Desert Reef - 180g Reefer-S 850 G2

[ctopherl]

Starting a much delayed build thread for my "new" tank that is now a year old.
I have also been mildly posting progress on an instagram account (@desertreefaz).

Backstory:
I got into reefing summer 2020 when we were quarantining ourselves because I wanted an at-home hobby and my wife and I visited our local aquarium. I did a bunch of research online and settled on a Red Sea Reefer-250 (55g tank, ~10g sump). I won't get into details of this tank but will post some pictures below. I had this tank for 2 years and ultimately decided to upgrade because (1) I realized I love tangs, and 55g isn't enough for tangs (2) the fish that I had were generally very timid and inactive and I wanted big active fish. I decided to upgrade and focused on what fish I want (tangs!!!) to drive my tank choice. I was debating Red Sea vs Waterbox and ultimately landed on Red Sea because of how nicely the ReefMat supposedly fit in and because of the nice big ATO tank that came with the Reefer-S.

Learnings from tank 1 I wanted to apply to tank 2:

* Diseases are everywhere and annoying. QT is essential. 100% eradication is the goal going forward.
* Don't impulse-buy corals from the LFS - you will end up with lots of boring green corals and the reef aspect will not look cohesive. Related, I also realized I like "coral gardens" vs just placing corals randomly spaced around the rockwork.
* Plan out aquascape instead of just piling rocks together
* Don't go overboard on equipment/gadgets. More equipment helps automation but also introduces more moving parts to maintain.
* Be more thoughtful about how you organize equipment in and around the tank
* I like fish more than coral. Prioritize building the system around the fish I want and work backwards.


Goals for tank 2, other than learning from the above:

* Reduce maintenance as much as possible, especially in a way where I can leave the tank for a weekend on its own without concerns. This means mostly easy corals.
* Try to eliminate water changes if possible
* Active fish with a variety of bright colors
* Good balance of color and movement in coral choices. Buy multiple of the same coral and put them in gardens.
* Make sure I am getting fish and coral that my wife is interested in as well to help her enjoy the tank more with me

 

[ctopherl]

Here is a photo dump of the old tank. I gave this to my father in law since he also had a saltwater tank but it was a cheap 30g petco tank, so he got a nice upgrade out of it as well

 

[ctopherl]

Here is tank install day! I wish I had pictures of the aquascape developing - I bought entirely too much rock and had it all in the corner of our kitchen on a giant cardboard slab for weeks. It took a lot of tinkering and experimenting before getting it right.

I prefer a minimalist design aesthetic. I am not a creative/artsy thinker at all so this was difficult for me. This is all CaribSea rock.

The lights were new for this tank - Radion XR30 G5s because buying G6s felt like overkill so I saved a little money. My old tank had two AI Prime 16s which weren't going to cut it. I want to try to get away with just the two Radions and think I can due to (1) minimal aquascape, so less real estate to cover and (2) only doing "easy corals" (no SPS here).

 

[ctopherl]

Here is my evolution of cable management. I will post an updated ("current") picture as well - this was just when the tank was installed and I only had the basics. 2 EcoTech return pumps with battery backup, Helio heater, Tunze ATO and Hydros controller.

The pumps and heater were new for this tank due to the drastic size increase but the ATO, controller and battery backup were from the old tank. I chose EcoTech pumps for the battery backup and the Helio heater seems like the real deal with a controller and 5 year warranty and supposedly "advanced technology".

I am not handy at all so this is as good as I was going to get for clean, safe and maintainable cable management. I couldn't figure out how to drill into the side controller board (??) so I used adhesive velcro strips and bought some cheap plastic cable organizers to hold the cords.

 

[ctopherl]

Not fish related, but we also have a horse (Daisy) and a poodle (Theo, who we were told was a goldendoodle by the shelter). When people ask us if we are having kids we joke that “we chose to have a zoo instead”.

 

[ctopherl]

I cycled the tank for about 2 months total with MicroBacter start and some ammonium chloride.

My first fish were a spotbreast angel and a flame hawk purchased from TSM Aquatics. Fully quarantined, and then I quarantined them again with a 14-day copper + metro/API GC. We named the hawk “Tony” and the angel “Charlie”.

They were great through QT but sadly I ended up losing the hawk. Still unsure why, best guess is bacterial. The angel is still going strong!

 

[ctopherl]

Continuing my equipment setup, I installed a filter roller and some cheap motion sensor lights in the cabinet.

I was annoyed at how much work and unintuitive it was to install the filter roller given how much Red Sea brags about it being “compatible”. I didn’t expect to have to take a blade to the filter sock holder to get it out. Oh well. At least the tubing fit nicely over the drain pipe. My goal is to have this be my only mechanical filtration and avoid a skimmer. But, I will still prioritize the fish I want and be ready to add a skimmer if needed.

 

[ctopherl]

I went a little overboard with dosing bacteria products. First regret/learning. My intent was to get a strong, diverse bacterial population going AND pursue my goal of no water changes.

With this I tried dosing some Dr Tims Eco-Balance as well as Tropic Marin NP bacto balance. This resulted in a never-ending bacterial bloom! I couldn’t get rid of it with time or water changes. Eventually I put my old 15W UV from my first tank on and it cleared right up. I wanted to avoid UV in line with my original goal of “less equipment to maintain” but here we are. Here is a before and after, and keep in mind this UV is vastly underpowered for my water volume. I think it’s rated at 75g.

Water clarity is important to me, so I guess I’m going back to UV. There are some new fish in these pictures that I will talk about in a separate comment! I may be going slightly out of order here.

 

[ctopherl]

Here are the next fish I added - yellow tang, blue hippo tang, valentini puffer. The tangs are from TSM Aquatics and the puffer came from my father in law. I told him the puffer would eat his shrimp, but he did not listen :ROFL: he chose to keep the shrimp over the puffer.

I know my father in law has diseases in his tank - he is on the "dump and pray" train. I followed the standard 14 day copper qt, then transfer to OT, then dose some prazi in the OT, PLUS I gave him a peroxide bath immediately before putting him in QT, in between QT->OT transfer and between OT->DT transfer. I was not taking chances.

The tangs had already been QT'd but went through the same QT process with the puffer. Unfortunately I lost the yellow tang inexplicably some time after adding to DT, but the hippo and puffer are still going strong.

 

[ctopherl]

Next up are anthias. I was hesitant to add anthias because (1) risk of uronema and (2) I knew I had to add them in a group but only have so much QT space. I wanted anthias that were active, wouldn't kill each other off and good coloration. After some research I settled on 4 bimacs. I ordered these from Ocean Devotion. They are still doing great in the tank today. I put them through a full second QT again (14 day copper, prazi, metro). We named them after the mean girls (Regina, Gretchen, Karen, Cadie).

 

[ctopherl]

Next up on equipment - I wired up my old ReefDose2 and a new 25W UV from AquaUV with a Sicce SDC pump. This was quite a plumbing challenge for me because of course the output of the Sicce pump, and the input of the UV, were different sizes. I ended up going to Ace Hardware and asking for help and they were able to help me figure it out. I also got my first experience priming/gluing some pipe so that I could use one of the metal clamps to secure the flex tubing. You can see the dosing line in the back.

 

[ctopherl]

I don't remember if I submitted this Aquabiomics test immediately after the anthias or the batch of fish AFTER the anthias, but the tank tested positive for uronema despite all my efforts of double-QT all fish (except puffer). Time to try some peroxide dosing...

 

[ctopherl]

Next fish - spotcinctus clown and female blue star leopard from Ocean Devotion! I had always wanted a leopard wrasse but had a hard time finding one. I was torn between blue star, ornate and black - I still may add one of the other 2 later on at some point.

Initially I ordered 2 spotcinctus clowns but 1 was lost in shipping unfortunately. My wife wanted clownfish so I settled on spotcinctus because it looks like they get a bit bigger, are more assertive and supposedly have great personalities! Adam at Ocean Devotion later sent me a bicinctus clown to replace the lost spotcinctus and he is doing great still. The two clowns get along as well as expected and both have grown a lot!

Both of these fish handled QT great and are still thriving in the main tank.

 

[ctopherl]

Next fish - I wasn't planning on a gem tang but my wife saw one in the LFS, loved it and wanted one. I really like zebrasomas so I was happy to get one. I also ordered another yellow tang with it to replace the yellow I lost previously. I got these from Ocean Devotion again and WOW the gem was much larger than the yellow! They got along fine in the 20g QT, I assume because of the size disparity-the gem couldn't care less about the yellow.

Unfortunately I ended up losing both of these fish in QT. My best guess is I did not keep the tank clean enough as this was my first attempt at QT'ing larger fish, so this had never been an issue before. Even with doing water changes every other day, it still felt too dirty. Lesson learned

 

[ctopherl]

Next up to fill out the tang gang I ordered a purple tang and red sea sailfin tang from TSM Aquatics. I learned my lesson from the last two tangs and was more aggressive with water changes/tank cleaning and they made it through QT, although the tank was still getting too dirty towards the end so I cut the QT shorter than I would've liked. Supposedly TSM does a thorough quarantine, including formalin, and I had them in copper for about a week with metro/API GC included. I added them to the tank. I can't find any pictures of them in the QT so you will have to use your imagination! They are both doing great in the DT currently

 

[ctopherl]

Didn’t realize leopard wrasses would change gender to male but looks like ours is transitioning. Both my wife and I commented that her colors look a lot more muted.

One of our bimacs is transitioning as well but we knew that would happen.

 

[ctopherl]

I had an issue where my UV randomly started making a bumping noise after ~a month of operation. tl;dr air got trapped in it and so far re-mounting the UV tilted slightly upwards instead of straight horizontal has made the noise go away.

Similarly, it looks like I have ich in my system based on white spots on my purple tang. I haven't confirmed this with an aquabiomics test yet. I was going to try peroxide dosing anyways for the uronema so now we will just see if it gets rid of the ich as well.

 

[ctopherl]

Fired up my old Red Sea doser and I’m having trouble getting the second head to work. I’ve replaced the inner tubes without any luck. So, I am switching to Kamoer dosers.

Initially I planned out a spot next to the ATO for the dosing containers but it’s too cramped and annoying for maintenance purposes. I am pivoting to mount the new dosers on the outside of the cabinet since the tank is backed into the corner of a room so no one is ever on that side to see it anyways. I will upgrade to actual dosing containers once the peroxide dosing is done, but the peroxide needs to stay in the dark bottle

 

[LPS Bum]

d

Nice tank upgrade. I have a Gen 2 Reefer 625 and love it. You'll really enjoy the ReefMat and how it keeps your water crystal clear.

Good job on putting all your fish through QT. It really does make a big difference. Sorry to hear about the losses, but keep the faith. It'll get better.

My one small piece of unsolicited advice is to beef up your rock work. Especially if you want to keep multiple Tangs. Give them deep caves to hide in, and the more caves they have to hide in, the less they will hide. I have 3 big Tangs in my 625, and 4 big Tangs in my 240 FOWLR, and they're always out swimming and very rarely fight. Lots of rock and space is the key.

 

[ctopherl]

Nice tank upgrade. I have a Gen 2 Reefer 625 and love it. You'll really enjoy the ReefMat and how it keeps your water crystal clear.

Good job on putting all your fish through QT. It really does make a big difference. Sorry to hear about the losses, but keep the faith. It'll get better.

My one small piece of unsolicited advice is to beef up your rock work. Especially if you want to keep multiple Tangs. Give them deep caves to hide in, and the more caves they have to hide in, the less they will hide. I have 3 big Tangs in my 625, and 4 big Tangs in my 240 FOWLR, and they're always out swimming and very rarely fight. Lots of rock and space is the key.

Thanks!

For reef mat - I'm hoping I can rely on that only and not get a skimmer but we will see! I'm intentionally not going super high on stocking partially for this reason. It hasn't been keeping my water too clear yet due to my bacteria overdosing, ha!

For QT - I had disease issues in my first tank and don't want to go through it again. Although I still ended up with uronema trying to be thorough but I've lost significantly less fish this time around and I attribute that to the sourcing of quality fish and QT process.

For rock work - luckily I ordered more rock than I needed and have kept a lot of the extra chilling in my sump in case I needed to add more. I have added more since (just scaling up with fish) and currently considering getting some more. Stay tuned for further update on this