NBurg's Red Sea Reefer 450 mixed reef

[Nburg's Reef]

thought this was pretty cool
This is the tiny piece of acro that survived my move in June 2018 (top middle)

This is it June 2019. Just cut the rock around it so I could move it. From tiny nub to about 3" tall:

Still learning with the camera. I'm finding it very difficult to get the color balance right, even with touching them up, purples and blues was all other colors out. You can see a little of the yellow tips and green base, but much more vibrant in person.

Here's some other pics I took today:

 

[Janci]

Looking great.
The pictures came out well.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I need a FTS soon. I just realized I havent posted one since April.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

So, it’s bitter sweet, but I’ll be slowly dismantling this tank in a preparation to move across the country. I have a guy coming tomorrow to clear out most of my larger colonies of softies, and another to grab some of the frags.

I will rebuild this tank, or sell and buy a bigger tank after buying a house, but I will keep and move a few of my favorites (what ever can live in a 5g bucket for a few days) and put them in a temporary nano. When I do rebuild, it will be sps dominant. I’m keeping my acros, montis, rock nems, torches, ricordea florida, and maybe a few random others. Clowns, damsel and watchman will make the move. Same with the LR.

I took this 2 days ago and plan to take more, but here it is at the peak of glory:

I may post some more shots soon. I may resurrect this thread in a few months if I keep the RS Reefer 450 or make a new thread if I get a different tank.

 

[Janci]

I am sad to see this go.
Good luck!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I am sad to see this go.
Good luck!

Thanks! The tank is going for now, but I am not giving up this hobby and it will be revived!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

The final shots before I sold most colonies and fish. Its pretty barren now

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Here's a video before I broke it down


Now here's what I am keeping in a 20g long system until I buy a place in Washington, DC

I ended up keeping 1 Acro, Forest fire digi that was encrusted (which is now regrowing branches) all my rock flower anemones, all my ricordea, Zoas, gorgonians, euphyllia and some random other things.

One flower anemone crawled into my MP40 the day after I took the foam cover off because he found a place and hadn't moved in 2 weeks. Well, the next day, I found him with I giant gash inside the MP40 wet side and the wetside laying on the bottom of the tank. Luckily, it knocked the wet side off which prevented him from getting chopped up. I ended up tossing the anemone because I didn't want him to sour the tank anymore and take a chance that he could die anyways. At least he was a free-be all green anomone and not one of my ultras.

 

[SCHAULJ]

That 450 was beautiful. Buy that place in DC and repeat!

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I was able to move the 20g tank to DC with no problem... now I just need to find a house and move the empty 450 from Ohio. I'll post some pics of the smaller tank soon.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Things are growing well in the 20g long. I think having all the rock from my Reefer 450 helps keep it stable. dKH has stayed steady even without dosing and everything has noticeable growth. My lonely Acro also looks the best it has looked in a long long time.

BTW, that Acro was the same one that was the smaller of the 2 nubs that survived from the upgrade. It had maybe 2 or 3 polyps only.

these were shot with an iphone XR and color adjusted in RawTherapee to not look so blue and vibrant. they are as true to life as I could get.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Little update on my 20g temporary system. Everything made it to DC just fine in January and everything is stable. My lazy butt finally did some testing and my nitrates were in the 15-20ppm range, which may explain why everything is growing fast and colorful. I will keep an eye on it and try to get it down to the 5-10 range but not stress too much as long as everything looks good. I actually need to frag some zoas as they are growing off their plugs and rocks.

I am also excited because I was finally able to snag a Trident which should help keep this little tank stable for now until I get the RS 450 back up. Should arrive next week.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Turns out my all way really low, like 5.5dkh. I did a few water changes this week to get it back up to 8, and ordered some 2 part. I had all my 2 part packed away thinking weekly water changes would be enough. Turns out I’m getting good growth in this 20g.

i even has to drag some Zoas that were growing into each other and another that completely grew over the egg crate.

I’m loving the Trident so far and is pretty close to the Hanna alk checker. I also got a frag rack from Building an Obsession which has locking holes so my urchins and snails don’t know anymore frags into my torch.

here’s a video update. Sorry for the heavier than normal blues. These iPhones are overly sensitive to blue.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I just moved into my new condo and will be setting the Reefer 450 back up. I am so excited!

I am thinking of making a new thread and starting from scratch since I will be going back to SPS dominate and leaving the softy world... again.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Teaser. We are picking our furniture next week. The tank is going to go on the middle-ish of the right wall.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

My Red Sea Reefer is back up and the 20g long is going to storage. We still have some furniture to buy for our place, but the tank is going full force as of Friday.

Outside of some of the random corals I kept, I am going to add primarily Acropora now, once I am certain things are maintaining.

I have added a Trident, DoS and a second MP40qd, otherwise same set up as before. While the 20g was looking full, but after transferring to the larger tank, this thing looks insanely empty. I’m adding a large rock to the right side soon, but it’s barren from a coral and fish sense.

I’ve also decided to keep this thread going instead of starting a new build thread.

My plan:
1) Get some fish in QT ASAP. Probably a Kole or Yellow tang and maybe a hawk fish or mandarin
2) get a BC Battlebox from @Battlecorals with hardier acros to make sure they do well
3) More fish
4) More fancier acros.

Some not-great quality pics

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Water was looking clear, so I snapped a pic.

I have an acro frag pack coming from a local reefer soon and my QT is up and running to accept fish whenever I can make it out to a LFS.

For some reason this pic looks good on my phone but horrible on my PC. Let me know how it looks to you picture quality wise.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Update Time
I picked up the frags I bought from a local reefer on Saturday and was very impressed with how colorful and healthy they looked. Here's what I got:
RRC Pink Cadillac
SC Orange Passion
JF TNT Anacropora
Oregon Tortusa
WWC Yoda
ORA Pearlberry
Red Dragon
Bubblegum Millepora
WWC Venom
WWC Aussie Green Slimer
WWC Terra Red

And some quick pics:
Frags (there are 4 frags from my lone acro I had to trim)

Oregon Tort - this thing is way bluer than I thought. This is a pretty well represented coloration.

Sexys Orange Passion in the back. I'm excited to see this thing grow out. Some of the polyps are showing signs of orange!

WWC Yoda - never heard of this one, but it looks really good. Hard to capture in pics, but the coralites glow and the branches are a bluish-green. I can't wait to see this one get big too.

I have a Kole Tang and royal Gramma in QT, but will post pics when I get them in the DT.

 

[Tahoe61]

I think the scape is perfect.
Wow, major acropora score!!! Back with a vengeance.
Wonderful re-boot.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

I think the scape is perfect.
Wow, major acropora score!!! Back with a vengeance.
Wonderful re-boot.

Thank you! I am happy the the scape and this is what I wanted to do with this tank for a long while, it just got put on hold due to the impending move. Now after the move, things are settling in nicely.