My Tank is 2 Years Old

[Bastray]

Hey Everyone,
My Red Sea Reefer 425xl just turned 2. I never did a build thread in the beginning, but thought I would post something now that I am 2 years in and talk about some of the changes, struggles, and victories over the past 2 years. My tank has come a long way.

I have attached a pic of my tank roughly a year and a half ago and more pics of my tank where it stands today. To keep this first post short I’ll leave it at this and separate posts about the changes I’ve made and the challenges I’ve had.

Let me know what you all think. Also, I didn’t really clean the tank up much because I wanted to show what I see every day.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Hey Everyone,
My Red Sea Reefer 425xl just turned 2. I never did a build thread in the beginning, but thought I would post something now that I am 2 years in and talk about some of the changes, struggles, and victories over the past 2 years. My tank has come a long way.

I have attached a pic of my tank roughly a year and a half ago and more pics of my tank where it stands today. To keep this first post short I’ll leave it at this and separate posts about the changes I’ve made and the challenges I’ve had.

Let me know what you all think. Also, I didn’t really clean the tank up much because I wanted to show what I see every day.

Very nice system!

 

[KrisReef]

Nice growth in the tank and the corals look well established.

Great idea for a thread. Folks will want to know your details, challenges, changes, and current lights, feeding, fish load, parameters because you are doing something(s) right!

Thanks for posting,

 

[Peace River]

Nice tank! I look forward to hearing about the good, the bad, and the lessons learned along the way! Now that you have started your build thread I encourage you to take the time to copy the build thread link into your profile (click on your avatar in the upper right, select "account details", then scroll down to "R2R Tank Thread Link" and paste the build thread URL into the empty cell there). This will add a build thread banner to your banner list and allow others to find your build thread easily if they click on your banner.

 

[Bastray]

Nice tank! I look forward to hearing about the good, the bad, and the lessons learned along the way! Now that you have started your build thread I encourage you to take the time to copy the build thread link into your profile (click on your avatar in the upper right, select "account details", then scroll down to "R2R Tank Thread Link" and paste the build thread URL into the empty cell there). This will add a build thread banner to your banner list and allow others to find your build thread easily if they click on your banner.

Thank you for that info. It is done.

 

[Bastray]

Livestock Update:
Over the past 2 years I have had some fish come and go, and have made some poor choices along the way. Some of those poor choices are still in my tank today. lol

My current livestock:
Blue Throat Trigger
Yellow Tang
Tomini Tang
Orange Spotted Rabbitfish
Dusky Wrasse (had sand when I got him, it has since been removed)
Red Coris Wrasse (very poor decision. Flips everything, too big for tank, now run a bare bottom, etc)
Solon Fairy Wrasse
Possum Wrasse
Swallowtail Angel
Designer Clown (don't remember which type)
Anthias (had 3, now 1)
Starry Blenny
Red Hawkfish
Twin Spot Hogfish
Purple Dottyback (my lone survivor from my 20g tank prior to this one)
2 cleaner shrimp
Only a couple of snails have survived my tank

My tank is probably over stocked, but I like the movement and for the most part everyone gets along fine. I tend to buy fish that are not totally reef safe and have had no ill effects to corals, but my CUC has thinned over the past year for sure.

 

[Peace River]

Thank you for that info. It is done.

Excellent! The new banner looks good in your list!

 

[Bastray]

Current Parameters:
Alk: 8
Calcium: 420
Mag: 1400
Nitrate: 2
PO4: .01
Salinity: 35ppt

I have a Neptune Trident that I use to monitor the big 3 set to test 4 times a day. I have it linked to a DOS using the Trident controlled dosing. The Trident has been a game changer for me. I used to go up and down in ALK usage causing a bit of instability. Since adding the Trident my ALK stays pretty steady between 7.8 and 8.2.

I test PO4 and Salinity every Sunday using a Hannah Checker for both. I test Nitrate once a month using a Red Sea kit. I perform weekly 20 gallon water changes every Thursday. I haven't missed one in 2 years!

 

[Bastray]

Current Equipment and updates over the years:

Lighting:
Started with 2 Hydra 26's. I had one crap out on me and instead of buying a new one or paying to get it repaired I upgraded to 3 Radion xr15's and since have added a hybrid t5 from Aquatic Life. Lighting has had a huge impact. Going from the Hydras to the Radions honestly doubled my growth rate as evidenced by my ALK consumption

Flow:
Started the tank with 1 MP40 and 1 MP10. Have since added a second MP40 and 2 gyre pumps. I have the MP40's in the back bottom corners to keep detritus off the floor of the tank and get it in the sump.

Under the Tank:
Started with GFO reactor, carbon reactor, Vectra M1, Bubble Magus Curve 7. I have completely overhauled everything down there., I removed the GFO reactor. Still run the carbon. I swapped out my BM skimmer for a Deltec 600. The BM was too big and I just didn't see consistent performance out of it. The Deltec is a beast. Added a Refugium with an AI Prime Fuge light. This is one of my trouble spots. Cant keep macro algae alive to save my life. I also added a Neptune Apex about a year ago along with the Neptune ATK and added the Trident on to that in July. Dosing of ALK and Calcium is done with a DOS and dosing of Microbacter 7 and AcroPower is done with a Bubble Magus doser.

 

[Bastray]

The Battles I have Overcome:

I set out to have an SPS only tank. My biggest set back was trying to put a bunch of SPS in the tank 6 months in and killing absolutely everything I put in the tank. I was stripping my new tank with GFO, kept changing everything all the time, dosing this, adding that, etc. I got completely frustrated and gave up on SPS. I made a pack to myself that I would stop wasting money and just to an awesome LPS and softie tank. I went that route over the next 6 months or so, had some success. I just couldn't let go of the challenge that SPS corals bring and wanted to get back into it. I read an awesome post from Adam at Battlecorals and Richard Ross that challenged the assertion that PO4 needed to be stripped from the water and from that I pulled GFO offline and let my PO4 come up a little bit.

After doing that I tried some SPS frags again, and I didn't kill them!!! From that moment on I have added as many acros as I could and they have all stayed alive. The downside of this is overtime, with my large fish load, my PO4 kept creeping up and eventually got as high as .4 At this point I started to get Cyano.

My battle with Cyano was a long one. Every rock was covered. I tried every natural thing I could to get rid of it and fought it for 6 months. I added a refugium, increased WC's, manual removal, removed sand bed (slowly over about 6 months) etc. I eventually just gave up and used ChemiClean and boom, cyano was gone in 2 days.

Currently, my tank is not perfect at all. I still have some cyano pop up here and there, I have nuisance algae here and there, I have been struggling to kill off Aptaisia, and as mentioned earlier, I can not keep macro algae alive for more than 3 months at a time. I have been losing encrusting LPS corals due to the flow and lighting in my tank and have just kind of giving up saving them and just let nature run its course. I am also not a huge fan of fragging my corals a bunch, so they are growing into each other in some spots, but I use the same mentality of letting nature run its course with that as well. I like the look of grown in tanks with corals innertwined with each other anyways. Looks more natural to me.

However,
I am willing to fight these algae battles or just live with what I have if it means my SPS are growing and thriving. I am now a firm believer that chasing nitrate and PO4 numbers does more harm than good in the long run. A little algae and colorful, growing SPS is a tradeoff I am willing to make.

 

[Bastray]

Couple updates from this week. I bought the new Maxspect Aeraqua Duo skimmer. It is overkill for my system, but the first 24 hours has been great. No break in period and already skimming like a champ. My old skimmer felt undersized due to my fish load, so I figured going a little over will give me some wiggle room.

Also, cleaned up my wires a bit. My controller area under the tank was getting out of control. I was showing my wife the new skimmer and she looked at all the wires and asked me if my tank was going to catch on fire.... that was enough motivation for me to attempt to clean it up a bit. Still not great, but much better than it was.