Hey StevieT, I know you posted this somewhere recently. But what is you current livestock in that tank? I just added a Midas Blenny he is a pleasure to watch One more question, I was thinking of getting a JBJ auto top off. Why did you need to use the mag floats vs the hangon brackets it comes with?

Current livestock:

Coral beauty
Pajama Cardnial
B&W clown
purple firefish
yellow watchman goby
peppermint shrimp
CUC
coral

I did the mag float (or any other magnet mount) because it allows me to adjust the float sensor to the millimeter. If you use the provided brackets, the notches where you hook the sensor are around 1" between each other. That means you have a lot of room for adjusting, and if you don't like your water level where a notch is, you're screwed.

The mag float allows me to adjust depending on what I am running. If I run filter floss, the water level drops in the sump becuse it cuts flow. This way I can easily adjust the float sensor so the water level in the display stays constant. If you see one, you'll know what I am talking about. I would reccomend an ATO, they allow you to leave the tank and not worry about water levels.

Yea I think I get what you mean I am proabably going to invest in one because I leave for business trips for several days at a time on occasion. With my extra fan and all there is a decent amount of evporation. Good news is its working wonders for the temps thus far!

I am thinking of a little project this weekend. Media basket for the return pump area. Just going to use some eggcrate and superglue

Yeah, I did it for the same reason, business trips/vacations. Also I am not around the tank on the weekends. Just make sure you are around for a few days so you know everything is working correctly after you set up.

I like that idea, is it to hold chemi-pure or someother chemical media?

stevie, your tank is looking awesome, specially the before and after pics. just wondering. i just bought a new sump for my 65g, and if i cant put bio-balls, ceramic, or lr rubble in it, what do i put??? there is also going to be a refugium in the sump if it changes anything.

Yea that would suck to come home to a flooded room

Yea I was thining of making like three trays. One for ChemiPure, One for Purigen and maybe some phosban. I figure I would make it so there is a little room underneath for the water to flow into the chamber and also keep the bags in place.




I know you asked Stevie T, but if its big enought you could always just use some liverock in there and some cheoto or whatever in the fuge, then place some chemical media in the sump in a media basket. I think the bio balls are ok if they can work in a wet/dry type fashion where they arent constantly submerged. Also depending on size, run the skimmer down there.

Thank you!
Also to what m.b said. I have a customer that just set up a 220 with 80 gallon sump reef. He is running this mud stuff from eco Systems. It sounds interesting, called Miracle Mud. Look into that. I wouldn't think any more bio balls would make a difference if you have enough live rock in your dispaly and maybe some in your sump. Grow some chaeto.

Yea i have heard of that Mircale Mud stuff as well, supposed to be good!

I am thinking about your tray idea. Yet placing it under the intake instead of using the pump chamber. It would be easier to access and I have tons of room now since I replaced the skimmer. If you take out the control pannel where all the wires sit, picture seeing through to the heater towards the bottom! The tunze is shorter so you can see through.

I would still run the sponges and floss to prevent detritus clogging up the bags. I keep my purigen there right now, connected to one of the sponges with a zip tie. I figured it would be easier to change instead of going in to the chamber of death.

sounds interesting. i ordered chaeto for the fuge already, just waiting for it to come in. putting some pcs as lighting should be fine.

StevieT, hows it going...longtime follower (few months), first time making comment ....I recently joined because your Aquarium Journal is thoughtful and well put together that I feel confident about doing a nano.

Anyway, I understand all your mods, except the protein skimmer, not the stock one, but the tunez. Maybe I am not following the pictures correctly and not seeing exactly what you did to it. Perhaps After i obtain my unit, i will understand better. the magnets lost me, , and i wasnt sure if you modified pieces on it, hard to tell since i dont have one. All good though, in time i will learn.

My question, since i didn't notice throughout your Journal is the timing of the lights. How do you have your timers set up?

Any Problems with Temperature ? (no chiller i noticed, perhaps b/c of water movement and ATO keeps temp safe)

HaHa Chamber of death Yea that sounds like a good idea, I would consider running it there too but the monster skimmer pump may be an issue I have also been thinking about one of those submerisble JBJ UV Sterlizers. I bet you have room for one!

yeah, you can't do it with that beast of a skimmer. I have room for a bus now, bring on the UV sterlizers!!! Why do you want to run one? Are you having algae issues?

Not really...I get a build up on the glass everyday. Had some on the sand but its almost all gone now. It was just a thought for a futre mod, make that water nice and clean

Alex-

!!!

Thanks for taking a look at my tank. What I did with the skimmer is take one of the magents they provided and glued it to the other side of the skimmer. This way I could fit it anywhere in the filtration area. I took some other magenets and used them on the outside of the tank to hold the skimmer in place.

Skimmer || epoxy || Magnet they provided || rear glass|| magents I used. Pretty simple, once you see on you will know what I am talking about.

I have my lights on for 11 hours. In the winer the temps run 79-80* in the summer 80-81*, nope no chiller needed. Red Sea provides an extra fan to mount in the rear. I took that, upgraded the transformer to make it spin faster. The RSM comes with a built in timer that controls the daylights and LED night lights.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

StevieT,

Thanks for quick reply. So timer 11 hours a day, the other 13 hours with the moonlight im assuming. I just posted a poll in the "ALL IN ONE" Forum about battery backups. I was curious of your opinion on such devices, and also how many total watts you have running with the lights, new skimmer, extra powerhead, ATO, etc...

by the way, Nice cichlid set up ....Im working on my second Frontosa Tank

Are you getting a Red Sea Max?

I would run the lights on for 8-10 hours, 4 hours during your cycle. Mine are on a little longer but it is at my office and I like everyone to enjoy the tank all day long. Yes the moonlights are either on or off, no timer contol for those. I wish I would enjoy them more, i rarely see my tank at night

I will give a more detailed response on the UPS on that thread

Hey StevieT, whats the reason that you went for a Koralia 2?? They push a serious amount of water, isn't it like 2300L/H? I would have thought it would be pushing water over the edge of the tank... Do the fish or corals mind it? especially the corals that you've got closer to it?

Thanks
OwNeD

It isn't a direct flow. Have you ever seen one perform? It is dispursed almost 360* around the entire powerhead. Fish and corals love the thing. If you put your hand up to it you can feel how soft the flow actaully is. Love the koralia, it doesn't push water over any part ofthe tank, the surface has nice ripples. Once you see one you'll know what I'm talking about.

Nice looking tank Steve.....My 11" Red Monti Cap started at about the same size as yours.

thanks. Thats good to hear, I hope mine can look that nice one day
how long did it take to grow that big?

Only about a year and a half, and that with a couple moves from tank to tank. Its in my 37 now, and it is huge, I have to frag it as it is starting to shade everything.

Stevie...did you keep the carbon in your tank? I read through this a while ago and know you took out the biomedia and rock rubble...but couldn't remember and/or find it in here about the carbon...It looks like if I put that bag in the bottom where the instructions say to, it would: 1. be a pain to take out and clean, and 2. possibly block water flow...is it necessary? thanks so much!

jlylec-

I replace the stock carbon with chemi-pure. I just recently changed it and yes, I still keep it in the chamber of death, under the return pumps. It does not block flow in any way. Now with the new skimmer I am going to make a custom media rack since I have lots of room. I will be placing the chemi-pure and my purigen bag on that rack. Pics to come when I complete this project one of these days.

Removed bio balls, no live rock rubble. Run a skimmer, sponges, filter floss, chemi pure and purigen.

I don't find that the bag cloggs up in the chamber of death, I recently changed it after around 4-5 months of use and it was not dirty at all.

Hey StevieT, could you do up like just a quick diagram in paint of like the side view of the back part of the tank with all that in it, just cause atm im having trouble picturing where all that fits cause I don't have my own to look at... Only if you get a chance.
Thanks,
OwNeD

fo sizzo, let me get off the phone with mr. coral about my order since OCTOBER!!!! and i'll draw something up.

as requested:

nice diagram. what ato are you using??? im looking for a system to put in the sump of my 65g.

JBJ

oh alright thanks.

StevieT you make me want to start my RSM back up hahah

DOOOOOO IT!!!!!

Godfather,

Your ATO, I get it, it keeps the water at a specific level due to evaporation lost. in that resevoir im assuming its straight water, no salt, but just water. Question is where do you source your water from? do you have a RO/DI unit around ?

2nd water item, im a bit lost on is your WC's....when you change your water do you remove like X amount of gallons and let it replinish from the ATO source and then add new water to your resovoir ? So many questions !!!

haha

No, salt does not evaporate, so you will only replace it with freshwater. So in the resivor it is RO water. I get my water from a water delivery service that I have for drinking water at my office. If i did not have that I would have a RO/DI unit. But since it is at no charge to me and is pure as day, I have 4 - 5 gallon water jugs of RO delivered every other week.

During a water change I add 4 gallons of RO to a bucket. Add in 2.5 cups of salt. Drop in a heater and a powerhead to bring it up to temp and do the mixing for me. This brings my mix to 1.025 salinity.

I syphon out 4 gallons of water from the display, use the razor blade every other week to remove stuck algae and coralline. Rinse the sponges, change the filter floss every week. Add in the water that has been mixing in the other bucket.

I do turn off my pumps and ATO during a water change so nothing is run dry and the ATO doesn't kick fresh water in my tank, that would be badddddddddd!!!!

ATO resivor lasts 5-6 days without refilling.

Remember, salt does not evaporate so i don't add the mix to the resivor, that would just be a pain since i would have to drain out the ro water, make sure the tubing is clear, remove the pumps, etc. I prefer dumping the water directly into the tank. If i was more "fancy" i would use a pump to add the water back, but then I would have waste every week since there would always have to be a level to where the pump doesn't run dry.

I never considered getting RO water from the water guys at the office. I have them bring me distilled. Is RO really better?

distilled and ro are almost the same. Both reef safe. Just make sure they are distilling the water over any metal surfaces.

I did the Media Basket mod this weekend....helped bring the water level up in the pump chambers! Also setup a JBJ ATO, going to come in handy as I am away this week I was thinking of starting and RSM mods thread...put my mods and others could put theirs so its all in one place.

awesome, do you have pics up yet? Adam had a thread up of a media basket in his RSM.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...28&hl=media

i love the idea, start one up when you get the chance, I'll be there with some pics

Wow that beats mine for sure! Not sure it would fit with the stock skimmer. I will start it up on thursday when I get back. All my pics are on my personal machine. We can just add all the stuff at the top like the info threads.

he is saying that the eggcrate will not work with the tunze skimmer, it needs to direct the flow downwards....

He did a very nice job.

Yea I may have to make a better one now Dont think I have the tools for cutting acrilyc though.

razor blade and a straight edge clamped down. Score and cut, it will snap just like glass. That or a saw

what makes that tunze skimmer so much better? I'm still in the process of setting mine up...should I bypass using the stock one all together and just buy the tunze from the get-go?

Have you ever contemplated a Refugium ? maybe one that is submersed inside your ATO bucket ? or attached behind your chambers? It woudl be cool to have a constant food source right there .... I think if I go with a RSM i can somehow come up with one. Start inventing for RSM...What are your thoughts?

your tank is great! love the rsm's

StevieT,
Great tank and I loved the thread. I am picking up my RSM this week. I cannot wait to get it going. I am however very patient with these things. I have had a bunch of tanks and I have made all the mistakes before.

Question -- Did you consider the tunze instead of the koralia?

Yeah...everything always looks smaller in the store.

The stock skimmer doesn't work, and the tunze does. The tunze is also quiter and produces less micro bubbles. If I were you, don't even mess with the stock skimmer, replace it with the tunze right away. YOu will have lots of room



well, a fuge needs to be in salt water so it wouldn't work in my ATO resivor. I have lots of new room with the skimmer change, but it is in the wrong area. I would think about it but with my currect water quality, it really isn't needed, and I don't want to plum a sump in the stand, and I can't get light to the chaeto because if you look at my drawing of my rear chambers a page back, you'll see.

Urchinhead, a member here and RSM expert, has a fully engineered and designed sump for the RSM. He even has cost of production figured out, he may be releaing more later on about this.

Thanks!! good luck with yours. The tunze is a good pump, but I wanted to try the Koralia and it is cheaper. I love the koralia, happy with my purchase

REEFSAINT has to ask if this was used as a tax write off????
it looks work related and can releive stress??