Gvincents Red Sea Reefer 200 build

gvincent

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Well its time i start to document my build, ill try to make it short and sweet. As i write this i am on day 2 of cycling. But will include details from weeks prior.

Day 1: Getting the tank
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So first started with actually getting the tank in the mail and assembling the stand, as we can see i have VERY limited room for tank placement hence why i went with this Red Sea Reefer 200 gen2+
With careful measurements i determined i would be within +/- 1” on either side of wall trim and couch, i know this is far from ideal but unfortunately this is what i have to work with..

Day 2: Filling tank
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Day 2 consisted of leveling tank, filling, and aquascaping. Not much here other than a cloudy tank, at this point i went ahead and let the tank sit for a week to clean itself up and let everything settle out.
Week 2: Introduction of livestock and bacteria
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The start of week 2 consisted of letting the tank cycle. Being that i used live sand i figured “some” bacteria would have established within the tank but with no ammonia source that could have very easily died off, using dry rock from caribsea would also have no effect upon cycling.
So i was cought between a “fishless cycle” or “fish cycle” in the past ive always thrown a damsel or 2 in the tank and let it do its thing for a month or 2.. these days it seems to be use bacteria that speed up the process, so i went ahead with using Fritz 9 beneficial bacteria to try it out as they state livestock can be introduced immediately, my LFS recommend using 2 small fish for my tank size along with 1 hermit and 1 snail to start.
Testing water after 24 hours shows 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 nitrate.

Week 2, Day 2 of cycle
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Day 2 of our cycle consists of own clowns getting much more acclimated in the tank, i turned down the flow on the jecod dcp4000 to the lowest setting (30%) as it seems the clowns were struggling with it at 40%.. they are eating frozen brine at this time. Tank shows no signs of any algae yet. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate eh could be 0 could be 5 could be in-between?
This will be it for the first post, i will update day by day as we cycle, keeping a constant eye on parameters.
Thoughts, questions, and concerns are always welcome!
 

Jim Gomoll

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Welcome to the reef world.
Initial look at day 2 pic it looked like you had a mirror down the middle. First almost symmetrical aquascape I've ever seen. Following along to see how things progress along.
 
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gvincent

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Day 3 of cycle
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Day 3,
0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, Nitrate same as yesterday.
No signs of any diatoms or algae. Everyone in tank is happy so far.
I was hoping by today i would see signs of the cycle taking off, maybe by day 5
 
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gvincent

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Week 2 Day 4 of cycle
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Day 4 is here, it finally looks like we’re starting to show ~some~ ammonia! Test definitely looks a little more greener today but not by much..
Nitrites 0
Nitrates still kinda figuring out the color but definitely not high if any..
Else wise tank mates are happy, no signs of algae. Fingers crossed ill see more signs of cycle kicking off soon.
Thats all for today! Stay tuned.
 
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gvincent

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Week 2 Day 5
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Well heres day 5 of the cycle. Not much change test wise, nitrite looks more “blue” than watered down blue, but barely.. could be my eyes could be the lighting.
Still hoping for a definitive color change to signify cycle kick off
 
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gvincent

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Day 7&9 of cycle
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Ammonia seems more yellow and less green today on day 9. I may add another tank member in a week to see if that will increase bio load some.
 
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Day 10 of cycle
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Day late to post but have results from yesterday, im realizing the api kit is nearly useless for ammonia.. in 2 different lights and backgrounds i get 2 different results.. nitrite 0 and nitrate well same as its been the past few tests.
Anyways i kicked on my skimmer last night to start breaking that in, im seeing the tank get a hair cloudy and figured it would be close to time to start skimming, right now the skimmer is going crazy so i have it draining from the collection cup back into the tank for the mean time until it breaks in, extra oxygenation in the tank wont hurt
 
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Day 20 of cycle
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Well im back after a nice vacation in the Caribbean, tanks doing great! The red sea ato+ really helped monitor tank along with a indoor ring camera and a excellent tank sitter.

Nitrites i noticed were definitely more blue/purple than i remember. Although pics dont help too much (ive come to realize as well.)
STILL no signs of any algae blooming.
I will say while on vacation i think i determined i am going to start with some softie frags in the tank this week, im anticipating the coral will out compete nutrients from algae but this is a theory.
Along with that i plan to start adding copepods and phyto into the tank to start establishing a colony before diatoms have the chance lol.
 
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gvincent

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Day 22 of cycle
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Well today is day 22 or 23 something like that, lost the snail, decided to check parameters while the hermit crab is making work of him.
Ammonia mabey 0.1
Nitrite .10-.20
Nitrate 2.5-5
Not bad,
Also added a Kessil A360X TB and Spectral X controller to the tank to prepare for some softies.
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Day 24
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Well day 24 has brought us alot of interesting items, some im worried about but have an established backup tank if needed lol.
I definitely did NOT plan on adding any sps for atleast 6 months in but there was a deal today for various items that included some monti’s so they came home. Along with that were a frag rack LOADED with tubbs blue, BEBB, and an og something or other, and some sort of exotic orange zoa, and i see some yellow chalice i believe snuck in there as well, golden hammer and a 2nd chalice. I will be looking to grab a par meter this weekend so i can better place things around the tank. Chemistry looks well, calcium is a little low but not useless.
Grabbed some All For Reef for supplemental dosing when needed. Along with the par meter i intend on getting reef roids to try to bring phosphates up some as they are low (expected) and some phyto.. other than that thats our update for today, Stay tuned.
 
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Day 28
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Today is day 28, yesterday i was able to get some par readings and made some adjustments, using a reflector for the kessil and raising the light an inch or so i was able to get into sps territory, the sheet is before i added the reflector, once i added the reflector my 250 par areas increased to 300-350, the middle range was roughly a solid 150 and the lower rocks were in the 100-70 par range. The reflector being used is the less narrow of the 2 available, running 60% intensity. Corals were looking prior, dosed some phyto and the next day things were coloring back up, sps seems to have recessing/browning of tissue, which i expected. Fingers crossed but not optimistic on them.
Along with the light readings i added 3 new members to the fleet, yasha goby with a candy strip pistol shrimp and a brazilian gramma. Gramma has been a pain to capture a photo of but today i noticed the yasha and shrimp have made a new cave under the rock work
Parameters look great, expect for phosphate which is 0, have some reef roids on the way hopefully a dose of that will bring us up a hair, may need to purchase phosphate separately we shall see.
 

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