Husker Reefer 350 build

Husker-reef

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Reef2reef has been a great asset to setting up this new build.
After 2 years back in the hobby. Was time to upgrade the 40 gallon AIO.

Black Friday deal on this Reefer 350

Equipment list to start.

Apex EL
Neptune SKY
Varios 6 Return Pump
Ecotech-MP40 (2)
Bubble Magus Elite Curve 5
Neptune ATK ato
1 Neptune DOS for calcium and alk
Ink Bird heater controller with Finnex 300w
Aqua UV 15w Classic
custom plumbing

3 boxes of Caribsea Life rock arches and shapes
40 lbs of live sand

I have taken lots of ideas and inspiration from @SuncrestReef and @Leiph86 . Appreciate your wealth of knowledge!

Basement setup on new LVP flooring. Carpet had to go. Still have trim board and the rest of the basement to finish. Getting the tank running was a priority!
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Husker-reef

Husker-reef

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have had a few months to aquascape

My rockscape was designed for SPS dominance in mind- partial open negative space concept was the plan. Room for flow - and room for coral growth!! First try was successful. E-Marco cement made it possible to bring my idea to life…
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SuncrestReef

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Glad to hear my build helped you out. I recognize those PVC fittings connected to the Red Sea plumbing! Nice work.
 
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Husker-reef

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Glad to hear my build helped you out. I recognize those PVC fittings connected to the Red Sea plumbing! Nice work.
Yes yes that is a copied design! Your thread truly has helped out in many ways. As well as your Apex tutorials. Those are worth gold! Eager to see an update on your thread. Hope the rebuild is still going strong.
 

SuncrestReef

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Yes yes that is a copied design! Your thread truly has helped out in many ways. As well as your Apex tutorials. Those are worth gold! Eager to see an update on your thread. Hope the rebuild is still going strong.
My rebuild has been complete for quite a while, at least from the equipment standpoint. But life has been busy in other ways, so I haven't gotten around to restocking the tank yet. Hopefully I'll have some new corals to show off in a couple of weeks when my local reefing club holds our next meeting and frag swap.
 
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Husker-reef

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My sidekick supervising the initial fill of saltwater. Have been pleased with Brightwell Neomarine salt.
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Husker-reef

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Fast forward 6 weeks. Went through a quick cycle. Transferred some live rock rubble I had cooking in the sump of the old 40 gallon. Made it a breeze.

after signs of bacteria colonization added a few awesome acans and zoas from @Happy Fish KC live auction. Overall great corals and pleased with my purchase!

getting my Ca, Alk, and Mg dialed in.
320, 8.1 dkh, 1350 respectively.
Sitting with some low nitrates at the moment.







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Husker-reef

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Did a fair amount of research for lighting on this setup. On the 40g I had the ReefBreeders Photon V2+

It puts out great PAR. With white's at 50%, blue's at 60% during peak daylight, I am getting 450 PAR 6 inches under the water surface during agitation. With no water surface agitation it is at 500 plus.

I decided to go with the Neptune SKY's on the Reefer. The Apex interface and the different available preset color patterns are incredible features. Tested PAR and at 50% power on CoralGrowth setting- I'm at 350 PAR 6 inches under the surface. Super happy with this light so far.

Will be getting a 2nd SKY for the right side soon.
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The Neptune hanging kit worked well. Racked my brain on getting the measurements precise for a couple hours. Mount board screwed into 3 studs.
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Friend of mine @Martinbc hooked me up with 2 really nice chunky frags of Pink Cadillac and Frogskin.
Check out his build thread- He has had great success growing SPS and am thankful for his help on getting my setup dialed in.

1 clown
1 six-line wrasse (model citizen)
1 yellow watchmen goby

Transferred over from the 40. They are loving their larger new home!
 
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Husker-reef

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Thought I’d update

added roughly about 20 corals over the last month. All from local folks here in Nebraska. Think I’m at a stopping point for the time being ha.
 
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danbaileytattooer

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Very cool! I am in Omaha as well. Where are you getting stuff from? Just started a reef tank again after a 15 year break. I have a Red Sea max E-170 .
 
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Husker-reef

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Very cool! I am in Omaha as well. Where are you getting stuff from? Just started a reef tank again after a 15 year break. I have a Red Sea max E-170 .
a few local guys. I would recommend Nebraska Aquatic Supply in Omaha. A guy by the name of Andrew joined there recently and is the most knowledgable guy I know for Reef keeping. He aquacultures lots of corals for them as well.
 
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Husker-reef

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Unfortunate series of events happened. Velvet broke loose and killed all my fish except one lone Pajama cardinal that never seemed to be affected. This lone cardinal has been the only fish in the tank for over 3 months. Do i pull him out to quarantine before added any new tank mates?

Having all brand new dry rock- Dino's set in and completely took over. Tried dosing Neophos and Neonitrate during the fish-less phase. Lost over $2500 in Acropora and probably another $1,000 in other corals because I could not keep my nutrients stable and off zeros allowing dinos to choke them all out. Also had a heater fail that did not help any measures.

Rookie mistake loading up this tank on corals with it being immature. As I restart, I plan to take a more simplistic approach to keep all my parameters stable and add corals slowly as it progresses.

Final nail in the coffin- after I defeated dinos I had a battle with Derbesia, which is a devil algae from hell. Going through week 3 of vibrant and it is melting it all away. Sooner than later I hope to be able to restart with precautions.

Frustrating for sure but lessons learned.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 73 37.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 66 34.2%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 13.0%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.5%
  • Other.

    Votes: 1 0.5%
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