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KMitch's Double the Trouble Tanks -- Mixed Reef & Clown Harem — Problem Riddled and Going in Reverse


KMitch

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Hello N-R.com family,

 

Welcome! If you are just joining us, please know this build thread is 2 tanks in 1 thread. Double the pleasure, double the fun. Over the course of the last 10 years, I've had a number of tanks with varied success, and I hope to put all the lessons learned from those tanks together in this build.

 

Rules of the road:

  • Simplicity is king. 15,000 pieces of equipment just create more opportunities for failure. I am going to do the basics, and I'm going to do them well. I will use automation and monitoring for safety and to make me aware of problems in the tank, but not depend on them for the survival of the tank.
  • Some SPS. I like some SPS Corals, and I might try a frag or two that amuse me, but this tank will go back to my love of LPS, softies, and (hopefully) a clam.
  • Fun, active, and healthy. I want my reef to thrive, the inhabitants to be healthy, and to have a tank that I can get lost staring at for hours. 

 

Red Sea Reefer 250 ZeoVit Fueled Mixed Reef Tank

After 10 months, my mixed reef in the IM20 tank outgrew the space, so I decided to upgrade into a Red Sea Reefer 250, where I'll continue building upon the ZeoVit success I've had in the nano tank on a little larger scale. 

 

👉Jump to page 5, where the Red Sea Reefer build starts

👉Or, keep reading and see where it came from

 

Equipment

  • Red Sea Reefer 250 (55 gallons)
  • Kessil AP9X Light
  • EchoTech Marine MP10 powerbeads (x2)
  • Neptune COR return pump
  • Clarisea roller mat for mechanical filtration
  • Royal Exclusive 160 protein skimmer
  • Neptune Apex EL
  • Neptune DOS dosing pumps
  • Neptune DOS reservoir
  • Neptune Trident
  • Neptune ATK (auto top off) 
  • Customized sump with redesigned plumbing
  • Sapphire Aquatics 10g ATO
  • Custom acrylic lid
  • Modified stand 
  • iPad mini display
  • ZeoVit dosing

 

Livestock:

  • Pair of Yasha Gobies
  • Pistol Shrimp
  • Cleaner Shrimp
  • Peppermint Shrimp
  • Blue Maxima Clam
  • Aussie Golden Eye Chalice
  • Branching Cyphastera
  • Green Acans
  • Purple Favia
  • Rainbow Acans
  • Watermelon Acans
  • Weeping Willow Toadstool
  • Orange Ricordia Mushrooms
  • Misc. Green & Blue Zoas
  • Purple Hairy Mushroom
  • Blue Tip Torch Euphyllia
  • Superman Montipora
  • White Zombie Zoas
  • Assorted Acropora and Millipora
  • Green Texas Slimer
  • Baby Blue Bowerbacki
  • Neon Green Birdsnest
  • 20lbs Fiji Pink Sand
  • 30lbs of Tonga branch live rock
  • 20lbs Live Rock from KP Aquatics

 

Tank is Born, 26 December 2020:

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Sump Setup, January 2021

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FTS, 13 January 2021

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FTS, 20 January 2021

 

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Innovative Marine 20 Peninsula Clownfish Harem Tank

As I move the reef into the larger tank, I will transition this nano tank into a clownfish harem tank....

 

Equipment:

  • Innovative Marine NUVO Fusion Pro Peninsula 20 Gallon tank
  • Kessil A360X light with wifi
  • InTank media basket
  • Aqamai KPS Wavemaker pump
  • eShopps Nano Protein Skimmer
  • Cobalt Aquatics Neotherm 75W heater
  • Aqua Gadget Spin Stream Nozzle
  • XP Aquatics Duetto ATO system
  • 15lbs of Live Rock

 

Tank is Born, 18 March 2020:

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Full Tank Shot, 31 March 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 14 April 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 13 May 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 15 June 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 20 July 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 8 September 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 18 November 2020

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Full Tank Shot, 13 January 2021 (After livestock transfers to RSR 250)

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A tank is (almost) born! I received my tank and all the goodies in three massive boxes last week, and then spent the weekend getting ready to install the tank onto a new stand..... speaking of the stand.....

 

I don't have an existing stand to use for this tank. I also don't like the look of the stands that IM makes, and it's an odd size for a tank, so most traditional stands don't fit unless they are way oversized. Ikea to the rescue! We found a nice looking piece of furniture at Ikea that matches the motif and style of the room and have spent a few days re-building the stand to have a more re-enforced structure for the weight of the tank. My plan to try and persuade the lady to let me put the tank at the end of the couch was unsuccessful, so for now, the tank will go behind the couch. It's still prominently placed in the room though, and it's probably a better location logistically. 

 

Here's the stand we got from Ikea as they sell it:

 

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The stand is actually made of metal, and it's pretty damn sturdy. We estimate the tank with sand, rock, and water will come in around 275#s, so we jumped up and down on this thing in the store a few times to see how it held up LOL. But the stand isn't perfect, and a little re-enforcement is always good. We started with the top and shelf. I had a large slab of solid butcher block wood that wasn't being used for anything else, so we cut it to fit and replace the cheaper pine board that Ikea supplies for the shelves. That wood has also been given a few coats of a waterproofing lacquer to help it hold up against any splashes or drips from the tank.

 

We then took the wood Ikea provided and cut it to make sides and a back for the open space around the middle (between the bottom and the top shelf). This will help hide cords, and also gives a little more rigidity to the whole thing, because there won't be as much lateral flex. We also got some additional lumber to build some extra load distribution legs in the back and to re-enforce the base frame. It's still coming together, but hopefully by this weekend it'll be setup enough that we can put the tank on there are start testing things out.

 

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Arrival of the tank-- well packed by IM with no damage in shipping

 

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The new butcher block top and shelf. Cut to size, and awaiting varnish

 

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Varnishing the top. It is a matte finish, so the shine will fade as it dries.

 

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Other braces and supports for the tank. Although most of it will be hidden, still giving it some good paint to make sure it looks nice and clean.

 

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Current FTS :happydance:

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Stand progress continues.... We've built the stand and are re-enforcing the structure to support the weight and to look nice and sexy. Hopefully the stand will be finished this weekend and ready for water to go in the box!  

 

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These are extra legs to help distribute weight - we added 4 more legs to the existing ones, and still will be building a stronger base for the frame. This thing will be rock solid when we're done!

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The stand is complete! It looks great, I am super happy with how this piece of modified Ikea furniture turned into a deluxe fish tank stand. 

 

Taking inspiration from @Tigahboy's build, I also installed a strip of LED lights behind the tank for some fun effects.

 

Need to do some wiring still to get all the electronics setup, but hopefully I can do that today and get some water in here. Then it'll be time to get some rock!

 

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All done and in position. I will get a better shot of the finished stand later

 

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Full tank shot, sans water. Need to get things wired up and run the RO unit for a few hours so we can bring this baby to life!

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We have a water box! Added some freshly mixed RO water with the Tropic Marin salt and the 20lbs of Fiji Pink sand to the tank. So far everything looks great - the stand is nice and sturdy and the water cleared up quickly.

 

I also ordered some live rock from KP Aquatics; it hasn't shipped yet but I have talked to Phillipp about the order. Hopefully that will ship soon and we'll really get things going. The only thing left to install in the tank is the ATO system, but waiting until I have the rock in as I'm anticipating a good amount of water displacement once that arrives.

 

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I am also planning to run the ZeoVit system on this tank. The ZeoVit system calls for a skimmer, so going to have to give that some consideration. There is limited space in the second chamber...

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The live rock from KP Aquatics arrived today, and I must say, I am very impressed with the quality of their materials. For anyone unfamiliar with them, they are one of the few suppliers of "real live rock" in the United States, and they aquaculture the rock in a sustainable way. Unlike much of the live rock that comes from Indonesia that is pulled from living reefs, they have an offshore permit site in Florida where they dump dead rock into the ocean, let it sit for two years to "age" and fill with goodness, and then they harvest and sell the rock. Plus, unlike rock that is air shipped from half-way around the world, there is minimal die off. My rock shipped last night around 7pm and was at my doorstop by 10am this morning. That's about as little time exposed to the air as one could ask for!

 

In my last tank, I used the dry live rock and added all sorts of live nitrifying bacteria to the tank during setup, but I was never really pleased with the alive-ness of the live rock. While it was clean and free of any pests, it also lacked the goodness like sponges and encrusting purple and orange coralline algae that comes from rock pulled from the ocean. Overall, I am quite pleased with the product from KP Aquatics; it satisfies my desire to have live from the ocean rock, while still being eco-friendly and sustainable.

 

The rock arrived packed in a styrofoam box with heat pack and wrapped in wet paper. The rock was very damp and the smell told me it was very much alive. I had emailed KP Aquatics requesting certain shapes for the tank, and they delivered in a big way. 

 

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The rock was absolutely teeming with life! Plants, sponges, corals, encrusting algae.... you name it. 

 

Knowing the rock was from the ocean, I also expected my fair share of hitchhikers and pests, but was prepared to deal with removing them before putting the rock into my virgin tank. To remove these unwanted friends, I mixed a bucket of super-saline water (1.040 specific gravity) and vigorously dunked and shook the rock in the solution for a minute or two. I wore some latex gloves during the process to protect my hands from any escaping bristle worms, craps, or mantis shrimps.

 

I repeated this super-saline rinse four times. Here's how it went....

 

Rock Rinse #1

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Rock Rinse #2

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Rock Rinse #3

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Rock Rinse #4

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While I am sure there were some bristle worms that survived my purge, the bulk of the big gross ones are certainly gone. Likewise, I removed at least one pest crab, some sea urchins, and a few other oddities that didn't seem like they had a place in the tank. Unfortunately, there was one casualty of war -- a small pistol shrimp that would have been fun to save and grow in the tank, but he didn't survive the salt dunks. While that's a bummer, it also tells me that anything that didn't fall out during my rinses and shakes was heavily traumatized and/or killed with the salt bath.

 

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After a few hours of rinsing and prepping, I finally loaded all the rock into the tank. This is a first stab at aquascaping... what do you think?

 

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I finished getting the ATO system installed today; I opted for the Duetto from XP Aqua because of it's small size. It's actually smaller in real life than I expected too! I made one small modification and attached airline tubing to the pump instead of the included tubing so that it would take even longer to fill and flood the tank.... hopefully causing the internal timer to trigger and cutoff the water before that happens. So we'll see how this goes. For a water reservoir I picked up a Trigger 5 gal system from @BulkReefSupply. Initially I thought I was going to do the IM one with the pull-out drawer, but since the reservoir is on the floor, I decided it was better to go for an acrylic system vs glass tank, just in case....

 

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It has been 48 hours since I added the live rock to the tank, so I also got the Zeovit started. It required a little work with a calculator to work out the proper dosing and media amount for a tank of this size, but we got it eventually. The Zeovit system technically requires a protein skimmer, but no space for that here, so I'm going to rely on water changes to accomplish the same goal. I had great success with Zeovit on a previous tank -- actually the success was so good that I didn't appreciate how well my tank was running until I switched it off Zeo in favor of another method. Turned out to be a big mistake because the tank was more stable than I realized on Zeo. So this time, I plan to stick with it. Right now I'm only dosing the core 3 elements -- ZeoBak, ZeoFood Plus, and ZeoStart, along with the Zeolite media and some carbon. 

 

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I haven't bothered testing my water yet, but I'll probably do that later tonight to see how things are doing. I had a bit of cloudy water after adding the Dr. Tims bacteria, but that finally cleared up, so I'm feeling brave enough to test the water finally. I also mixed up my BRS 2-part Alk/Calc today with RO water, though I expect it'll be a little while before I need to add any of that.

 

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A token FTS.... because why not!?

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Checked the water parameters....


PH is on point. No nitrites and zero nitrates. Going to give it a few more days before I consider trying to add anything.

 

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A full stand shot; I realized I hadn't posted a pic of the finished thing

 

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The tank in my living room

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40 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

Very nice!  I'm digging the scape.  🙂

Thanks Tigah! Your build was a big source of inspiration for mine. Only thing I haven't dialed in yet is the powerhead -- I have it on one of the presets for a 50L tank, but I don't feel like it moves that much water. What'd you opt for?

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2 hours ago, KMitch said:

Thanks Tigah! Your build was a big source of inspiration for mine. Only thing I haven't dialed in yet is the powerhead -- I have it on one of the presets for a 50L tank, but I don't feel like it moves that much water. What'd you opt for?

🙂 I had 2 of them.  One on a 200l preset and other on a 100l preset I think.  
 

Also placed an order for LR from KPAquatics yesterday.  Looking forward to getting the shipment. 

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6 hours ago, Tigahboy said:

Also placed an order for LR from KPAquatics yesterday.  Looking forward to getting the shipment. 

Nice! Have you used their rock before? I was quite impressed with it.... just give it a couple of rinses. 

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I think it's a shame that you have rinsed the live rock. That is the 'charm' of the live rock, to see what's in it..

 

In any case, you have seen what lived in it.

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16 hours ago, DNR88 said:

I think it's a shame that you have rinsed the live rock. That is the 'charm' of the live rock, to see what's in it..

 

In any case, you have seen what lived in it.

KP aquatics recommends this procedure themselves. Plus, I have no intention of introducing a mantis shrimp, fire worm, pest crabs, etc to my tank. Been there, done that, and don’t need to repeat those mistakes. 

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WindyCityReefer.

Looking good! I always enjoy watching a new build come to life. While I have no experience with the ZeoVit system, I am sure this tank is going to take off. 

 

Also, I never thought about doing a super-saline bath for newly acquired rock.. good thinking! 

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I’m not sure if I would have done the Saline bath; at that salinity you will have killed almost all life on the rock (sponge, coral, copepod/amphipod, micro/macro fauna) 

 

seems like somewhat of a waste to use fresh live rock then kill everything on it. 

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