Hasted's Red Sea XL 300

[revhtree]

Keep fighting! Looking good!

 

[Hasted]

SUNDAY update!

Routine

Not much to mention. Tank has been running great. No huge issues. Just a little bubble algae, a few aptasia I have been hitting, and glue on some vermatid tunes. Nothing extreme out of any of them. I just hit the snails and aptasia asap and seems to keep them mostly in low numbers.

Need. More. Zoas!

MTS - Multi Tank Syndrome

Well, it took me 3 months to get back into the world of nano tanks. Got a Waterbox 15g Peninsula Mini in this week. Working on scape and setting it up now. This thread won't be overtaken by this tank, but I am sure I will comment on it from time to time!

 

[Hasted]

I was able to rent a Par Meter! Text dump incoming! But first, some updates!

Day 3: wife hasn't noticed the extra light.

Once I did some par readings, I wasn't satisfied with my levels where I have my SPS with just two lights. Which was expected. I have my 2 lights spaced per BRS recommended 3 light spacing but without the middle light. Of course the center was low.

So, I did what any sensible person would do. I stole the brand new AI prime I just bought for my Waterbox Mini Peni 15g tank and slapped it on!

A few of these readings have numbers inside parentheses. These are the ones I measured again with the 3rd light. Shows the jump.

Anything that does not have parentheses is actually my 2 light numbers, but shouldn't change much... Neon Spong Monti, for example, was at 205 par with 2 lights. Now 250 with the 3rd. My Zoa garden, though, I only measured once and was at 130 in the center. Get the idea?

Neon Spongodes Montipora -250 (205)
Spongodes Montipora (Neon again?) - should be about 220-250? Close to the Ora BNest.
ORA Birdnest - 250 (150)
Green Birdnest - 200 (110)
Rainbow Monti - 210 (150)
WWC Kryptonite Candy Cane - 200 (110)
Red Cap - 210 (180)

Zoa Garden - ~130
-AOI
-Rainbow Infusion
-Rasta
-Radioactive Dragoneye
-Scrambled Egg (I think)
-Red People Eater
-Bambam
-Pink Constellation (I think)
-Unknown Green
-Unknown speckled Orange
-Unknown Monster Blue


Joker Acan - 80
Red Acan - 80
Red Micro Lord - 80
Splatter Goniastrea - 80
Acid Rain Leptoseris - 80

WWC Snow Dragon - X
Lemon Lime Favites - x
Graffiti Favites - x
WWC Gatorade Echinata - x
WWC Earthbound Echinata - ~110
WWC Mayan Moon Favia - ~ 115
Cherry Pie Bowerbanki - 65
Goldeneye Chalice - x
Miami Hurricane Chalice (dying) - x
Frogspawn - 55? That can't be right.
Hammer - 115
Neon Duncan - 110
Picasso Rhodactis Mushroom - 50
Orange Ricordea Mushroom - 60
Unknown Blue spotted Mushroom - x
Unknown Red Blasto - 110
WWC Phantasm Blasto - 110


Zoas on Frag Rack - 90-110
-Radioactive DYES
-Scrambled Eggs
-Massive Blues
-Fire & Ice
-Random Green ones
-Bam Bam

Sandbed Zoas - 60
- Speckled Oranges


Been slowly looking up par readings on each coral making sure I am not cooking any of them. So far, I am in a good range it seems.

 

[Hasted]

Well, my Calcium reagent was super low and it seemed like it either leaked or evaporated out. The packets and Distilled Water still have enough for ~10 more tests.

Got new reagent. Numbers over 100 off...

I assume I trust the newer reagent (higher number).

Guess who thought they needed to start Calcium dosing due to those low numbers the last couple weeks?

This guy. I have all the stuff needed for 2 part arriving today or tomorrow ... I guess I will keep monitoring it with new reagent to see if I can still dose a very, very small amount to keep it MORE stable.

 

[Hasted]

FTS

Right Side

Left side (least viewed)

Zoa Garden coming along.

Ora Neon Birdmest losing color at tips? Moved slightly lower.

Acans, Blastos, Favia, Duncan, Shrooms, Echinata, and a Goniastrea.

One of my favorites! Bowerbanki.

 

[Bleigh]

SUNDAY update!

Routine

Not much to mention. Tank has been running great. No huge issues. Just a little bubble algae, a few aptasia I have been hitting, and glue on some vermatid tunes. Nothing extreme out of any of them. I just hit the snails and aptasia asap and seems to keep them mostly in low numbers.

Need. More. Zoas!

MTS - Multi Tank Syndrome

Well, it took me 3 months to get back into the world of nano tanks. Got a Waterbox 15g Peninsula Mini in this week. Working on scape and setting it up now. This thread won't be overtaken by this tank, but I am sure I will comment on it from time to time!

You could be like me and have multiple threads. I think I am up to 4 now. Though one was retired with the Waterbox Mini Pen.

 

[Hasted]

Pic heavy update. Some days the pics come out amazing and you just gotta share.

New Acan. No name. Absolutely gorgeous fire orange color with a very small chunk of green on most heads. Unique!

My free Micro frag from WWC doing amazing.

Shop called it a Joker Acan. New heads coming in.

Acan from LFS I am unsure of name. Pink color is rare in my tank. Love it.

Blastos do great in my tank. Also on left is the Acid Rain Lepto I moved for the new Acan.

Frogspawn doing well. Was nervous when both my hammer were in decline. Added this and it had been happy every day.

High par area. This birdnest is doing well unlike my other one... I think I blasted the other with too much light.

Splatter Goniastrea is finally starting to show growth. Not much, but definitely thicker. Lower light seems to be better for it.

This Bowerbanki is massive and still one of my favorite pieces. Sits in the back on the right side and steals your eyes as you come in from the front door. Opposite of this in the right front is the Frogspawn and is a good contraction.

Interesting Picasso Mushroom I hope makes plenty of babies!

New no name shroom surrounded by rubble. When I see yellow I immediately buy. This was no exception.

Love watching the feeders on this Favia. Has been doing so well.

Been off on chalices until this piece. Goldeneye I think. Really sticks out.

Another angle of Acan garden.

Largest colony of Zoas. My wife loves these.

Larger pic of Zoa garden. I want many, many more variants!

 

[Hasted]

Tank is doing very well. Just have a few Aptasia and Vermatid Snails here and there I attack every couple of days.

Got myself a torch from the LFS finally! It is looking beautiful! Both my wife and my mother love it! Thats a plus for me!

I went and did a thing. Decided that this would be a good GSP rock. I am hoping it stays on the flat top and makes it look Tree Like. If not,I will just try to keep it from overtaking the favite. Thats the only thing on that structure so far. This rock is not touching other rocks.

Great news! My hammer is making a recovery! Too bad I couldn't save my other, more expensive one. The two of them would have been amazing next to each other as they were opposite colored. Green arms with purple tips for this one and purple arms and bright green tips for the other. Oh well! Frogspawn is also doing great!

Ponyboy doing a cuddle.


Future Plans!

I am getting into dosing 2 Part. Eventually I will be getting 2+ dosing pumps to take care of this.

My Clearview lid SHOULD be coming soon. That means more fish! Firefish, 2 Flasher Wrasse, Midas Blenny, and Tomini Tang are my hopes as of now. Heard Midas Blenny don't play too well with YWG, though. So maybe a change there.

My 15g tank is still coming together. Rocks in. Pump in. I stole the light off of it... I am waiting for my buddy to get his Nano cube set up and start at the same time. Would be neat to compare.

My stock ATO poops out 0-3 times a week. A simple blow through the line clears it out and it works again. I want to pick up the Tunze ATO and a larger Reservoir to replace. The dang stock Reservoir is in a terrible spot and not large enough.

More corals. I want some SPS up top! Just not quite ready for them. Maybe in a few months+.

 

[Hasted]

Ok. So... Black Friday and Birthday lined up.

Which ended up meaning lots of tank upgrades.

1st. I purchased a Control 4! Been eyeing this thing since launch. I always looked at the Apex and assumed that was my only option. The cost seemed a bit much for me. It did more than I needed now, but maybe very future proof for me. The C4, however, also does exactly what I want with less extra. And a much cheaper cost. I don't need extra modules right now like others, so the initial cost is all I should have for now. Really looking forward to this upgrade! Down the line I hope they add to their line and bring in things I feel I need once the tank becomes more mature. For now? I am set with this single kit!

2nd. Well, I was never 100% satisfied with the power of the Primes over my tank. I added a 3rd which definitely helped! But... I still felt limited. I absolutely LOVED the control and the look of them, though. If this tank was a bit smaller, I would have zero complaints. 65g is pushing it for these lights, though. Well, I snagged myself a Kessil AP9x. I kept bouncing back between Kessils and Radions. Having one single mount and one single unit pushed me a bit closer. Plus, Kessil actually having a sale. Yep. Got the mount AND the light for less than the light itself usually is. Lets just hope I like the color it puts out. Only thing I am worried about coming from the beauty of Primes.

Also, yeah. Got more frags. Whatcha gonna do.

Stay tuned for light set up + Par numbers mid week. I already borrowed the local Par meter in preparation!

 

[Hasted]

This light is absolutely gorgeous!

AP9X set at 55% is roughly the same PAR output as my 3x AI Primes were at 100% BRS recommended. Holy!

I hope this allows me to be less restricted on SPS I put in the tank down the line.

Did a full PAR testing of each coral at 65% and 55%. If I slowly bump up the %, I will have a decent idea where everything is.

Kessil shimmer. Got there. Luckily this doesn't add another app to THIS tank. I swapped the AI app for Kessil.

One thing to note... this light is harder to program for me than the Primes. Being able to set points, drag up or over for different things, etc was AMAZING on the AI app. Kessil app is fine, but definitely not as easy.

With that light, my Nano is now lit!

Ignore heater. Waiting for the one I want to come back in stock.

Now, about that AI app! I will have the Prime AND the Nero 3. Which means this whole tank will be on one app. Well, kinda. I plan to use the Kasa smart strip also? We shall see.

Now, back to the Reefer!

The control 4 is going to be set up this weekend! I currently just have it sitting on my office desk. Reason the pH and Temp are weird. Haha.

Super excited about this. I hope this is a step towards stability, even if it is just being able to monitor stuff and gaining knowledge. It isn't ready doing much yet. Haha.

Hopeful for the future of this product. I want to try to get the most out of it so I will be adding a few things like water sensors and leak rope sensor.

I will probably update this thread again this weekend to talk more about the C4 and my maintenance.

Thanks for stopping by!!

 

[Hasted]

Everything is going smoooooooth. Mostly.

A few things are less than ideal, but not huge.

- Hydroids even with very minimal feeding. Spot feeding and such only for a while. Still little buggers are out.
- One of my Birdnest refuses to look good. Lost the same type of BN 6 months back. Another variety of BN is thriving, though...
- A small amount of Verm Snails. Very small amount, but I glue them when I do see them.
- Still no lid.


Everything else growing and growing!

Next, I got my ICP results in!

For some reason salinity didn't register on this image. Should say 33ppt from test.

Also, my RODI

Going to do some research to make sure all these are good to go. Haven't had a chance to really deep dive in the numbers.

 

[Bleigh]

Where is your birds nest placed? I lost a few before I realized they need lower light.

Where do the hydroids even come from? I only recently knew to look for them, and of course, when I went to check, they were everywhere.

 

[Hasted]

Where is your birds nest placed? I lost a few before I realized they need lower light.

Where do the hydroids even come from? I only recently knew to look for them, and of course, when I went to check, they were everywhere.

Mid-ish. My rock work is pretty low so mid is kinda low. I will check my par chart i made. It was 150 with 2 primes and then later 250 with the 3rd prime. So, a guess would be 250-275 with the new Kessil.

I ended up cutting it in 4 pieces and spreading it around to see if I could find a spot. 2 have completely died. Two are struggling. We shall see!

 

[Bleigh]

Mid-ish. My rock work is pretty low so mid is kinda low. I will check my par chart i made. It was 150 with 2 primes and then later 250 with the 3rd prime. So, a guess would be 250-275 with the new Kessil.

I ended up cutting it in 4 pieces and spreading it around to see if I could find a spot. 2 have completely died. Two are struggling. We shall see!

Where were the two that died? I have mine nearly at the bottom of my 60 gallon and it is doing well. I would say 100-150 par, but I don't remember off the top of my head.

 

[Hasted]

Just wanted to share a late night top down I took.

Things are going smooth. Nearly 6 months since the transfer to this tank.

We broke 70 unique corals in the tank. Close to 100 total frags in there.

Chopped up a good amount of zoas recently. Once they grow a bit, I am going to trade some.

I received my lid! I am not 100% satisfied. The measurements I gave them (yes, MY fault. NOT ClearView's fault) isn't quite what I want. The gap front to back is a lot more than I am ok with. Sent an email this weekend to see what the process would look like to extend it... if reasonable, I will send it back and have it fixed. If I am gonna spend $$ on a fancy lid, I should get it exactly how I want. (May also inquire about a left side feed door so I can feed / dose over that MP40...)

With the lid, I also ordered 3x fish! A (hopefully) pair of exquisite Firefish for the main tank and a Tailspot Blenny for the Nano. If the two Ffish end up being males, I have multiple places that I can separate them to. My nano, my two friends both have new nanos we set up on the same day. Or one of their 3 other tanks. Still, I hope the two FFish pair up.

Manual dosing is becoming tedious. I do feel like it is/was important for me to do for this period of time. I was controlling the amount and knew what it needed and expected results. I would always test prior and then dose. Started very low and now at a stable daily dose. I think it is about time to upgrade to auto dosing. I just don't know what brand I should go with. Would love one that works seamlessly with my Hydros C4.

Vermatid Snails seem to be quelled.

I thought Aiptasia was also eradicated, but found three chunky ones this week. 2 new ones and an old one that is just hard to see. They must have been growing for weeks! Hit two and have to smash the third this week. Hopefully I don't spread them.

Frag tank project is coming along. The room I am using was not ideal. Bare walls (just studs) with insulation hanging out. Half tiled floor where tank is going (uneven as can be). Poor lighting. No electric box. Etc. So far I have the walls covered, installed a GFCI, and tackling floor today. Got a plan and only 60% sure it will work. I have a 90% sure backup plan though. Haha.

Check out the poorly updated thread here.

Frag Build - Hasted's Frag Setup

Well. I really had no idea I would have landed on this path... but here I am planning my basement frag tank. Goals: + Set up by first quarter of 2021 + Pay for some of the operating costs (salt, water, electricity) of itself + two other tanks (net positive operating cost at least for this tank)...

www.reef2reef.com

Goals over the next couple months.
-Research dosers, set up.
-Purchase another MP40. Too bad I can't use MP10s on this glass...
-Focus on stocking my fish (if I keep lid).
-Add more sensors to Control4 for more monitoring. Leak rope especially... I have zero leak detection.
-Use left over plywood from Frag project to create a more proper (cleaner) control board and wire management section. It is a rats nest again!

 

[Hasted]

February 6, 2021 FTS

75 or so different corals growing out.

Added 2 new fish today. First new fish since before the tank swap (2 clowns and YWG came from my 29g nano).

Two grumpy looking Exquisite Firefish

Recieved my lid from ClearView and put an order in for these fish. Took a bit and also kept them at the LFS for QT, but they came happy and healthy.

Everything seems to be going well. On a good maintenance, feeding, dosing, cleaning, etc schedule. Other than a bit of algae here and there, no complaints! I spend a LOT of time just looking into this beautiful tank.

 

[Hasted]

Not much change as of late. A lot of focus has been on my Frag Tank setup.

Something actually happened today, though. Got in a single head doser! Decided to go with the Kamoer X1 Pro 2. Reasonable price with just enough features that I want. Unfortunately, it doesn't play nice with with my Hydros Control 4 (yet).

Here are some other random pics of some corals!

 

[Hasted]

Wyze cam + mount is one of my best investments.

Reef under whites.


If anyone know knows of a better (more clear?) Wifi cam, I am all ears! Wyze definitely does the job at $20, but always want better.

Edit, a bit more blues with filter:

 

[Hasted]

 

[Hasted]

One year later.

Yesterday (March 6th) marked one year of my 29g tank. A good amount of the rock transfered over to this tank in August.

Things were pretty mellow for the first year with few "issues" and problems. I hope the tank just continues to get better and better. Love this hobby, the people, and everything else it brings.

Also, my freaking Carpenter's follows my Splendid Pimtail from like 9pm to midnight every night. Dude needs to calm his horses. Can't tell if it is aggression or if he is just stupid.