Marvin's Reefer 250

[mrvn]

Current view of my tank.

 

[powers2001]

Love the lime green trim on the sump!!

 

[Sppf121]

Wow!! love that sump. Where did you get fittings to attach to the Red Sea plumbing. Wow this might cost me money!!! Beautiful!!

 

[Fence13]

I never got past the first 3 paragraphs because this is so me right now! I have to replace some carpet in another room before I can place a RSR 250 there but I'm downgrading from a 75g too! I've also changed my mind about 1000 times about tanks and equipment since I came to this conclusion a month ago.

 

[powers2001]

Just this morning I ordered a Synergy T-26 Triton Fusion Green Sump!! Refugium section holds right at 8 gallons which would be about 10% system volume. This percentage is acceptable for the full Triton Method.

 

[Jason Miller]

I have a stock Reefer 250 as well. Great tank. But looking to upgrade the Sump. How's the build going. ?

 

[Jason Miller]

Hello all ,
Love my Reefer 250 as well and looking to build a sump , how's the build goin. ?
Any suggestions?

 

[powers2001]

Can we get an update on this tank?

 

[Berlibee]

oops

 

[mrvn]

Can we get an update on this tank?

Hey @powers2001 I've been so busy at work and had some other things going on that made me want to take a break. However, I think I will keep the tank and will start posting new updates soon.

I've got some new equipment and was working on some other improvements for the tank. I'll be getting some pictures as soon as I get them installed. As far as corals go, I haven't added anything because what I mentioned before also had some nasty chysophytes outbreak which went away but just came back, it seems to be getting better but still working on it.

 

[mrvn]

This is the current look of my filtration. I removed the zeolite reactor and replaced it with a skimz macroalgae reactor which has been working perfectly. Also, I just got a Red Dragon 50W to replace my Varios 4 and I'm waiting for some plumbing supplies from brs to make the swap.

 

[powers2001]

@mrvn glad to see you posting again. Those Skimz reactors are nice. You haven't posted a full tank shot since Nov 2017, can we get a recent one?

 

[mrvn]

@mrvn glad to see you posting again. Those Skimz reactors are nice. You haven't posted a full tank shot since Nov 2017, can we get a recent one?

I'll try to get some pictures this weekend but nothing has really changed besides some livestock. I tried to keep some sps a few months ago and of all of them completely bleached within days, I checked all parameter and everything seems to be stable but for some reason SPS just kept dying, similar to what happened to @pelphrey . I also tried to keep some LPS but the flow was too strong in the tank with the two mp40s.

At some point I was thinking of taking a break since I wasn't able to keep any corals but a few weeks ago I stopped by a friends store and he gave me a small strawberry shortcake frag to try it out and so far it looks good, it is already encrusting in the rock, it is growing and also gaining some color. Since then I got another small frags (no name) to see how they do and they seem to be happy.

I've been monitoring all parameters and I try to keep them as stable as possible but I think I will never know why those first SPS died since everything seems to be the same. BTW those reactors are incredible, they keep my nutrients very low (2ppm Nitrate, 0.03ppm Phosphate), now I just have to dose some iron since the chaeto seems to stop growing when insufficient.

 

[SantaMonica]

Sometimes a small frag will have time to re-adjust it's biology to match the current water parameters before the demands of being a larger coral set in. And, a larger coral has to work harder to get food to the inside of the branches; a frag does not.

 

[powers2001]

This is the current look of my filtration. I removed the zeolite reactor and replaced it with a skimz macroalgae reactor which has been working perfectly. Also, I just got a Red Dragon 50W to replace my Varios 4 and I'm waiting for some plumbing supplies from brs to make the swap.

Awesome looking setup !!!

 

[landlocked303]

This is the current look of my filtration. I removed the zeolite reactor and replaced it with a skimz macroalgae reactor which has been working perfectly. Also, I just got a Red Dragon 50W to replace my Varios 4 and I'm waiting for some plumbing supplies from brs to make the swap.

Are you growing chaeto in the reactor?

 

[mattgsa]

Great looking build.

 

[mrvn]

Are you growing chaeto in the reactor?

Yes, when I first started using it I found myself trimming the chaeto every week. However, now that it has been running for a few months I only have to trim the algae every two/three weeks while maintaining nitrates at 1ppm and phosphates at 0.015ppm (salifert test).

 

[mrvn]

Great looking build.

Thanks!

 

[mrvn]

It's been a while since I updated the picture of tank, I have to say that I didn't pay too much attention to the tank for a few months and as result I didn't really introduce any corals until lately.

This is an old picture and definitely not the best but it is the only I found on my phone. As you can see the tank has some stubborn algae on the back and some cyano on the sand both result of my lack of attention on the previous months. So far, I've been scrapping the algae over the days and it is slowly going away but there is still more work to be done as for the cyano, it is also disappearing but it seems to be taking more time.

I'd like to mention that the tank looks different now from the picture above since two weeks ago I rescaped the left side of the rock structure to create more area where to place corals (will try to get a picture), this led to the another change which was the dead of the my joculator. I'm still not sure what happened, before I worked on the aquascape all fish seemed to be healthy and happy however, two days after I moved some rocks around the tank I saw the joculator with a tiny cut on his right side. I figured he got cut with a rock while swimming or something similar but it didn't look like a big deal since the fish was swimming normally and also eating. I kept monitoring the fish for a few more days and he was acting normal until one day before I went work I found him laying on his side.