Randy's Redsea Reefer 250 and the rest of the Coral Farm

[RandyC]

I have been severely lacking in the posts. Sorry!

So I ran into two issues that seemed to have compounded into some lost pieces (around 5-6). :mad: I went away for about a week and during that time, my nitrates and phosphates bottomed out to undetectable. And while that by itself wasn't a huge issue all on it's own (I did see some corals paling out because of it) about a week later when I got back, my Masterflex bugged out and stop dripping. And of course, stupid me didn't have an alert setup up for a low alk reading on my trident, so over the course of around 13-14 hours before I noticed it, I dropped around 1.2 dKh. I had a spare masterflex to replace the busted one with, but I think in the future I'm going to go with an Ecotech Versa for my calcium reactor peristaltic pump. It's cheaper and more readily available. I currently have two Versas running on different systems to make sure it can really handle the 24/7 duty cycle before putting it on the frag/growout tank.

Well, it was pretty painful for the next few weeks after I got everything back to normal and I feel that once you hit a big bump in the road, it can take many more weeks or months to recover with acros. Well, they pretty much pooped on me for about 1.5 months and I think everything is finally on the road to recovery.

Here's some pics that this thread has been sorely lacking lately.

TSA Bill Murray

BC Aquatic Man Table

CB Wonderland

 

[shadow1013]

Awesome tank! I’m thinking about starting a XL 300 which is basically a deport 250. Would you stick with three XR15 vs two XR30 if you had to start from scratch? Would you keep the MP10 or could you do without it and stay with dual MP40?

 

[RandyC]

Awesome tank! I’m thinking about starting a XL 300 which is basically a deport 250. Would you stick with three XR15 vs two XR30 if you had to start from scratch? Would you keep the MP10 or could you do without it and stay with dual MP40?

I'd probably still go with the three xr15w because it lets me offset the middle one a little forward to compensate for the center overflow so more light is shining on the tank.

I've actually took out the mp10 because it was getting too hard to get to with the acro growth at the top of the tank (mp10 was on back wall twoards the bottom).

 

[RandyC]

Some pics from the reefer 250

RR Pink Floyd

WWC Helios

Montipora Setosa

Oregon Tort

GARF Bonsai - old school!

PC Rainbow - gets really red and loses that mustard yellow base with high par

 

[RandyC]

Picture dump continues!

RR Wonderland - Picked up this piece a couple weeks ago, waiting for the colors to come.

ASD Freak Machine

RR Pink Cadillac

SC Orange Passion

Cherry Corals Voodoo Majick

CB Wonderland - This one showing some potential. I got it as an all green teeny-tiny nub.

 

[mstgkillr]

For the first two years or so, I never had a problem maintaining the overflow water level at a specific level with the Red Sea diaphragm valve on the main drain and things were silent. However, for the last few months, I have had to make constant adjustments to the valve every 4-5 days because the water level would increase by itself and the noise from water trickling into the emergency drain became super annoying. I've cleaned the valve a number of times, but still had the same problem. I'm not sure why after two years I began to have an issue, but here we are.

So I decided to make the change to a Spears gate valve for the main full siphon drain. Normally something that should be a simple swap in a fish tank, but the Red Sea plumbing poses a challenge because it is metric.

So here's what it looks like now.

From what I've seen, most people have just taken the return connector part (part number 42221), getting a 3/4" threaded male adapter and wrapping the threaded end with 10-15 wraps of telfon tape to fit it into the metric fitting in place of the barb. For a number of reasons, I'm not comfortable with this solution.

So what I did was take a Spears 32mm to 1" transition union and glued the 32mm end over the outer part of the return connector which measures 32mm. I used PVC primer and cement. The plastic that the return connector is made out is an "unknown plastic" (exact words from Red Sea tech support), so using PVC primer and cement wasn't a sure thing that it would bond well, but it looks like it's holding up. No leaks have been seen and best part, tank is dead silent with water in overflow staying steady.

Here's my parts list

- Red Sea return connector part #42221 (remove barb before gluing - also be carful to not over do it on the cement, you don't want to glue the black screw nut since it's a tight fit)

- Spears 32mm to 1" sched 80 transition union
- Spears 1" schedule 80 gate valve
- 1" blue PVC pipe

How is this holding up? I'm a little nervous of gluing the "unknown plastic" return connector.

 

[RandyC]

How is this holding up? I'm a little nervous of gluing the "unknown plastic" return connector.

I haven’t even thought about or looked at it since I did it - and I mean this in a good way.

 

[mstgkillr]

I haven’t even thought about or looked at it since I did it - and I mean this in a good way.

I just received an email back from Red Sea... "The 16mm sump pump return connector (42221) and the rest of the plumbing on Red Sea systems, are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic."

 

[RandyC]

I just received an email back from Red Sea... "The 16mm sump pump return connector (42221) and the rest of the plumbing on Red Sea systems, are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic."

nice! They wouldn’t tell me the couple times I asked. PVC primer and cement is perfect then.

 

[Dainese954]

Gorgeous tank!! Just up graded my dual MP10QDWs to dual MP40QDWs, would you be extra kind and share your schedule? I have apex WXM that’s controlling it, so if it’s easier to send a file or something it would be fantastic! Just trying to imitate your success. Thanks in advance

 

[RandyC]

Gorgeous tank!! Just up graded my dual MP10QDWs to dual MP40QDWs, would you be extra kind and share your schedule? I have apex WXM that’s controlling it, so if it’s easier to send a file or something it would be fantastic! Just trying to imitate your success. Thanks in advance

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words. I use reeflink, so I don't have a file I can share to use with Apex and WXM. However, here's a screenshot of the my MP40 settings. I should warn you, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason for the patterns I have chosen. I just wanted to randomize flow a bit and things seemed to work out so I stuck with it.

 

[Dainese954]

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words. I use reeflink, so I don't have a file I can share to use with Apex and WXM. However, here's a screenshot of the my MP40 settings. I should warn you, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason for the patterns I have chosen. I just wanted to randomize flow a bit and things seemed to work out so I stuck with it.

Thank you so much for the schedule. What are your thoughts on keeping one of the mp40s on anti-sync?

 

[RandyC]

Dropping some eye candy on you . . . . .

TSA Princess Peach - I got this as an encrusted plug and it looks like it's finally starting to go vertical, but holy moly, those colors!

Ultimate Corals Peep Show

TTA (Top Tier Aquatics) Cotton Candy Goniopora

A bright pink goniopora I just picked up . . . let's see if we can keep this pink or if it turns red.

A random Indo piece I'm growing out

 

[Michael Gray]

Love all these pieces!!

 

[Duncan Tse]

What are your water parameters? Those are some insane colors!

 

[RandyC]

What are your water parameters? Those are some insane colors!

I try to keep alk somewhere between 7.6-8.2, Ca 430ish, Mg 1250. Nitrates are currently between 5-10 and I try to keep phosphates below 0.08.

 

[SebastianReefer]

Thanks!

My WD sits in around 300 par last I checked. I did dial up my lights a tad since then, so it might be a little more than that, but not much more. I run an 18,500K spectrum during peak hours and take most of my pictures under that setting.

Here's a pic of it under all blues.

I love that coral I have been wanting one for a while been tring to catch it at an auction no such luck on getting it in my basket first very nice system thanks for sharing!

 

[RandyC]

Just some pictures for you today!

BC Aquatic Man Table

BC Cricket Spline

This unnamed Tenuis from Indo is soooo blue. Much more blue in person.

Acan Echinata

 

[RandyC]

So after my little masterflex fiasco and nutrients bombing down to nil, my acro growth seemed to have stalled out for a few months. Yes a few MONTHS! It was painful watching nothing grow (at least it seemed like it wasn't).

I'm hoping this is pointing in the right direction.

TSA Princess Peach on March 11.

TSA Princess Peach on April 4. Just waiting (hoping) for it to explode!

 

[Robertellis30]

Great thread. I love all the growth updates!