El Kae's RS Reefer 170

[El.Kae]

After being out of the hobby since 2004, the bug bit hard last year. A quick browse through the LFS and I ended up with a Nuvo10. Less than a month later, I had already upgraded to a 25 Lagoon and looking at another upgrade. 2 months back into the hobby and I knew I wasn't going to turn back. April 2017 I picked up the Reefer 170. Everything was transferred over and so began the "First phase" of the tank. I quickly outgrew the initial rock work as I began hoarding. SPS, Acans, zoas, torches. I wanted gardens of them all. Fast forward to the beginning of this year (2018), and the itch to rescape was picking at me. One type of rock I never used ever was tonga, and I knew it would make a great base for a Zen/Minimalist aquascape. I began collecting choice branches from the local stores. After a couple of attempts, I ended up with the current structure, held together with emarco. I popped all the corals off, removed the old rock, dropped in the new rock and began gluing down all the corals. SPS first, then filling in with zoas, and acans. It's been about 2 months now, and the corals have adjusted well, with most already encrusting and picking up where they left off. I'll follow up later with some detail shots of the corals themselves. For now, couple of current FTS, and one from a month or so after setting up the tank.

Equipment:
Tank - Red Sea Reefer 170, Custom Sump
Lights- Radion XR30 Gen4 Pro - AB+ Schedule.
Return - Reef Octopus RO-DC 3500
Flow - 2x MP40WQD
Heaters - 2x 100w Neotherm
Skimmer- Vertex Omega 130 with pH controlled CO2 Scrubber
Reactors - N/A
Controller - Apex Classic
Dosing - Korallin C1502 Calcium Reactor

Videos:


FTS:
June 2018

Feb 2018

June 2017

 

[Nht]

Beautiful. Really like the rock work coral placement. Do you have a pic of just the aquascape before the corals went in?

 

[El.Kae]

Beautiful. Really like the rock work coral placement. Do you have a pic of just the aquascape before the corals went in?

Thanks! Here's the only shot of the rock without any corals mounted. Wasn't planning to document the transition. I will be making a video of the tank soon which shows the real openness of the structure.

 

[Streetdoc77]

Do you like it better BB?

 

[El.Kae]

Do you like it better BB?

I like both, though visually I would prefer sand. Going BB is just way less maintenance, and I can crank up the flow like crazy!

 

[El.Kae]

Bad case of insomnia last night. Turned on the blues and snapped a bunch of 3am shots. Most of these are at the 6-9 month mark, all from sub 1" fraglings.

Homewrecker.


A piece picked up from JF at RAP Socal last year. Forgot the name.


RR The Vinh


RR Medusa


Joe the Coral


Red Planet


JF Foxflame


Oregon Tort


Green Cap


Piece from local reefer. Looks to possibly be Candlelight


Sex on the Beach Mille


RR Orange Passion


SC Orange Passion


Unknown Mille starting to develop some color


RR Lady in Pink.

Rainbow Fusion

Mr. PacMan

Purple Rain

ARC Fireworks

Pearlberry

Grafted Setosa

Bizarro Cyphastrea

Hawkins Enchinada

Wetthumbs Bubblegum Digi

WWC Grafted Cap

Walt Disney

 

[Denisk]

I love how quickly you started upgrading

The 10 gallon just wasn’t going to cut it. I’m glad because your reefer 170 is eye candy now.

Beautiful tank!!!

 

[El.Kae]

I love how quickly you started upgrading

The 10 gallon just wasn’t going to cut it. I’m glad because your reefer 170 is eye candy now.

Beautiful tank!!!

Thanks! Yea, It honestly happened because I ran into a fellow reefer I knew from before, swung by his place to check out how his tank progressed over the 10+ years I was out of the hobby. Ended up going home with way too many frags to fit the 10 gallon.

 

[Raymark]

Beautiful!

 

[Denisk]

Thanks! Yea, It honestly happened because I ran into a fellow reefer I knew from before, swung by his place to check out how his tank progressed over the 10+ years I was out of the hobby. Ended up going home with way too many frags to fit the 10 gallon.

Thatss funny. Keep it up though! This thing is going to fill out quick and look great.

My only fear is you may upgrade yet again

 

[El.Kae]

Beautiful!

Thanks!!

Thatss funny. Keep it up though! This thing is going to fill out quick and look great.

My only fear is you may upgrade yet again

Haha I do not plan on upgrading any time soon. I will be trimming or removing corals as they grow in more.

 

[HolisticBear]

Beautiful tank!!

 

[El.Kae]

Beautiful tank!!

Thanks! I've loved following your build also!

 

[David Ladds]

Soooo colourful, what a beaut, and great coral pics

 

[El.Kae]

Soooo colourful, what a beaut, and great coral pics

Thanks!

 

[WDKegge]

Just here to harass El.

 

[Robs Reef]

Looking Awesome El Kae!!!

 

[Robs Reef]

Looking great El Kae!!

 

[Justbecause]

Goals brotha. Looking GREAT.

 

[Justbecause]

Keep up the great work