Idaho Reef build - Break is over - Reefer 900

[Jeffcb]

Just a quick update. Installed the Red Sea Reefmat 1200 a couple days ago. Soooo happy to not have to deal with socks anymore. So far this thing is working fantastic. Seems well made, well thought out and changing out the roll isn't much more difficult than changing out 4 socks used to be... difference is a roll will likely last 6 weeks or so where I had to change out socks every two days.

Everything else is going great. Waiting on a fish order from Dr. Reef... hopefully next week that shows up.

I see that you made the refugium the larger of the 2 choices with the divider slots. I have the 3rd of the 4 chambers full of other equipment. Heater, UV pump, media reactor and skimmer. For all of that to fit I have to use the middle slot for the refugium. If I add a ReefMat will the refugium still work using the middle divider slot? Thoughts

 

[ID-Reefer]

I see that you made the refugium the larger of the 2 choices with the divider slots. I have the 3rd of the 4 chambers full of other equipment. Heater, UV pump, media reactor and skimmer. For all of that to fit I have to use the middle slot for the refugium. If I add a ReefMat will the refugium still work using the middle divider slot? Thoughts

Looks like my refugium is in the same place as yours. I don’t think a 1200 reefmat will fit unless tremove the socks and all of that like I did. Not sure I understand your question.

 

[Jeffcb]

Looks like my refugium is in the same place as yours. I don’t think a 1200 reefmat will fit unless tremove the socks and all of that like I did. Not sure I understand your question.

I know I will have to remove the sock holders. Is your refugium wall in the slot towards the front of the sump or in the second slot towards the rear of the sump? Slot A or B? I don't have enough room to put the wall in slot B. I wonder if it will still work and get flow it the refugium section?

 

[ID-Reefer]

I know I will have to remove the sock holders. Is your refugium wall in the slot towards the front of the sump or in the second slot towards the rear of the sump? Slot A or B? I don't have enough room to put the wall in slot B. I wonder if it will still work and get flow it the refugium section?

It is in the B spot.

 

[Jeffcb]

It is in the B spot.

Thanks. I would have to remove my media reactor and replumb my UV but its probably worth it. I am going to go for it as soon as they are available. They are on back order everywhere now . That means the are good lol..

 

[Manny’s Reef]

What's good my fellow A1 license plate holder (Idaho joke)? Haven't seen an update from you in a while.

 

[ID-Reefer]

Well actually we are 2C. . Things are good - thanks for asking!

Tank has been up for about 27 ish months. Ive been in more of a maintenance only mode for the past few months. Nothing new. Im realizing that I probably put to much coral in over the first year since now as things are starting grow out they are running out of space and fighting. I have several SPS that are either fighting or just growing over each other. Its fun and disappointing at the same time I suppose.

My cleaner wrasse I had for well over a year disappeared a few months ago as did my mystery wrasse. Beyond that I haven't lost a fish that I recall. Ive lost a few torches for unknown reasons and maybe one SPS in the past 4 or so months. My parameters are stable. Dosing 2 part still - about 215 ml/day of soda ash for alkalinity and 210 ml/day of calcium. This is more than double of where I was a year ago. Ill probably wish I had a calcium reactor soon.

My P04 is still higher than Id like at about .12 but its stable and everything seems happy. My N03 has been around 16.0 and Alkalinity in the low 8s.

Only concern is the blue clove polyp (see photo) I have in my tank that is slowly spreading. I know of no way to kill it. It doesn't appear to be causing any problems and Im not pulling out rocks at this point. Beyond that I do have a little cyanobacteria that is a nuisance but nothing significant. I figure at this point this tank can just grow... Ill frag things and maintain it but thats about it. Im mostly out of real estate and can't add much of anything. Id like to add an Achilles tang or maybe another tang but I have 6 now so wonder if Im maxed out on Tangs. Ill put in another fish or two or three over the next year or so Im sure. But in general things are going good.

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Well actually we are 2C. . Things are good - thanks for asking!

Tank has been up for about 27 ish months. Ive been in more of a maintenance only mode for the past few months. Nothing new. Im realizing that I probably put to much coral in over the first year since now as things are starting grow out they are running out of space and fighting. I have several SPS that are either fighting or just growing over each other. Its fun and disappointing at the same time I suppose.

My cleaner wrasse I had for well over a year disappeared a few months ago as did my mystery wrasse. Beyond that I haven't lost a fish that I recall. Ive lost a few torches for unknown reasons and maybe one SPS in the past 4 or so months. My parameters are stable. Dosing 2 part still - about 215 ml/day of soda ash for alkalinity and 210 ml/day of calcium. This is more than double of where I was a year ago. Ill probably wish I had a calcium reactor soon.

My P04 is still higher than Id like at about .12 but its stable and everything seems happy. My N03 has been around 16.0 and Alkalinity in the low 8s.

Only concern is the blue clove polyp (see photo) I have in my tank that is slowly spreading. I know of no way to kill it. It doesn't appear to be causing any problems and Im not pulling out rocks at this point. Beyond that I do have a little cyanobacteria that is a nuisance but nothing significant. I figure at this point this tank can just grow... Ill frag things and maintain it but thats about it. Im mostly out of real estate and can't add much of anything. Id like to add an Achilles tang or maybe another tang but I have 6 now so wonder if Im maxed out on Tangs. Ill put in another fish or two or three over the next year or so Im sure. But in general things are going good.

O well I went off the Boise location. I'm a 2C myself. I love the update. You don't by chance have any clams in there do you? Curious about it with your butterfly fish in there. I'd love a CBB but I've got two clams I love too much. Are you using the SKY lights or are those radions?

 

[ID-Reefer]

Nope... no clams. Also no elegance as he nips at every elegance coral ive tried. He is safe with everything else though and one of my favorite fish so Im ok with it. Ive had him around 18 months +/- and his is a pig. I know some people don't have luck with them so Im happy I got lucky. He also loves aiptasia... I have some in my overflow but none in my display thanks to him.

Lights are G5 Radions XR30

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Nope... no clams. Also no elegance as he nips at every elegance coral ive tried. He is safe with everything else though and one of my favorite fish so Im ok with it. Ive had him around 18 months +/- and his is a pig. I know some people don't have luck with them so Im happy I got lucky. He also loves aiptasia... I have some in my overflow but none in my display thanks to him.

Lights are G5 Radions XR30

I'm running the same lights. Good to see the growth you've gotten with only three. Not sure if you're big on shimmer or not but I've got two kessil a360x running in between the radions and it provides a really nice shimmer overall. Its not super muted either, though I would probably be happier with a third kessil for the extra shimmer.

How do you feel about shading in your tank?

 

[ID-Reefer]

Well as much as I HATED to do it I decided to try to eliminate the invasive purple clove polyp that was spreading across a large portion of my rock work. I’ve battled several pests including monti eating nudis and these polyps are by far the worst. I determined the only way I would have a chance of success (without killing thousands of dollars worth of coral) would be to take out the affected rocks. I spent 12 hours yesterday ripping out 1/3 of my aquascape. I then put in new arched rocks I had cycled. I was able to salvage nearly all (or parts) of my coral but it was not fun cutting corals that were beautifully encrusting. I did enjoy getting this spawn of satan out of my tank however. What a chore. I never want to deal with this again.

One of the “before” pics showing this terrible plague.

The old rocks after salvaging what I could.

of two bins to hold coral during the process.

The results. Will take months for things to settle in and I’ll probably lose a coral or two but at least I “think” I got that evil evasive pest out of my tank.

 

[ID-Reefer]

Update. Thinking it’s time to pull out one of the first corals I put in my tank. Neon green pocillapora. I love the look of it in the center of my tank but it’s now the size of a head of cauliflower and it’s crowding acros I like more. It’s also decided to self propagate in two spots on a zoa rock which is against the rules Going to be a chore to remove - the base is probably 3” thick. Wish I had some sort of underwater saw.

 

[ID-Reefer]

Fun day...
I run dual COR-20s on my 250 gal system. I liked the idea of having two return pumps to prevent ever being without at least one. Well...... Murphys law I guess.

Ive had these pumps going for 2 years without problem at 60-70%. Wasn't even aware of a potential power block problem. Last night all the sudden one pump goes down. Volt error. I crank up the 2nd pump to 90% to help compensate figuring Id figure it out today. I get up, turn off working pump so I can take both out of the sump to clean. I end up finding a dead and half chewed up fish in the first pump. The one that turned off last night. How a fish got through my overflow, through my reef mat, through my fuge overflow, through the bubble trap, through the protection screen on my COR-20 Ill never know (and I think it was my expensive mystery wrasse)! Anyway I figure thats what the problem was. Clean both pumps. Re-install and expect everything to be back to normal. Nope. Neither works. Volt error on both now. I panic as I don't really have a back up pump. Didn't think I needed one since I have two return pumps running...

Start reading and find out that while the COR-20 pumps are great the power supply blocks they come with are crap. Call around and no LFS sells these power bricks separately. A new one shipped takes two days most likely to get to me. I end up calling an electronics store near by and they really helped me out. I ended up buying one good quality power supply that is more than capable of running both pumps and has a fan. They say this should last for many years since its well made, has a fan and my pumps won't even be pushing its capacity. Installed into my cabinet and bingo. I let everything run for an hour and this thing never even got warm. And all for a total of $60. I did have to reduce my pumps down from 70% to 55% as they are running much stronger now.

Anyway, if you are running COR-20 return pumps do yourself a favor and have a back up power supply brick on hand or buy a better quality one like I did.

 

[Charlie brown]

Nice build nice to see another reefer in my neck of the woods on here, I'm from burley can't wait to see it all put together keep us posted

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Fun day...
I run dual COR-20s on my 250 gal system. I liked the idea of having two return pumps to prevent ever being without at least one. Well...... Murphys law I guess.

Ive had these pumps going for 2 years without problem at 60-70%. Wasn't even aware of a potential power block problem. Last night all the sudden one pump goes down. Volt error. I crank up the 2nd pump to 90% to help compensate figuring Id figure it out today. I get up, turn off working pump so I can take both out of the sump to clean. I end up finding a dead and half chewed up fish in the first pump. The one that turned off last night. How a fish got through my overflow, through my reef mat, through my fuge overflow, through the bubble trap, through the protection screen on my COR-20 Ill never know (and I think it was my expensive mystery wrasse)! Anyway I figure thats what the problem was. Clean both pumps. Re-install and expect everything to be back to normal. Nope. Neither works. Volt error on both now. I panic as I don't really have a back up pump. Didn't think I needed one since I have two return pumps running...

Start reading and find out that while the COR-20 pumps are great the power supply blocks they come with are crap. Call around and no LFS sells these power bricks separately. A new one shipped takes two days most likely to get to me. I end up calling an electronics store near by and they really helped me out. I ended up buying one good quality power supply that is more than capable of running both pumps and has a fan. They say this should last for many years since its well made, has a fan and my pumps won't even be pushing its capacity. Installed into my cabinet and bingo. I let everything run for an hour and this thing never even got warm. And all for a total of $60. I did have to reduce my pumps down from 70% to 55% as they are running much stronger now.

Anyway, if you are running COR-20 return pumps do yourself a favor and have a back up power supply brick on hand or buy a better quality one like I did.

Can you provide a link for the power supply? I'd better start preparing for this same event myself.

 

[ID-Reefer]

Can you provide a link for the power supply? I'd better start preparing for this same event myself.

Well I don't really have a link as I just bought it from a local electronics store that specializes in low voltage stuff. Id guess you could buy online though. Here is what the box it came in looks like:

 

[maleshka21]

Hello,

Nice build journal I see where you hiding J The picture doesn't do justice to your tank must see it in person. Lucky I have the frags that I collected from you in June are doing well including the big colony Neon spongodes Montipora ( which is now 2 colonies) also donated 2 frags to LFS. Miyagi tort tripled in size so is yellow tip acro.


Alisa

 

[ID-Reefer]

Alisa, thanks for the compliment. I am however a little annoyed that the frags you got from me look better and have have better color in your tank than they do in mine. Doesn't seem fair.

 

[maleshka21]

Alisa, thanks for the compliment. I am however a little annoyed that the frags you got from me look better and have have better color in your tank than they do in mine. Doesn't seem fair.

it must be red sea led light or all that moonshine I've been feeding them

 

[ID-Reefer]

Another big chore is done. Cutting out this Pocillopora was not an easy task. After about 2 hours of cutting with a hacksaw blade it finally came out. I put my largest fish net below it to catch all the bits and pieces - worked well. It has since found a new home. Time for some new coral!