build thread Red Sea Reefer 350

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lights are in,
thank was seed yesterday with Dr Tim One and only,
now, it is the waiting period.

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got to find a way to get rid of this blue in pictures
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Hello,
little update,
I seeded with Dr Tim one and only 2 weeks ago, I had the ammonia peek, which is now down to zero, and it is now the nitrite that are at the top.
I have a little problem, so far I have been feeding the bacteria by putting a little ammonium Dr Tim, every other day 2, but I am leaving for vacation soon, and the cycle is clearly not over. I will be coming back home every 4-5 days or so.
How do I keep the good bacteria I seeded from dying?
Should I set up automatic ghost feeding?

thanks
 
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hi fellow reefer,
update on my tank,
cycle was completed on day 23, zero ammonia, zero nitrite, and some nitrate and po3.
but i was going on vacation for 2 weeks, so i ghost feed, and leave it alone.

i am going to do tests but the first fish will be in the tank this week

at the end, i have 70 lbs of Marco dry rock and 60 pds of live sand.

here is a picture and video of my final aquascape, comments are welcome

https://youtu.be/Kq7MUdYbJQk



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hello,
the project continues to move forward.
Last week I added a live rock bought at my LFS to diversify life a little.
and yesterday I added my first inhabitants. my 2 clown fish, I also added some small pieces of coral that I had, just to see how they will behave.
I think I'm excited like I started in this hobby 17 years ago, just because there's finally life in my tank.
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oh i just love this set up, you're gonna like it.

in the media basket for now it is only filter floss, but there will be carbon or phosphate remover if needed
 

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Following this as I have a similar setup (same lights/rocks/tank)! Looks great!
 

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Tank looks great! I am planning a very similar build right now. So I will be following along closely. How is the flow working with one reef wave?
 

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I have a E-260 which is a little smaller than the 350 and have a XF330 and it's way overpowered, I keep it at 10% and get plenty of flow
 
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hello,
a little update on my Red Sea Reefer 350.
started on July 12, 2020, and cycle completed on August 4, 2020.

it was the first time I started a tank with anything other than live rocks, and I was really surprised by the result I got with Dr Tim one and only.
everything was perfect, some algae, and a few green spots, that are actually fading, but nothing hard to fight. (so far....), I currently have some cyano or dyno, I don't know which ont it is, but it's very light, and it should go away when my nutrients stabilize, and my tank will mature.
To control the algae, I dose 5ml of NoPox 2 times a week, and 5ml of Vibrant every 2 weeks.
I started with Aquaforest sea salt (cheaper) but I had to increase the CA and ALK after the cycle because it was too low to accommodate my corals.

when it was done, I transferred small pieces of my corals, and I watched them for a few weeks, when I saw that everything was fine, I transferred the others corals from my old tank, which I shut down afterwards. for the moment everything is going very well except for a few small zoas? they don't seem to be doing so good, and i don't know why, as everything else is doing pretty well.

I've also replaced the aquascape a bit, added a piece of live rock from my lfs (for diversity) and some from my old tank.
I also put a pipe from the skimmer to an air intake in my attic to add oxygen, and help the PH, I live in Canada and here, in winter the windows are closed, so there is a co2 accumulation in the house. free air on the intake of the skimmer, will help maintain the ph

I still have to find shelves to put on the right side of my cabinet, and organize the wiring, otherwise, on the equipment side, it's pretty much all set for what I call phase 1.

I'm now letting the time go until spring 2021 before moving on to phase 2. Until then, I don't add any live stock except a little bit of cleaning crew and maybe a cleaner shrimp.
in the things to improve by then, there is, installing a gate valve because the Red Sea valve is really capricious to adjust.
my 2nd phase, will include another dos pump for the 2 parts. a Trident for testing, a 3rd red sea led 90 light, a Neptune auto top off, a leak detector, a feeder, a chiller, and another red sea reef wave to place on the left side of the overflow, from that moment on, i'll start adding fish and corals. that will be the fun part :)

i'm including a little video of my set up. as you can see, i have my washer-dryer just on the opposite wall of my tank, and a room/office just next to it. so i passed wires and pipes in the wall (before placing the aquarium) and i also passed pipes from this room to the office closet, where i installed a ro-di water and a salt water bin.The DOs pump you see is currently set up for automatic water changes, for the moment, it is set to change only 5 gallons a week because I don't have a lot of fish and corals and the demand will be pretty low.

you can also see on the video my old tank. i passed a pipe from the DOS(water change) to this tank, so i can send the water removed during water changes to this tank, which will serve as a quarantine tank when i am ready to add fish. the plan is to fill it in advance with water from the display tank, so the parameters will be pretty much the same.

I'm very happy with my little set up so far, everything is going pretty well, I just have to wait,

 

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I have a similar setup (RS350, Apex, Lights) and was planning something similar for my first QT.

I have been using my DOS to do 2g /day water changes ... so my plan is to put the DT water into the QT where I will run a small filter and air pump from an old setup. I was also thinking of adding an FMM module with an optical sensor and PMUP to keep the water level good.

When medicating I would need to shut down the flow/automation until water changes are required in QT.
 
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I have a similar setup (RS350, Apex, Lights) and was planning something similar for my first QT.

I have been using my DOS to do 2g /day water changes ... so my plan is to put the DT water into the QT where I will run a small filter and air pump from an old setup. I was also thinking of adding an FMM module with an optical sensor and PMUP to keep the water level good.

When medicating I would need to shut down the flow/automation until water changes are required in QT.
love the idea of the Fmm module and optical sensor, i will add this to my list
thanks
 
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a small update, and a question,

my aquarium was started at the beginning of July, cycle completed at the beginning of August. with no light for the cycling period.

so far, i have a very small yellow tang, 2 clowns, a blue green chromis, and a cleaner shrimp. and some hermit crabs and snails.
i also have some corals: candy cane, GSP, Kenya Tree, pink pocillopora, Forest of fire montipora and green montipora. all in good health and doing well.

at the beginning, i added alternately, 1/2 dose of vibrant every 2 weeks, and a very small dose of aquaforest Bio s and Probio S every 2 other weeks. i do not add any since novembre.

parameter (Ca, Alk, Mg etc) are pretty stable and on the spot.

So, my tank is now 6 months old, so far I have had a few small patches of green algae that my tang has eaten in a few days, and a bit of greenish slime on the rocks that is slowly going away, I also have a very small patch of cyano at the back where the circulation is less strong, and I'm starting to see coraline appearing more and more everywhere on the rocks.
I didn't have a real "ugly stage", does it happen later than during the first 6 months?

tks
 

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a small update, and a question,

my aquarium was started at the beginning of July, cycle completed at the beginning of August. with no light for the cycling period.

so far, i have a very small yellow tang, 2 clowns, a blue green chromis, and a cleaner shrimp. and some hermit crabs and snails.
i also have some corals: candy cane, GSP, Kenya Tree, pink pocillopora, Forest of fire montipora and green montipora. all in good health and doing well.

at the beginning, i added alternately, 1/2 dose of vibrant every 2 weeks, and a very small dose of aquaforest Bio s and Probio S every 2 other weeks. i do not add any since novembre.

parameter (Ca, Alk, Mg etc) are pretty stable and on the spot.

So, my tank is now 6 months old, so far I have had a few small patches of green algae that my tang has eaten in a few days, and a bit of greenish slime on the rocks that is slowly going away, I also have a very small patch of cyano at the back where the circulation is less strong, and I'm starting to see coraline appearing more and more everywhere on the rocks.
I didn't have a real "ugly stage", does it happen later than during the first 6 months?

tks
I hope not. Stay on top of it. I doesn't have to go ugly.
 
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Hello,

I'll be back soon with an update on the evolution of my reef.
But in the meantime, I wanted to share with you the huge bump I had in my reefing adventure.

I currently have in my tank, a yellow tang, a fox face, a melanurus wrasse, 2 clowns, a blue green chromis, a royal gramma, a purple firefish, a cleaner shrimp, a 2 inches clam, and a big and nice clean up crew.

This weekend, there was a major storm in my area, and I had a power outage that lasted from Saturday night 5pm (my Apex warned me of the beginning) until Tuesday 11am. so more than 60 hours without power.
I do have a reefwave 45 that is connected to an icecap battery, but I'm not sure how long it can last. And, since I was at the cottage, I couldn't do anything but hope that it wouldn't last too long. On Sunday, I came back home, added a battery aerator, and crossed my fingers.

according to my Apex, the ph was down to 7.9 and the temp 67.4

Well, do you know what I lost in the adventure .....


Nothing, absolutely nothing, everything is still alive and doing well.
well, I probably lost some snails and a bit of my clean up crew, but otherwise, no fish, and no coral.
What seems to have suffered the most is a goniopora that looks a bit mad, but it will recover.
I was expecting the worst, but NOTHING.
Thanks to my back up battery and my aerator, I am convinced that this is what saved my reef.
If you don't have any of these, run and get them before it's too late.

Now, I'll be back soon with an update of my system and some pictures
 
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