Aqua Medic Armatus 375 xd build

Fredda · Jan 6, 2023

After many years i finally moved over to a marine aquarium. First i converted my old Juwel Rio 180 tank to salt and had it for approx 2 years with marine fish and coral. (Upgraded light to 2 AI Prime 16 Hd), the tank was doing good and i kept mostly soft coral and LPS. After a while i felt that it was hard to keep the the correct levels of nutrients in the tank with only the juwel internal filter. Therefore i upgraded to my first Saltwater tank with a sump (Aqua Medic Armatus 375XD).

I went with that tank mostly because off it´s measurements, i could only fit a tank with around 100 cm length in the place thar i had choosen.

My build is:
Return pump: Maxspect Jump DC 6K running at approx 50%
Skimmer: Maxspect Jump SK 400
Heater: Aquael Platinum Heater 300 W
Lighting: 2 AI Prime 16 HD (Thinking of upgrade to 2 Reef factory Flare Pro)
Wavemakers: 1 Jebao SLW 10 (Backpanel) , and 1 Jebao SLW 30 (Sidepanel)
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
Biomedia: Maxspect Nano tech Bio Sphere and Biohome Maxi Ultimate Marine
Scape: AqauForest Rock (new) and some Marcorock from old tank

As my tank is new I only dose Kalkwasser in ATO, and Red sea foundation if i need 2.

So far the tank is doing good (3 months in), had diotomes for like a week or so but was not that much. Think it was bedcause i precycled the rock in a bin for 1,5 months.
Have had little to none algue so far, think its cause i have 1 Scopas tang and 1 Siganus that keep the rockwork clean, also have some snails and hermitcrabs.

My goal with this tank is to have a mixed reef (mostly soft and Lps due to the light), and to get the tank stable and with pests under control. I have some Sps that are thriving (Stylophora Milka, Montipora Digitata and Pocillopora Damicornis), thinking of adding Seriatopora and perhaps some easy Acropora.

Corals that are doing very good are for example Rhodactis, Favia, Stylophora, Blastomussa, Montipora digitata, Euphyllia and of coarse GSP

Looking forward to see the tank mature and coral grow out til colony size.

(Sry for bad english am from Sweden so using old school english

)

ShepherdReefer · Jan 7, 2023

I like what you did.

Gumbies R Us · Feb 8, 2023

Fredda said:
After many years i finally moved over to a marine aquarium. First i converted my old Juwel Rio 180 tank to salt and had it for approx 2 years with marine fish and coral. (Upgraded light to 2 AI Prime 16 Hd), the tank was doing good and i kept mostly soft coral and LPS. After a while i felt that it was hard to keep the the correct levels of nutrients in the tank with only the juwel internal filter. Therefore i upgraded to my first Saltwater tank with a sump (Aqua Medic Armatus 375XD).

I went with that tank mostly because off it´s measurements, i could only fit a tank with around 100 cm length in the place thar i had choosen.

My build is:
Return pump: Maxspect Jump DC 6K running at approx 50%
Skimmer: Maxspect Jump SK 400
Heater: Aquael Platinum Heater 300 W
Lighting: 2 AI Prime 16 HD (Thinking of upgrade to 2 Reef factory Flare Pro)
Wavemakers: 1 Jebao SLW 10 (Backpanel) , and 1 Jebao SLW 30 (Sidepanel)
Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
Biomedia: Maxspect Nano tech Bio Sphere and Biohome Maxi Ultimate Marine
Scape: AqauForest Rock (new) and some Marcorock from old tank

As my tank is new I only dose Kalkwasser in ATO, and Red sea foundation if i need 2.

So far the tank is doing good (3 months in), had diotomes for like a week or so but was not that much. Think it was bedcause i precycled the rock in a bin for 1,5 months.
Have had little to none algue so far, think its cause i have 1 Scopas tang and 1 Siganus that keep the rockwork clean, also have some snails and hermitcrabs.

My goal with this tank is to have a mixed reef (mostly soft and Lps due to the light), and to get the tank stable and with pests under control. I have some Sps that are thriving (Stylophora Milka, Montipora Digitata and Pocillopora Damicornis), thinking of adding Seriatopora and perhaps some easy Acropora.

Corals that are doing very good are for example Rhodactis, Favia, Stylophora, Blastomussa, Montipora digitata, Euphyllia and of coarse GSP

Looking forward to see the tank mature and coral grow out til colony size.

(Sry for bad english am from Sweden so using old school english )

Nice looking tank!!

Fredda · Mar 10, 2023

Six months update

Tank been running fine fot the majority of the time. Had an issue with a sick fish. My youngest kid fell in love with a fish at LFS that i bought, it was a Royal Gramma. I didn´t check the fish enough at LFS or quarantine the fish so ended up with a disease that killed 3 fish.

It´s been 3 months since that and no more sign of disease so hopefully if I manage to keep stresslevel low i can manage the disease in the future (Or if it´s not in the tank anymore).

Have added a few more coral and moved some. Pictures are from approx 6 months in.

Fredda · May 6, 2023

So its been like 6 months since i started this tank. For the most part it´s been running fine. Had some issues with fish disease as i said in the previous post but that seems to be solved now.

Have added a few fish: 4 Anthias and 1 Yellow Halichores wrasse (couldn´t take picture of him cause he had already gone to bed

).

Also added a few corals: Among others some Zoas and Pocillopora

New behaviour to clownfish that have been hosting my Duncan coral lately

Fredda · Jul 12, 2023

Ten months update.

Tank been running good but i have had some problem with an alkalinity spike (Kalkwasser in gravity fed ATO), the alkalinity spike i had startet some stn in some of my sps corals. Unfortunately some didn´t make it. The ones that "survived" has bounced back and are going better again.
The one thing i dont like with this Aqua medic aquarium is the downflow (easy drain system), it changes after each time I turn off my return pump. After each time i need to adjust the downflow to get it right again. Thats whats messed up my alkalinity when i didnt have time to tune the drain after i had fed my corals in the morning and then it dosed to much Kalkwasser and had an alkalinity spike up to 11 dkh (and salinity drop).
Am going to search for another way to dose kalkwasser in the future.

Have ordered new lighting also, 2 Reef flare pro (S) blue spectrum that I will setup during next week. Should be an upgrade to my 2 AI Prime 16Hd that I have at the moment. Pictures are from approx 9.5 months in. Added more biomedia also ( AF Life bio fil in old Juwel filter cartridges)

Fredda · Dec 30, 2023

Happy New year!

Update for the tank before new year. The tank has been up for alittle over a year and has for the most been doing fine. I have had issues with dosing to much Kalkwasser because I have it in my ato (gravity fed). And thats the only "bad" thing I can say about this tank. The downflow is inacurate so after every time I have turned the return off I have to adjust the downflow to get it right again even if i dont touch it during return off time.

Once i forgot to check back after i changed the downflow and the ATO had dumped a couple off litres off Kalkwasser to fast abd caused some off my SPS to RTN.

The other issue I am having is nitrates. I do weekly 10% waterchange by taking water from the sump by siphon. I usually take the siphon and take out any residues in the sump at the same time. I was thinking if i should take the water fron the display instead because there is liotlle life in the sump (other than bacteria), hinking that mayby it is to clean and I dont have enough living things taht can use the Nitrate?

When i do test my Nitrate is about 15 ppm and phosfate is less that 0,03 (not using any GFO), thinking that its not overfeeding cause that would give a rise in phos as well? Feeding frozen food twice a day (half cube at a time) and the flake or pellets 2 times a day (approx 15 pieces of mini pellets formula 1 or 2).

In the sump I have 2 filtersocks wich i change every wednesday and Sunday. I have alot off biological media (maxspect spheres, Polyp labs bricks, Biohome marine) and a skimmer that pulls about 1/2 or 1 cup off sludge every week.

I would like to have nitrates under 10 ppm cause i think some sps is a bit browned out. Been trying to lower the levels by adding some AF Zeomix (not in reactor) and dosing AF Pro Bio S and AF NP PRO for a month but levels is still stable at around 15 ppm.

Am my skimmer not good enough or tuned correct (maxspect Mk 400) or does the biological media produce more NO3 than the uptake is (and no NO3 --> N2 gas).

Latest measurements
Alk 8.0 NO3 15 ppm PO4 <0,03 ppm Mg 1490 Calcium 480 Salinity 1,025

Using AF Hybrid Pro Salt mostly and Red sea coral Pro (Use Red sea in the waterchange if low alk)
Dont think u can see so much on the pictures but mainly acros seems dull

BB-reef · Feb 21, 2024

Hi, I have the same tank as you, and basically the same issues with the easy drain. Al the time after cleaning the tank, I need to adjust the easy drain again. And it is annoying. Would you find any solution so far?

Fredda · Feb 21, 2024

I still have the same issue but have kinnda learned how much i need to tune it now so goes pretty easy. I also changed dosing for kalkwasser through a dosingpump, had it in the gravity fed ATO before and had issues with alkalinity spikes due to tinkering with the drain after waterchanges.