QuantumFoam
New Member
Equipment
Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 50 gallon with white APS stand
Lights: (1) EcoTech Marine Radion XR15 G6 Pro (w/ tank mount & diffuser)
Powerheads: (1) Sicce XStream SDC
Sump: Fiji Cube Fiji-20 Advanced Reef Sump
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0
Protein Skimmer: AquaMaxx ConeS Q-1
Heaters: (2) 125w Eheim Jager (one in tank, one in sump)
RO/DI: BRS 6-Stage Deluxe Plus 75 GPD
Rock: 20 lbs. starter live rock from KP Aquatics and about 30 lbs. CaribSea Life Rock
Sand: 60 lbs. CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink
Livestock
(2) Ocellaris clownfish
(1) Strawberry dottyback (added 6/25)
(1) Twin-spot goby (added 7/16)
Red mithrax crab (HH)
Urchin (HH)
Featherdusters (HH)
(HH = hitchhiker)
Wants/To-Do List
ATO - currently need to top-off ~6-8 cups each day (3/8 to 1/2 gallon)
Battery backup
Cord management - still haven't found a cabinet I like
Jump guard/mesh lid (added 7/17)
Temperature controller - been eyeing an Inkbird for this
Story
I was in the hobby over ten years ago, and had 10g/20g reef tanks with a clown/sabae anemone and some softies, plus the regular CUC. After moving into an apartment, my tank sprung a leak and I had to give everything away, which was probably for the better because I moved entirely too much over the following 10+ years and it would have been a royal PITA (and unfair to all the life in the tank IMO). Fast-forward a decade-plus and I'm sitting watching Finding Nemo with my daughter in our permanent home, and I'm like, oh shoot, I can have a reef tank again! To make sure I really wanted to do it again, I went through all the planning with spreadsheets, researching equipment, and put the time in. Once I was sure, I jumped in!
Impressions & Comments
Apps - It's impressive how much the equipment in this hobby has progressed since I've been out of it. As someone in software, I can see a ton of opportunities for improvement in these apps, but I've been largely happy with Mobius (EcoTech) and ContrAll (Sicce). The setup for both of these apps was extremely simple, and I haven't run into any "gotchas" or any other issues. While I know the profiles in Mobius are geared toward coral growth, my eyes simply can't handle staring at blue light for a long time. To get around this, I will use the acclimation feature to temporarily lower the intensity. I know I can create lighting profiles to suit my needs here, but it would be nice if they had this out of the box.
Live Rock - The KP Aquatics live rock is everything everyone said it was and more. I went with 20 lbs. starter rock, and there was a ton of observable life on the rocks. A bunch of featherdusters, several brittle stars, two different types of urchins, a few red mithrax crabs, some snails, a bunch of different kinds of worms, etc. It was well-packaged, shipped on time, and I didn't observe any spikes in ammonia due to die off. If I could do it again, I'd spend the money and get more!
Live Sand - I used CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink, and chose not to wash the sand. I stirred it up a bunch to try to get those finer particles out. The tank was cloudy for a day or two, and now it is fine. During this time, I used filter socks with a small pore size and they did what they were supposed to do. 60 pounds was enough for ~1.5 inches all around, which is what I wanted.
RO/DI - My water pressure is just a touch over 40 psi, so I was concerned that I might need a pump. I have read that this kind of pressure can make the DI resin deplete quicker, but I'm not all that worried about that in the short-term. This gives me 0 TDS water at exactly the rate advertised. One piece of advice---get the float valve! Lessons were learned...
Salinity testing - I have a cheap swing-arm hydrometer, refractometer, and the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer. I started with the refractometer, using distilled water (as recommended) to calibrate it to zero. I had a sense that something was off---the readings just felt too high. So, I went out and bought a cheap swing-arm hydrometer just as a check---that gave me an even higher reading! After doing some more research, I ended up buying 35 ppt calibration solution, which gave me the reading I more or less expected; however, I still noticed that it tended to drift over time. After some frustration, I decided to try the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer. This was exactly what I was looking for... no calibration and trustworthy/consistent results every single time. It's not a perfect instrument, as you need the water to be deep enough and still enough to make a proper reading, but that's a drawback that I'm good with.
Plumbing - One of the bulkheads that Innovative Marine sent me had a bad gasket. I admittedly noticed the imperfection before installing it, and should have asked for a second opinion, but this was my first time doing any real plumbing so I didn't know what I didn't know. I noticed substantial salt creep which was a tip off that there was a small leak. I tried tightening the bulkhead a little, but there was no change. I ended up buying a new bulkhead, which lo and behold, also leaked. This time, it was not a defective gasket or bulkhead, but my own mistakes that caused the leak. Despite dry fitting everything, the new piece I put together must have been slightly longer than the previous piece, so it came off the bulkhead at a slight angle. This put enough pressure on the bulkhead to prevent me from hand-tightening it enough to properly seal it. After I fixed that, the salt creep stopped.
Heaters - Before installing the protein skimmer, I had both heaters in the sump, which I understand has some drawbacks in the event of a pump failure. To install the protein skimmer, I had to remove one of them because there simply wasn't enough room. Because of their length, they have to be installed at an angle to ensure they stay submerged. Long-term, I'd like to find something with a lower profile/shorter length. While I do believe Eheim makes a solid product, the dials on these heaters are not accurate. I've noticed 75 degrees on the heater means 78 degrees in the tank. That wasn't a huge deal when I was getting everything setup without livestock, but it would be if I had to replace one and couldn't trust the dial. That's yet another reason to get a proper temperature controller.
Tank: Innovative Marine Nuvo EXT 50 gallon with white APS stand
Lights: (1) EcoTech Marine Radion XR15 G6 Pro (w/ tank mount & diffuser)
Powerheads: (1) Sicce XStream SDC
Sump: Fiji Cube Fiji-20 Advanced Reef Sump
Return Pump: Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0
Protein Skimmer: AquaMaxx ConeS Q-1
Heaters: (2) 125w Eheim Jager (one in tank, one in sump)
RO/DI: BRS 6-Stage Deluxe Plus 75 GPD
Rock: 20 lbs. starter live rock from KP Aquatics and about 30 lbs. CaribSea Life Rock
Sand: 60 lbs. CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink
Livestock
(2) Ocellaris clownfish
(1) Strawberry dottyback (added 6/25)
(1) Twin-spot goby (added 7/16)
Red mithrax crab (HH)
Urchin (HH)
Featherdusters (HH)
(HH = hitchhiker)
Wants/To-Do List
ATO - currently need to top-off ~6-8 cups each day (3/8 to 1/2 gallon)
Battery backup
Cord management - still haven't found a cabinet I like
Temperature controller - been eyeing an Inkbird for this
Story
I was in the hobby over ten years ago, and had 10g/20g reef tanks with a clown/sabae anemone and some softies, plus the regular CUC. After moving into an apartment, my tank sprung a leak and I had to give everything away, which was probably for the better because I moved entirely too much over the following 10+ years and it would have been a royal PITA (and unfair to all the life in the tank IMO). Fast-forward a decade-plus and I'm sitting watching Finding Nemo with my daughter in our permanent home, and I'm like, oh shoot, I can have a reef tank again! To make sure I really wanted to do it again, I went through all the planning with spreadsheets, researching equipment, and put the time in. Once I was sure, I jumped in!
Impressions & Comments
Apps - It's impressive how much the equipment in this hobby has progressed since I've been out of it. As someone in software, I can see a ton of opportunities for improvement in these apps, but I've been largely happy with Mobius (EcoTech) and ContrAll (Sicce). The setup for both of these apps was extremely simple, and I haven't run into any "gotchas" or any other issues. While I know the profiles in Mobius are geared toward coral growth, my eyes simply can't handle staring at blue light for a long time. To get around this, I will use the acclimation feature to temporarily lower the intensity. I know I can create lighting profiles to suit my needs here, but it would be nice if they had this out of the box.
Live Rock - The KP Aquatics live rock is everything everyone said it was and more. I went with 20 lbs. starter rock, and there was a ton of observable life on the rocks. A bunch of featherdusters, several brittle stars, two different types of urchins, a few red mithrax crabs, some snails, a bunch of different kinds of worms, etc. It was well-packaged, shipped on time, and I didn't observe any spikes in ammonia due to die off. If I could do it again, I'd spend the money and get more!
Live Sand - I used CaribSea Arag-Alive Fiji Pink, and chose not to wash the sand. I stirred it up a bunch to try to get those finer particles out. The tank was cloudy for a day or two, and now it is fine. During this time, I used filter socks with a small pore size and they did what they were supposed to do. 60 pounds was enough for ~1.5 inches all around, which is what I wanted.
RO/DI - My water pressure is just a touch over 40 psi, so I was concerned that I might need a pump. I have read that this kind of pressure can make the DI resin deplete quicker, but I'm not all that worried about that in the short-term. This gives me 0 TDS water at exactly the rate advertised. One piece of advice---get the float valve! Lessons were learned...
Salinity testing - I have a cheap swing-arm hydrometer, refractometer, and the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer. I started with the refractometer, using distilled water (as recommended) to calibrate it to zero. I had a sense that something was off---the readings just felt too high. So, I went out and bought a cheap swing-arm hydrometer just as a check---that gave me an even higher reading! After doing some more research, I ended up buying 35 ppt calibration solution, which gave me the reading I more or less expected; however, I still noticed that it tended to drift over time. After some frustration, I decided to try the Tropic Marin High Precision Hydrometer. This was exactly what I was looking for... no calibration and trustworthy/consistent results every single time. It's not a perfect instrument, as you need the water to be deep enough and still enough to make a proper reading, but that's a drawback that I'm good with.
Plumbing - One of the bulkheads that Innovative Marine sent me had a bad gasket. I admittedly noticed the imperfection before installing it, and should have asked for a second opinion, but this was my first time doing any real plumbing so I didn't know what I didn't know. I noticed substantial salt creep which was a tip off that there was a small leak. I tried tightening the bulkhead a little, but there was no change. I ended up buying a new bulkhead, which lo and behold, also leaked. This time, it was not a defective gasket or bulkhead, but my own mistakes that caused the leak. Despite dry fitting everything, the new piece I put together must have been slightly longer than the previous piece, so it came off the bulkhead at a slight angle. This put enough pressure on the bulkhead to prevent me from hand-tightening it enough to properly seal it. After I fixed that, the salt creep stopped.
Heaters - Before installing the protein skimmer, I had both heaters in the sump, which I understand has some drawbacks in the event of a pump failure. To install the protein skimmer, I had to remove one of them because there simply wasn't enough room. Because of their length, they have to be installed at an angle to ensure they stay submerged. Long-term, I'd like to find something with a lower profile/shorter length. While I do believe Eheim makes a solid product, the dials on these heaters are not accurate. I've noticed 75 degrees on the heater means 78 degrees in the tank. That wasn't a huge deal when I was getting everything setup without livestock, but it would be if I had to replace one and couldn't trust the dial. That's yet another reason to get a proper temperature controller.
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