Johns first coral adventure Red Sea Reefer 425 XL

[leedsrhinojohn]

Hi Folks.
After keeping fowlr tanks for more years than I remember ive decided to take the plunge and go for a reef tank.
It will be a bare bottom sps only tank.
Welcome all to my journey, please be as critical as you like both good and bad as its the only way to learn.

First a list of equipment used.
Red Sea Reefer 425 XL
60lb life rock shapes
Vivid Creative red sea reefer ultimate return line upgrade
Osmotics 4 stage 300gpd pumped ro/di unit
3 Hydra 26hd lights
AI prime Fuge light
2 Maxspect Gyre 250's
2 Vortech MP40w QD's
2 Aqua Medic 200w titanium heaters
D-D dual temp controller
D-D ocean breeze cooling fans
Marine Pure Block
Deltec 1000i protein skimmer
Reef Octopus varios 6 return pump
2 H2Ocean Pro 4 dosing pumps
H2Ocean P4 single doser
Hanna Salinity tester
Hanna test kits, alk, cal, phosphorous ppb.
Salifert test kits for everything else
Milwaukee ph pen
Red Sea alk, cal, mag, nopox, colours abcd, reef energy a and b
Reefloat atu with reefer mod
Reefloat awc53
Red Sea reef spec carbon
Seachem phosguard
60 Litre quarantine tank
I think that's it.

Ive always used my own way of cycling my tanks, both salt and freshwater tanks, but this time I thought I would try the Red Sea Mature Pro as it says it would be cycled in 21 days, anyway the tank didn't go exactly to the plan but I thought It was ready to add fish after 21 days, did all the tests and tank looked ready, I had a Magnifent Foxface in qt which needed another week before I would put it in the dt, so added a bit of food to the dt to keep the ammonia source going and after a week I tested the tank again and to my surprise it showed 1.2 ammonia and 0.8 nitrite, I still don't know why but its going through another cycle, latest tests show ammonia 0.8, nitrite 0.2 and nitrate 20 so its getting there. That's about it so far with the tank.

Just a little story about my RSK 600 Skimmer
I originally bought a RSK 600 skimmer for the tank when I turned it on it was like a champagne bottle and very very noisy, no matter what height I had the skimmer it didn't make any difference, I tried it in my qt tank with a bioload, in a freshly mixed batch of saltwater and nothing I did made the slightest bit of difference, so after back and forth with tech support they eventually said return it to my retailer, which I did, he tested it in various tanks and it was just the same, without going into any detail my lfs is now fighting to get his money back as Red Sea are claiming it isn't faulty so will not accept a return, they denied all knowledge of my emails to and from tech support, which I had to prove by showing them to my lfs, so I am not best pleased with Red Sea at the moment.
I went out and bought a Deltec 1000i Skimmer and it worked straight from the box.

So that is where we are at at the moment.
In the mean time here are a couple of crappy pics of my tank and some equipment

Any questions or criticisms please fire away.
I do have a couple of concerns though
a- I have not gone through any algae blooms at all, should I be concerned?
b- Not sure if the placement of the mp40's is ok or in good spots, any recommendations?
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I will

 

[Craigb350]

Great start John, decided to go bare bottom?

Scape looks great!

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Great start John, decided to go bare bottom?

Scape looks great!

Thanks
decided to go bare bottom as its going to be sps only tank so that way I can have the flow exactly how I want it and as powerful as I want it without having to worry about sandstorms.

 

[PanchoG]

Hello John, I made my way to your thread now.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Hello John, I made my way to your thread now.

Hi Pancho
You'll be able to see it twice then lol

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Nothing really to update on regarding tank, its still happily cycling away.
Just contemplating now whether to get apex or not (have been for weeks really) but the biggest problem I have is the plug bar, you guys get the all singing and all dancing 8 sockets and we get the old 6 socket one and we have to pay more for the pleasure, so that's why I doubt I will get one but you never know.

 

[jaxredsoxfan]

Hi John, everything looks good. Sounds like you've done the research and are off to a great start. Just be patient until that cycle is complete. Each tank is different, so longer some shorter. Look forward to seeing it grow.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Thanks for stopping by mate.
I'm used to having patience when it comes to cycling tanks, I think ive cycled about 25 tanks in my lifetime and this probably wont be the last as I miss my predator tanks so thinking of getting another tank for that.
I've just this minute finished another round of testing and ammonia is 0.1 and nitrite is 0 so hopefully in a day or two it should be ready. My plan is to add some fish first, wait a bit and get tank params stable then start introducing corals, as its my first time with corals and its sps only I'm thinking of buying a couple of corals and seeing how it goes with them before I buy a lot of corals, I don't want to spend £100's on corals only to find they all die within a week, but its all part of the learning process

 

[jaxredsoxfan]

Yes, Id start with some lesser demand inexpensive frags and see how it goes. Maybe a pocillopora or monti.

 

[PanchoG]

John the apex should be good and automation and disaster prevention, that doesn’t make it any cheaper though!

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

John the apex should be good and automation and disaster prevention, that doesn’t make it any cheaper though!

Its not the price as such but the fact that I have to pay a lot more than you guys for a lesser piece of equipment, its as if Neptune Systems don't care about UK market, but I think they have missed a trick as there are a lot of UK sales lost because of this.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

At last the tank is ready to add fish.
Ive had a Magnificent Foxface and a Valentini Puffer in qt the past few weeks so they are ready to go in the dt this afternoon, then its clean out the qt ready to put in a new fish.
Next on my list is a Purple Firefish.
Im going to concentrate on getting my water params stable so I can start adding sps in the coming weeks, so things are starting to move on at last.
Will get some pics of the 2 fish later when I put them in.

 

[Bryson.bobby]

Hey john, some constructive criticism here.
If I were you, I would wait a little longer before you start adding corals, especially sps, as they probably won’t thrive in a tank that’s not through its cycle yet.
Another thing. Are you concerned about the puffer nipping at your corals? I would hate for you to spend all this money on corals just so a pesky puffer will destroy them all.


Following along with this build. Good luck!

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Hey john, some constructive criticism here.

I love constructive criticism mate, its how people learn
Im not going to add corals yet, just concentrating on getting water params nice and stable for a few weeks before I think about adding corals.
The puffer is one of those suck it and see fish, some say its fine some say its not so I suppose its a bit of a gamble but if it decides it likes the taste of sps then it will have to go, just need to keep an eye on it when I start to add corals.

Thanks for following and keep the criticisms, good and bad coming.

 

[jaxredsoxfan]

Looking forward to seeing it come together!

 

[AZMSGT]

After getting a Red Sea Skimmer (SK-600) and finally getting it working I understand what you went through. I use the term works loosely as my system is similar to yours and is still without any live stock. I'm not a Red Sea fanboy but I can say after time the skimmers break in. But on a new tank the system has to break in as well. I know none of this matters since you returned it but they do eventually work.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

The Deltec skimmer I replaced it with worked straight from the box, as I used the reef mature pro to cycle my tank the instructions state you must use a skimmer, not much point using it if the skimmer takes weeks to break in.
Im glad you got it 'working' mate anyway.

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

Manic day yesterday so didn't have time to transfer fish, will do that later in the week.
Ordered a Purple firefish which will be here on Wednesday/Thursday to go straight in qt.
After much deliberation I have decided to get a Profilux 4e which will be ordered this evening, so next weekend is going to be a 'Lets play with the new toy' weekend.

 

[PanchoG]

Manic day yesterday so didn't have time to transfer fish, will do that later in the week.
Ordered a Purple firefish which will be here on Wednesday/Thursday to go straight in qt.
After much deliberation I have decided to get a Profilux 4e which will be ordered this evening, so next weekend is going to be a 'Lets play with the new toy' weekend.

What is included in Profilux 4e?

 

[leedsrhinojohn]

What is included in Profilux 4e?

Everything as is in the profilux 4 except the s-ports whjich after some research I don't need and redox probe and salinity probe, again I don't need so no point getting the 4 version as the 4e has everything except those ive just mentioned.
Also if im desperate for any of those things I can add them later if needed.