Raxnar's Red Sea Reefer 250 Deluxe - Vancouver Island Build

[Kyl]

I'm not sure of who's who on the island, aside from Adam (frag garage). I can tell you that should you ever get an SPS addiction there are a few guys on the mainland here that can fuel that addiction haha! Yeah it's pretty much J&L / RS here too. PM incoming.

 

[Raxnar]

Just posted some pictures.

I'll try and have the Scrubber up and running this coming week/weekend.

So, while I have the Algae Turf Scrubber I have not yet installed it. Why? Well, my Phosphates are quite under control at the moment, hovering between .04 and .08 right where Redsea recommends for a mixed reef. Would the scrubber allow for a "cleaner" tank? probably but it may make it too clean. I'll hold on to it for now and may toss it in the mix later.

I am, however, getting an Aquamaxx Fluidized GFO/Carbon XS Reactor for carbon. I currently run carbon but in small bags in the filter cups. This should be easier to maintain. Rinsing the carbon bags when I change the filter floss is getting tiresome

Other updates:

Our Bicolour blenny died on us a few weeks ago He was our first fish and never did grow so I suspect he was a fully grown adult when we got him and perhaps died of old age. Will never know.

Our clean up crew are doing well and took care of his remains within 24 hours easily.

We've had a couple crabs die here and there for unknown reasons. I keep them well fed, or so I think, with thawed prawn meat ever other day and make sure to get the meat to them with tongs. They seem to love it. There are plenty of shells for them to move into when they grow and a few have done so.

I think our Pom Pom crabs may have died or been eaten haven't seen them for weeks and also have not seen any carcass'.

The tank is overall very stable, have been having some brown algae issues which I think I can attribute to the light program I've been running. While I like the look of the tank it seems to encourage the ugly algae.

Link to the AI Signature series programs here. I was using the one from Stuart Bertram which is actually called the "David Saxby" program.

So now I am trying the BRS AB+ Full Power program. slightly extended ramp up/down times.

You can find these BRS Programs here.

The new program has nearly no red/green which I have red can lead to brown algae issues. This program also looks very good to my eyes. Time will tell if it helps with the brown algae.

We also have a new resident, a Starry Blenny! quite the character fish he is. He's also gone after the algae in force but it is growing too fast for him to keep up which is why I am trying a new light program partly.

Hopefully the combination does the trick.

Coral Update.
Our Wicked and Garf Bonsai seem to be doing well, nice purple colouration on their flesh and bright green polyps. Though the polyps don't extend very much that I've seen their colour is strong.

Our large tree like Green SPS died and I now know why. It was in a bad spot for light with just the 2 Hydra 26's. the center of the tank where it sat is a low spot for PAR readings and wasn't enough. Lessons learned. The Wicked and Garf SPS are nearly directly under the lights and doing well.

Our soft Corals seem to be doing well, except the frog spawn is having some skeletal issues which I am scratching my head over. deterioration and no visible cause. I have not seen a crab picking at it so not sure. The tissue is doing good I believe.

I'm getting a couple new SPS to add near the Bonsai's this weekend. 1 Cali Tortosa and 1 Crayola Plana, hopefully they do as well as the Bonsai's.

Bit of a ranting update but an update nonetheless

Lacking Pictures, maybe over the weekend I'll snap some.

 

[najer]

Sorry to hear about the blenny, enjoy the stary, great fish.

 

[Raxnar]

Some exiting news I think!

Our Rainbow BTA split over night I believe!

My wife named the small one Baby and now Baby had a Baby! our original orange BTA above still doing well.

 

[Michael_NL]

Great tank! Looks beautiful! Where did you mount the Apex probes in the sump?

 

[Raxnar]

Great tank! Looks beautiful! Where did you mount the Apex probes in the sump?

Thanks! its coming along nicely!

Have had a few fish die over the past month or so, I'm sure its part of the hobby. Corals are really doing well.

I should post an update soon!

As to your question, I have them in the same chamber where the main and emergency drain enter the sump. Seems to work ok. only issue is when the herbie drain needs adjusting or it starts draining too much and micro bubbles start that can throw off the probes readings.

 

[Raxnar]

Update time!

Been far to long and lots has happened.

Some Bad news, some good.

The Bad, As I posted before our very first Fish the bicolour blenny died a while ago for no known reasons. Well we had a Stary Blenny for a while as his replacement and he accidentally killed him self by getting too close to one of our MP40's... I found him still barely alive but the damage was too much. back broken, some flesh missing on one side. I almost couldn't get him out as he had wedged him self between 2 of the cage fins.

Next bad news is our Green Mandarin and Ruby Dragonette died the same day I have a feeling I added them too soon after seeding the tank with extra copeods and they may have starved . Lesson learned. Will attempt to properly top off the pod population and get the tank better situated if I attempt keeping a Green Mandarin again.

Last bad news is our male Clown fish up an died one night, no apparent reason (visible) then a few days later our female Clown developed what looked like ich but quickly turned south within 24 hours and was 2 white spots on her back to dead 48 hours. As a precaution we treated the tank as if it was ich using Polyp labs Medic.

Now we let the tank settle for a couple of weeks to ensure none of the other fish get sick.

Other than that the tank is looking great.

Time for some pictures!

Overview:

This is using a filter on my Camera. Still learning which is best at the time of the light cycle.

Here's a stunning Ricordea we picked up recently.

Here are some more close ups of corals.

A nice Red/Blue Acan and our Orange Crush Zoa.

A close up of one of our Wicked Bonsai's. Great Polyps!

A shot of our Pink *******, top right, Neon Candy cane bottom left and the name of the red one, actually called Yellow Starburst Red Favites.

Lastly our Garf Bonsai. Doing great!

I have been using Aquaforest products for coral health and I think the results speak for them selves!
- AF BioS
- AF Vitality
- AF Ammino Mix
- AF Build
- AF Phyto Mix
- AF Energy

I am also going to be adding to my regimen their Component A, B, and C as a trial and see how the corals respond.

Very very happy with the results so far.

I recorded a little video of the tank as well with the phone.

Enjoy!

 

[najer]

Sorry to read about your losses, hopefully the rest of the fish will be fine.

 

[Raxnar]

Sorry to read about your losses, hopefully the rest of the fish will be fine.

Thanks @najer, I know its part of the cycle of life but makes you wonder if you did something to cause it. It won't be the last death I'm sure.

 

[powers2001]

@Raxnar looks like you have several cleaner shrimp in there. Do they ever fight? The thing I don't like about them is they only live about 2 years.

 

[Raxnar]

@Raxnar looks like you have several cleaner shrimp in there. Do they ever fight? The thing I don't like about them is they only live about 2 years.

We have 2 Cleaners and 2 Fire Shrimp.

Never seen them fight other than over food I've given them lol.

You reminded me I should post an update soon!

 

[powers2001]

@Raxnar Sorry about the losses in October. How is the livestock doing now?

 

[Raxnar]

@Raxnar Sorry about the losses in October. How is the livestock doing now?

Livestock is doing ok. We picked up a pair of Frostbite Clown fish a while back. Stunning! after 2 weeks of quarantine they were added to the tank. The LFS had them in an isolation tank for several weeks not tied to their normal circulation so I did a short one. Everything seemed fine until a week after being in the DT. the smaller one developed what deduced with help from the LFS that he has some internal parasites/worms. So I tried to catch him to quarantine him... Not a chance lol and I really didn't want to tear apart the rock work. So I took a chance on dosing the tank with Prazi Pro. That was an adventure....Not sure I'll do that again, I'll spend more time getting them out to quarantine if it happens again.

Anyway, lots of folks have had no issue with Prazi Pro, and at first the only major issue I had is it stopped our skimmer from skimming, they say to turn the skimmer off but on the advice of the LFS I kep it going to oxygenate the water. I lost my best Ausi Hammer coral but I think that was partly due to it being knocked over and laying face down in the sand for the entire night plus it was not feeling well from the prazi pro. that was my only loss due to partly treating the tank. Oh I guess you count the sick clown, he stopped eating even with garlic soaked food

So now we have a solo Frostbite clown who is extremely happy and healthy! our big Nem you can see in pics has retreated ever since and has not returned to her former glory but I think she is on the mend. We've done weekly water changes and ran carbon for weeks after the treatment period so the water should be back to "normal".

I am seeing good growth on the SPS' we have but it isn't super fast.

I've been contemplating a ATI Hybrid setup to go with the Hydra 26's.

All in all, the tank is good! Shrimps are molting every 4 weeks almost like clockwork.

I should post a more thorough update one of these days.

 

[powers2001]

To combat sick fish in my Display Tank I've invested in an Aqua Medic fish trap from BRS and it works pretty slick. IIRC it was about $65 but they have another one now that's by Icecap but don't know anything about it. To keep the fish not scared of the trap I put it in the display for a couple of weeks when not needing to catch a fish and fed them in the trap. After several days they got used to the trap and would go into it to eat out of it. It's a great investment and for $65 it saves a lot of livestock.

As for enticing picky fish about eating I never put garlic solution directly on the food. Garlic is a terrestrial food and shouldn't be given to marine animals. The experts say marine fish can't even digest it. However the scent of a couple of garlic oil drops in the display tank water does wonders to make fish hungry and they don't have to eat it. I like to put just a couple of drops of garlic oil per 25 gallons about 5 minutes before I feed. You can see scared fish come out of the rocks all hungry with the scent.

Another thing I do with finicky eaters is give them a purchased bag of brine shrimp a couple days after putting them into the display. The actual movement and smell of live food entices the fish to eat. I've had good luck with brine coming from Florida through Liveaquaria but I don't know what's available in Canada. The last time I ordered brine shrimp from LA they came in the bag as mushed up soup. All the shrimp were in pieces and parts and there wasn't a whole shrimp in the bag. I was refunded but no one could tell me what happened. Previous bags were teaming with life. It was winter and that may have something to do with it and there could've been mishandling of the box. Anyway when I get the shrimp out of the shipping box I acclimate them to tank water and keep an airstone going in the bucket. I add a whole dropper full of Selcon and a second dropper-full probably wouldn't hurt into the bucket with the tiny shrimp. They eat the liquid and gut loads them with Omega's and vitamins and provides the fish with nutrition since the brine shrimp don't have much nutrition without it. I let the shrimp sit in the bucket with the Selcon overnight. The next evening I turn off the return pump, powerheads, put the heater in the display, and oxygenate the display with just an air stone since any kind of pump will chop up the shrimp into soup. The bubbles should be turned down fairly low when the shrimp are in the bucket and in the display. I then dump the shrimp into the display the second evening when the lights go off and the hundreds of shrimp spread out and are everywhere in the tank. They will even spread out into the caves where new timid fish will hide overnight. By morning all the shrimp are gone. Oh yeah I forgot to say I put in garlic oil into the tank when I pour the shrimp in. This method works well.

Only one time it didn't work for me and that was for a Bicolor Angel which are notorious for poor acclimation. Before I started using this method I tried to acclimate Bicolors several times and wasn't successful. I only tried one time with the brine shrimp and a Bicolor. If I try a Bicolor again I'll do the brine shrimp twice in a row a couple of days apart.

 

[Raxnar]

To combat sick fish in my Display Tank I've invested in an Aqua Medic fish trap from BRS and it works pretty slick. IIRC it was about $65 but they have another one now that's by Icecap but don't know anything about it. To keep the fish not scared of the trap I put it in the display for a couple of weeks when not needing to catch a fish and fed them in the trap. After several days they got used to the trap and would go into it to eat out of it. It's a great investment and for $65 it saves a lot of livestock.

As for enticing picky fish about eating I never put garlic solution directly on the food. Garlic is a terrestrial food and shouldn't be given to marine animals. The experts say marine fish can't even digest it. However the scent of a couple of garlic oil drops in the display tank water does wonders to make fish hungry and they don't have to eat it. I like to put just a couple of drops of garlic oil per 25 gallons about 5 minutes before I feed. You can see scared fish come out of the rocks all hungry with the scent.

Another thing I do with finicky eaters is give them a purchased bag of brine shrimp a couple days after putting them into the display. The actual movement and smell of live food entices the fish to eat. I've had good luck with brine coming from Florida through Liveaquaria but I don't know what's available in Canada. The last time I ordered brine shrimp from LA they came in the bag as mushed up soup. All the shrimp were in pieces and parts and there wasn't a whole shrimp in the bag. I was refunded but no one could tell me what happened. Previous bags were teaming with life. It was winter and that may have something to do with it and there could've been mishandling of the box. Anyway when I get the shrimp out of the shipping box I acclimate them to tank water and keep an airstone going in the bucket. I add a whole dropper full of Selcon and a second dropper-full probably wouldn't hurt into the bucket with the tiny shrimp. They eat the liquid and gut loads them with Omega's and vitamins and provides the fish with nutrition since the brine shrimp don't have much nutrition without it. I let the shrimp sit in the bucket with the Selcon overnight. The next evening I turn off the return pump, powerheads, put the heater in the display, and oxygenate the display with just an air stone since any kind of pump will chop up the shrimp into soup. The bubbles should be turned down fairly low when the shrimp are in the bucket and in the display. I then dump the shrimp into the display the second evening when the lights go off and the hundreds of shrimp spread out and are everywhere in the tank. They will even spread out into the caves where new timid fish will hide overnight. By morning all the shrimp are gone. Oh yeah I forgot to say I put in garlic oil into the tank when I pour the shrimp in. This method works well.

Only one time it didn't work for me and that was for a Bicolor Angel which are notorious for poor acclimation. Before I started using this method I tried to acclimate Bicolors several times and wasn't successful. I only tried one time with the brine shrimp and a Bicolor. If I try a Bicolor again I'll do the brine shrimp twice in a row a couple of days apart.

Great Tips! thank you!

I currently do use Selcon and Reef Roids to beef up the brine shrimp.

 

[pelphrey]

Great Tips! thank you!

I currently do use Selcon and Reef Roids to beef up the brine shrimp.

Selcon is my go to when I feed frozen foods!

 

[powers2001]

How did your sick clowns do with their treatment?

 

[Raxnar]

How did your sick clowns do with their treatment?

Thanks for checking in. The smaller of the 2 clowns did not survive, however, our clean up crew made quick work of him. Circle of life. I think he was polished off in a matter of a couple hours. He did look to be clear of the stringy stuff after treatment though but he may have been too far gone already. Hindsight, probably should have removed him incase whatever he had spread.

It's been quite some time since that incident, many water changes and carbon cleaning and the tank is back to ok status. the few SPS I have in the tank are growing but slow, the zoa's are doing amazing. and LPS are struggling a little. The coral (SPS and LPS) issues may have been from the treatment though many have had no issues. New LPS seem to be ok.

I think the lights the RSR 250 deluxe come with are ok but finding the right settings to satisfy everything, not cause algae blooms or Dino's to flare up is tricky. I'm seriously thinking of a Hybrid fixture once the revision come out of the Aqua Illumination one.

We've recently found a solo small Frostbite clown at our LFS to go with our larger one and he is now in the main tank after spending a week in isolation. He had been at the LFS for a good month and I checked on him weekly. Quite the fiesty little fella. So far no bullying by anyone after being introduced. He's (I hope its a he) is eating well. The other clown ignores him for the most part. Perhaps over time they'll figure it out.

Also picked up a couple of Fire Fish who are doing excellent.

This weekend I'll try and get some updated pictures put together.

Fish are easy to keep, Coral's (sps and lps) are new to me so am struggling a bit.

Overall for my first reef tank I think things are doing ok.

 

[powers2001]

@Raxnar Good to hear the new additions are doing good. How about a full tank shot?

 

[Raxnar]

@Raxnar Good to hear the new additions are doing good. How about a full tank shot?

Yes sir!

And a couple other perspectives.

and finally

Tank passed the 1 year mark in January.