Reefer 250 build

[mystikal]

Interesting, I still have to get a few more stuff before I start adding fish into the display. Currently have a six line in the sump lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

So a week after dosing nopox and doing 1.5l daily water changes, nitrates are back to undetectable, phosphates which were not high are also zero


Some sps are losing color similar to the issues I was having in the first few month when I was running too clean. Damn!

So I will stop nopox as I am getting some white fuzz on the rocks and some slime on the glass . Will keep feeding 3 times a day but will maintain a strict water change routine; hopefully that will keep nitrates at a low but constant level. No more magic potions! I am starting to really appreciate the S in SPS = stability thing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pelphrey]

Originally Posted by tenurepro

So a week after dosing nopox and doing 1.5l daily water changes, nitrates are back to undetectable, phosphates which were not high are also zero


Some sps are losing color similar to the issues I was having in the first few month when I was running too clean. Damn!

So I will stop nopox as I am getting some white fuzz on the rocks and some slime on the glass . Will keep feeding 3 times a day but will maintain a strict water change routine; hopefully that will keep nitrates at a low but constant level. No more magic potions! I am starting to really appreciate the S in SPS = stability thing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had a similar issues with nopox, the white fuzz. I used a coral feeder to blow it off the rocks daily and changed filter socks every day or two. After a week it went away.

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by pelphrey

I had a similar issues with nopox, the white fuzz. I used a coral feeder to blow it off the rocks daily and changed filter socks every day or two. After a week it went away.

Good to know, thanks P. I've been using a turkey baster but the fuzz seems to be stuck on the rocks... but with nopox discontinued, maybe it will weaken its grip and die back


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Ok guys, 8 month update time:

Last month has been difficult, with high nitrates and a cyano outbreak. the issues started after dosing vibrant reef cleaner @ 6.5 month; i think the vibrant upset the biomass balance in the tank; it quickly removed algae that was exporting a lot of nitrates, leaving the door for cyano to takeover. SPS started losing color fast! (Check out the video for some crazy side by side shits of frag color changes... goes downhill real quick!)

Used nopox to get nitrates back to zero. Trying out a few things to keep nitrates low long term. 1) small daily water changes (2L/day), 2) upgraded my skimmer from a bubble magus curve a5 to a bubble king mini 160. 3) added 2L of siporax to fuge.

Stay tuned for updates... will i win the battle, or will No4 kick my polyps ?

avg. tank parameters last month: temp 78.5F; salinity, 35 ppt; alk 8 to 9 dkh, calcium, 435ppm, Mg 1390 ppm, Phosphates - undetectable

https://youtu.be/RFJaR0s4Qcg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Some pics of my favorite frags right now
Shockaholic ... brightest thing in the tank

Cali tort


A not so Cali tort


Ora blue voodoo, basing, basing, basing... when are we going to see your horns, stag?



RR orange passion



Mr pacman




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Blueberry wine


A super polypy acropora tenuis

Ora bird of paradise


Tyree pink lemonade, coming back from the dead... zombie lemonade now


Superman that monti (why don't you crank that song


Mystique the monti



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

And how can I forget,
RR pink Cadillac.. finally getting those fluorescent green tips.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Now all they have to do is grow for a year or two without any tank catastrophes or algae outbreak... easy right? Now what can possibly go wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mystikal]

Nice collection of frags!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Thanks man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cscultho]

Beautiful tank and setup. My RSR 250 will be coming in the next 2 weeks.....can't wait!

Thanks for being a great teacher of the RSR 250!

[tenurepro]

My pleasure man, they are great tanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cscultho]

Originally Posted by tenurepro

My pleasure man, they are great tanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Question for you: did you rinse your sand prior to adding it to your DT? I'm questioning if it is required?

I'll be using the Fiji Pink sand.

[tenurepro]

Nope . I used the Fiji live sand as is. I dumped the bags of sand in first, aqusacped, put one of the empty plastic bags on the sand and then filled the tank, pointing the hose onto the plastic bag as not to splash the sand directly. Used the clarifier that came with the bag. Water was cloudy for 12 hours or so but then cleared up quick


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Having some fun with the camera
Moonlight coral tour:
https://youtu.be/BGaNT5mGbOQ


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

A little overview about my fish at this time:
2 clowns, about 2 yrs old now
Nemo, male


Meano = Mean to Nemo; female


A purple fire fish, Fuego. Used to be shy but now is out in the open most of the day



Sunny, the yellow watchmen goby, hangs in his hole with a candy pistol shrimp all day


Then we have 3 blue/green chromis. All purchased about an inch big, but now all different sizes... jumbo, medium and tiny





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Then we have the wrasses!

A canary wrasse - Jaune
About a year and half old and I think is turning into a male. Adds a lovely tang-free flash of yellow to the tank


Then I had three ornate leopard wrasses all named after Disney princesses (my daughter name them). Ariel, Cinderella and Elsa. I sold Cinderella so it's just Ariel and Elsa
Ariel is about 3.5 " and her color is a bit lighter than Elsa, who is very dark. I am not sure if there is some geographic difference in coloration, or maybe one is a boy and the other a girl... but you can really notice some different patterns on the two fish. Both very active and add a lot of movement to the tank
Ariel

Elsa


I feed 3 times a day to keep the wrasses and the chromis happy. 1/2 cube of mysis in the morning, a little bit of Pellets at noon via autofeeder, then 1/2 cube of brine or mysis at 5 pm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cscultho]

Do you have a top on the tank to prevent wrasse suicides?

Keep the jumpers in the tank....

[tenurepro]

No top. While it is true that all wrasse can jump, some are more prone to jumping than others. The leopards and the canary wrasse are in the low risk category imho. So enjoying the unobstructed top view for now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

New corals
Picked up a RR Strawberry Shortcake small frag two weeks ago
Coloring up - good potential



Then I couldn't resist this small pink millipora colony... only a bit more than the rr ssc and super fuzzy. Had to move something... ended up removing the green - now brown - slimmer. So the milli now occupies a prominent place in the aquascape
Slimer is now on a bit of rock on the sand bed. It if recovers and colors up, I'll move it to a better local.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Got some more clean up crew today.
1 emerald crab (have one already)
A serpent star (or is it a brittle star - don't know how to tell them apart)
6 nassarius snails



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Impressed by accuracy/sensitivity of apex probes.
I mix up saltwater in a large unheated container in the basement - it's cold down there. Because I've been doing 2 liter water changes a day, I don't bother heating the new water. Yesterday I decided to do a 15 liter water change + sand vacuum. Apex picked up the change in temp and ph instantly - see drastic change in the graph below. It also picked up a slight decrease in salinity. I usually check new salt water with a Red Sea refractometer but it's difficult to spot 0.5 diff in specific gravity. But apex salinity probe picked it up.


On thing to add... I found that the probes to be so sensitive that placement in sump matters greatly. I'll do a YouTube vid on that soon. You have to be very mindfull of dosing lines. E.g. I does kalkwaser via ato with apex cutting power to ato if ph > 8.4. Well the first time I set up the probes, they were downstream of the ato in the sump. So when the ato kicked on, the ph would instantly rise very quickly in the skimmer compartment before the kalkwaser got a chance to mix with the rest of the tank water. This would then turn off the ato, and the cycle kept repeating. Also, the infusion of fresh water would quickly lower salinity... I would be at 35, it would drop quickly to 20 and the come up. I Thought that the probes were faulty at first, but no... just sensitive.

The solution was to move the ato line downstream of the probes.
So now I have the probes in the bubble trap area (I removed the black sponge), and my ato line goes to the return section.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Tank is recovering nicely from nitrate spike 20 days ago. Nitrates now 2.5 to 5 ppm, phosphates zero and corals are coloring up and cyano is on the decline (still there but gradually improving)

Managed to take some top down pics while feeding today. iPhone + 18k lights = heavy post processing had to get them to match what I see

Red planet which really browned out (see month 8 video) is getting its green and red back


My unknown tort (aka ugly ducking because the 1" frag was devoid of any color) is getting the green base again - I lost some vibrance from the nitrate spike

And pink caddy is finally showing promise... You can start to see the pink, the green and the blue polyps


Finally, this RR SSC frag is looking fab!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tenurepro]

Month 9 update
https://youtu.be/CCfYrH35huE


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk