Minimum Cost, Maximum Enjoyment Reefer 250 Build

[BetterJake]

2 Month Update-
2 Months in and things are going okay. Fish are all doing great. No issues at all and am waiting for my next shipment from an online vendor. I am sure this is pretty common but they are causing me no issues and seem as happy as can be, if only I could say the same about coral. For about a week after my 1 month update everything looking great. Diatoms had vanished, algae disappeared, and all corals looked happy. Then I found out the reason my tank looked so clean was due to my Phosphate and Nitrate being 0. Saw some Dino’s forming and my corals, especially softies we’re looking pretty rough, so I started dosing ammonia, aminos, and phosphate to bring everything up. I have succeeded in bringing up phosphates and my corals were looking better, but then the GHA has started. Over the last 10 days Algae has taken over everything, and no matter how much I dose I cannot seem to get my nitrate to come off of 0. At this point I am dosing my tank to almost 1.5ppm ammonia daily. I feel like everything I am feeding to the tank is just boosting Algea growth and the corals are now in a low nutrient system and being smothered by excess algea. I have not lost anything yet as I have been doing aggressive manual algae cleanup, but I can tell that some of my SPS have started bleaching. Not sure if I should cut all the dosing and let nutrients bottom long enough to kill the algae, or stay the course and keep manually removing it. I definitely feel like the bulk of this problem can be attributed to the tank being too new, but I still am enjoying having corals more than I would just having an empty tank at this point so I have no regrets. If anyone has advice for how to rid algae while raising nutrients I am definitely interested in hearing it. No plans to add more corals as I just need the frags to grow out, and after my fish order eventually comes in I won’t be making in major changes to the tank.

IMO, I would stop dosing ammonia, I feel like that's just adding fuel for the algae.

I've read this a few times on here, you do have nitrates in the tank. It's just that the algae is growing and sucking it all up. I would keep doing what you are doing, manually removing as needed and keeping up with weekly water changes.

 

[DIFish]

IMO, I would stop dosing ammonia, I feel like that's just adding fuel for the algae.

I've read this a few times on here, you do have nitrates in the tank. It's just that the algae is growing and sucking it all up. I would keep doing what you are doing, manually removing as needed and keeping up with weekly water changes.

Yeah I am trying to decide what to do there. I am definitely creating an algae factory and obviously have nitrates for a bit, just not sure if that’s better than 0/0. Have not done a water change in quite a while so might have to give that a try too!

 

[DIFish]

1 Year Mini Update-
Figured it is about time for an update as it has been just about a year since getting this thing up and running. If I am being honest things have not gone at all how I expected. Faulty equipment, nuisance algea, and inexperience have lead me to fall flat on pretty much all of my goals, but I am starting to have hope and feel like I am rounding a corner. That being said, some high and lows of the year

Lows-
Bad equipment-My used skimmer was leaking voltage into the tank. Noticed a fuzzy/stinging feeling in the water and through trial and error found out it was my icecap k130. Replaced with a RSR 300.

Bryopsis- I am careful to dip all my frags but apparently not well enough. For 3-4 months I fought this without realizing I was always going to be on the losing side. After losing half my coral I finally was able to nuke it with Flux RX

Salinity tester- While I can’t directly blame anything bad in this, I somehow calibrated my Hanna salinity tester wrong and was running 1.023 SG for the better part of the year. Only caught it when setting up my Apex and calibrating both together.

Gyre Mishaps- My only powerheads on this tank is an Icecap 3k. I though this would be enough flow on paper but for some reason I never felt like it was pushing out enough even at 100%. Turns out I had been putting it back together wrong and hade the outputs fighting against the flow. Fixed it and suddenly my fish couldn’t even swim in the current. This thing is powerful now but I was probably pumping 500gph max for 6+months.

Highs-
Low Fish deaths. Through luck or skill, I have not lost a single fish outside of my original Coris Wrasses dying to UNWD. All of my fish were pre-quarantined and I have not treated the tank with anything. Aggression is another story, but outside of some frayed fins all 12 are alive and well.

Local Reefers- Met a bunch of local reefers for crazy deals on coral and equipment as well as getting to see some cool tanks to aspire towards. Best deal so far was the 13 head frogspawn pictures below for $50 and the guy wouldn’t take any more for it. All good friendly people and I like the sense of community in the hobby.

New equipment- For better or worse I destroyed my equipment budget and picked up a Neptune apex and trident system. So much fun and peace of mind. Parameters are now extremely stable and I am hoping this leads to more long term success.

Some progress pics below and one that shows the extent of my algea problems right before I used Flux. Will eventually post some FTS once my algea problems are fully in check, but wanted to provide an update first. All of my issues have really hampered coral growth and I am testing the waters with some new sps again.