Welcome! I'd say 120 would be great to start, probably 4x2x2 (feet), the 5 foot 125 is good too. I had a 90 (18" wide...front to back) and having the extra width would have been nice, but not essential. I'm getting the reef-pi running my nano and relatively happy, and massively cheaper than apex. It's not as full featured yet, but always in Dev (v 3 is in beta testing now). There's a huge thread on reef2reef about it, all open source and based on the raspberry pi. The stocking is largely driven by what you like, as long as everything you get is compatible and fits the tank. In a 4ft tank, you'll probably have one small (bristletooth) tang, in a 6ft tank, you can probably have a few of different shapes. If you want coral, you probably don't get angels; you'll need to check the "reef safe" box when shopping. Most online retailers like liveaquaria make for pretty good searching because you can see the needs of each creature. You'll mostly need to think budget, but water flow and lifting are pretty universally the biggest needs. You don't need the most expensive light or pump, but you do need powerful stuff, don't just buy what's at Petco. Black box LEDs and jebao can do as well as ecotech gear, but have reasons they are cheaper (less support, a little more qc troubles, less bells and whistles). My next reef will probably have mostly sbreeflights and gyre pumps. Highly recommend having a refugium brightly lit with it's in grow light and around 10-20% of the system volume. That and a decent-quality protein skimmer should do most of your filtration for you. Maybe consider room to include a couple reactors for things like activated carbon, biopellets, gfo, etc. Redundancy will probably save your reef someday, I always recommend a spare (on hand) return pump and heater. If your tank has two or less powerheads, keep a spare (even if lower quality). That takes me to backup power. Most high end pumps now offer battery backup (gyre, vortech, etc). The pump nearest the surface MUST have this, or your fish can all die if the power goes out, even for a few hours (lack of oxygen). If you ever get muli day outages you should get (at least) a portable generator to make sure your heater, pumps, and probably something else running. Lighting is probably okay out for a few days if the generator can't handle them. The last thing: buy test kits and use them! API is mostly not what you want, but the basic kit with ammonia, nitrite, pH, can be good for the first few months when you're just watching it "cycle". I'd go with salifert, nyos, elos, Hanna ("checker"), and red Sea brands. You need nitrate, phosphate, alkalinity. If keeping stony corals, you need calcium and magnesium. The other important things are a good Salinity probe or refractometer (glass hydrometer is fine if you understand exactly how to use it, including temperature corrections). Finally is a thermometer OTHER than the heater. Test all parameters every week, no matter how tedious it feels. Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

I read through the R2R thread. I totally get the aesthetic appeal, but I can't imagine a way this works long term (without the sand falling toward the front). Sure the slope isn't dramatic but with the amount of water movement you'll have, add in some nassarius snails or even tiger tail or conch or something, it'll go where it wants to go. I suspect you'll be left with it pretty bare in the back and thicker in the front. Some of those posts suggest making baffles to hold the sand back. I think that makes sense and would technically work, but isn't likely to look good 😕 I think your best bet is to make an epoxy faux sand bed on top of your 'triangle' using something extremely coarse to *hopefully* hold the 'real' sand (on top) in place long term. If it were me, I'd build the acrylic 'box' you already mentioned, 8" tall in the back, 0" in the front and set it on the tank bottom. Get yourself a closed loop pump, take water in from somewhere up in the water column and push it out through the bottom of the tank so it pushes water into this box. Find somewhere near the back (the high point of the box) that you can cut a hole in the box and cover the hole in a nice big rock. This way the closed loop is pulling water from the water column above, pushing it into the triangle (keeping that water from getting stagnant) and the water then leaves the triangle by flowing into the rock that's covering the hole. Make sure the hole in the top face of the triangle is near the back of the tank to minimize trapped air. Cover the angled face in a faux sand bed with the coarsest thing you can use in that epoxy (or some other solution to make the surface super coarse) and then add your real sand on top. Gobs of work...but I guess if it's worth it to you, that's what I'd try.