I’ll begin with where it is currently at (as of January 10, 2023….)
And then go back to the beginning….
My dad had large fresh water tanks when I was very little and I’ve always loved aquariums, the ocean and beach.
In December while I was taking a month leave from work I randomly got the crazy idea to spend some time investigating what it would take to set up a reef tank. One visit to my LFS and a day later I’d somehow ordered an Aquarium and a bunch of items I barely knew what to do with such as…
- CADE 1200 S2/P White
- Ecotech Vectra M2 Return Pump
- Deltec 600 Protein Skimmer
- ClariSea Roller Filter
- A couple Ai Hydra 32HD Reef LEDs + hanging kits
- A couple Nano 5 Powerheads
- Teco TK 1000 Chiller
- Sand
- A couple heaters
A week later all the items including the tank were delivered and I had the task ahead of me to build and figure out how the plumbing and all the bits and pieces work together (which was going to be a lot of fun – and a wee bit of stress).
I had about a week to wait for an initial delivery of water so I started looking at Rocks and scaping. This was my initial attempt with an assortment of rock we purchased. I later decided I needed some more for the right.
Water was eventually delivered. First time plumbing I only had 1 major issue leaving water spilling our of the weir onto the floor but the LFS staff quickly helped me figure out the issues.
Once full I had to go through the murky phase while things settled.
I’ve since done some shuffling around in the sump, remove the clarisea while I wait for a new pump to get flow to it and added the refugium divider back in.
Things I’ve learned / figuring out
- Water evaporates really – I mean really – quickly in this set up. I quickly realised I needed to go out and purchase an RO/DI unit and make use of the ATO. I ended up getting one of the Auto Aqua ATO duo controllers. It’ll been working really well
- Protein skimmer is running a bit wet most of the time – I try to tweak but from what I can tell, due to the lack of stuff in the water this is probably expected and it is also braking in.
- The Clarisea doesn’t really fit nicely connected to the main drain in this CADE so I’ve got a Vectra S2 on order that i’ll use to pump from the sump into it and I’ll leave the filter cups as well.
- I didn’t think I needed the chiller – but on a few of the warmer days we’ve it has kicked in and turned on. The teco seems a little noisier that I was expecting – but maybe my expectations weren’t right
- It’s nice being able to run the pump, lights and power heads through the mobius app. The Vectra was a little frustrating during setup in that it resets to running max speed initially and I was not ready for it
- Water temp stability is pretty hard – what is considered stable?
- What little gadgets do people recommend for cable / pipe management in the sump
Next things on my list
- Get through cycling……..killing me not having any fish at the moment. Cycling isn’t going as I expected – I’ll post on that seprately.
- Better setup for water parameter testing and monitoring – using API test kit and apparently that is not good.
- Setup clarisea fleece roller with pump
- Figure out salt water mixing and an auto water change system (looking at using a couple ecotech versas)
- Set up the Refugium
