Redsea Reefer 170 all the way from a 55 gal

[NY_Caveman]

Finished the two week MicroBacter 7 regiment to startup the biopellet reactor. (Two cap fulls a day) The Chaeto reactor is online and growing, parameters are normalizing. Then Murphy decided to pay me a visit during a water change while ripping wire algae off the rocks.

The entire mound collapsed, skull and all, forcing me to rescape. Inspired somewhat by @PupChow aka "Inappropriate Reefer" I built out 4 island like structures including a skull and bones island. What do you guys think?

That is pretty cool. I bet you will have better flow in this arrangement.

 

[Katrina71]

I'm loving this tank!

 

[doughboy]

I like 45 gal cube (and the skull).

 

[Simply__J]

Let the 2 part begin! Started manually dosing 2 part today as I wait for a dosing pump I ordered to arrive. Once again I have this forum to thank for helping me calculate the initial amount, dose etc.

I put together these inexpensive "squeeze and pour" bottles to make my life easier if I'm going to dose everyday. The bottles are from the dollar store and the tops are Tolco chemical mixing dispensers from Grainger. They measure up to 90ml of fluid. Each bottle cost me less than $4 to put together.

Let's see if I can get my Ca and Alk up and leveled. Im using C-balance from two little fishies I had sitting around from a previous craigslist deal. What are you guys dosing?

 

[Simply__J]

Skimmer stopped working! Then I realized I hadn't cleaned it in a few months. So early this morning I took it apart, cleaned it, gave it a vinegar bath and got it working again. Which is a pain in the wrasse because the way the Bubble Magus 5 fits in the sump it has to be disassembled/assembled in the sump in order to take it out and put it back in. How often do you clean your skimmer? I need to do it more routinely.

 

[Simply__J]

Purchased a new Icecap 1k Gyre for the 45 Cube in efforts to upgrade flow. Got rid of the MP10 and Jebao RW-4.

The 1k works great it was just TOO much flow for the fine sand I had. Even at 10%-20% flow rate half the tank was bare, rendering 90% of the 1k features useless. I even tried capping one side of it and there still was a constant sand storm.

Decided to trade some frags for a 20lb bag of Carib Sea Special Grade and do a substrate swap during my next water change. I did it all at once siphoning the fine sand out. Rinsed the new sand and added it with a cup under water to spread it out evenly. Here are some shots during and after. Next project is installing the doser.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Skimmer stopped working! Then I realized I hadn't cleaned it in a few months. So early this morning I took it apart, cleaned it, gave it a vinegar bath and got it working again. Which is a pain in the wrasse because the way the Bubble Magus 5 fits in the sump it has to be disassembled/assembled in the sump in order to take it out and put it back in. How often do you clean your skimmer? I need to do it more routinely.

I take apart and clean my Tunze 9004 skimmer about every 90 days. Last time was not too bad gunk-wise. If you occasionally move the skimmer up and down a couple of times in the chamber the water movement will help clean the grate out between cleanings.

 

[Simply__J]

The reef gods a trolling me. Right when I thought I was making some headway, the not even a month old IceCap Gyre 1k just stopped working out of the blue. It just reads "0" on the control display. I tried every setting, power cycling and it just won't go. Does anybody have a clue as to why? Or how to fix it? SOS!

On a brighter note, I was able to install the doser in the sump area by fabricating an under-mounted shelf for it to sit on. Not the cleanest work but it holds. Waiting on some parts to start it up but the plan is to dose 2 part out of the DIY Voss containers (which I do manually now) and probably some miscellaneous "coral juice" that has amino acids or something that aids in coloration, haven't decided yet. Just currenly distracted and vexed at the gyre situation.

 

[Simply__J]

!New Coral Alert! Won some eBay auctions from Strictly Fish last week. Got great deals on most of them, reminded me of the frag swap days. (They rarely do them down here anymore - wish the would) Cool thing is, because they are my LFS I don't have to pay for shipping and more importantly there is no waiting for the corals to arrive. I just go and pick them up!

Got myself a little 6-pack of frags, I'm drip acclimating and dipping them in CoralRX before I place them in the cube. I'm particularly excited as I haven't purchased corals for a few months as priority has gone to tank improvements/upgrades.

Red/Orange Montipora Setosa
Blue Riverflow Monti
Green ORA Hydnophora
Green & Red WWC Grafted Monti
Purple, Green & Blue Goldmint Chalice
Green/Blue Granulosa

 

[NY_Caveman]

The reef gods a trolling me. Right when I thought I was making some headway, the not even a month old IceCap Gyre 1k just stopped working out of the blue. It just reads "0" on the control display. I tried every setting, power cycling and it just won't go. Does anybody have a clue as to why? Or how to fix it? SOS!

On a brighter note, I was able to install the doser in the sump area by fabricating an under-mounted shelf for it to sit on. Not the cleanest work but it holds. Waiting on some parts to start it up but the plan is to dose 2 part out of the DIY Voss containers (which I do manually now) and probably some miscellaneous "coral juice" that has amino acids or something that aids in coloration, haven't decided yet. Just currenly distracted and vexed at the gyre situation.

Nice shelf!

Silly question, have you tried cleaning the gyre? Soaking in distilled white vinegar? It would fail to run if it were clogged up. I would contact CoralVue after that. They have pretty good customer support.

 

[Simply__J]

Nice shelf!

Silly question, have you tried cleaning the gyre? Soaking in distilled white vinegar? It would fail to run if it were clogged up. I would contact CoralVue after that. They have pretty good customer support.

Haha thanks.

Since it's only been in water for 3 weeks nothing has really grown on/in it. Although I haven't soaked it, I did disassemble it and carefully put it together again with no luck.

I opened a ticket with them yesterday. Hopefully they'll get back to me soon. In a pinch I was able to trade some frags for 2x used Hydor Koralia 3G powerheads although comically large, they're keeping things flowing in the mean time. So I'm not as panicked.

 

[Simply__J]

Got more work done on the dosing install this morning. Ran the lines that go from the doser straight to the display. Kept the 4 lines organized with a trick I picked up here on R2R using zip ties. (Photo below) Few updates;

Orderd a 4 line dosing line holder from China (let the wait begin - photo below) - Does anyone know of any DIY tricks in the mean time?

My rigid acrylic tubing for inside the DIY Voss containers got delivered to another address (lost/stolen) - Thinking of using the semi-rigid R/O line for the time being, thoughts?

About to calibrate and program the Jebao DP-4 what time do you guys dose 2-part and if you break it up throughout the day how often do you spread the doses out? I've been doing it once a day in the morning manually because I have no other choice.

Got a hold of CoralVue they will be shipping out a new motor block for the IceCap Gyre 1k. Hopefully it arrives soon.

 

[Simply__J]

Started programming the Jebao DP-4 doser and ran into an issue where the first time I calibrated to the 100ml it did it in 235 (what is understood to be RPM). Tried calibrating it again after manually priming the lines to remove the air bubbles and it stops itself/tops out at 250 before getting to the 100ml. Tried flipping the rollers but that didn't resolve the issue. Send help, please ! ! !

 

[dantimdad]

Following. I love cubes.

I have the DP3 and will be using it on my 93 build.

Hopefully, I can pick up some tricks with it from you as you go along.

 

[Simply__J]

Following. I love cubes.

I have the DP3 and will be using it on my 93 build.

Hopefully, I can pick up some tricks with it from you as you go along.

Thanks for the follow. It's not the hardest doser to set up but it does take a lot of patience. I stuck to the "roller flip" method and re calibrated several times after. It may have not woked previously maybe do to the overall length and labarynth the tube have to take to get to the display. However I eventually got it to work.


This video helped

 

[dantimdad]

I'll be dipped!

No where near ready to use mine but, I just checked the spare head and, sure enough, it's backwards!

What the heck?!

LOL!

Thanks a million!


Now, if I could just get the other heads off without feeling like I am breaking them...

 

[Simply__J]

Recieved the replacement motor unit from Coral Vue for the Gyre 1k. I'm going to sell one of the Hydor Koralia 3Gs and keep one as a back up. Plan on ordering 2 smaller Hydors to move some water behind the aquascape in the back of the tank.

 

[Simply__J]

Recieved the replacement motor unit from Coral Vue for the Gyre 1k. I'm going to sell one of the Hydor Koralia 3Gs and keep one as a back up. Plan on ordering 2 smaller Hydors to move some water behind the aquascape in the back of the tank.

 

[Simply__J]

Recieved the replacement motor unit from Coral Vue for the Gyre 1k. I'm going to sell one of the Hydor Koralia 3Gs and keep one as a back up. Plan on ordering 2 smaller Hydors to move some water behind the aquascape in the back of the tank.

 

[Simply__J]

Recieved the replacement motor unit from Coral Vue for the Gyre 1k. I'm going to sell one of the Hydor Koralia 3Gs and keep one as a back up. Plan on ordering 2 smaller Hydors to move some water behind the aquascape in the back of the tank.