PWreef's 57 rimless

[pwreef]

New to the hobby. Here we go. I probably have no clue of what I am doing, but lets hope it will be fun!:beer: Just acquired this 57G rimless from craigslist.

57G RR Deep Blue with stand
LifeReef sump with skimmer (I hope thats a good choice by former owner)
Danner Mag Drive Supreme 950GPH (these are noisy, esp the skimmer and IMHO overkill on capacity)
Coralife Aqualight Pro 36" w/150W MH + 2 65W PC (the PC should be all blue, but mine are blue/white, I wonder why)
200W heater
Live rock and live sand

Most of the day yesterday spend moving the thing and putting the water in. Got some water from the former owner + made a bunch with RODI.
So now on to resolve the issues in the order of importance:
1. Noise. This thing is way too noisy for family room. The skimmer pump makes too much humming noise and the return had to get trimmed way down because at full flow the rushing of the water was intense. Going to discuss with Lifereef about what pumps they recommend for this setup. The current pump produces 800 GPH at 4 feet head. That's too much IMHO. From what I read on the forums needs only to be 300-400 GPH at most for 57G tank. I think turning the flow down makes it heat up as a result the thing runs at 82+. Not good. The return piece on the sump fell off during transport. I wonder if it needs to be glued in, I also wonder why does it have those holes and slits. This makes the water bubble and make extra noise in the sump. I also think that flexible over flow hose has something to do with noise, probably need to change it to a smooth setup.
2. Light. If the heat issue is not resolved by the pump replacement then this light gotta go. I am not looking to keep SPS, so perhaps I only need the compact fluorescent. The MH must be making the water too warm and a chiller is out of the question on this setup. I really don't want to make this too complicated and expensive.
3. Heat. Hopefully when the above two issues are resolved this will be as well. Or maybe I am crazy. :lol:
4. Chemistry and cycling. I hope this tank is not going to cycle since it was an established setup. Right now only PH is a little low. Will watch over the next days to see what happens.
Any comments and newbie schooling is welcome.

 

[kenconnect]

Hey I have a 57 rimless also and have the same sump, it's a great sump, but I have different pumps, u can take a look at my thread, and if u have any ? Just s hoot me. A pm..good luck wit ur build

 

[DCG1286]

Welcome!!!

Cool Set-up ... only thing is the last picture ... is that rust?

 

[kidninja]

Welcome!!!

Cool Set-up ... only thing is the last picture ... is that rust?

pretty sure thats his blood from his hand from all the hard work putting the tank together!

 

[kenconnect]

Looks like the hose Clamp

 

[jr973]

Nice clean lookin tank. Welcome to MR and GL with your tank

 

[Bubb]

GL with the tank. change out that rusty metal hose clamp.

 

[pwreef]

pretty sure thats his blood from his hand from all the hard work putting the tank together!

It really IS rust. Need to change that thing ASAP. Dont like that flex hose one bit. But it will be blood if this thing does not get quiet soon. Mrs was not too happy when I started it for the first time.:headache:

 

[pwreef]

Hey I have a 57 rimless also and have the same sump, it's a great sump, but I have different pumps, u can take a look at my thread, and if u have any ? Just s hoot me. A pm..good luck wit ur build

Thanks. In your sump does that return pipe that I show in the picture have slits and holes like mine? I am wondering if this is an invention of the previous owner.

 

[DCG1286]

It really IS rust. Need to change that thing ASAP. Dont like that flex hose one bit. But it will be blood if this thing does not get quiet soon. Mrs was not too happy when I started it for the first time.:headache:

:Hydrogen: Excellent decision!

The Mag 9 sounds like a lot for a small tank like that ... worse comes to worse you can put it up for trade on the forum for a smaller pump.

 

[Bubb]

I've got a mag5 if you want to trade. let me know

 

[kidninja]

yea that mag 5 would be the perfect trade, i have a mag 5 in my 65g and it is just about right!

 

[kenconnect]

Well I have a eheim with I have it tee off to my refugium, and mine only has slots, and mine is quite,,, but I'm still going to do some custom work by making it go into a sock 1st

 

[MarineLt]

Welcome to MR and yes get rid of that clamp... I have a octopus with a queit one 4000. and no noise

GL with the set up

 

[pauliwalnuts]

Welcome !!!
Nice choice in tank, it always catches my attention at one off the LFSs I go to.

 

[pwreef]

Time for an update I guess. The tank has received several upgrades. Reefkeeper lite. Two Koralia 750s on wavemaker. Replaced Mag 9 with Tunze Silence for circulation. New silencer drain (I think making it a 90 T instead of 45 would make it even quieter, but no time to re-do it now)

New fish. My daughter named the top one Nemo and bottom Lizzy:

Added 25lbs of dry rock and re-scaped:

This kenya tree? grew out of the live rock that came with the tank

Wife insisted I get coral so picked up these zoas at the LFS:

Now have to battle this nasty black algae:

I scooped it out with fish net, more appears after a day or so. Gotta look for ways to stop it from growing.
Also picked up a small Blue tang and a firefish. Put them in QT tank. Unfortunately firefish did not make it. Died after 24 hours. Tang seems to be doing well so far. Eating and swimming around. Just afraid of people.

 

[dherrera83]

How long do you keep ur lights on?

 

[pwreef]

Actinics 7:30am-9pm. MH 1-8. You think too much MH? Going to reduce it slowly to 4 hours per day and see what happens.

 

[smoq]

I have a similar setup (57g with around 15g sump) so I'll try to answer at least some of your questions:


1. Noise.

Reducing the flow of a pump is usually associated with more heat as the pump's propeller has to work in higher pressure. My opinion is that return pump shouldn't make tons of flow, propeller pumps, closed loop systems and power heads are way better method to do that. I can recommend you an Eheim 1260- it's dead silent and no Eheim product has ever failed on me, whether it is canister filters in my planted tank, a feeder or a return pump. It's rated at 640gph so it's plenty of flow. I originally bought eheim 1262, but it was too much flow (and noise associated with falling water) to my taste. I even have a tee to feed the biopellets reactor and it works just fine. I am using two Vortech MP10's, one on each side panel, to create flow- so far so good

2. Light.

First of all, you have to ask yourself a question: Are you sure you're not gonna keep sps anytime in the future? It's serious, when I started I thought I won't need sps, but when I started keeping them and seeing them grow, I quickly changed my mind. I'm telling you, every time i see someone's tank full of beautiful happy sps corals I know I am talking to someone who knows a lot about reefing. If your answer is definitely "NO, I'm fine with softies and lps" then you don't need MH, but I would still not invest in PC lighting, they are the thing of the past and you can achieve much more with T5 fixture. And you save money in the long run, as T5's are far more efficient when it comes to PAR/watt (read useful to corals light output per one watt of energy). In that case, I think 4x39W T5 lighting is more than enough.
However, if you're not sure about the whole sps thing, your light is OK for it and I wouldn't change it, unless you have a real problem with heat or want to save money on electricity. 6x39W T5's or LED panels are you alternative.

Heat

I have to disappoint you here, most of us are fighting with heat issues in a reef tank anyway. I don't how's the weather like in the summer months where you live, but here in Brooklyn apartment buildings is hot like hell:sgrin: I am running a DIY led light over my aquarium and even that they emit less heat than any other light type available in the market, I have to cool down my tank from late May till early September. I don't have a chiller but what I did is I installed bi-fold doors to my living room and I run air conditioner on energy saver set to 76F the whole day and a fan blowing on the sump. It works for me as I have two tanks in the room so it's cheaper for me to cool down the whole room rather than each tank separately. The water in the reef tank never goes below 79.5F during the summer. So if you're not lucky enough to leave in a house with ocean view where breeze cool down the whole thing or your tank is not located in a basement you're mostly likely run into overheating problem.

Hope that helps

 

[pwreef]

Thanks smoq. I did replace the Mag with Tunze pump that has a lot lower flow, hence lower noise and electricity consmption. I am planning to go with LEDs as soon as the tank budget allows it. Going to see if anyone even wants to buy my old fixture since I will have no use for it once I am on LEDs. I have solved the heat problem for now by using the desk fan you see in the picture above hooked up to DA RKL. Keeps the temperatures in check when MH is on.