My RSR 425xl Re-build is Now My Waterbox 220.6 Dream Build..Goodbye 2020!!

[Dolelo96]

not yet,tonight for sure lol.careful w them palys,skimmer will still be there tomorrow, i meant by stalking,all covert nowlittle harder to find

Slinking..that’s me;Smug

 

[fishguy242]

oh i see laugh at me ..fine i'll google dangerine..

 

[Dolelo96]

oh i see laugh at me ..fine i'll google dangerine..

Go back and see screen shot I left on scratch08

 

[fishguy242]

OK..have you ever googled dangerine..no help...

 

[fishguy242]

that ^^^^was late post ,i did n seen..

 

[Dolelo96]

OK..have you ever googled dangerine..no help...

That’s hysterical!

 

[austibella]

A little backstory. Got into the hobby by accident. We bought our daughter an Innovative Marine 30l for Christmas 2014. Set it up in January. It was hers until one day, she was moving a Duncan and a piece of food landed on a polyp. Freaked her out how fast the polyp closed around the food. It became my tank after that. In March of that year, a mason jar got into a fight with the tank. The jar won. Caught the corner of the tank and sent a crack down the seam, so at 5pm on a Sunday I was at the LFS to replace it. Came home with an IM Fusion 40. I figured this would be a could time to sneak in a bigger tank.;Happy

As time went on, It amazed me that I had created a little piece of the ocean in a tiny glass box. I was done for... This hobby had me, hook line & sinker. I learned a lot with this tank. Replacing water evaporation with fresh, not salt water to keep the salinity stabilized. How the levels of alkalinity, calcium & magnesium affected each other and the stability of a reef tank and the health of the inhabitants, so test often. That said tests were not always easy to read, especially when your definition of pink or blue may not be the same as theirs. Over feeding = excess nutrients = algae outbreaks (Had plenty of practice with this one). Those 5 gallon buckets got really heavy carrying in from the car and I needed to rethink getting an RO/DI unit. This hobby was not only addictive, but could get really EXPENSIVE (my first Reef-A-Palooza about did me in). I could go on, but you get the picture, and even with all this, I wanted a bigger tank.

My IM Fusion 40

I started the build for the RSR 425xl June 2017. Actually, it was more my LFS that started the build. Unexpected surgery meant I had to depend on them to set it up. They did everything, including the rockscape, transferring and placing my corals from the old tank, moving fish, etc.

My RSR 425xl during the cycle process

Equipment list when build started...
Red Sea Reefer 425xl
Sicce pump
MP40WQD & MP10WQD (from old tank)
Vertex Omega 150
Neptune Apex Controller, WXM, Temp & PH Probe
Giesemann Aurora T5/LED (was on backorder. Got it the end of July)
Cobalt Neotherm Heater
Added/Upgrades
New Apex Controller
Neptune DOS/DDR
Bulk Reef Supply 6 Stage Deluxe RO/DI
A second MP40WQD
IceCap 1K Gyre Pump
Red Sea Sump Baffle Kit by Octo Aquatics, red-sea-sump-baffle-kits
Quarantine/Hospital setup
Innovative Marine Lagoon 25 to use for future quarantine (got an amazing deal)
MP10 from old tank
Cobalt Neotherm
...Still need Hobe Filter and meds
Livestock moved from the old tank...
Black Ice Snowflake Clownfish x 2 (lost during Velvet outbreak)
Flame Hawkfish ( Named Hawkeye, and my daughter's personal favorite. He didn't take well to new tank)
Blue/Green Chromis
Additions after setup
Blue/Green Chromis x 3 (They all played nice for a month then the original Chromis turned into a bully and went after the other 3. New ones didn't make it and the bully went back to the LFS)
Lyretail Anthias x 3 (velvet outbreak)
Bar Goby x 2 (think one of the others picked at them too much and they stopped eating)
McCosker Wrasse (velvet outbreak)
Melanarus Wrasse (velvet outbreak)
Whitetail Bristletooth Tang (velvet outbreak)

Had the regular ups & downs, until November 2017. The Giesemann decided it didn’t like my programming and started randomly turning off & on. After going back & forth with Coralvue & Giesemann, Coralvue asked me to send it back in December so they could look at it. January 2nd they informed me they couldn’t recreate the problem, so they were sending it back. Received it, set it back up and in 1 week it started again. A representative from Giesemann in Germany contacted me to go over all the problems and came to the conclusion it had something to do with the fact I was using a MacBook Pro to connect & program the light. Since they guaranteed me it would work with Apple products, they finally agreed to send me a new light. I decided to play it safe and spent $100 on an Android tablet. Wasn’t going to take the chance it wouldn’t play well with my Mac. Finally, on March 6th I got my new light. They packed it so well…

It wasn't packaged much better on the inside. Unbelievably, there wasn't any damage, and things were good again until September. Since the beginning, I have only purchased fish & corals from my LFS & Jason Fox Corals. On a rainy Saturday, I was on R2R and noticed there was a coral “live auction" and figured I would give it a try. That wasn't a very smart move on my part...I came away with 10 new corals. Received my pretty new corals, acclimated & dipped them and added them to the tank. Since I knew my LFS and Jasons quarantine procedures, I never got around to getting a quarantine tank...I bet you see where this is going. A few weeks after adding the new corals, I noticed my Tang looked like it had white spots on his body. Sent a video to LFS & they said it looked like ich and sent me some ReefMedic. After a week of no change, he came out and said it looked more like Velvet, to keep using the ReefMedic since I didn’t have a quarantine set up and wasn’t able to set one up having had another surgery on my foot. I turned to R2R, and they confirmed Velvet (a big thank you to @HotRocks for his help). My LFS had a tank they used for quarantine and said he would help catch the fish and quarantine them for me. Took another week to catch all the fish. Here’s the tank before catching fish...

and after...

Took almost a week to get them all out. Tank ended up with quite a few scratches and some corals were damaged. On September 27th they were all in quarantine. Unfortunately, by October 5 they were all dead. To say I was devastated is an understatement. I learned a critical lesson, if you are in this hobby MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A QUARANTINE SETUP IN PLACE!!! I have no doubt I would have been able to save some of my fish if I had been prepared. The following articles are, in my opinion, a must read...

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/how-to-quarantine.189815/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fallow-periods-going-fishless.190324/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/coral-invert-quarantine-time-frames.334584/

During the fallow period, (it was over 12/31) I spent a lot of time on R2R reading, looking at all the great setups wishing I had done some things differently. A manifold would organize my sump, and with a better pump, I wouldn't have multiple pumps taking up space. A refugium would help with nutrients, a UV sterilizer might have helped with diseases, and having a QUARANTINE/HOSPITAL TANK may have saved my fish. So I decided to start fresh and rebuild (rewind) my tank from the ground up, which brings us current.

I want to literally take the tank apart and scrub it clean, pumps, pipes everything that touched water. It may be overkill, but between the Velvet and all the algae, Hair, Bubble (it's in the overflow too), I don't want to take any chances. I'll use water from the main tank to fill the 25 and move most of my corals to the Lagoon 25. My LFS said they will hold on to the bigger ones for me. I'm taking out all the live rock and replacing it with Caribe Sea Live Rock. Im not sure what to do with the sand. Originally thought I would keep some to use when setting the tank back up, so I wouldn't have to go through a full cycle, but I'm afraid to use it. I've read stories of Ich or Velvet coming back as soon as fish are put back into the tank. My tank has been fallow since the end of September. Any thoughts?

This may be a slow process, hoping to start this week. I have Multiple Sclerosis and have a bad habit of doing too much at one time, then can't doing anything for days;Dead

Thank you for reading my story. I will definitely be asking for lots of advice. That's one of the best things about R2R...the willingness of so many to help people they don't even know

So so sad....

 

[Dolelo96]

Thank you. I almost quit the hobby after that, but my LFS talked me off the ledge and I’m glad he did. I am really blessed to have met some great people on R2R. They have helped me through many a crisis. Hopefully, I won’t have to go through something like that again

 

[fishguy242]

see that ,you pop in for a day,make everybody rollin in laughter

 

[fishguy242]

hi,here's a wake up smile,i thought you might like ,top on my son did few years back,other three are my daughters,bottom one was 2 yrs ago fathers day gift,i love it,kinda how we roll thoughts are with you!

 

[fishguy242]

they pulled the pic's ,was not crude ??? pm'd

 

[Dolelo96]

they pulled the pic's ,was not crude ??? pm'd

Now the pm makes sense;Hilarious

 

[fishguy242]

hi,how are you ,

 

[Dolelo96]

Pretty good, considering... Will find out tomorrow if we are making a road trip down south, so we can visit him via window.
How are you? I hope no visits from the fire dept

 

[fishguy242]

best wishes,no fdept,i am friends w chief ,here..lol ..love sm town livin

 

[Dolelo96]

I haven’t been around r2r much lately. As some of you know, I’ve been helping care for my dad who was suffering from Pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he lost his battle Sunday. As much as this loss breaks my heart, I find comfort knowing his pain is gone. He is in a better place, surrounded by a perfect love that only our Lord can give.
Miss you so much...I love you Pops!

Never take for granted the life we have. Make sure your loved ones know how important they are in your life

 

[blstravler]

I haven’t been around r2r much lately. As some of you know, I’ve been helping care for my dad who was suffering from Pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he lost his battle Sunday. As much as this loss breaks my heart, I find comfort knowing his pain is gone. He is in a better place, surrounded by a perfect love that only our Lord can give.
Miss you so much...I love you Pops!

Never take for granted the life we have. Make sure your loved ones know how important they are in your life

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[Scratch08]

I haven’t been around r2r much lately. As some of you know, I’ve been helping care for my dad who was suffering from Pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he lost his battle Sunday. As much as this loss breaks my heart, I find comfort knowing his pain is gone. He is in a better place, surrounded by a perfect love that only our Lord can give.
Miss you so much...I love you Pops!

Never take for granted the life we have. Make sure your loved ones know how important they are in your life

So sorry for your loss.

 

[sfin52]

I haven’t been around r2r much lately. As some of you know, I’ve been helping care for my dad who was suffering from Pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he lost his battle Sunday. As much as this loss breaks my heart, I find comfort knowing his pain is gone. He is in a better place, surrounded by a perfect love that only our Lord can give.
Miss you so much...I love you Pops!

Never take for granted the life we have. Make sure your loved ones know how important they are in your life

Crap. I'm very sorry. Its not easy loosing Parent. I've been in your shoes. I don't have words.

 

[Erin O]

I'm so very sorry for your loss