CoralDanimal's Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Mixed Reef

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CoralDanimal

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Update:
While the tank was starting to settle in post-fumigation & growth was kicking in, I settled into a new maintenance rhythm. Testing the tank once a week, 15% water change every other week, etc.

Things were going well until I spotted some white patches at the base of one of my SPS mini-colonies. At first I thought it was simply a delayed stress event from the fumigation two months back. But then I noticed some STN on another colony base and another.

I've learned in this hobby to not over-react. How I responded:
  • Water chemistry. First step was I sent in an ICP test. I always keep one on hand for this very reason.
  • Change carbon. In case something got into the tank or if there was chemical warfare from the softies, I wanted to have fresh carbon filtering the water.
  • Cuprisorb. In the past, I've had ICP results show high tin or other metals so I threw in a bag of cuprisorb, which is something else I always keep on hand.
  • Inspect magnets. If there are metals, exposed magnets are a common source. It's a bit of a PITA, but I didn't want laziness to stand in the way of tank health so I removed every piece of equipment in the tank to fully inspect for any signs of rust.
  • All For One. I noted that I switched to Tropic Marin's DIY All For One a month back as I liked the concept of having 1 dosing head vs. 3. Due to some "I never had this issue before All For Reef" paranoia, I switched back to ESV 3-part (although now I know this wasn't the problem).
  • Water changes. After finding nothing obvious amiss, I decided to start changing out the water as another precautionary measure. In the week after discovering the STN, I did two 40g water changes (33% water change).
Nothing. ICP came back perfect. Inspections came back clean. I wish I would have thought to have done this at the beginning, but eventually I realized I should do a night time inspection to see if something was happening when I wasn't watching the tank. And this was what I found:
1mEcKya.jpg


As far as I can tell, these are black bugs: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-bugs-an-acro-keepers-worst-nightmare.493329/page-6

When it set in that I have a big pest to deal with and it affected my most expensive coral, my stomach turned. I've been here before with bubble algae or GHA and I know why some people just give up and restart their tanks. But to some extent I was also relieved - it's not my water quality, it's not anything I'm doing wrong as a reefer (other than not dipping coral purchases enough).

In terms of next steps, it seems as though the only way to treat black bugs in the tank is to do an Interceptor treatment, but you'll also wipe out your pods & some of your inverts in the process. I could live with this route if I didn't have a captive-bred Mandarin. Wiping out my pods would be a massive setback for her and she doesn't eat prepared foods. So the only other route is dipping.

The problem with dipping is that most of my corals are glued to the rock structure so it's very difficult to remove, dip, and return the coral to the tank. So what I've decided is to follow @Coral Euphoria's lead by mounting all of my SPS to removable rod. Here is a video where he details how he does it.

Here's the plan:
  • Remove SPS. This is going to be painful because I'm going to damage corals & break-up colonies in the process, but I'm going to remove all SPS and attach them to removable structures.
  • Augment Aquascape. Unlike Abe, I didn't factor this into my original aquascape so my structure doesn't have holes to put the rod mounts into. My plan is to drill live rock I have in my sump and then adhere it (as seamlessly as possible) to the my existing aquascape.
  • Weekly dips. Until I see zero signs of black bugs, I'm going to do weekly dips. I have Bayer & Revive on hand so those are going to be the first dips, but I also purchased Dr. G's SPS dip, which is supposed to be the most effective alternative to Interceptor.
I'm optimistic this will be enough as I think I've caught it early enough I really wish my wrasses (Yellow Coris, Leopard) weren't diurnal because I'm confident that they would have a field day with these at night.
 

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Update:
While the tank was starting to settle in post-fumigation & growth was kicking in, I settled into a new maintenance rhythm. Testing the tank once a week, 15% water change every other week, etc.

Things were going well until I spotted some white patches at the base of one of my SPS mini-colonies. At first I thought it was simply a delayed stress event from the fumigation two months back. But then I noticed some STN on another colony base and another.

I've learned in this hobby to not over-react. How I responded:
  • Water chemistry. First step was I sent in an ICP test. I always keep one on hand for this very reason.
  • Change carbon. In case something got into the tank or if there was chemical warfare from the softies, I wanted to have fresh carbon filtering the water.
  • Cuprisorb. In the past, I've had ICP results show high tin or other metals so I threw in a bag of cuprisorb, which is something else I always keep on hand.
  • Inspect magnets. If there are metals, exposed magnets are a common source. It's a bit of a PITA, but I didn't want laziness to stand in the way of tank health so I removed every piece of equipment in the tank to fully inspect for any signs of rust.
  • All For One. I noted that I switched to Tropic Marin's DIY All For One a month back as I liked the concept of having 1 dosing head vs. 3. Due to some "I never had this issue before All For Reef" paranoia, I switched back to ESV 3-part (although now I know this wasn't the problem).
  • Water changes. After finding nothing obvious amiss, I decided to start changing out the water as another precautionary measure. In the week after discovering the STN, I did two 40g water changes (33% water change).
Nothing. ICP came back perfect. Inspections came back clean. I wish I would have thought to have done this at the beginning, but eventually I realized I should do a night time inspection to see if something was happening when I wasn't watching the tank. And this was what I found:
1mEcKya.jpg


As far as I can tell, these are black bugs: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-bugs-an-acro-keepers-worst-nightmare.493329/page-6

When it set in that I have a big pest to deal with and it affected my most expensive coral, my stomach turned. I've been here before with bubble algae or GHA and I know why some people just give up and restart their tanks. But to some extent I was also relieved - it's not my water quality, it's not anything I'm doing wrong as a reefer (other than not dipping coral purchases enough).

In terms of next steps, it seems as though the only way to treat black bugs in the tank is to do an Interceptor treatment, but you'll also wipe out your pods & some of your inverts in the process. I could live with this route if I didn't have a captive-bred Mandarin. Wiping out my pods would be a massive setback for her and she doesn't eat prepared foods. So the only other route is dipping.

The problem with dipping is that most of my corals are glued to the rock structure so it's very difficult to remove, dip, and return the coral to the tank. So what I've decided is to follow @Coral Euphoria's lead by mounting all of my SPS to removable rod. Here is a video where he details how he does it.

Here's the plan:
  • Remove SPS. This is going to be painful because I'm going to damage corals & break-up colonies in the process, but I'm going to remove all SPS and attach them to removable structures.
  • Augment Aquascape. Unlike Abe, I didn't factor this into my original aquascape so my structure doesn't have holes to put the rod mounts into. My plan is to drill live rock I have in my sump and then adhere it (as seamlessly as possible) to the my existing aquascape.
  • Weekly dips. Until I see zero signs of black bugs, I'm going to do weekly dips. I have Bayer & Revive on hand so those are going to be the first dips, but I also purchased Dr. G's SPS dip, which is supposed to be the most effective alternative to Interceptor.
I'm optimistic this will be enough as I think I've caught it early enough I really wish my wrasses (Yellow Coris, Leopard) weren't diurnal because I'm confident that they would have a field day with these at night.
Unfortunately, it appears that you have Montipora-eating nudibranchs as well, which I annotated within the green circle. :(
 

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CoralDanimal

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Unfortunately, it appears that you have Montipora-eating nudibranchs as well, which I annotated within the green circle. :(
With that low-res photos, that's an amazing catch @nickkohrn! I've actually known about having MEN for a while now, but I was less concerned about those because they don't touch acroporas :p The most infected colony for both MEN and black bugs was a big red monti cap colony I had in the back and I decided to get rid of it entirely. I don't like disposing of live corals (especially those the size of a grapefruit) because I know they're living creatures, but I thought removing the epicenter of the problem would most likely save other corals in the process and increase my likelihood for success. I'm actually in the process of removing all montis from my display tank right now to eliminate any source of food for MEN and it's really making me question whether I should ever buy an encrusting monti again. Although they can have spectacular colors, they're such a PITA to remove.
 
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Between the fumigation ordeal this past autumn and the current fight with what I believe to be black bugs, it's been a trying year for the tank. Having said that, some of my corals have been doing well so I wanted to post a quick progression update.

Here is the Red Sea Reefer 170 shortly before the upgrade to the RSR 425 in July:
zZJWAq8.jpg


Here's how they look now:

A.) Cali Tort
8hf6DB1.jpg


B.) Tyree Red Dragon from @Coral Euphoria
NQacT7r.jpg


C.) ORA Turquoise Acropora
rkCTGfS.jpg


Not bad for 6 months! One thing I've observed is that larger frags I purchased (2 inches and budding branches) grew exponentially faster than the small 1 inch frags I bought. When I can afford it, I think I'll spring for the more expensive, bigger frags moving forwards.
 
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Finally got around to installing a new toy I bought months ago. The GEO KR618 Kalkwasser Reactor. Here she is:
Fr1DiQj.jpg


The tank's alkalinity demand wasn't anything to write home about until recently so I didn't feel the need to hook it up. Now that growth is picking up (and I figured it would help boost pH further) I thought it was about time to plumb it in.

Please ignore the cringe-worthy wire management, but here she is hooked up to the Versa:
a1yy4Ps.jpg


I was a little bit intimidated on how it was all going to work but I set it up in about 15 minutes. Versa in-line tubing from RODI, Versa out-line tubing to Kalk reactor input, and then Kalk reactor out-line tubing to sump. Easy peasy. Quality build from @geo - I wouldn't change a thing and everything works/seals flawlessly.
 
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The last of the projects I was able to squeeze out over the holidays and during my paternity leave was adding in two magnetic floating reefscapes. When the corals fill in, it can look really cool like this:
1610889732528.png

Some people mount acrylic to the backwall and then build on top of that. I wanted something removable (in case I needed to dip those corals) and adjustable so I hunted down the strongest (in terms of magnets) frag rack I could find, which from experience is Octo Aquatics. I bought a 6x4 and 12x5 rack with the strongest magnets they offer:
1610889933681.png


Then I chiseled some shelf rock and glued it onto the frag rack to build out the floating aquascape:
il5Lbjm.jpg


I highly recommend that glue in the picture. When you use the BRS glue hardening spray, it cures insanely fast. For joints that don't have a lot of contact area, I would sprinkle some sand on and then put glue on that, which worked amazing. The glue is fairly runny (I usually like thick EcoTech-style glue), but it runs through the sand and with one spray it all becomes instantly hard.

Next I drilled some holes into the reefscape so I could put the corals in without having to glue them:
WPVD5Ry.jpg


Just some diamond holesaw drill bits I found on Amazon did the trick. I recommend buying a set of 5 or 10 because they get plugged easily. 10mm drill bits fit smaller frag plugs for a snug fit, but 1/2" drill bits fit all plugs in my experience. The 10mm snug fit is ideal, but if a plug has anything on it (coralline algae, vermetid shells, etc.) it's not going to fit so I drilled half of the 10mm holes and half of the 1/2" holes.

The smaller reefscape is going to be all LPS. Right now I have 4 different hammers on it (green, purple tip, indo gold, super orange) and 2 octospawns:
G83xBWM.jpg


It doesn't look like anything to write home about yet, but when it fills out I think it will look really cool hovering above the rock structure on the left. The other floating reefscape is for SPS (basically everything I buy from @FarmerTy and @Coral Euphoria :p) and it sits in the middle of the tank. Here they are circled in red:
rIMtSJZ.jpg
 
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Quick photo I snapped this morning with my iPhone:
mHvitVY.jpg


As you can see with the fish trap in the upper right, I'm dealing with a fish issue. The alpha of the two blue chromis has decided it is the boss of the entire tank and bullies everyone from the bangaii to the rabbitfish, which is crazy since the rabbitfish is the biggest fish by far in the tank. Anyone have any experience catching a blue chromis? For whatever reason, I can get every other fish in the tank to eat within the fish trap but the chromis. Either he's smart or he's just committed to make my life hell lol.

Other than that, the tank is doing well and I continue to see noticeable growth every week on my SPS. Not crazy growth, but enough to outpace 7 gallons of fully saturated kalkwasser every week so definitely some uptake.

The next change is going to be the addition of another Radion G5 XR30 Blue. I don't need more par or even more coverage - the two existing ones do a great job for both - but it's starting to get warmer in Northern California and when the lights are at their peak (~90% intensity) the fans start to work pretty hard. My thinking is: if I switch from 2 to 3, I should be able to lower the intensity while still having the same PAR at the top of the tank (~450), which should allow the Radions to run at a lower temperature and improve the longevity. Or at least that's how I'm justifying the purchase :p I couldn't resist when BRS ran a Radion sale lol.

Here is the current layout:
G6R49QW.png


This will be the new layout (thanks to BRS' YouTube investigate series):
HmlZuvY.jpg
 
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Last year I bought a nice DLSR camera and I've struggled to take good pictures of my tank. I'm sure it's just an U53R error but I got the Polyp Lab iPhone lens kit and I swear it takes better pictures (and I don't even have a nice iPhone).

Here is a photo I took of the floating SPS island I have at the top of my tank:
XljgOes.jpg


Morning actinics + yellow/orange phone lens, but no adjustments to the photo afterward and I actually think the color is pretty true compared to what it looks like with the naked eye.

With the exception to the sapphire blue millepora (I'm not actually sure what the lineage is - I've had it since before I started keeping track of my coral collection), everything on here was purchased from @Coral Euphoria @FarmerTy or Pirates Reef Corals. It's funny how acros are - I've had the Walt Disney for probably a year and it just won't grow, but the Pink Passion I got 2 months ago sprouted branches immediately and every week I can see new growth.
 
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Tank is still cruising along. Nothing new to report on other than alk consumption has been through the roof in the past month. Kalkwasser reactor at max (fully replaced ATO need) + All-For-Reef up to 60ml a day (was Kalk max + 10ml a day last month):
9IMdTvJ.jpg


Also, the Two-Barred Rabbitfish is criminally underrated in terms of beauty:
pkYPCLR.jpg
 

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What percentage did you decide to run the radions at? Very hard to find a 2 bar rabbit that actually pops with color. Got yourself a pretty one.
 
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What percentage did you decide to run the radions at? Very hard to find a 2 bar rabbit that actually pops with color. Got yourself a pretty one.
Right now I'm running the radions @ 60%. It's pretty close to 500 PAR at the top of the tank and ~300 in the lower third. My milles and tenuis seem to take all the light they can get so I might go higher eventually, but right now I'm happy with it.

As for the 2 Bar, I think it's actually the diet because my Kole Tang is beautiful too. I soak a mixture of frozen food every day in a couple drops of selcon, vitachem, and a touch of spirulina powder :cool:
 
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Quick FTS taken on my iPhone today:
NIpB99O.jpg


Tank is still cruising along. Trying to keep my hands out of the tank unless necessary and just doing a 5 gallon water change (siphon detritus in sump + vacuum sand bed) once per week. Alk/Calcium/Mag demand continues to rise, which I take as a good sign.

Parameters:
pH: 8.35
Alk: 8 dkH
Calcium: 480 ppm
Magnesium: 1320 ppm
Phosphates: 0.03 ppm
Nitrates: 2 ppm
 
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I decided to upgrade the MP10 on the back wall to another MP40 to really up the indirect, random flow in the tank. I also took the two magnetic frag rocks off the back wall to make it easier for maintenance and clean up the aesthetic a bit. Here's a quick video of the tank where you can see the turbulence in action:



PS - the yellow tang is new to the tank and it's captive-bred from @Biota_Marine. I raised him/her for two months in a 10 gallon nano to make sure it was fat & happy before putting it in the big tank where the flow was stronger and competition for food was greater. Love the fish (and love that it's captive bred).
 
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FTS one month later:
tzUdEEg.jpg


I'm switching my Neptune DOSs over to a bank of EcoTech Versas, but no big changes to note. 5 gallon weekly water change just to siphon detritus from the sump and vacuum the sand bed. All parameters in range:
pH: 8.2-8.4
Alk: 8.2
Calcium: 500
Mag: 1400
Phosphate: 0.05
Nitrates: 3ppm

Although week to week it doesn't seem like the tank is growing, when I go back I start to see the growth. Here is the Vivid Pink Passion and TSA Bill Murray in March:
zdFLjjg.jpg


Here is the Pink Passion 4 months later:
HSrsogt.jpg


And the TSA Bill Murray:
mLlYGRm.jpg


Here's the Blue Sapphire Mille 4 months ago:
R5dsmU8.jpg


And here it is now:
3VXBH7d.jpg


After years of ups and downs and long stretches of modest progress, it feels so good to have growth like this :D
 

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Very beautiful tank and corals!

Why do you use kalkwasser reactor if you use all for reef?

Thank you.
 

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I would think to limit the amount of AFR used. It could get expensive with a large system.
 
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Very beautiful tank and corals!

Why do you use kalkwasser reactor if you use all for reef?

Thank you.
Thanks! I use kalkwasser for the pH effect. My pH without it was 8.0-8.2 and it added ~.2 to boost it to 8.2-8.4. There have been studies that have shown that lower pH and therefore more acidic water results in slower coral growth so my hope is that the elevated pH helps my corals grow faster. Plus the kalkwasser is cheap and the reactor was a fun gadget to add to the tank :cool:

I would think to limit the amount of AFR used. It could get expensive with a large system.
Yes you're right and to be honest once I'm done with my current supply (I made a big batch of DIY AFR) I'll be moving back to ESV. The cost is one factor, but because the tank has to metabolize the AFR before it increases the alkalinity, it's a pain to dial in. I have a Trident and when my Alk starts to dip lower, with ESV I can up my dosage and by the next time the Trident runs I know if the new level is right or not. With AFR, it can take a day or two for the incremental dosage to materialize into alkalinity which leads to these swings when I went too far or it took me days to figure out how much incremental AFR I needed to dose to keep up with demand.

Originally I went to AFR because I wanted to go from 3 Neptune DOS dosing heads (ESV Alk, Calc., Mag) to 1 Ecotech Versa doser (AFR) so I'd have a much small dosing footprint with only one container to refill, but the AFR swings aren't worth it and my magnesium demand is much higher than the DIY AFR mixture so I was having to dose additional magnesium on top of the AFR anyway.
 

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I had the same issue with my DIY AFR and I solved it by adding a couple scoops of the tropic Marin mag supplement in the dosing container
 
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I had the same issue with my DIY AFR and I solved it by adding a couple scoops of the tropic Marin mag supplement in the dosing container
Yea I tried that too but I found the mag supplement tended to concentrate at the bottom so I had to shake up the container quite a bit otherwise the output was still not enough to meet my magnesium demand.

@ReefLaw Do you also experience a delay in between when you dose and when you see the alkalinity rise? For whatever reason it takes my tank hours for the AFR to metabolize and bring up alk whereas ESV is instant.
 
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