Darth's Reefer 250 Tank Build...

DarthSimon

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So I am tad late to post this. I have been meaning to post this for while. My name is Steve and I have been reefing for about twelve years... My largest tank was a 220 Mixed Reef... I bought a new house 4 years ago and decided to take a break from reefing. Fast forward to this past June and I jumped back in. The Red Sea Tanks looked like a nice option so I started with a Reefer 250. Was perfect size for my living room..... Total Water Volume is 67 gallons... One thing I had always told myself was, if I ever got back into reefing, I would do it right. My older tanks honestly were run lazy. High nutrients, couldn't keep sps, or even some LPS. I over fed, and ran a careless tank.... I had started to run Apex gear, but prolly only had it for maybe 5-6 months before I sold it all off...

So my new Setup..... Wooooo it different....
Here is list of Gear so far:

Red Sea Reefer 250
Lighting: 3 x Radion XR15 Gen4 Pro with Diffusers (WXM MOD for Apex)
Return Pump: Apex Cor20
Power Heads: 2 Vortech MP10 QDW, and 2 Gyre 230's
Skimmer: Reef Octo 150 Regal SS
Lid: Artfully Acrylic Custom
Refugium: Converted ATO into Fuge with Kessil Tuna
Apex 2016
3 Apex Dos Pumps: 1:Calcium and Alk 2: Nopox and Mag 3: Automatic Continuous Water Changes plumbed from my basement. 2 Gallons a day added and drawn out to waste line.
Apex ATO plumbed to basement. Salt water station in basement all done automatic, with Apex Sensors. When Sensor at botton of tank opens, DOS shuts of (Water Change) Selenoid valve opens and tank gets filled with rodi water. Once top sensor closes Valve closes, and I add salt.... Almost zero work... [emoji4]

External BRS GFO reactor running 24/7

So I have always has a desire to keep SPS and would always kill them within weeks in old tanks... This time around I waited for my tank to mature, and it's now 9 months old. I started keeping SPS around 4-6 weeks back and so far so good. They all seem to be healthy and getting polyp extension. Few of them are actually showing signs of growth.... All of my LPS and Softies are doing phenomenal. Acans open up like the size of golf balls......

I have a come a long way, and continue to read, listen, and learn. Was hard work getting tank to this level, but it paying off......
Thank you for reading this if you have read this far lol and look forward to contributing to others tank build threads... This forum is simply amazing!!!

Here are some photos in order......

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IceCap skimmer replaced by Reef Octo 4 weeks later.....




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And here is today:
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Walt Disney above!!!

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pelphrey

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Three xr15’s!!! I’d like to have those!! Tank is packed!
 
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DarthSimon

DarthSimon

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Yep a ton of power under the hood. Been slowly bumping up my power over a few weeks. Almost at 60%....
Here are my par readings as of today. Trying to be cognizant of the LPS on bottom/middle of tank... Trying not to burn them out....
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DarthSimon

DarthSimon

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Lovely tank Steve, thanks for sharing

It funny, I was taking to my friend DangerDave who’s a member here also about this last week. I put so much work and time into my tank, I rarely ever stop and see the beauty of it. When I look at my display I never see it as being beautiful, or amazing or looking great. I’m always thinking I have to improve something, add something, check parameters . Do I have a sickness??? Lol
 
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DarthSimon

DarthSimon

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I added a third because I wanted to start growing SPS. The upper center quad of my tank had weak par readings.... Since I added a third, my corals have experienced accelerated growth and are opening more...
 

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It funny, I was taking to my friend DangerDave who’s a member here also about this last week. I put so much work and time into my tank, I rarely ever stop and see the beauty of it. When I look at my display I never see it as being beautiful, or amazing or looking great. I’m always thinking I have to improve something, add something, check parameters . Do I have a sickness??? Lol
I'm exactly the same
 
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DarthSimon

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So this makes me very proud. A feeling of accomplishment. So I have been seriously trying to keep Acros now since February. I finally noticed today after close inspection some growth. This marks the first time I have ever been able to grow an acro in my 8-9 years of reefing...

This is a Yellow Jacket Tort purchased from my buddy Mark at Ultimate Corals... He was put in my tank 5 weeks ago...
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And today : Shot taken in darkness but shows the stump from above growing nicely...
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There's about 5-6 spots I notice this kind of growth...
 
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DarthSimon

DarthSimon

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Here is an update to my build... So I have been dreaming about moving all of my filtration from under tank stand and into basement. Would accomplish many things.... Noise in living room, had lots of reactors runing, skimmer ect, also wanted to increase the over all water volume in taking to achieve a more healthy environment for my reef. I went from 65 gallon total volume to 140...

Here is a 2 month long project from conception to reality... It's 95 percent done. It's online and pumping...
I also built a refugium 40 gallon into this display.

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Slop sink for cleaning gear installed...
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Online!!! This was after 8-9 hours going until 2:30 am in the morning lights on water pumping:
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This is a fabrication I made custom from my friend John Davison from Aquarium Care Center of NJ... This is the inside return of Refugium to prevent anything large from getting through worked like a charm.
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Optical sensor for Refugium Fail safe for over flow...
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Would also would like to personally thank my friend DangerDave from this board. He has helped me design this project from day one, and helped me big time installing it!!!!!

Thank you,
Steve
 
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DarthSimon

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One of three Dos pumps ready to go, Kalk and Calcium online!!!
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pelphrey

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Dosing kalk with the doser, nice! That is something I should probably look into!
 
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DarthSimon

DarthSimon

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Bob,
Here is mine just now...
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Where did you get yours from and how long did you have your Lenardi??? Any thoughts as to why you lost him??
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

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  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.5%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

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