Anthony’s Red Sea XL 300 build - Mixed Reef

[anthonymckay]

8 month update. Since my fluconazole hiccup things have been doing great! (Hope I didn’t just jinx it)

Here’s a shot of the tank this evening and a few other photos.

 

[anthonymckay]

Stopped at a LFS to talk about my plans for a tank upgrade this year (likely a 6-7’ waterbox). Ended up leaving with a couple new fish. Oops! A Powder Blue Tang and a juvenile Desjardini Sailfin Tang. Both are eating well. Though my blue hippo tang crammed himself in a rock crevice the past two days. I suspect he’ll come out after adjusting to the new roommates.

 

[anthonymckay]

It's been about a month since I started doing the Reef Moonshiners method. Since I started using a kalk reactor previously, I started utilizing my RedSea doser for most of my RM daily elements.

Here are a few growth logs from the past few months, some things are starting to really pick the pace in growth!

 

[chipchipbro]

your growth explodes! very nice..
at which month did things start to take off huge?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

It's been about a month since I started doing the Reef Moonshiners method. Since I started using a kalk reactor previously, I started utilizing my RedSea doser for most of my RM daily elements.

Here are a few growth logs from the past few months, some things are starting to really pick the pace in growth!

Your coral is doing incredible!!

 

[anthonymckay]

your growth explodes! very nice..
at which month did things start to take off huge?

I'm looking at it every day, so it never really feels like growth suddenly exploded, haha. I didn't even realize the Red Planet had grown so much till I was comparing photos of it last night. That said, not everything in my tank is growing like that. I have some frags that have been in there since I set this tank up in May of 2022, and they've done nothing more than very slowly encrust at the base.

 

[anthonymckay]

I’ve had some GHA that has been overtaking my purple hornet colony and spreading. None of my algae eaters has touched it (hermit crabs, Mexican turbos, emerald crabs, various tangs, urchin, etc). Today I finally did a 1:4 ratio h2o2 dip on the colony in hopes I can kill it off. I fragged a few polyps onto a plug as well in case I end up losing that mother colony.

The Silicon Valley Coral Farmers Market was this weekend. I told myself I wasn’t gonna go, because I usually don’t see much there that I NEED to have. Ended up deciding to go last minute and picked up a couple SPS frags that are quite nice! Unfortunately I have no more space to mount them onto any rock without overcrowding them, so onto the frag rack they go till I can make some space or upgrade to my 200gal in the next few months.

WWC Pink Panther

WWC Orange Passion

 

[anthonymckay]

Got my monthly ICP test back, and was shocked to see nitrates were ~50ppm. Tested with a Hanna checker and it reported ~45ppm. My Mastertronic has been reporting 11-13ppm consistently… seems to be a regular issue with the nitrate reagent going bad as it ages, and then reporting false low readings. This happened to me previously as well. I hate the idea of having to toss half used reagent regularly just to get consistent good readings. I suspect my elevated nutrients are why my Pink Floyd acro has been on the browner side the past couple months since recovering from my fluconazole OD.

The other aspect of this is how to lower them back to my desired range; I’d prefer to keep them between <20ppm. Refugium or an algae scrubber would be my preferred methods, but unfortunately I really just don’t have the room in my sump for either. I may see if I can relocate my in sump reactor over to the return pump chamber, remove my large bio-brick, and repurpose that chamber for a refugium? I’m hesitant to try and squeeze and algae scrubber into there and plumb it in as I’m in the planning stages of my 200gal upgrade and really don’t want to buy equipment for this tank right now.

On a brighter note, I stopped by my LFS to pickup some food and ended up leaving with some exosphere zoas.

Got a better shot of my new Pink Panther

And a shot of my little AIO Zoa colony. Love the blue in these!

 

[anthonymckay]

Spent some time this weekend rearranging some my sump to clear a chamber for use as a refugium. I initially tried to move the skimmer to the front chamber so that the refugium would be the last thing before the return pump, but alas the base was too large. I pulled out the big bioblock I had in the front chamber and added a Kessil H160 and a chunk of chaeto a friend gave me. Also had to move the lifeguard in-sump reactor to the return pump chamber. We’ll see over the next month or two if this helps keep the nutrients in check and also looking forward to stabilizing pH drops during the night!

The other change I made this week was adding a 3rd Kessil A360x to improve the PAR at the top for all the acros. A few quick checks with my PAR meter showed a HUGE boost from the overlap of having 3 lights ~9” apart. Currently running the acclimation ramp up over the next 2 weeks going from 20% > 50% intensity. Targeting 350-400 PAR up top. Previously I was hitting about 250 with the left side tank light at 100%. The right most light over my zoas and LPS is still running 50% at peak.

 

[anthonymckay]

Stopped in my LFS to get some frozen food and ending snagging this Walt Disney Tenuis.

 

[anthonymckay]

After 9 months of VERY slow growth, my little golden wild mille is finally sprouting a nub for a new branch! It spent the last 9 months slowly encrusting, and just getting a bit thicker, so this was a nice surprise to discover.

Jun 22' - Mar 23'

As a comparison... I bought this little Bill Murray acro on the same day as the above mille.

I also managed to accidentally knock my new Walt Disney frag off its mounting spot while doing some cleaning, and it landed with the tip on top of a riccordea. I didn't notice for about 10 minutes... I quickly re-glued it to its spot, but it started looking pretty bad for the next few days, and then the STN started setting in at the tip. I assumed it was a goner so I ended up buying another new WD frag from a local reefer (I pick that up tomorrow).
But... then it slowly started to recover. Polyps came back out, and tissue started to regrow over the exposed skeleton. That's a nice feeling! And now I'll have an extra backup WD frag, haha.

Almost fully healed today!

 

[anthonymckay]

Picked up my backup Walt Disney this weekend. Also made a trade for a GMK and a Rainbow troll zoa, though still waiting for the latter to open up. Snapped some photos of the GMK and WD though.

 

[anthonymckay]

Top down Tuesday!

 

[Petcrazyson]

Wow! Beautiful corals! Love your acros, your Torch is a stunner and really like that Green Alve! Really nice thread sticking around What’s all the fish you’ve got in there, besides the obvious tangs and foxface?

 

[anthonymckay]

Wow! Beautiful corals! Love your acros, your Torch is a stunner and really like that Green Alve! Really nice thread sticking around What’s all the fish you’ve got in there, besides the obvious tangs and foxface?

Thank you! Current livestock are:
2 clowns
Six line wrasse
Purple stipe dottyback
Lawnmower blenny
Hippo tang
Powder blue tang
Desjardini sailfin tang
Foxface
Copperband butterfly


Had a long nose hawk fish but he jumped out a couple weeks ago unfortunately.

 

[Petcrazyson]

Thank you! Current livestock are:
2 clowns
Six line wrasse
Purple stipe dottyback
Lawnmower blenny
Hippo tang
Powder blue tang
Desjardini sailfin tang
Foxface
Copperband butterfly


Had a long nose hawk fish but he jumped out a couple weeks ago unfortunately.

Real nice selection!

 

[anthonymckay]

Haven't updated in a bit, but....
My tank is officially 1 year old today! It's come a long way from the first day I transferred everything from my old biocube. Things have been running pretty smooth as of late (hope I didn't just jinx myself) aside from some zoa's mysteriously melting away. Getting excellent growth and polyp extension in my SPS. Still slowly planning my next setup for my plans to upgrade to a 200gal+ tank either towards the end of this year, or early 2024.

Took this shot this morning

Shot from 1 year ago the week I set it up

 

[anthonymckay]

Picked up a few new frags at the Coral Farmers Market this afternoon. A little gold torch, raja rampage chalice, and a cherry bomb acro.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Great stuff. Amazing growth and color. Any issues w the magnet in the overflow for the Nero? I wanted to add a 3. I’m a fellow xl300 owner. We’re an odd lot. Lol.

 

[anthonymckay]

Snapped some pics of some of the new frags with my DSLR this weekend. That cherry bomb is a stunner! I definitely am developing an addiction for Tenuis frags...