April 2014 R2R Spotlight: Trido

Owner:

Duane Oestreich (trido)

I currently work as a maintenance mechanic at a local College and was previously a residential General Contractor for thirteen years. I remodeled houses for 20 years in all, performing all trades. Electrical and plumbing are two of my favorite phases of tank builds. I have also built custom stands for friends and our LFS’s. I’m married with two kids and own too many pets. When we can, my family and I like to camp in our travel trailer in the North Cascade Mountains. I also love salmon fishing with my best friend Todd in the fall. You might know him as TJ on the forum here.

How Did You Get Into This Hobby?

I’ve been keeping fish tanks for 27 years. Nine years ago I started the planning of my first 120 gallon in-wall salt water tank. I’ve been a reef keeper ever since. Four years ago, I broke down my 210, but I never really left the hobby because I custom built a couple of systems for others. Soon enough I had a 29G SPS tank, a year later upgraded to an old 65G I had laying around and one year later set the 210 In-wall back up. My total system is about 380 gallons, down from the 500 gallons the last time it was set up. I don’t plan ever to go bigger but I would like to upgrade my current tank to a custom Starphire 210 with an external overflow.

Tank and stand:

My tank is a standard 210 Gallon glass AGA (now aqueon) tank. The stand is mostly 2x4’s (in the front wall) but the underside in my laundry room is open with only two 4x4 posts and a 4x8 beam that supports the whole back of the tank.

Progression Pics:







Sump:

I have a DIY glass 150 Gallon Sump with only three chambers. A 40 gallon skimmer/cryptic LR refugium, a 55 gallon feather Caleurpa refugium, and a 20 gallon return chamber. It has two 1” bulkheads on one end for two return pumps.

Frag Tank:

I have an acrylic 30 gallon Frag tank that has served as a sump on at least two different reef systems. It has bulkhead patches everywhere and I chopped the single baffle out of it. Someday I will upgrade it to a glass 40 breeder.

Skimmer:

It’s a Bubble King 250 bought from a friend getting out of the hobby. It’s absolutely the best skimmer I've owned.

Reactors:

For Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity I use a GEO 624 Calcium reactor controlled by a Milwaukee SMS122 Ph controller. The GEO is filled with large media along with two bags of Brightwell’s Neo Mag.

I also dose Ozone into my skimmer with an Ozotech generator from BRS. I run carbon in a media sock at the skimmer output for my ozone.
Recently I added a single stage dosing pump to add 10ml a day of TLF Acro Power. So far, I’m happy with the results
I have a TLF 150 reactor but don’t use it anymore. I’ve never had any luck with Phosphate removers.

Return pump:

I have two. A Panworld PCX-55 (1200GPH pressure rated) for my display tank and a Mag 7 which feeds my frag tank and reactors . The Mag 7 also doubles as a Water Change pump. I can open or close a couple valves and either drain the tank, or fill it back up from the 55 gallon SW make up tank.

Lighting:

I have three Evergrow D2120’s custom tuned by Barrier Reef Aquariums. One of my Local Fish Stores. These, along with two DIY stunner strips are all hooked into four channels of my Neptune Apex. A Break Out Box switch on the Apex is programmed to turn off everything but the Royal Blue lights for showing off to friends.

ATO:

I have a Tunze Osmolator Plugged into an outlet on my apex. I use a Break Out Box switch to turn it off for Water Changes.

RO/DI:

A “Filter Guys” Five stage RO/DI filter with a 75GPD membrane fills my 35Gallon Brute reservoir. Since my TDS in Seattle averages only 30 year round I set it up for a 2:1 waste/filtered ratio. My waste water is plumbed to the front yard to top off my 600 Gallon Koi pond in the summer.

Heating/Cooling:

Since I have an unheated remote tank room on the back of my house and there is also no heat in my laundry room, I use four 250 watt ebo Jager glass heaters to keep the tank and two rooms warm. The tank room is cooled by an in-wall 5000BTU AC unit that only runs about a week a year. This not only cools the tank but makes working in the room during the summer months when its running, a very desirable task.

System Controller:

I recently upgraded to a Neptune Apex. Along with the full package, I ordered an Orp probe, an extra EB8, a VDM module and a BOB (Break Out Box). I recycled an old DC8 from my AC III for a total of 24 outlets. I use all 8 of my variable speed ports, and have six switches for the BOB that perform various tasks. You can find specific details about my programming on Reeftronics My user name is trido there too. I’m also happy to answer any questions I can on R2R when Isee them come up. I love this controller and would recommend it to anyone interested.

Water Circulation:

The SPS in my tank require plenty of flow so I provide that with two Tunze 6105’s and two Jebao WP-40’s. These are all hooked into the apex VDM module. One Jebao is set up to create a double wave in the tank almost exactly like the original controller and the other three pumps are synced/anti-synced to create a reversible gyre. Once a week they all ramp up to 100% in my storm mode for a total of 15,000GPH to kick up detritous. I have one BOB switch programmed to turn them off for photography and another BOB switch turns them to lower settings to keep my wife happy on weekend mornings when she needs more quiet time. An alarm will sound though if photo shoots or quiet time lasts too long. The alarm is mostly so we don’t forget to turn the pumps back on though.

Water Parameters:

Temp: 78-79F
Ph: 7.8-8.1
S.G.: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
PO4: 0
Calcium: 350
Alkalinity: 9-11 Dkh
Magnesium: 1120

Honestly, I haven’t tested Ammonia through Phosphate in over three years. Recently however I did upon the request of Richard Ross from the California Academy of Sciences for his Skeptical Reefkeeping series. My tests are old but everything read zero, or undetectable. I typically test for Dkh once a week and then test for Calcium and Magnesium once a month. My Ca. and Mg have always been low so I quit trying to raise them. My corals are growing like weeds and have awesome color so chasing numbers is not worth the effort.

Lighting summary & objectives:

My LED lights are on from 8:00 A.M to 9:00 P.M. I run them 13 hours a day for my viewing pleasure and always have.
8:00 Stunner strip 1 (front 24 LED’s with no optics) 15 minute ramp up to 100%
8:15 Stunner strip 2 (rear14 LED’s with no optics) 15 minute ramp up to 100%
8:30 Blue channel Evergrow(16” above the water line) 30 minute ramp to 90%
9:00 White channel Evergrow 30 minute ramp to 90%
The Evergrows run with 12VDC and the apex maxed out is 10VDC. 9VDC on the apex is actually 75% on the Evergrows.
7:30P.M White channel Evergrow 30 minute ramp down to off
8:00 P.M Blue channel Evergrow 30 minute ramp down to off
8:30P.M. Stunner strip 1(front) 15 minute ramp up down to off
8:45P.M. Stunner strip 2(rear) 15 minute ramp up down to off
The stunner strips give a front to rear sunrise sunset effect.

Filtration summary & objectives:

I recently switch from regular IO to Reef Crystals and was happy with the results so I’ll stick with it. With Ozone, I only change 40 gallons of water once a month or roughly 10%. I like to skim wet and keep the neck of the skimmer clean most of the time. With this tank set up I use filters socks on the overflows and after finding two large polylcad flat worms in them will continue to do so as long as I’m reefing. The filter socks help keep the sump from filling full of detritous as quickly so I don’t have to break it down often to clean it. I also have a large refugium lit with 40watts of LED shop lights. The refugium has feather calurpa that I planted and several kinds of wild algae along with cyano, everything grows well. I harvest algea’s about once a month. With six tangs, there is zero algae in my display tank











Tank inhabitants

Fish:

Foxface Rabbit
Desjardini Sailfin Tang
Naso Tang
Yellow Tang
Kole Tang
Hippo Tang
Argus Wrasse
Melanarus Wrasse
Leopard Wrasse
Solar Wrasse
African Flameback angel
Tri-Colored Angel
Long Nosed Hawk Fish
Royal Gramma
Pair of Maroon clowns
Pair of Saphire Damsels

Inverts:

A handful of snails (less than 10)
A few red legged hermit crabs (2 or 3)
One large emerald crab
Sand sifting starfish
Sand sifting cucumber
One Crocea clam
One Duresa clam
Two Maxima clams
There is also a pincushion Urchin in the frag tank along with more emerald crabs and snails.





Corals:

SPS include Acroporas’ (echinata, loripes, millepora, formosa, humulis, valida, palmeta, and cervicornis) Pocillopora, Stylophora, Seriatopora., Montipora,





LPS include Euphillia, Calaustrea, Lobophillia, Mycidium, Favia, Acanthophyllia deshayesiana














Softies include Zoanthid, Palythoa, Ricordia, Sarcophyton.