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New to me Reefer 250

Vhuang168 said:
Use a tee fitting in the RO line leading from the pump. Put a valve at the end of the T ad adjust it so only a little bit of flow comes out when the ago runs.

Place it inside the reservoir at the highest point and in air.

Ato pumps, water goes into sump and a little goes back into the reservoir.

ATO stops, the line will try to siphon but the T will introduce air into the line and break the siphon.




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Yeah, a valve works. I just have a tiny hole drilled into the side of a union. Same concept though.
 
I decided to go with the 1/2” RO line up high for safety’s sake.

Thanks for all the ideas.

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Special thanks to RandyC who gave me his old ATO tank that he converted into a refugium...he even threw in a light, some chaeto and some baby snails. Seriously, thank you very much.

So tank has a bit of hair algae and I’m still suffering through whatever weird brown/purple turf algae that roaches had on them when I bought it. I’ve added a ton of snails though, so this seems to be combating it nicely.

The DOS and DDR are finally working perfectly. I’m dosing 15ml of each part of B-Ionic. Cal, Alk, and Mag all hold steady with this for me so far. It’s nice not having to dose Mag.

I added a BRS dosing pump to dose NOPOX automatically. I’m dosing 1.5-2ml per day. It’s a bit inconsistent.

I’ve also added a Neptune AFS. This helps feed the tank more consistently. It feeds twice a day and I feed frozen at night. Also feeding reef roids once a week.

Here are some pics of the manifold I built and a casualty of message my with things...
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I’ve got a lot packed in that cabinet now...

We also added some new frags and rearranged the rocks a little bit. Things are already growing out nicely. I’ll have some frags available after the 4th

New additions....
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Here a video update on the reef.

The tank survived for 10 days with only one friend to stop by and empty the protein skimmer. It just automated it self nicely.

Overall I’m happy so far. Zoa garden is slowly being finished.

I bleached out my bird nest and my acros still are in rough shape. I don’t know that they’ll ever recover from the previous owner.

My turf algae issue is all but gone since adding the refugium. Still a tad of hair algae but it’s not growing.


 
Quick update...

The refractomer I inherited with this tank got way out cal again, and my tanks salinity was sitting st 1.035!

I have been going through a stale growth stage and had some corals unhappy, and couldn’t figure it out. The after buying some corals at CFM I randomly decided to check salinity and was wowed at how “low” the salinity everyone was running. Then I clicked...

So I went out and bought a Milwaukee digital salinity meter and have been slowly bring it down. As of today I’m st 1.031. Another week and I should be back on track.

This also may have been why my DKH is higher than normal from my Red Sea blue bucket...doh!
 
Flagg37 said:
Do the Milwaukee ones need periodic calibration too?
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Yes. Instructions say daily...but it’s MUCH easier than pulling a cap and using a screw driver...then hoping you are picking the right spot. The Milwaukee is 2 steps. Put some RO/DI water on the sensor and hit zero. Done. Super easy
 
I never really saw the value in them since I had a refractometer and the salinity probe from the Apex. Would you still say it's good to have even with those?
 
I can’t say since I don’t have the salinity probe from Apex. I hear nothing but problems from people with their salinity probes so I never got one. But, having 2 sources on I fell is definitely better than one.

I’m happy calibrating the Milwaukee each day I use it because it’s super easy. I’m just glad I caught this problem before it got too bad.
 
Rostato said:
I can’t say since I don’t have the salinity probe from Apex. I hear nothing but problems from people with their salinity probes so I never got one. But, having 2 sources on I fell is definitely better than one.

I’m happy calibrating the Milwaukee each day I use it because it’s super easy. I’m just glad I caught this problem before it got too bad.
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Yeah, 1.035 is pretty high. It must have been a pretty gradual increase.
 
I would mix up 55 gallons at a time and had a set number of cups to reach the proper salinity (26 I think it was), I would normally stop 2-4 cups before and measure to make sure I snuck up on it and didn't go over.
 
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