Jason's Reefer 250: Fish added! Sump Mod, Clarisea, custom plumbing, aquascape w/E-Marco, IKEA cabinet mod. (Pic heavy!)

[a4edwin]

Beautiful keep up the good work!

 

[Eight]

@Eight hey is your clarisea gen 1, or gen 2? My 1” white PVC and orange PVC don’t fit to the grey elbow that comes with the clarisea gen 2?!? The grey elbow says 1” on the end connected to clarisea and the other end to plumbing marked 32 (inside a circle) but my PVC don’t fit. Did I get wrong part or am I missing anything here??

I'm almost positive mine is a Gen 2. My 1" red PVC slips right into the gray elbow that came with the Clarisea and it is simply friction fit.

 

[canadianeh]

This weekend my refugium light, chaeto, copepods and phytoplankton cultures arrived. As I had previously mentioned, this is the first tank I've set up from a completely dead start and I want to ensure I have a strong pod population.

For the light, I debated several options until settling on the Tunze Eco Chic 8831:

Eco Chic Waterproof Refugium LED Light 8831.00

Waterproof | Efficient Recommended Spread: 14" x 8" The Tunze LED system is a full spectrum light that is super easy to mount. Mounting the light is done with a magnetic holder that can hold the light in multiple positions and orientations. The innovative design is fully waterproof and is...

www.marinedepot.com

It's tuned for chaeto and other macro algae and most importantly it's submersible and a perfect form factor for the Reefer 250 v3 sump, taking up only a tiny amount of space on the sump wall for a magnet holder.

(Remember to eat your greens...)

I purchased my chaeto and copepods from Algagen Direct. A lot of people recommend Algaebarn but they were out of stock for chaeto (and seemingly quite expensive). So far from what I've observed I'm really happy went with Algagen. The bags of copepods were packed with life and the chaeto was healthy.

I installed the light just below the water surface, thew in the chaeto and dumped the majority of the Ecopods into the display and a smaller amount went into the sump with the chaeto. (One drawback to the Clarisea is its so effective I'm doubtful any pods that make it into the overflow will escape the Clarisea, but that should be OK as long as I have productive refugium and display populations.)

Another benefit to the submersible light is less corraline algae on unwanted areas like the skimmer.

Top down view. The Tunze Eco Chic is really the perfect length for this sump.

Hopefully in a few weeks I'll have a bustling copepod population.

I have a separate bag of Tisbe copepods and a green phytoplankton culture that I will mess with as a side project. More on that in the coming week.

How did you fit your heater with the refugium baffle wall in? I remember you have eheim 13” or more and with the baffle wall it can only fit on the front part of the sump across between the refugium section and the clarisea section.

 

[canadianeh]

I'm almost positive mine is a Gen 2. My 1" red PVC slips right into the gray elbow that came with the Clarisea and it is simply friction fit.

Mine is metric apparently

 

[Eight]

How did you fit your heater with the refugium baffle wall in? I remember you have eheim 13” or more and with the baffle wall it can only fit on the front part of the sump across between the refugium section and the clarisea section.

It fits in the skimmer chamber diagonally. The top of the heater is in the back right corner of the sump and slightly raised above the water.

 

[scuzy]

finally ran into your thread J

 

[Eight]

finally ran into your thread J

Hey Andy!!! Nice to hear from you. It's been a long time. Still running a tank?

 

[scuzy]

Hey Andy!!! Nice to hear from you. It's been a long time. Still running a tank?

i am but its been slow with addition. i jsut got a few piece of corals in a few weeks ago. mainly fish only for like 8 months after a resstart.

 

[Eight]

During California's "Safe at Home" quarantine guidelines, I've had the time to focus on the tank a bit and I've made a few updates recently. I finally got around to ordering my full clean up crew from Liveaquaria. I actually had livestock credit with them from over four years ago due to a DOA shipment. I wasn't sure if I would still even be able to claim it, but they had my credit on file and I had no problem at all. Super service... I've always ordered clean up crews from Liveaquaria and always been happy. The crew consisted mostly of tiny hermits, snails and two fighting conches. This is my first time using conches; happy to report that they seem hardy so far and do a nice job of plowing under and across my sand bed.

My tank is now looking really clean. The diatom bloom has gone and the CUC has totally mowed down any other remaining algae.

As I briefly mentioned before, I also picked up a new ORA Frostbite clownfish from my LFS, Vivid Aquarium. Reasonably priced and beautiful fish. He's already well established, eating voraciously and submissive to my existing Picasso clown. (Displays the typical 'shake/shiver' behavior when confronted by the female.) I love the contrast between the two.

To go with the two clowns, I picked up a Colorado Sunburst anemone, also from a LFS in LA, Goldenstate Corals. He has also settled in on the anemone island, next to the rose BTA. He's tiny, but aquacultured, which I have found makes a significant difference in whether or not an anemone will be successful in a reef tank. I'll grab better photos of him when I get a chance. The sunbursts are really beautiful lines of BTAs. I am hoping he grows to be the centerpiece of this tank.

Lastly, I made some flow changes to the tank. I now have two Tunze 6040 power heads on the back wall and moved the Vortech (which is simply too powerful for this size tank) to the left side. I really don't like having the Vortech on the left side as I really want a clean profile, but for now, the flow is much better and I don't have huge sand canyons. We'll see if I just remove the Vortech or swap it out for a gyre or something. For now, the Vortech is set to create a standing wave during prime viewing hours which adds some visual interest.

 

[Eight]

Simple video from last night! One of my observations is that starting from a completely dead tank (no live rock, no live sand) has helped to keep algae super low. Other than the original diatom bloom in the beginning, there's no green hair algae and I almost never wipe the glass. We'll see how long this lasts...

 

[canadianeh]

Nice!! Did you have to run the reactors or are you running them? How about a video?

Also, how many 20kg bag of sand you are using for the tank?

 

[MichaelReefer]

Today was my first real 'tank maintenance day' and in many ways, was the first true run of my plumbing set up. I changed out the original carbon I had since I filled the tank, added GFO and finally fixed the leaking O-Ring on my Aquamaxx XS reactor. I also did a 10 gallon water change.

Here's a non-pretty/prepped 'beforehand' photo in the morning. Don't mind the diatoms and my messed up sand. I've found the single MP40 a bit strong for my aquarium and the Tunze 6105s from my older tank WAY too strong. I have a Tunze 6040 arriving tomorrow. I think that the MP40 turned down low with the Tunze 6040 blowing across the back will be a nice combination. Will update on that later. I went nuts on the frags on AquaSD's live sale, but everything looks amazing. (Photos of the corals later.)

My Tunze Eco Chic refugium light runs counter cycle to my main lights, so you can see that they're on in the morning. I dropped a bunch of ceramic bio balls in the left portion of the sump and you can see a healthy amount of chaeto in the right side. Clarisea continues to clear the water and keep things hassle free and the Nyos 120 skimmer is pulling out a nice wet skimmate.

First step is to remove the skimmer cup and the right reactor return. I keep the reactor returns dry fit so that everything is more easily maintained. So far that's worked out great. I get a tiny amount of salt creep on the return pipe, but no big deal. You can see the right reactor return pipe resting on the Clarisea. Both reactors are easily removed after shutting off the gate valves, loosening the reactor screws and then twisting off.

I've never enjoyed reactor maintenance... and in this case, carbon is the biggest pain. The sponge on the AquaMaxx is pretty large, so little particles and fines find their way into my sump. This time I decided to put the carbon into a long filter bag and then put that into the reactor which seems to be working much better. It might be a little less efficient, but I don't think it makes much of a difference. The GFO went straight into the left reactor. Since the flow rate through GFO is quite slow and it doesn't float as much as carbon it hasn't been a problem.

Here's a full tank and stand shot with everything put back together. It took me a couple hours to do everything, but that included a water change from scratch, O-Ring repair on the right reactor and fumbling my way through this for the first time. I think that a straight carbon and skimmer clean up should take around 20 mins once I get the hang of it. For the O-Ring repair, I did manage to repair it and I no longer have any leaks. It took me a couple tries playing around with different size rings and combinations... in the end, I went with a smaller one on the bottom and a thicker one on top. (I don't know the sizes I ended up using.) I think the key is to not over tighten the nut on the lid. Over tightening causes the O-rings to contort out of shape which was the problem I had before.

I will share some nice coral/frag photos shortly! I have a few really nice pieces, especially the torch trio in the middle (Aussie gold, Electric green with blue tips and purple with green tips) and some really cool montis and chalices.

How is that refugium working out for you? I currently have an "external" refugium I am using but it takes up SO MUCH space under the cabinet. I am thinking about turning that chamber you did into one but Haven't decided yet. This is currently what I'm running. Appreciate any feedback.

 

[TeotheCoral]

Is everything okay? Where’s Jason?

 

[Eight]

Is everything okay? Where’s Jason?

Sorry! Been so busy with work recently! (I work for Hulu and I'm preparing to present to Bob Iger in two weeks!!)

I also just got a new camera and macro lens, so have been figuring out how to take some really nice photos to share with you all. The tank is doing amazing. Very stable, already seeing good growth, coralline algae, no hair algae, etc. Will post a proper update soon!

 

[Machpoint89]

Hey Jason,

Just wanted to say thanks for the very detailed / picture heavy build thread. I’m overseas and doing painfully slow research before I order plumbing online.

Again thanks for the valuable info and good luck with the tank!

- Sander

 

[TeotheCoral]

Bob Iger? I would be busy preparing too! Good luck! Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[Eight]

Nice!! Did you have to run the reactors or are you running them? How about a video?

Also, how many 20kg bag of sand you are using for the tank?

Yes, I'm running both reactors at the moment. BRS GFO in the back reactor and a bag of carbon in the front one. Both reactors are working fantastically, especially since I switched from running loose carbon to putting it into a bag and then into the reactor. Dialing in flow rates for the tank remains stupid easy. I can change the flow rates on the reactors independently using their separate gate valves and then if necessary, I simply adjust the main drain valve to ensure that the water level in the overflow box is hitting either just below or a few inches below the overflow drain. The tank remains very quiet with no overflow noise. It's so quiet that I can hear the vortech's pump velocity change when my Apex controls it.

I have lost two corals since I started... the first was a cheapo montipora that was a bit of a mystery. It just STN'd very quickly and went white... all the other montis are fine and growing. I am actually tracking them as they expand beyond their frag plugs. The second coral I lost kinda upset me, but it was my fault. It was a pricey frag of Pink Floyd acro that I didn't mount securely. It fell off when I didnt' notice, got buried in the sand and died. Oh well, considering I have like 30+ frags in the tank and the rest are doing well, I'm overall very happy with my progress so far.

I have started to feed the tank regularly, beyond the flake for the two clowns. My regimen is:

Roughly every day I throw in 8ml of Redsea Reef Energy AB+. I just started this a week ago or so. It's a lot of fun to dose because it looks super cool. People seem to like the Redsea supplements, so hopefully this stuff makes a difference and isn't just snake oil... we'll see over the next few months. Here's a fun photo of it going in:

In addition, every three days or so, I hand feed the LPS and anemones around 6am while everything is dark and the corals are all open. (I get up super early every day!) I'm target feeding a combination of one cube of frozen mysis (thawed and then strained to remove the excess nitrate and phosphates), a bit of Reed Roids and a small amount of Coral Amino. The Acans, torches and fungia especially love this and they remain extra puffy the remainder of the day.

Here's my fungia stuffing itself silly. This guy totally glows under the blue lighting:

As I mentioned before, I just purchased a new camera: Sony A7Riv along with a nice lens, the Sony 90mm f2.8 G Macro. It's been a few years since I've messed with SLRs and so I've been getting back into the groove of messing with RAW files, black levels and white balance, etc. My wife and I are expecting our first child in August, so this provided me the excuse to splurge on some nice new photography toys.

 

[Eight]

How is that refugium working out for you? I currently have an "external" refugium I am using but it takes up SO MUCH space under the cabinet. I am thinking about turning that chamber you did into one but Haven't decided yet. This is currently what I'm running. Appreciate any feedback.

I LOVE the refugium setup that I am running. It's growing chaeto like crazy... in fact, I have already harvested half the chaeto and thrown it into a bucket outside that I am using to farm amphipods which will be thrown back into the tank once they hit a high population. I'm also culturing phyto and Tisbe copepods on the side for fun. (If you can't tell, I love to have way too many things going on at one time.) I'll go into more depth on the phyto, Tisbe copepods and amphipod culturing later.

I would highly recommend you use the refugium chamber that's built into the Redsea v3 sump. If you cut out the baffle for the clarisea, it's actually a pretty decent sized space and the Tunze Eco-Chic refugium light is almost custom made for that space.

 

[canadianeh]

Yes, I'm running both reactors at the moment. BRS GFO in the back reactor and a bag of carbon in the front one. Both reactors are working fantastically, especially since I switched from running loose carbon to putting it into a bag and then into the reactor. Dialing in flow rates for the tank remains stupid easy. I can change the flow rates on the reactors independently using their separate gate valves and then if necessary, I simply adjust the main drain valve to ensure that the water level in the overflow box is hitting either just below or a few inches below the overflow drain. The tank remains very quiet with no overflow noise. It's so quiet that I can hear the vortech's pump velocity change when my Apex controls it.

I have lost two corals since I started... the first was a cheapo montipora that was a bit of a mystery. It just STN'd very quickly and went white... all the other montis are fine and growing. I am actually tracking them as they expand beyond their frag plugs. The second coral I lost kinda upset me, but it was my fault. It was a pricey frag of Pink Floyd acro that I didn't mount securely. It fell off when I didnt' notice, got buried in the sand and died. Oh well, considering I have like 30+ frags in the tank and the rest are doing well, I'm overall very happy with my progress so far.

I have started to feed the tank regularly, beyond the flake for the two clowns. My regimen is:

Roughly every day I throw in 8ml of Redsea Reef Energy AB+. I just started this a week ago or so. It's a lot of fun to dose because it looks super cool. People seem to like the Redsea supplements, so hopefully this stuff makes a difference and isn't just snake oil... we'll see over the next few months. Here's a fun photo of it going in:

In addition, every three days or so, I hand feed the LPS and anemones around 6am while everything is dark and the corals are all open. (I get up super early every day!) I'm target feeding a combination of one cube of frozen mysis (thawed and then strained to remove the excess nitrate and phosphates), a bit of Reed Roids and a small amount of Coral Amino. The Acans, torches and fungia especially love this and they remain extra puffy the remainder of the day.

Here's my fungia stuffing itself silly. This guy totally glows under the blue lighting:

As I mentioned before, I just purchased a new camera: Sony A7Riv along with a nice lens, the Sony 90mm f2.8 G Macro. It's been a few years since I've messed with SLRs and so I've been getting back into the groove of messing with RAW files, black levels and white balance, etc. My wife and I are expecting our first child in August, so this provided me the excuse to splurge on some nice new photography toys.

That's cool effect from the Red Sea supplement!

Also, how many 20kg bag of sand you are using for the tank? Is that 1" deep?

 

[MichaelReefer]

Love your tank. I will be getting a 525 eventually, and am definitely going to take the time to hard plumb everything like this. It looks so clean.