50 gal mixed reef

[thrillreefer]

Have some time off so I thought I’d make a build thread, already in progress…

1/15/22: I have enjoyed my Fluval Evo for a couple years but was feeling the itch for an upgrade! The requirements were more space and more ability to automate things, so I ended up buying a Seapora “57” rimless (seems to have bought the Deep Blue brand?). I took a chance and bought it off FB Marketplace which I don’t think I’d do again. Not terrible, but a few too many things missing or not well thought out, but I liked the size a lot and pretty new:

Good:
36 x 18 x 20H rimless and stand
Eshopps s120 skimmer
2x Redsea ReefLED 50
Eshopps RS-75 - passable
Rock, sand, 2 clowns (~Picasso maybe)
couple corals

Bad:
No ATO
No temp controller (bought old RKL cheap)
No dosing (bought Coralbox WF-4 and containers)

Ugly:
Rocks had what looked like GHA but on closer look may be Cladophoropsis — sounds like a scourge
Overflow is huge, and leaked! Internal to the tank box so not fatal, but could cause a leak with power outage and bulkhead standpipe not fully sealed
Stand needs paint, and ultimately some reinforcement

Got the tank home and set up temp tanks to cook the rocks and house fish!

 

[thrillreefer]

1/15-2/5/22: The stand was in rougher shape than it looked. Tons of salt creep, paint was shot, hinges rusting. And the top was not perfectly flat!

I set about hand-planing/sanding the top flatter, then added 1/2” plywood on top. I sanded the entire stand inside and out, and cut holes for bulkheads in the plywood top. I also planed and dance the bottom to flatten it but gave up on avoiding shims when I measured my floor at least 1/4” off level in both directions. After some glue and screws and 1x8 reinforcement triangles, I caulked the top and the inside and a ton of screw holes. Then I painted the inside white and the outside semi-gloss black, all with water resistant paint, maybe 4 coats each.

2/5 I moved it up to its location in my kitchen (not sure why that picture is rotated)

 

[thrillreefer]

2/5 – 2/14: The tank is drilled with just a single 1 1/4” drain and 1” return. I considered an over the back return so I could set it up as a Herbie and have an emergency drain. I still might, but I opted to try it first with the single Durso. I’m running the water level about 2” from the top in the tank so I don’t think it can actually overflow if the drain did get fully clogged.

Needed a new bulkhead since one looked questionable and had glue on threads from previous owner. Got it hard plumbed with a union so I can upgrade the sump in the future.



Water test: tank and bulkheads are good, but the overflow leaks! (From the tank into the overflow). It’s not well constructed since the overflow is glass and ABS, siliconed onto the glass tank box. Which is just not a great material choice for long term success. But I hope to get 2-3 years out of it, so I siliconed the snot out of all the joints, about 12 oz total.

2/18: And after 72 hrs cure time, it held for the 2nd water test. Filled with 52 gal RODI and fired it up.

2/26: No leaks, salt added, woo!

 

[thrillreefer]

3/3: Started adding LR. The system was running when I bought it, with ~50 lbs total of base plus fancier LR, definitely some sort of engineered rock initially. Parameters at purchase measured out at: 1.028; alk 11.8; NO2 0 ppm; PO4 0 ppm; Ca 560. Hair algae pretty thick on rocks but zero coralline coverage (on a 1-1.5 year old system). Not a great sign.

Should have looked closer, since on inspection after getting the rock home, the hair algae appeared not to be typical GHA (e.g. Derbesia sp.) nor even Bryopsis, but likely Cladophoropsis. Looks like very thin Chaeto up close. Supposedly very hard to kill.

However, I’m not really a reefer who shoots for completely algae free system. Some algae is natural on reefs. So instead of panic nuking the rocks with bleach I opted to cook them with Algaefix while setting up the tank. After about 6 doses at 1x then 2x strength every 3 days, there was marked reduction in the algae coverage. I also brushed the rocks several times and starved them of light so I can’t say what helped. (Ironically, the seller gave me a pretty full bottle of Vibrant. I bought algaefix, but during the treatment it was pretty well proven that Vibrant = Algaefix. See R2R thread…)

Before adding the rocks to the tank, I also blasted them with 6% H2O2 on any visible algae, waited 5 mins and scrubbed. Worked well to reduce algae ~99% from starting coverage.

 

[thrillreefer]

3/5: Used underwater epoxy to set the right side structure. Aquascape strategy: less invasive corals in the right half, more invasive on the left. So will probably split somewhat into softies left, SPS/LPS more on the right but not strictly.

3/6: added a couple tester corals: green toadstool and zoas, easy but liable to close up if unhappy.

Also started on my custom sump lid cutouts

 

[thrillreefer]

3/12: a lot of progress today! Corals look happy, major parameters on target, so I moved nearly all my corals into the 50 from stuffed Evo 13.
EVO

Into their new home

Bonus tank! Since the 50 came with a pair of clowns, I couldn’t shut down the Evo 13 and move her in. So I opted for an anemone tank! Picked up a couple of really nice rainbow/rose BTAs. Used a couple leftover rocks and away we go.

 

[thrillreefer]

3/22: did some cord management. I opted for cup hooks screwed into the plywood top to hang cords and hoses etc. Cheap and effective. Getting neater.

For controllers, I have a few things in use:

1. Reefkeeper Lite temp controller. Setpoint 75.5, hysteresis 0.5 so should swing 75-76. A little low but I’ll probably move up a degree or two for spring and then summer.

2. Kasa smart power strips. I integrated these with Amazon Alexa/echo dot so I can turn items on or off by voice. Part fun gimmick, which my kids love to abuse. But also super helpful when my hands are wet and I want something off or on. This setup also supports more complicated routines, like I can say “Alexa feed the corals” and it shuts off: skimmer, return and wave makers. After 15 mins, return goes back on, followed by wavemakers, then skimmer after an hour. Plenty more creativity available here.

3. Wavemakers on their own controllers. Jebao SLW-10 and some super off-brand wavemaker that’s a bit larger (forget the name). Plugged into Kasa for smart on/off.

4. Redsea ReefLEDs run off the mandatory ReefBeat app. Not terrible but sometimes slow to connect. Decent graphical setup of daily lighting schedule, and acclimation features is helpful.

 

[thrillreefer]

3/23: Tank had been eerily devoid of algae, and looked fake. Diatom bloom finally started at this point which felt good.

4/4: alk consumption is about 0.2 dKh, started hand dosing.

Added sand finally. I rinsed about 80 lbs 1:1 mix of sugar sized (came with tank) and larger 1-3 mm Caribsea. I first used my RODI waste stream to rinse it for several weeks intermittently, then hose rinsed until clear runoff. Then RODI and final saltwater rinse. Almost no cloudiness, and corals were fully unphased. Phew

 

[thrillreefer]

4/7: picked up a RB EXO ATO from @dz6t and couldn’t resist grabbing a couple tester Acros: tricolor Valida, and ALT strawberry fields.

4/9: set up coralbox WF-4 doser with ESV Alk and Ca, and Acropower in channel 3. Alk 8.45, Ca 475

4/12: Alk 8.45, Ca 470. After years (~decades!) of manual dosing, using a doser feels like a cheat code!!

 

[thrillreefer]

4/14: topped off ATO (actually swapped for a bigger reservoir), set up the auto feeder, and left for ~ a week. Always nerve wracking! Fingers crossed!!

I did set up a Wyze cam so I can check on the tank haha

So far things look ok

 

[thrillreefer]

Back after an extra day due to cancelled flight (grrrrr) but all fish accounted for. Need to scrape algae, do some water tests, and look closer but corals appear healthy as well. And my bonus anemone tank also did not crash!

 

[ifarmer]

great progress.

 

[thrillreefer]

Borrowed one of the club PAR meters and got a better understanding of PAR in the tank. Lit with just 2x RedSea ReefLED 50s, which do a pretty decent job of throwing even spread. I'm happy with these numbers for 6-12 months as I get the tank stocked, but might add a couple of T5s down the line depending on how well SPS grow in the 7-12" depth range.

Measured with channels: blue 100% white 50% moon 50%; cranking whites to 100% added about 25% more PAR. Locations are in inches from top left corner waterline. Units of PAR are µmol photons per meter per sec, so using the numbers from 2" below surface, that computes to 1 mole of photons hitting my tank every ~3 hours. Fun!

 

[chadfish]

Borrowed one of the club PAR meters and got a better understanding of PAR in the tank. Lit with just 2x RedSea ReefLED 50s, which do a pretty decent job of throwing even spread. I'm happy with these numbers for 6-12 months as I get the tank stocked, but might add a couple of T5s down the line depending on how well SPS grow in the 7-12" depth range.

Measured with channels: blue 100% white 50% moon 50%; cranking whites to 100% added about 25% more PAR. Locations are in inches from top left corner waterline. Units of PAR are µmol photons per meter per sec, so using the numbers from 2" below surface, that computes to 1 mole of photons hitting my tank every ~3 hours. Fun!

View attachment 176639

Looks great! I encourage you to add it to the (unofficial) database


Thread 'BRS PAR Database'
https://bostonreefers.org/forums/index.php?threads/brs-par-database.174317/

 

[thrillreefer]

Things are rolling along slowly. Coralline showed up on the glass/new rocks right at about 2 months and is now growing well, so this is encouraging. Not much “ugly phase” maybe because half the rocks were well established. Some Bryopsis has showed up, on the rocks from the tank I bought. I hit them all with 6% hydrogen peroxide and a scrub before adding but clearly didn’t get it all. I may try fluconazole at some point if it gets bad, but I’ve had Dinos show up right after fluconazole treatment the twice I’ve used it. Bought a couple lettuce nudis as they supposedly eat it/suck out the chlorophyll. They do spend a lot of time on the Bryopsis but not much obvious eating.

Coral growth is still pretty slow. Only using about 0.2-0.3 dKh per day. Softies, LPS and SPS all look happy with good PE, but not much growth observed yet. Couple of culprits:
1. Having trouble keeping N/P above zero. Dosing 5 ml/day Acropower and feeding more, but only two fish. Time for more fish? Maybe a small foxface to eat the Bryopsis. Need a screen top first probably. I could also take the skimmer offline, or run intermittently. It’s doing great pulling nasty brown stuff out, but maybe too efficiently.
2. The ReefLEDs aren’t that bright. Good even coverage but under 200 par except right at the top where there aren’t corals. I picked up a 2-bulb T5 retrofit so I’ll be building a canopy to sit on the front and angle a bit backward. Should pump up PAR another 100+

 

[thrillreefer]

FTS whites

Blues with orange filter

 

[thrillreefer]

Picked up some nice new pieces from BRS members

Mummy eye chalice

Rainbow Monti is really hard to capture in photos but looks amazing

 

[thrillreefer]

Bryopsis is taking off a bit so I’m trying H2O2 treatment. My 6-month-old lent me an old silicone nipple to make a little diving bell:

Before:

Turned off all flow. Hit it with 1 mL of 6% H2O2, volume of the nipple is maybe 10 mL. Held it in place for 5 mins, then turned everything back on. Will update on progress

 

[chadfish]

I like your method. Just about to administer another dose of Reef Flux. It worked wonders the first time, but the bryopsis is back.

Very interested to see how this diving bell method works

 

[thrillreefer]

No visible change this morning but will keep watching.

I’ll may try fluconazole if this really fails since I’ve had it work for months or more. But the 2 times I’ve tried it I had dinoflagellates show up after, and right now the Bryopsis is nowhere near that annoying. Or maybe a small foxface but there’s other issues there. Outgrowing the tank, nipping at LPS, etc. Urchin maybe?