Heres how i spend all my free time - Reefer 425xl

[blesk]

I see you change powerheads . love the build

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Nice set up! Tank looks amazing.

Sandra

 

[andrew james]

I went to the fish store yesterday to get some new crabs because someone is eating them. I ended up getting a little monti frag while I was there. I have a bad camera but in person it's really pretty. Also been working on the tank today I think im going get rid of the rest of my BTAs and some of the clowns and replace it with more acro that I ordered from Reef Raft.

 

[andrew james]

Started setting my other Kore 5 dosers up today. Going to try and dose the entire Aquaforest probiotic kit.

 

[Biggles]

Love your display and scape Andrew, have you been bitten by a certain SPS bug recently mate ?

You know there's no cure right..........

Look forward to following your reef adventures mate, the AF is good stuff as long as you get advice from guys like Perry etc before you jump in the deep end - very easy to bottom out your nutrients before you know it so just do the opposite to me and be cautious

 

[andrew james]

Working on my mood lighting. No filters used, ATI True Actinic and some hot pink LEDs behind the back glass.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I went to the fish store yesterday to get some new crabs because someone is eating them. I ended up getting a little monti frag while I was there. I have a bad camera but in person it's really pretty. Also been working on the tank today I think im going get rid of the rest of my BTAs and some of the clowns and replace it with more acro that I ordered from Reef Raft.

Looking great!!

 

[revhtree]

That is so cool!

 

[andrew james]

I haven't taken some photos in a while. I spend all to much time playing aquarium but I always forget to take photos.
I'm pretty excited my last fish is arriving tomorrow then 6weeks in Quarantine.

• 2 Clownfish
• Halichoeres melanurus
  
• Yellow Watachman Goby
• Diamond Goby
• 2x Swissguard Basslet
• C. Cyanopleura - Darwin's
• 3x Lyretail Anthias
• Blotched Anthias
• C. Aurantidorsalis
• C Lineatus
• C. Naokoae
• C. Brunneus - in the mail

As for corals I'm working on adding frags, whenever I find ones I like . it's going slow but Im not trying to rush things. I'm moving my soft stuff to my wife's tank. I'm planning on mainly SPS with mostly purple and blues up top with some warm and bright favia and acans colonies spread throughout the bottom of the tank.
I've got a lot of work to do.

I hit the saturate button a bit too much on these.

No saturation

 

[andrew james]

Mariculture always scares me a little but I saw this piece pop on DD and pulled the trigger. Let's see if I can keep it alive. I've found getting your tank as close to NSW as you can and just praying alot seems to be the best way to keep mariculture alive. If it makes it the first month without STN you're usually ok.

 

[andrew james]

This weekend I switched out my light setup to a Giesemann Spectra w/ 250w Radions and 4 ATI Actinic T5 I even threw in a AI Hydra HD into the center to use as moonlight. I made this switch from a 6x39 t5 with two Reefbrite strips because I wasn't getting good light on the sides of the tank because the fixture was too short.

First let me say Metal Halide produces beautiful amazing light I used to run them probably 10 years ago when I didnt know the difference and didn't appreciate them. No coming off of T5 and LED I can see the difference and it just makes everything in the tank pop. That being said the downside to MH is I've also had to add a fan blowing across the water surface to cool it down. They cause my water temp to be 1 degree warmer during the day than usual. I'm going to wire the fan into the Apex today so that it only turns on when the MH's are running. The other issue is that I've had to add another Energy bar and run it from another circuit in the basement because this light is pulling so much more power. I've also swapped out my two 500w heaters for two 300w heaters to lower the potential max amps drawn at once. Even though I doubt both the light and heaters would ever be on at the same time tripping a circuit when you're at work our out of town can do a lot of damage.

Temporary shoe string holding up power cord.

 

[tj w]

Looks great.... I love the automation aspect of your system as I hate doing water changes as well. I'll be following.

 

[andrew james]

I wanted to write down everything I can think of about my tank, so here it goes.

Fish Food Recipe
16 oz flat pack Hikari Myis shrimp
2 cans Can O' Cyclops
20 drop Aqua Forest Garlic Oil
30 drops Aqua Forest Fish Vitamin
6oz Reef nutrition Live Oyster Feast
50ml Red Sea Reef Energy A
50ml Red Sea Reef Energy B
Small tin of peas strained and smashed

Feeding Schedule
Return pump off for 30min with each feeding
6 mini cubes 7am
3mini cube 12pm
6 mini cubes 7pm
Every other day broadcast feed 6ml Oyster Feast 12am.

Water Change AWC and ATO
Sea water change out 9000ml every 24 hours on a constant drip

Fresh water constant drip avg. 6600ml over 24 hour w/ of that 4200ml is during peak photo period.
I have a fan that turns on during peak to increase evaporation lowing temperature form MH lamps.

Additive Recipe
Parameters are stable with < 10% deviation. Alk is measure twice daily at 7am & 7pm all others measured 1x per week usually Saturday morning.
1x month Triton test.

SG 35
Alk – 7.5
Ca – 400
Mg – 1400
Sr – 8
No3 – 5
Po4 - .04

Additives
Red Sea Foundation Liquid A 5ml/24h
Red Sea Foundation Liquid B 8ml/24h
Red Sea Foundation Liquid C 5ml/24h
Due to the AWC I believe these numbers are lower than you’d normally see.

NoPoX 3ml/24h
Flatworm Stop .5ml/24h
Red Sea Colors A,B,C &D .3ml/24h
Aqua Forest ABEV I alternate one additive per day at 1 drop

Light Recipe - 12” from the water’s surface
48” Giesemann Spectra
2 ATI True Actinic
2 ATI Super blue +
2 250w Radium 20k over driven
1x AI Hydra HD

5am-11am - AI Hydra set to 20k ramps up from 0% - 30%
11am-7pm – T5
11am – 7pm Ai Hydra is off
12pm – 6pm – Metal Halide
7pm – 10pm Ai Hydra set to 20k ramps down 30% - 0%

Water Flow
I don’t have Flow monitoring yet but I try to have as much flow as possible.
Jebao DCS 2500 GPH return pump set to 100% with all the plumbing and reactors.
Im not sure what my actual flow is.
4x Jebao RW8 I use my Apex to create an alternating random flow the high set to 80% during When the Metal Halide are on they increase to 100%

Reactors
250ml GFO set fairly low just to barely see it tumble. changed out monthly
250ml GAC this is usually turned off. It gets turned on for a while after I do things like glue down a frag or clean the tank. changed out PRN.
The outputs of both of these go into a filter sock. This is something I highly recommend for anyone using this type of
Filter Media.
25 liters Siporax in sump

Cleaning
Gently blow sand off of corals that live on sand bed everyday.
Change out filters everyday - I use 50 micron felt filters
Scrape glass, usually 2x week.
Blow Detritus off of Rock 1x month
Clean Power heads and inside of overflow 1x month
Bi-monthly Sump Cleaning - Remove filter media from sump rinse and shake out in separate 10 gallon bin filled with tank water. I pay special attention to not let media be out of water for more than a few seconds. while media is out of sump I vacuum entire sump then remove all water from sump and completely wipe it down. Clean and flush all air line tubing, calibrate all dosing pumps and clean and calibrate all sensors. Check heater and temp gauges.

I think that's it.

 

[by34]

Your tank looks pretty cool!

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Your tank looks great!

 

[andrew james]

 

[andrew james]

Worked on my sump tonight added a Kessil H80 to the refugium just need to get some algae.

 

[bubbaque]

How is the mariculture piece going for you?

 

[ngoodermuth]

Looking good! I like your fish list, but was just curious what happened with all the little clowns you had. Did they start to become too aggressive?

Great work!

 

[andrew james]

How is the mariculture piece going for you?

I think the trick to mariculture SPS is to ask the seller for their water parameters particularly their Kh. and set up a QT with the exact same parameters. The slowly normalize to your tank. Since I've started doing this the survival rate has shot way up. I haven't lost anything in some time.

Looking good! I like your fish list, but was just curious what happened with all the little clowns you had. Did they start to become too aggressive?

Great work!

I ended up selling the 5 clowns as a group. I did not notice any aggression while I had them. I really wanted to make room for some of my Wrasses that where on holiday in my wife's tank.