CoralDanimal's Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Mixed Reef

[Vleis]

Thanks! I still really miss the SPS dominated tank I had a year ago right before the transfer crash. Such is reefkeeping

The tank is improving (not near the previous level though) and I'm getting happier with it by the month:

Notable updates:

• I moved the tank! My wife and I bought our first house (which is a non-trivial event in the SF Bay Area) and you know what that means...upgrade! It feels so amazing to have a tank and not have to worry about when I'm going to have to move, if my landlord changes their mind, etc. I'll probably do another post in the future in terms of tanks I'm considering.
• When I did move the tank about 1.5 months ago, I was really concerned there was going to be another transfer event like there was last year. I did end up losing some SPS frags (which might have been a separate incident when traveling over the holidays), but all things considered the tank survived the transfer and is back on track.
• I took the Clarisea offline, but not for why you'd think. I still really love it - it's just too effective. It kept my tank so clean that I couldn't get phosphates or nitrates above 0 -> corals were light colored and didn't have fast growth. I have no intention of selling it because I'm sure I'll need back online in the future.
• In addition to the above, I've tried to increase my nutrients through an increased bioload. Right now I have 2 blue chromis, 2 bangaii cardinalfish (who have broods on a regular basis), 2 mated clowns, 1 lawnmower blenny, 1 royal gramma, and 1 kole tang (yes I know, I've had it since it was the size of a half dollar and I will upgrade the tank for it). Even with all of this (and yes I'm done adding more) I can barely register nitrates/phosphates with multiple feedings per day. Why? My refugium is bonkers. I have a Kessil H380 that grows chaeto like no ones business (probably remove a big softball every week). The refugium not only exports nutrients, but it keeps my pH above 8.0 and it's created a thriving pod ecosystem for my captive-bred mandarin which lives in the refugium.
• Lastly, I bought a Trident and yea I love it lol. It's so amazing to have such a great grip on your Alk & Calcium. It's not perfect, but I don't regret buying it at all.

Sounds AWESOME, just keep an eye on your IRON levels if you grow cheato like crazy...

Keep the updates coming

 

[CoralDanimal]

Sounds AWESOME, just keep an eye on your IRON levels if you grow cheato like crazy...

Keep the updates coming

Great call. I sent in an ICP test and ordered Red Sea's ABCD supplements (C supplement = iron) so I'll let you know how low it got without dosing iron.

 

[Trevor40]

Any updates? I just bought one of these tanks for sps.

 

[CoralDanimal]

Any updates? I just bought one of these tanks for sps.

Nice! I'll keep an eye on your tank thread. Always looking for ways to improve my RSR 170.

As for updates, here is a FTS from today:

Notes:

• SPS growth & colors continue to improve. Part of this is due to the Trident which has helped create a lot more stability with my chemistry (8 dKH, 500 Calcium, 1450 Magnesium). Those numbers barely vary (dKH is within 7.8-8.1 at all times). I am using the automated DOS / Trident combo now and at first I was hesitant to let the Apex control my dosing, but honestly it's been great - I just needed to trust it and now that I do, it's less work for sure.
• I do have dynos which is a first for this tank. When I tested, Nitrates & Phosphates totally bottomed out (0.0 for each) so I've dosing Brightwell Nitrogen & Phosphorus ever since. Phosphates at .08 and Nitrates in the 2-5ppm range which I'm happy with. Corals look great, growth looks great, and so I'm going to try and be patient and hope that it resolves itself.
• I started dosing Red Sea trace colors once a week. I'll need to get an ICP test to make sure I'm not overdoing it, but I think the corals really like them (although it's hard to know because it's not the only thing I've changed recently).
• My trochus snails spawn on a semi-regular basis and I'm really excited to say I have dozens of baby trochnus snails roaming the rock work now. They're my favorite snail so I hope they keep reproducing. Would be cool to be able bring extras into the LFS for credit to buy other goodies.

 

[Trevor40]

I would love to have a Triton control my levels but with all the slow downs in production that might not happen for awhile. What intensity are you running on your XR30 when it's at full power for the day?

I am at 50% on my running AB+ schedule. Seems to be working so far. I still haven't checked PAR. Have you?

 

[CoralDanimal]

I would love to have a Triton control my levels but with all the slow downs in production that might not happen for awhile. What intensity are you running on your XR30 when it's at full power for the day?

I am at 50% on my running AB+ schedule. Seems to be working so far. I still haven't checked PAR. Have you?

I'm running an XR30 Gen 4, but not the pro version - in hindsight I should have sprung the extra $100 or so for the pro. I'm running the AB+ schedule, but since it's not the pro version I'm running it at 80%. I'm pretty happy with everything and the corals are too but I'm not sure what the PAR levels are. I've been tempted to rent a PAR meter from BRS.

Thanks for posting!

 

[CoralDanimal]

Time for another update!

For some general updates:

• The tank is doing pretty well with one exception - I've had cyano for the past 3 months. Not crazy cyano, but enough to irritate me I haven't tried anything chemically, but I did order some KZ cyano clean so we'll see how that goes. I plan to dose the minimum amount and be super patient to avoid any negative side effects. I do think whenever I dose amino acids it gets worse so I might cut off all aminos for a month and see what happens first.
• Coral growth is starting to take off (finally). My clam and softies are growing like gangbusters and my SPS are growing at an acceptable pace In my last tank, I was able to get to a point where I was putting an inch of growth on every SPS branch each month. I'm not there yet, but growth is starting to accelerate, which is why...
• I placed an order with @Coral Euphoria and I'm very glad I did. The selection was awesome + prices were super reasonable. I found out about Abe through his YouTube channel and honestly I doubt I'm going to buy SPS anywhere else now. Every SPS came colored exactly like the photos, the packaging was perfect, every frag was fully encrusted, and he treats his tank like a temple so I didn't have to worry about pests. I bought 9 SPS frags and they're all doing great and still holding their colors - super pumped about that experience.
• I added two new fish - one Leopard Wrasse and one Yellow Coris Wrasse. I had them in a QT tank for 3 weeks together. The Coris was a pig and ate everything after a day or two of adjusting. The Leopard I could only get to eat freshly hatched brine shrimp, Rod's fish eggs, and PE calanus. I was able to get him to eat almost every day, but I just don't think it was a big enough diet for him and he perished. Always heart breaking to lose a fish that you got from the ocean. I really tried my hardest to everything right for her.
• Lastly, I've started the plans to upgrade to a Red Sea Reefer XL 425 I'm going to take it slow so there won't be pics for months, but I want to get a forever home for the Kole tang and I'd also like to re-do my aquascape so why not upgrade? I built & cemented the new aquascape over the weekend and I have it cycling in a large container with new, freshly rinsed sand. I'm not looking to cook the rock - I'm looking to build up a substantial bacteria presence which is what I think I messed up the last time I did a transfer upgrade.

 

[CoralDanimal]

So I got a new toy..

Since I plan to upgrade soon, I decided to buy the skimmer I'll use on the new tank - Nyos Quantum 160 - and play around with it on my current reef. I've always been a huge fan of refugiums and have been running one for years, but they're kind of high maintenance if the chaeto isn't growing right (or in my case, had turf algae outcompeting it) and a PITA when it comes to cleaning the sump. I've also wondered if the chaeto depletes key nutrients (ex: iron) faster than I can replenish them

Anyway, this skimmer is amazing. The build quality is flawless and here's how much junk I pulled out in under a week with minimal tuning:

I was concerned I'd lose the high, stable pH my Kessil H380 gave me with the refugium so I hooked up the Nyos to a CO2 scrubber and the skimmer only turns on once my display lights start to power down. It's resulted in even higher, more stable pH:

Before I'd swing from 8 to 8.2 over 24 hours, which is fine, but now I'm consistently between 8.2 and 8.3

 

[CoralDanimal]

After much deliberation, I've cemented my upgrade decision - Red Sea Reefer XL 425. It's in the garage, just waiting for one thing to be delivered before I start the setup process.

Originally I was going to do a straight transfer, but after more deliberation again I've decided to keep the current tank up and running in parallel since it's doing so well. I mean the tank isn't growing like gangbusters, but I'm seeing week over week growth. Here's the latest full tank shot:

Most of the corals I purchased from @Coral Euphoria are starting to grow (especially the Red Dragon) so I placed another order

I also purchased my favorite Tenuis ever from @uniquecorals - it's a light yellow/pink with bright green polyps and it was listed as just 'Rainbow Tenuis', but I think it has a ton of potential (it's in the top left):

On the top right, it's a fast grower from Coral Euphoria, but I can't figure out if it's a BC Rainbows in Spain or Red Planet. It doesn't look like either, but it has to be based on what I purchased from him. Anyway, excited for the tank to be keep cruising and start to grow in.

 

[Coral Euphoria]

On the top right, it's a fast grower from Coral Euphoria, but I can't figure out if it's a BC Rainbows in Spain or Red Planet. It doesn't look like either, but it has to be based on what I purchased from him. Anyway, excited for the tank to be keep cruising and start to grow in.

it's a red planet. I know there is a lot of green in it, which is normal for RP in the inner/lower parts of the colony. It will turn more red, like it's supposed to.

It, unfortunately, turns more green than it should in my frag tank, which I'm trying to figure out. I might have to bite the bullet and just get a sunpower for that tank, since the Viparspectra that's currently over it, changes the color of some pieces.

This is what I get for going cheap.

Thanks so much! The tank is looking clean, but yeah you are running out of real estate

 

[CoralDanimal]

it's a red planet. I know there is a lot of green in it, which is normal for RP in the inner/lower parts of the colony. It will turn more red, like it's supposed to.

It, unfortunately, turns more green than it should in my frag tank, which I'm trying to figure out. I might have to bite the bullet and just get a sunpower for that tank, since the Viparspectra that's currently over it, changes the color of some pieces.

This is what I get for going cheap.

Thanks so much! The tank is looking clean, but yeah you are running out of real estate

Thanks @Coral Euphoria! After looking at other RP pics, it makes sense that's what it is. I know it needs to color up, but to be honest I really like it's current light green / pink coloration. Anyway - looking forward to watching it evolve as it's one of the fastest growers (after Red Dragon) that I bought from you. And yes, upgrade is already in the works! Red Sea XL 425 is 2+ months into its cycling/maturing process.

As for a quick update, the tank is doing well even though I'm spending more time on the new tank. One thing in particular I've been laser focused on is consistency. In particular, alkalinity & pH. I have a Trident and DOS so I use their automated dosing functionality, which I love. I didn't think I'd use/trust it at first, but it's honestly amazing. My Alk stays between 8.3 & 8.6 and I don't have to adjust anything. I just test the Alk with my Hanna checker once a week to make sure the Trident hasn't drifted.

As for pH, I've been able to keep it between 8.25 and 8.3 24 hours a day, which I'm really happy about. To achieve this, I plug in my Co2 scrubber to my Nyos Quantum 160 at night and take it off in the morning. You can see the dip down to 8.12 when I forgot to plug it in a couple days back:

The tank also gets a lot of fresh air and has surface agitation, which I'm sure helps. One thing I've observed while playing around with pH is that the higher your base pH is or the more you minimize the swing, the easier it is to keep it high. Sounds obvious, but when my pH dips 'lower' to 8.1, I have to run the Co2 scrubber much longer to get it back up to where I like it. When it's always hovering around ~8.25, it's much easier to keep it there.

 

[CoralDanimal]

Well this post was going to be about the RSR 425XL upgrade in process, but instead it’s a post archiving the state of the tank heading toward the edge of a precipice. Yesterday we discovered our home we moved into in November has dry wood termites. It’s not a bad infestation, but termites aren’t something I want to mess around with so the house has to get fumigated.

Obviously my first thought was the tank: what am I going to do? After some research, I discovered some reefers actually keep the tank running through the fumigation by utilizing positive air pressure. Although it would be the easiest route, I can’t stomach the possibility that something could be happening to the tank (monitored via Apex) and I’d be unable to do anything about it since you can’t enter the house for 3 days. The only other route is moving the tank.

So that’s what I’m planning to do. My plan is to:

1. Combine the contents of the RSR 425 & RSR 170 now. Instead of moving everything into the 425, which would be intuitive, I’m going to plumb in a large 100g rubbermaid sump to the 170 to transfer the contents of the 425. Why? The 170 is doing excellent right now while the 425 is still maturing. Although it’s a bigger PITA, I believe the corals will be less affected as the 170 rock & sand (bacterial foundation) will be largely unchanged other than the big influx of fresh water.
2. I’m going to buy a shed which will contain the tank during the fumigation. It’s going to look like a mad scientist in there, but I plan to move the 100g rubbermaid sump, Apex, Trident, etc. into the shed to mirror my current setup as much as possible. When this time comes, I’m not bringing the 170’s sand with me so the setup will essentially be bare bottom during the fumigation other than a little sand container I’ll have for the wrasse.
3. Once the fumigation is complete (fingers crossed the tank does well in part #2), I’ll move everything back to the 425 and hopefully the transfer/upgrade will be complete by then.

Pros to this plan:

• I need to rip the band aid off on the transfer/upgrade anyway and this process puts my backing behind the 170 upgrading to more water volume vs. dumping the 170 into the less mature 425 and hoping the transfer just works.
• When I set up the 425, I made a mistake with the leveling feet. I should have started the feet all the way screwed in (flush to the stand) and adjusted up such that each foot’s additional height was minimized. Although the current setup is level (took a lot of tinkering though), a lot of the feet are raised quite a bit and I think it will be more structurally sound this way and after step 1 is complete, I can empty, clean, and re-level the 425 before sealing it off ahead of the fumigation.

Cons to this plan:

• The tank room is going to be a complete mess with the 425, 170, and a 100g sump set up in there before the fumigation takes place.
• Buying a shed, the sump, and other things I’ll need to pull this off was not a fun hit to the wallet. Would have much preferred using that money to pick up another G5 Radion Blue.

The biggest question mark for me is the sand. How big of a destabilizing event will it be when step 2 happens and I leave the sand behind in the 170. I don’t dare transferring it because even though I siphon it will kick an ungodly amount of detritus / junk that’s been settling there for 2+ years. I know it’s going to be a setback for the tank - there’s no way around that - as long as the fish are okay and there are minimal coral losses (specifically the designer SPS frags), I’ll be satisfied.

Anyway, I figured I should take an updated FTS just in case something goes wrong and it’s the last of the tank:

Here's the Rainbow Tenuis I'm loving from Unique Corals that has pinks, blues, and greens coming through under actinic (and looks good in full spectrum too):

And lastly, my ORA Marigold encrusting montipora is growing like crazy and I have to keep trimming it to keep it away from the Palmers blue millepora:

Thinking of having this grow on the back of the 425 so the backdrop becomes pure orange

 

[crimper]

I like the minimalistic look of your tank. Simple, neat is beautiful. And you got some nice promising styx there, wait another year and they will take over.

Cheers!

 

[Rhoads238]

wow that marigold monti is something else! keep up the great work!

 

[Daniel]

SPS comeback! tank is looking great!

 

[CoralDanimal]

I like the minimalistic look of your tank. Simple, neat is beautiful. And you got some nice promising styx there, wait another year and they will take over.

Cheers!

Thanks! Yea I just need to be patient and let the tank grow in. Sometimes that patience can be difficult to summon

wow that marigold monti is something else! keep up the great work!

I agree! It's a really underrated monti. Neon orange (it really pops under actinics) with bright green polyps and it's the fastest grower in the tank.

SPS comeback! tank is looking great!

Thank you! The tank rebounded nicely, but we'll have to see how it weathers the fumigation, which is 3 weeks away

 

[Luckynug]

Hey man, awesome build/recovery thread and good luck with those termites. Had an issue with those myself a few years back, the little build up of wood pellets was confusing as hell when I first saw them.


Anyway, I was looking at the pics of your sump, did you modify the RSM sump for the refuge or is that a 3rd party?

 

[CoralDanimal]

Hey man, awesome build/recovery thread and good luck with those termites. Had an issue with those myself a few years back, the little build up of wood pellets was confusing as hell when I first saw them.

Anyway, I was looking at the pics of your sump, did you modify the RSM sump for the refuge or is that a 3rd party?

Thanks! Termite / fumigation weekend is quickly approaching and I'm excited to be on the other end of it when all the tank inhabitants will be in the upgraded RSR 425.

As for the RSR sump, I didn't do any modifications other than putting the Tunze skimmer in the overflow chamber. I used the primary chamber as a refugium for a long time but switched to using that space to house the Nyos skimmer with a Co2 scrubber so I could better regulate the pH. To be honest, I probably should have left it as-is since the refugium was very effective at keeping nutrients low while also keeping pH high. Let me know if you have any questions!

 

[CoralDanimal]

Other than it being a huge, exhausting PITA, the fumigation went to plan and is behind me.

Here's the rubbermaid shed that I housed the tank in while the house was tented:

Here is the mess on the inside:

Some thoughts:

• Effort. I completely underestimated the effort this all entailed. I've moved my tank across the room and even across town last year, but it was always 50 gallons or less. Moving 120 gallons into a temporary setup (as opposed to a proper setup where you know where everything is going to go) was a huge surge of work especially since I did it by myself. It was probably 6-7 hours the night of the transfer and another 5 hours of cleaning the RSR 170 & equipment the next morning.
• Temp/Humidity. I was worried about tank temp. since it's in the 80s during the day and while it was a factor, humidity ended up being a huge factor too. The inside of the shed was so damp and trapped in the heat so effectively that I had to come back to the house multiple times per day to open it up, refresh the air, and drop in RODI ice blocks to help control the temp. in addition to fans blowing directly on the surface.
• All For One. To make thing easier, I bought Tropic Marin All For One so I only had to set up one doser as opposed to three (Alk, Calcium, Mag). I liked it so much I decided to buy the bulk DIY All For One kit from BRS and intend to use it moving forward. It's so nice to only have one doser and one dosing line, but it doesn't lift pH the way ESV two-part does (which I'm on the fence about in terms of whether it's a dealbreaker) and I find it raises Alk slowly. As if it's a delayed effect as opposed to ESV which immediately lifts pH & Alk. I'll report back once I have more experience with it.
• Rabbitfish. With the bigger tank, I have room for more fish and I'm really loving my utilitarian fish (Kole tang, Lawnmower blenny, Yellow Coris wrasse), but I've been concerned about possible tankmate aggression for new additions. I decided to use the tank transfer as an opportunity to introduce a new fish (which I QT'd for 3 weeks) and reset any possible aggression. I chose a two-bar rabbitfish who I already love. Not only do him and the Kole tang get along great, but he's a pig who eats everything including bubble algae
• Slow Tissue Necrosis. I knew two massive transfers (to the shed, back into the 425) would likely result in some losses due to the instability events. I mentally prepared for a lot of loss and really focused on making sure no fish were lost in the process. So far, and it's only been a week so *knock on wood*, I've only seen two angry corals. One rainbow tenuis with STN from the base up and the other being my ORA hawkins echinata (one of my favorites). If I only lose these two, I can easily live with that. I did chop off some frags in case the 'colonies' die but the frags live.

And finally, here's the newly setup 425XL:

Time for patience and recovery.

 

[CoralDanimal]

Updated tank shots:

Equipment updates:

• Lighting. In my last FTS, you might have noticed I had a Gen4 and Gen5 Radion mismatch. I finally bit the bullet and bought another EcoTech Radion XR30 Blue to have matching lights and I moved the Gen4 Radion to light a mini frag section of the sump.
• Flow. The two MP10s & Reef Wave Gyre were pretty good, but the MP10s just weren't pushing water far enough into the middle of the tank so I purchased a MP40 to really up the flow (dang it's powerful).
• Re-circulating CO2 Scrubber. I'm a believer in the power of higher pH. Whenever I can, I open the windows in the tank room and during winter months when the house is more closed up, I run a CO2 scrubber almost 24/7. I was getting sick of burning through the media too quickly so I decided to drill a hose barb into the top of my Nyos 160 and I'm really glad I did. Not only did recirculating the air bump my pH up again (pH of 8.3+), but the moisture in the air has at least doubled if not tripled the longevity of the media.

Now time for the bad news...