Reef Jockey
Active Member
Don't ask me why but i just put off a build thread for a year now. It's just something i haven't come across to taking the time to do.
As an idled reefer for 4+ years, my journey re-started when a friend of mine moved and wanted me to have his Fluval 13.5. Everyone in my family loved my former 125g mixed reef that I had to sell to get some things done around the house...
So i couldn't pass up this opprotunity.
It was already an established tank with some nems and red mushrooms.... alot of mushrooms. I first needed to cut back on the turf algae so picked up a bunch of local CUC and check my nitrates. the 2 clowns are a mated pair that came with the tank.
Purely stock Fluval Evo with the P1 skimmer. First thing came to my mind was UPGRADE!!! this tank was in a temperature controlled environment so regulating the temperature was one of my first goals. RO/DI water was a must so the RO Buddie it was and I have always used Reef Crystals.
I had to lose the lid and run a fan to keep the temp between 77-78. So i got a Current Orbit marine LED. The light was nice and the open top kept my tank cool. I also got rid of the stock sponge and added the InTand media chamber in slot #1. In the media chamber i run filter floss, Phosguard, charcoal, and bio media. PS1 skimmer went into chamber 2. Upgraded the return pump to a Sicce 1.0 and picked up a Hygger mini wave maker.
The PS1 skimmer wasn't working very well in chamber 2 and very difficult to dial in. So i ditched the skimmer and DIY'd an algae scrubber.
Algae scrubber seems to work because till this day, my nitrates and phosphates are undectecable. I use Salifert test kits
As the months went by, some changes like rescaping, and aquiring more livestock was the norm until i felt like the Current marine LED light wasn't quite good enough. I was able to find a used AI Prime 16HD and that made all the difference. Attached the fan to the light bracket.
So the tank was also taking up some counter space and i need something for my equipment. So i built a small cabinet.
I also added an Inkbird 308T. works lovely
As i aquired more corals from friends, I got tired of manually dosing. So i picked up the Jebao 4 channel doser. By that time i just started dosing AFR(All For Reef) and loved it ever since. That means i have 3 more dosers for other things. I also dose my top off water instead of an ATO. I also mix Kalkwasser in my top off water. Takes a little dialing in the dosing of top of water and slight adjustment through the seasons. With the fan to regulate temp, i needed top off about 700ml daily.
Fast forward to today.....
I hope this counts as a build thread..
As an idled reefer for 4+ years, my journey re-started when a friend of mine moved and wanted me to have his Fluval 13.5. Everyone in my family loved my former 125g mixed reef that I had to sell to get some things done around the house...
So i couldn't pass up this opprotunity. It was already an established tank with some nems and red mushrooms.... alot of mushrooms. I first needed to cut back on the turf algae so picked up a bunch of local CUC and check my nitrates. the 2 clowns are a mated pair that came with the tank.
Purely stock Fluval Evo with the P1 skimmer. First thing came to my mind was UPGRADE!!! this tank was in a temperature controlled environment so regulating the temperature was one of my first goals. RO/DI water was a must so the RO Buddie it was and I have always used Reef Crystals.
I had to lose the lid and run a fan to keep the temp between 77-78. So i got a Current Orbit marine LED. The light was nice and the open top kept my tank cool. I also got rid of the stock sponge and added the InTand media chamber in slot #1. In the media chamber i run filter floss, Phosguard, charcoal, and bio media. PS1 skimmer went into chamber 2. Upgraded the return pump to a Sicce 1.0 and picked up a Hygger mini wave maker.
The PS1 skimmer wasn't working very well in chamber 2 and very difficult to dial in. So i ditched the skimmer and DIY'd an algae scrubber.
Algae scrubber seems to work because till this day, my nitrates and phosphates are undectecable. I use Salifert test kits
As the months went by, some changes like rescaping, and aquiring more livestock was the norm until i felt like the Current marine LED light wasn't quite good enough. I was able to find a used AI Prime 16HD and that made all the difference. Attached the fan to the light bracket.
So the tank was also taking up some counter space and i need something for my equipment. So i built a small cabinet.
I also added an Inkbird 308T. works lovely
As i aquired more corals from friends, I got tired of manually dosing
. So i picked up the Jebao 4 channel doser. By that time i just started dosing AFR(All For Reef) and loved it ever since. That means i have 3 more dosers for other things. I also dose my top off water instead of an ATO. I also mix Kalkwasser in my top off water. Takes a little dialing in the dosing of top of water and slight adjustment through the seasons. With the fan to regulate temp, i needed top off about 700ml daily.
Fast forward to today.....
I hope this counts as a build thread..
