My RSR 350 softie tank

Paleozoic_reefer

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Hello felow reefers! So I decided to start documenting my RSR 350 journey of the past 4 years finally. Im constantly making tweaks, changes, and additions so I thought this would be the best way to document everything.

So, I began reefing around 7 years ago and started with a 60 gal cube. it was a hand-me-down tank from my friend who got me into reefing to begin with. It was a great size for a beginner and I definitely went through the learning curve everyone goes through. I really enjoyed the experiences despite several set backs in the begining. The tank equipment was a single Kessil A160we with controller, reef octopus skimmer, ATO, and a couple of hydor PHs with a wavemaker controller.
2016
1634854560796.png

2017
19B3BF99-F729-4F64-97E8-715A349CAFE3.jpeg

Fast forward to 2019 and we moved to to another house for our growing family. Unfortunately, the home we bought requires two months of remodeling so I had to get someone to agree for me to set up a temporary tank since the place we were staying at wouldn't allow the tank. So I moved all coral and fish to my friends house for two months while we got the house remodeled.

1634855827138.png

luckily we lost no fish or corals during the move or two months! After the house was finished I decided to up grade to a RSR 350 since now the space was available. One of my friends who owns a LFS got me a good deal and even helped move and install it to avoid any damage. He even time-lapsed the build here.
1634855922652.png

With the new tank installed I got a second kessil and decided to go bare bottom (best decision ever!).
June 2018
1634856095769.png

Fast forward to 2021 and here is the tank now

Oct 2021
8CA21D91-5D62-46C6-AB7B-48A3FC4059A5.jpeg

Over the past year and a half the following changes took place:
Added equipment:
Aquatic Life T5 hybrid (3 Coral Plus and 1 Actinic)
3 Kessil A360
1Kessil A360N (for new Ritteri Nem)
15w UV sterilizer
Jebao doser
-Tropic Marin All-for-Reef: 4.5 ml/day
-NaNO3: 5ml/day
Red Sea Reefer Iodine + 2.5 ml/week (probably could add more...)
refugium with chaeto and calerpa racemosa
4E3EC393-D866-4FC4-9718-206A921C8F43.jpeg

As you can see my passion is softies for their ease, rapid growth, and flow. They consume a large amount of nutrients so I do heavy feeding of two cubes of brine and LRS Fish Frenzy daily. There are also 13 fish in the tank but with the large amount of live rock (which I think is necessary for a tank like this) they spend most of the exploring all the crevasses looking for the abundant copepods. My fish stock currently is:
2 bonded mandarins (who spawn at night on an almost weekly basis)
3 clownfish
2 bonded Bangaii Cardinal fish (no successful hatches...yet)
1 Royal gramma
1 Starry Blenny
1 Purple dottyback
2 Fire gobies
1 Purple Fire goby

Inverts are:
1 sea hare
1 tuxedo urchin
3 tube worms
several feather dusters
Decorator crab

Nems:
several green rainbow nems
2 Ritteri (one is going through a cipro treatment...fingers crossed!)
2 rainbow mini-max nems

the softies are:
long polyp leather
several types of mushrooms
regular and branching GSP
purple clove polyps
green sinularias
green cabbage leather
golden plum gorg
purple ribbon gorg
Corky finger gorg

I'm sure I'm missing a few so I'll update as soon I figure out who is missing!
well that's about it...looking forward to updating this thread with the things I add or change as time goes.
 
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jgirardnrg

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Awesome job... I have the same Deep Blue 60g cube still running over here. It's being replaced/upgraded currently with a Fijicube 108 INT rimless (48x24x22.5). Your tank looks awesome. If you'd like to see mine it's in my build thread... no water in it yet but will be soon.
 
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Today was calurpa trimming day in my DT. I trim every 2-3 weeks or when I notice rapid growth (usually because I feed too much that week or tried a new frozen food). This time only produced a small cup. i usually get twice as much but noticed several shoots beginning. once they get to the rocks their roots make it harder to remove.
D8C5A571-0E77-4C75-A3DF-45AB7F24E2BB.jpeg

3D8032EA-5272-4C2C-BC78-B371D06384BE.jpeg
 

Fishinabarrel

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Hello felow reefers! So I decided to start documenting my RSR 350 journey of the past 4 years finally. Im constantly making tweaks, changes, and additions so I thought this would be the best way to document everything.

So, I began reefing around 7 years ago and started with a 60 gal cube. it was a hand-me-down tank from my friend who got me into reefing to begin with. It was a great size for a beginner and I definitely went through the learning curve everyone goes through. I really enjoyed the experiences despite several set backs in the begining. The tank equipment was a single Kessil A160we with controller, reef octopus skimmer, ATO, and a couple of hydor PHs with a wavemaker controller.
2016
1634854560796.png

2017
19B3BF99-F729-4F64-97E8-715A349CAFE3.jpeg

Fast forward to 2019 and we moved to to another house for our growing family. Unfortunately, the home we bought requires two months of remodeling so I had to get someone to agree for me to set up a temporary tank since the place we were staying at wouldn't allow the tank. So I moved all coral and fish to my friends house for two months while we got the house remodeled.

1634855827138.png

luckily we lost no fish or corals during the move or two months! After the house was finished I decided to up grade to a RSR 350 since now the space was available. One of my friends who owns a LFS got me a good deal and even helped move and install it to avoid any damage. He even time-lapsed the build here.
1634855922652.png

With the new tank installed I got a second kessil and decided to go bare bottom (best decision ever!).
June 2018
1634856095769.png

Fast forward to 2021 and here is the tank now

Oct 2021
8CA21D91-5D62-46C6-AB7B-48A3FC4059A5.jpeg

Over the past year and a half the following changes took place:
Added equipment:
Aquatic Life T5 hybrid (3 Coral Plus and 1 Actinic)
3 Kessil A360
1Kessil A360N (for new Ritteri Nem)
15w UV sterilizer
Jebao doser
-Tropic Marin All-for-Reef: 4.5 ml/day
-NaNO3: 5ml/day
Red Sea Reefer Iodine + 2.5 ml/week (probably could add more...)
refugium with chaeto and calerpa racemosa
4E3EC393-D866-4FC4-9718-206A921C8F43.jpeg

As you can see my passion is softies for their ease, rapid growth, and flow. They consume a large amount of nutrients so I do heavy feeding of two cubes of brine and LRS Fish Frenzy daily. There are also 13 fish in the tank but with the large amount of live rock (which I think is necessary for a tank like this) they spend most of the exploring all the crevasses looking for the abundant copepods. My fish stock currently is:
2 bonded mandarins (who spawn at night on an almost weekly basis)
3 clownfish
2 bonded Bangaii Cardinal fish (no successful hatches...yet)
1 Royal gramma
1 Starry Blenny
1 Purple dottyback
2 Fire gobies
1 Purple Fire goby

Inverts are:
1 sea hare
1 tuxedo urchin
3 tube worms
several feather dusters
Decorator crab

Nems:
several green rainbow nems
2 Ritteri (one is going through a cipro treatment...fingers crossed!)
2 rainbow mini-max nems

the softies are:
long polyp leather
several types of mushrooms
regular and branching GSP
purple clove polyps
green sinularias
green cabbage leather
golden plum gorg
purple ribbon gorg
Corky finger gorg

I'm sure I'm missing a few so I'll update as soon I figure out who is missing!
well that's about it...looking forward to updating this thread with the things I add or change as time goes.

I just showed my wife the before and after. We are both in awe. The wall of GSP is perfect!!!!!
 

Gedxin

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Your 350 is absolutely gorgeous. The maturity and fullness is so beautiful to see. Any chance we can get a few more close ups of all your livestock please?
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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Here are some pics from the past few months of my livestock...Enjoy!
3848E133-59ED-4ABF-8165-33389C0DF154.jpeg

This is my leather cabbage end of the tank. Locally reefers pass up these types of corals because they look bland in the LFS but given good light and conditions they color up beautifully!
8DBD50A4-3D8A-4D50-A434-57AAFCB06369.jpeg

This green rock nem is almost 6 in across! The two mini-max nems are also pretty large.
C5AFEF24-52DE-488D-B35E-C7AD1B5C4C64.jpeg

This is my bottle collection. The one on top is completely covered with GSP except for the feather duster that is coming out from the opening...the other two bottles hold my tube "nems" since there is no sand.
0BEC70EE-DF15-453C-A4C3-06A1F6E12CBB.jpeg

Here is the top bottle standing up with the polyps retracted...
A504A3DF-F2D7-4DEA-9DDD-C3F1E652ADD1.jpeg

Side view. The rainbow nems are a beautiful strain that reproduce like crazy and maintain their bubbles. They've been great for giving to friends or getting LFS credit. You can see the gsp is growing up the sides. I need to trim back the gsp soon for some store credit or give to local reefers. I typically trim every 3-4 months with a clean razor blade.
E88176AA-0DA5-48B6-8381-A5119E37B843.jpeg

As with most long polyp leathers this one is a drama queen and sensitive to any changes. So when it's fully open I try to take as many pics before it begins its sulking cycle because I looked at it funny or moved the powerhead .001 inches. Here it is now because I moved a kessil light 2in. to the right
image.jpg

944557BE-AB3D-466B-B7A5-77B9630B4222.jpeg

My Magnifica is my latest addition and most challenging. It went through a 7 day cipro treatment and has been in the DT for almost 3 weeks. It's pretty bleached but the color is slowly coming back. Very different than any other nem I have had, definitely not a noobie nem!
FCB614FC-9676-4C73-8D54-C3CF134C062B.jpeg
A2FA1B6A-7E72-4715-8BC0-6A9610E8B53F.jpeg

photosynthetic gorgs seem to well in my tank especially in high flow areas.
9703FB9A-9777-47D0-A118-DE0686BB7513.jpeg

This neon green sinularia is now about 12in across and is fragged regularly.
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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I picked up some LRS Fish Frenzie about a week ago just to try it out, although it was pricey compared to my usual food. Wow, I've never seen my fish and coral go this crazy for food! Corals are taking off and fish are not picky about any of it.
136E1B5D-9851-4C54-AC04-F8031B5B201C.jpeg

A68DB6D6-ABB1-4F6E-BEC6-3DFD5272F8DA.jpeg
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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I've decided to change my lighting schedule so it's no longer a mix of T5 and LED's. My reasoning was since most of my tank is softies that don't need the high PAR (~520), even though many softies can grow tolerant of high PAR. I also noticed my magnifica nem (which is still bleached but getting significantly better!) seems to like the lower PAR (~380) for the time being. My new schedule is 7am-12pm T5 then Kessils ramping up to 65 intensity, with max intensity for 3 hours,from 12-8pm. With lower PAR softies look larger as they try to increase surface area by expanding for more light. I'll keep monitoring their reaction to the change over the next few weeks to make sure everything is adjusting nicely.
image.jpg
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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My Ritteri/Magnifica is doing very well with more zooxanthellae (just noticed I was misspelling zooxanthellae!) every day. I increases the intensity of the Kessil A360N above the mag to 95%.

(Lights out shot to see the color better)
0DC5EBE0-F21D-47F2-A764-23F460D00EC5.jpeg

D827F964-D156-4C3D-BD1E-1D60766FE9EE.jpeg

77DCBA38-3DAB-4F81-96AD-9C02EDFD11E7.jpeg
 

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Awesome!
Could you detail the 7 day cipro treatment set up for the mag please.
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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Today I noticed my male Bangaii is hosting a couple of fully developed fry in it mouth! So far he has eaten the eggs or fry before they had a chance to fully develop so I’m excited to see some that have fully developed. I placed a fake sea urchin to see if I can get fry to move into it when (and if) they come out in the next few days. Hopefully they continue to breed and I can get a few successful Bangaii out of them!

male on the left female on the right
52DF9026-F251-4815-8160-5D8FC6D25F7F.jpeg

Close up of the male
B95D79F4-27E9-48F4-B5C1-D0C142CCB30E.jpeg


hope to see a few baby Bangaii in here soon!
E286AEE2-2143-4D2C-9E47-9387CCDA05AA.jpeg

BBE060FB-F0C6-495E-B9A2-338F9A49C535.jpeg
 
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Paleozoic_reefer

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Went to a new LSF around the corner from my house (something I’m both excited and scared about!) And traded in 2 quart bags of chaeto, 2 half-quart bags of calurpa and 8 rainbow bta’s for another xl ritteri that should get here Tuesday. Fingers crossed it comes in healthy, but prepared for the worst!

CFEB854C-AEB0-4E36-8A62-89945BA07668.jpeg
 

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