ksfulk's Red Sea Reefer 525xL

[Brynn]

That tank looks sexy in white!

Agree. Super sexy.

 

[Brynn]

Pulled the trigger on a Maxspect XF250 Gyre yesterday, should be here sometime next week. I'm gonna play with the flow in the tank a bit, see what happens. Im working on setting up some kind of frag system as well... still need a few pieces of equipment - a skimmer and a lighting fixture. I think I can get away with just using a 4 or 6 bulb T5 horticulture fixture for the system, since I dont want to spend $500 on a light at the moment. Well see home things come together. Im debating on just drilling the 40 breeder I have in my basement already and using that, or if I should keep looking for a 50-70 gallon frag style tank. I havent found anything local and the LFS in the area wont do a special order without a stupidly high mark up.

Ive got a filefish and a handful of peppermint shrimp in QT at the moment, I hope to introduce them into the tank this week sometime to keep the aiptasia at bay before I have to resort to something more drastic. Im a bit worried that the peppermints will just eat my acans and then get eaten by the wrasses, but I suppose I wont know until they go into the tank.

I can't wait to hear your thoughts as I have nothing in my past to compare it to! Water movement is just so essential. I decided I'd rather have great water movement & buy a used light.

If you happen to remember please tag me in your review!

 

[mta_morrow]

Pulled the trigger on a Maxspect XF250 Gyre yesterday, should be here sometime next week. Im gonna play with the flow in the tank a bit, see what happens. Im working on setting up some kind of frag system as well... still need a few pieces of equipment - a skimmer and a lighting fixture. I think I can get away with just using a 4 or 6 bulb T5 horticulture fixture for the system, since I dont want to spend $500 on a light at the moment. Well see home things come together. Im debating on just drilling the 40 breeder I have in my basement already and using that, or if I should keep looking for a 50-70 gallon frag style tank. I havent found anything local and the LFS in the area wont do a special order without a stupidly high mark up.

Ive got a filefish and a handful of peppermint shrimp in QT at the moment, I hope to introduce them into the tank this week sometime to keep the aiptasia at bay before I have to resort to something more drastic. Im a bit worried that the peppermints will just eat my acans and then get eaten by the wrasses, but I suppose I wont know until they go into the tank.

I’m running the xf250 in mine. It MOVES water throughout, no question! I’m running the random pulse with a max of 40% and it moves the sand on the bottom. My scape is very open on the bottom, but once I place some euphyllia on the bottom I’m thinking it will break up the flow a bit. Enjoying your build and progress. Nice job!

 

[ksfulk]

I can't wait to hear your thoughts as I have nothing in my past to compare it to! Water movement is just so essential. I decided I'd rather have great water movement & buy a used light.

If you happen to remember please tag me in your review!

Will do - I used to have a gyre and I liked it, but it was the only flow in the tank and quite a different configuration. So I know they work, just will see what happens when mixed with the other powerheads. I'll make sure I tag you in it when I get to play with it a bit more.

I’m running the xf250 in mine. It MOVES water throughout, no question! I’m running the random pulse with a max of 40% and it moves the sand on the bottom. My scape is very open on the bottom, but once I place some euphyllia on the bottom I’m thinking it will break up the flow a bit. Enjoying your build and progress. Nice job!

I think the plan will eventually be to add a second one and run them on different pattern schedules, so it varies up the flow a bit more. With all of the other pumps in the tank, I think its going to be a bit strong at first, but Im planning ahead for when the sticks start growing out a bit more and clog up the open water. Likely your sand is moving because its new, as the sand ages, gains more detritus and "stuff" in it, it wont move near as much. My WAVs run at between 50-100% and the Tunze 6040s run at a constant 100%... so its turbulent just gonna make it more so.

 

[ksfulk]

Preliminary video with the gyre in it. Only been running a week or so - I like it... the challenge is manipulating the WAVs so water it’s coming out of the tank. I think I have it set ok on the left side... it may be more difficult when I get the second gyre for the right side.

 

[Centerline]

Preliminary video with the gyre in it. Only been running a week or so - I like it... the challenge is manipulating the WAVs so water it’s coming out of the tank. I think I have it set ok on the left side... it may be more difficult when I get the second gyre for the right side.

You are going to love the second Gyre! I have two of them on a couple of different tanks and couldn't imagine anything else at this point. BTW, awesome looking tank!

 

[ksfulk]

I thought I put these up a few days ago, but I apparently suck at doing stuff recently. I got my order from @BoomCorals on Tuesday, after finally dancing around the weather for a month.

The corals arrived in a nicely packed styrofoam cooler, each double bagged and labeled and then bagged altogether. Heat pack was wrapped and still warm upon opening. There was some water in the bags, but more likely from the wet bags than leakage, as he used metal crimp bands to secure the bags closed. Everything was relatively clean, though all of the corals were removed from their original plugs, remounted and dipped twice for 13 minutes each in Bayer and then triple rinsed and added to the tank. The corals has good polyp extension within an hour of being in the tank, with no sign of tissue necrosis or pests.

 

[Velcro]

Those look great!

 

[BoomCorals]

Hey lookin good!! Thanks for the nice write up. Haha how many dates did we have to change that I crossed off on that invoice due to weather. Two? Three? What do you think of the UNICORN SNOT!?

 

[Centerline]

I thought I put these up a few days ago, but I apparently suck at doing stuff recently. I got my order from @BoomCorals on Tuesday, after finally dancing around the weather for a month.

The corals arrived in a nicely packed styrofoam cooler, each double bagged and labeled and the bagged altogether. Heat pack was wrapped and still warm upon opening. There was some water in the bags, but more likely from the wet bags than leakage, as he used metal crimp bands to secure the bags closed. Everything was relatively clean, though all of the corals were removed from their original plugs, remounted and dipped twice for 13 minutes each in Bauer and then triple rinsed and added to the tank. The corals has good polyp extension within an hour of being in the tank, with no sign of tissue necrosis or pests.

Nice score!

 

[ksfulk]

Hey lookin good!! Thanks for the nice write up. Haha how many dates did we have to change that I crossed off on that invoice due to weather. Two? Three? What do you think of the UNICORN SNOT!?

Thanks Matt! I admit it was frustrating, but that's what happens when you order animals online in January! I think final count is four reschedules all told. The frags are doing well so far, The Unicorn Snot is one of those that doesn't look like much now, but you can see the potential that it has. Once they get settled, we'll see where they go. The pink caddy is a looker too

 

[ksfulk]

Time to update stuff... new pumps - I’ve got a pair of Gyre xf250s running in the tank now, in addition to the WAVs and the Tunze 6040s.... lots and lots of flow.

I replaced and recalibrated my pH probe and... it still have a pH of 7.78 Time to start thinking a bit more carefully about things and I may need to run a larger air line outside.

I’ve got three frag racks in the tank again... I need to get a frag system set up, but I’m having a hard time finding time to do so. That’ll be a summer project I think.

Corals are growing, albeit slowly. Aiptasia are waxing/waning... some days fewer other days they are multitudes. Acans are in decline but sticks are doing good, so I’m happy.

 

[BoomCorals]

Looks nice!

 

[ksfulk]

... I just bought... a laser

 

[Reef of Fillory]

Time to update stuff... new pumps - I’ve got a pair of Gyre xf250s running in the tank now, in addition to the WAVs and the Tunze 6040s.... lots and lots of flow.

I replaced and recalibrated my pH probe and... it still have a pH of 7.78 Time to start thinking a bit more carefully about things and I may need to run a larger air line outside.

I’ve got three frag racks in the tank again... I need to get a frag system set up, but I’m having a hard time finding time to do so. That’ll be a summer project I think.

Corals are growing, albeit slowly. Aiptasia are waxing/waning... some days fewer other days they are multitudes. Acans are in decline but sticks are doing good, so I’m happy.

Have you thought about running a CO2 scrubber on your skimmer air intake?

I ran one on my Biocube [drilled with a sump] using a BRS dual media reactor [filled the chambers with CO2 scrubber media instead] and it worked great!

I still have about 40lbs of medical grade CO2 scrubber media sitting around if you'd like to give it a try. Just let me know!

 

[ksfulk]

Time for the monthly update! Sticks are generally looking good.... aiptasia are in mass decline - thanks to the sudden discovery of their tastiness by my filefish Some of the sticks are really taking off, most likely because I’m getting the alk up a bit (closer to 7.0 dKH now). Flow is good, though I need to monkey around with it a bit to keep from the display looking like a bubble factory. It’s mainly an aesthetics at this point though.

Bubble algae is on the rise, as you can see in the video. I was happy at first, since it was choking out the aiptasia, but now the pendulum has swung the other way and we’ll see if I can snag a half dozen emerald crabs or so and try to combat them that way.

Ideally, I’d like to get rid of the huge Birdsnest that’s eating up a lot of real estate and I’ve got a handful of sticks on the rack I’d like to get down onto the rocks, but it’s going to be hard to do so, since I’m running out of space. What a horrible problem to have!

I did get my laser in the mail today, but I’m in the middle of remodeling the main bathroom, so it’s hard to work in time to have fun with toys at the moment. Still, I’ll get to it as I’m able too.

 

[ksfulk]

Have you thought about running a CO2 scrubber on your skimmer air intake?

I ran one on my Biocube [drilled with a sump] using a BRS dual media reactor [filled the chambers with CO2 scrubber media instead] and it worked great!

I still have about 40lbs of medical grade CO2 scrubber media sitting around if you'd like to give it a try. Just let me know!

I haven’t tried the co2 media only because I want to be sure that it’s an actual problem. I haven’t really had any issues that are directly attributed to low pH, so it’s not something I’m heavily invested in. I’m getting ready to redo my wiring a bit, and I want to see if isolating the probe wires will make a difference before I start running media. But thanks for the offer - I’ll keep it in mind in case my other remedies don’t have any impact.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I didn't find any issues when I started to monitor my pH and noticed that it was low, but I do know for sure that while using the scrubber my daily ALK demand skyrocketed and my corals looked better and grew faster.

 

[ksfulk]

RO/DI Resin changing day...

271 in —-> 0 out

 

[ksfulk]

Rescue sticks are doing ok, though a pair of them still have a bit of stn. I cut those bits out and glued over the little exposed bits... we’ll see how it goes otherwise.

Impacted sticks: VC Confetti, RR The Vinh

Also had to make a call to Red Sea this week, as the O rings on my drain lines have failed and there’s a bit of a leak... luckily Red Sea has great customer service and they sent a full set of replacement o rings out (should get them today or Monday) at no charge, even though I’m almost a full year out of warranty. Good people over there