Ryan's 58G Reef

F

Freshandsalty

This is my first time setting up a reef ready system and I have to say I'm pretty excited! I've managed to keep a 35G hex non-rr with sps going good for about a year now, and I'm ready for the step into the wonderful world of sumps and refugiums.
I bought this setup used and it is almost 4 years old. It came with the stand, a little 10G diy sump, and a Rio 3100 return pump that seems to be in pretty new condition and is smooth and quiet. I am planning on building a canopy, possibly open top since I am using two 150 watt MH pendants that hang from the ceiling.
It was really dirty and covered with coraline and super hard calcium deposits all over the back, overflow and sides. The overflow proved to be very difficult to clean and after hours of scraping and many soaks in vinegar I decided to leave the remainder of it on the overflow, deciding it won't matter after a year or so anyway. Here are a couple pics of it alongside my little helper as we were letting it soak with vinegar and scraping it out.
[attachment=1]Evan helping.jpg[/attachment]
[attachment=0]dirty overflow.jpg[/attachment]
 
I decided that the 10g sump was way too small so I made another one out of a 15g I had, and put 1/4" glass baffles in there with the return in the center, and drain and fuge on opposite ends. This required new plumbing of course, so I was off to the Local home improvement store for plumbing parts. I am sort of a jack of a few trades, and plumbing is definitely not one of them, [smilie=lol.gif] but I managed to get all the pieces I needed to assemble what I was intending. I want to go with a larger sump later, especially since I messed up and didn't quite make the drain area big enough for my skimmer to fit. [smilie=crying.gif] Now the body has to sit in the return area and the pump is in the drain zone. I am actually thinking about just taking the sand out of the fuge and putting the skimmer in there until I can get a better sump/fuge. Here is a pic of the sump and my new plumbing job which is a little hard to see with the skimmer in the way. The drain is on the right, and the fuge zone is on the left. I have a valve on the return pump to control the amount of water going back up to the display. It doesn't restrict the pump though because i put a tee in the line with pvc going back into the return area.
[attachment=2]sump-1.jpg[/attachment][attachment=1]sump-2.jpg[/attachment][attachment=0]sump-3.jpg[/attachment]
I have a filter sock over the drain line because I am getting tons of foam that I'm guessing is from the new sand, which is Pavestone pulverized limestone. I rinsed it really good but i think it's still gonna take some time to get all straightened out. I have a sock over the skimmer drain too because its emitting tons of micro bubbles. I'm hoping to figure out a better way of dealing with that. I think the flow might be too much for the baffles to handle, especially since some of it is being blocked by the filter socks and the skimmer. I have it running all out to keep everything stirred up to hopefully get as much junk out of the water as possible.

I will post more pics later. This is just the start of my tank progress thread and I plan to document it along the way for years hopefully.
Thanks more to come...
 
Time for an update. My tank is really coming along. Everything is growing out nicely.
82923b04.jpg
alt="">
f85f9882.jpg
alt="">
3a7f5d3d.jpg
alt="">
24198de3.jpg
alt="">
ab56e899.jpg
alt="">
c2311fce.jpg
alt="">
93272aca.jpg
alt="">
d55d7a00.jpg
alt="">
ad2f4761.jpg
alt="">
I've added some equipment for automation, including a JBJ ATO, and finally got a Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper Lite controller which I really like. I got the tier 1 package which includes the head unit and one pc4, which has 4 controllable outlets. I am definitely buying another pc4 soon because 4 outlets just isn't enough. I am able to control my return pump, heater, fans, and my lights. The temperature so far has stayed steady within 1 degree. I also like the standby mode. I have it set to turn the return pump off when it's time to feed so food doesn't get down to the sump.
I added some chaetomorpha to the refugium and installed a new light hanging over it. I found the bulb at Lowe's, its a 65w equivelent 6500k bulb that seems to work well for it so far.
8f6b6725.jpg
alt="">
b4907f39.jpg
alt="">
I have had a problem recently with rust colored flatworms. Ive also had some cyano, and the flatworms are always in it, so I've been syphoning it off every few days and it seems to be going away. I bought some flatworm exit and I'll be doing that when I'm sure most of the flatworms have been manually removed. I also lost a green milli to RTN and my big birdnest colony had some too as you can see, but it's now regrowing over the dead parts of the skeleton.

I'll update the livestock soon.
 
Time for a quick update. I'm working on building a canopy. I should have it done this weekend.
My corals are all growing nicely. Here are some pics.
b770c81c.jpg
alt="">
38e4cfe3.jpg
alt="">
5c539d87.jpg
alt="">
c7a481a7.jpg
alt="">
c010db7a.jpg
alt="">
43701eb9.jpg
alt="">
I'm still battling Red Planaria, syphoning every few days or weeks. Lol. It is getting better and Im thinking about getting a few new fish once the canopy is finished that should help with them. I'm looking to maybe get a yellow wrasse or melanurus.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top