2nd Hand Red Sea 250 Build

Alanna102499

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Happy Easter All,

Yesterday my son and I picked up our “new to us” Red Sea 250 from a seller in Manhattan, NY and moved it 20 miles to Yonkers, NY. This is my 1st Saltwater Tank although I have had Freshwater in the past. I have always wanted to do Saltwater since I was kid, so when my Dr. recently told me I may be sick I decided now is the time! So after a month of research I decided to jump right in! Now I have watched all the BRS videos on starting a tank but I found a great deal on this tank but it was in use, so I did receive livestock and coral (what most of them are I don’t recall, but I know this group will help me)... So I couldn’t do the set up the same way as described by BRS.
The plan was as follows:
Thursday bought premixed Saltwater from LFS. Set up with heat & flow.
6B5852E0-F846-4A38-8D74-9C9A7E032BED.jpeg


Rent a Van, take as much water (run through filter sock) as possible, pack fish and coral, use New Carib-Sea live sand with very little of sellers sand. Transport home, and rebuild. Well... That WAS the plan...

Here is a Picture of the tank at the Sellers Home.
C002A339-124E-470E-B2D5-55961AFE72A0.jpeg


When we got there Tank was full of hair algae (so the seller said)... So we scrubbed the worse rocks to remove a lot of the algae. Used 20 Gallon bin, numerous Home Depot Buckets filled with water, rock (Some with coral some without) seller kept a lot of the nice frags for himself (understandable, I guess) No Tang fish... Whatever... Fast forward to now we have everything in out home.
Time is now the essence as the breakdown took a lot longer then we figured. My plan was to set up system, lay egg crate on the bottom then Aqua Scape, lay the sand nice, fill with water etc... But know I get hime and need to do a vinegar bath on all the equipment due to all the algae (list is below). So now time is really starting to worry me. So I lay the egg crate, add the sand and start filling with water adding rock as I go. (Not Aqua Scaping as I had hoped) then added the rock with corals already & fish last. Here is what the tank looked like when I 1st completed (leveled still off need to re-level today)
 
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Alanna102499

Alanna102499

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Cont’
4DB30106-125D-47C1-99C5-4E105B572C2B.jpeg

Then after a couple of hours...

2C7751B9-9BE3-4A43-B49B-2FEF72E5E3FC.jpeg


this Morning
image.jpg

so I will need to do Aqua Scape today... Any ideas?
Equipment List
Red Sea 250
Kessil AP 700
Low End return pump (will replace with DC)
2 Wave Maker Powerheads
1 Gyre Wavemaker
SC Aquariums SCA-301 Skimmer
(Need Reserve reservoir using Gallon for today for ATO)
Ink Bird Temperature Control
image.jpg

image.jpg
 
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Alanna102499

Alanna102499

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Water #’s
Salinity (waiting on refactometer from BRS) but cheap tester has within range.

Prepared Water was
PH - 8.4
Ammonia- 0.0 PPM
Nitrates - 0.0 PPM
Nitrites - 0.0 PPM

when mixed with seller water and tested last night.

PH - 8.1
Ammonia- .25 PPM
Nitrates - 0.0 PPM
Nitrites - 0.0 PPM

I am waiting on delivery from BRS of some stuff... I need to get filter pads and stuff...

I hope I added enough info, I will update as I change the Aqua Scape.
 
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Alanna102499

Alanna102499

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Fish:
2 Clowns
3 Chromes
1 6 Line Wrasse
Some Snails, a Sm red shrimp
A Star Fish (also saw a baby on the glass last night)
image.jpg


8F6697A2-3C91-438B-98B9-34036D13ABA7.jpeg
 
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Alanna102499

Alanna102499

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Time to update... Since last updated, I’ve added quite a bit of stuff. Let’s start with a Red Sea Wavemaker 25 and a SCA-301 Protein Skimmer. The Jebao and old SCA-301 died on me, so needed to replace them...
I’ve added only 1 new fish, a Watchman Goby who I haven’t seen in about a month...
I’ve added, from a local R2R member 1 Rainbow BTA and a Rose BTA... Bubble Coral, and a few nice Zoa’s from New York Reef Aquatics. A Scoly, Stylo & Bird Cage from Tidal Gardens. A Aussie Torch (hasn’t opened in a month) and Premium (whatever that means) Rainbow BTA from Seattle Corals. As well as some other stuff locally from a NJ Reefer and Salgado Aquatics.
I have also now for a couple of months been making my own RODI and Saltwater using Red Sea Coral Pro. My Calcium and Magnesium are always high, but my other water parameters are pretty good. Any idea how to control that? I was thinking of mixing the 2 Red Sea Salts.

Here is a video of the tank as of today!

 
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Alanna102499

Alanna102499

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My last 1.5 months of Water Changes...
Should I do smaller WC’s like this past week, or more like previous weeks. I have been trying to do it consistently weekly.
3D87D596-6453-4ABA-8764-60F67548449D.png
 
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Alanna102499

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Update for my tank...
All seems to be going well, parameters have been consistent and I am seeing some growth...
No new additions
Thinking of a possible chiller, but the portable fan seems to be doing fine for now.
 
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Alanna102499

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Been dealing with some GHA and Aiptasia in the rear compartment and Aiptasia in the sump. Just set up a Fluval Evo and will be tearing this down shortly for a proper restart as I never really started this one correct since it was second hand and already established.
will have some stuff for trade or sale soon in New York metro area!
will update when ready.
 

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