Red Sea 425XL Build, Colorado

[Mjenks100]

Sorry, I meant how long did it take you to fill 5 gallons prior to installing the booster.

It currently takes me about an hour and twenty minutes to fill a 5 gallon jug.

About that hour and 10 hour and 20 mins

 

[Kayanarka]

One blue tang, and two white clowns have been added to the quarantine tank. They were not happy about it. I picked up some more bio material that claims to have over 42,000 sq/ft of surface area and some more bacteria in a bottle.

The plan is to add a few more fish each weekend or every other weekend as the bacteria ramps up. Once all the fish are in I will do 60 days of copper to cover for any cysts that land in the tank during the slow transfer process.

All of the fish remaining in the main display look great, and I wonder if I should just leave things be how they are now, and never put these fish back in the main display. I am really nervous to do more harm then good with a 60 day copper treatment.

 

[tritonpower]

Welcome to the reefing community. This hobby has been really fun for me. I am 1.5 years in so far. If I understand correctly, your tank is 2 months old. If so, I would say as fun as getting new fish/coral is I would slow down... a lot. That is not fun to hear but really important. I made the same mistakes early on and lost a lot of fish and corals as a result. It was not until my tank was 1 year old that there was stability with fish and corals.

 

[Kayanarka]

Welcome to the reefing community. This hobby has been really fun for me. I am 1.5 years in so far. If I understand correctly, your tank is 2 months old. If so, I would say as fun as getting new fish/coral is I would slow down... a lot. That is not fun to hear but really important. I made the same mistakes early on and lost a lot of fish and corals as a result. It was not until my tank was 1 year old that there was stability with fish and corals.

Good advice. It is 2 months old to me, but was setup as a display tank at LFS before I got it. The sand bed was kept alive and the water transported. So far everything has been doing really well.

I picked up a quarantine tank more recently, and it is not ready yet. I tried putting my clowns in this weekend but they were not having it, and I moved them back to the main display. I will give the qt another month before trying again.

I got ich from some where, clean up crew? Any of the fish I have added? So I am wanting to let the main tank go fallow, and I will treat the QT with copper power when the time comes.

 

[tritonpower]

Good advice. It is 2 months old to me, but was setup as a display tank at LFS before I got it. The sand bed was kept alive and the water transported. So far everything has been doing really well.

I picked up a quarantine tank more recently, and it is not ready yet. I tried putting my clowns in this weekend but they were not having it, and I moved them back to the main display. I will give the qt another month before trying again.

I got ich from some where, clean up crew? Any of the fish I have added? So I am wanting to let the main tank go fallow, and I will treat the QT with copper power when the time comes.

I hope it goes well. I lost a few fish early on to ich. Not fun. I run a UV sterilizer and no further ich issues (knock on wood). New fish go into my garage tank for 2 months (no meds, I just watch them close for disease). If they eat well and look healthy I move them into the house tank. So far, so good.

With the 425 90 gallon size I find 2 tangs seem appropriate. I have considered one more small tang but for now sticking with the yellow and tomini. I just moved some fish (yellow corise, 2 purple firefish, 2 blue damsels) from the garage to the house tank and will update my build thread soon. I feel it is really full with fish now which is fun.

I look forward to watching your tank develop.

 

[Manny’s Reef]

You’ve got a very nice selection of fish

 

[Kayanarka]

You’ve got a very nice selection of fish

Thanks! The Dragonet is my favorite as.far as looks go, but he always hides. The sand shifting goby is the most entertaining fish to watch, I highly recommend lots of sand and a sand shifter goby. Just be prepared to have no corals at ground level if you get one.

Took this picture in the dark with flash on.

Oh yeah, and can not forget Harry. We call him Harry because of his personality. He just kinda plops himself in front of the glass when your trying to look at something, and he will steal the first peice of food that enters the tank at every feeding, except for the one you try to give him. It is so funny how he runs from the feeding tweezers, but then B lines to what ever you put in. I will have to make a video of him sometime.
The top of the gyre is his favorite spot.

Harry the hawk fish.

 

[Kayanarka]

I hope it goes well. I lost a few fish early on to ich. Not fun. I run a UV sterilizer and no further ich issues (knock on wood). New fish go into my garage tank for 2 months (no meds, I just watch them close for disease). If they eat well and look healthy I move them into the house tank. So far, so good.

With the 425 90 gallon size I find 2 tangs seem appropriate. I have considered one more small tang but for now sticking with the yellow and tomini. I just moved some fish (yellow corise, 2 purple firefish, 2 blue damsels) from the garage to the house tank and will update my build thread soon. I feel it is really full with fish now which is fun.

I look forward to watching your tank develop.

Thank you. I tried a third tang and it was just too much for sure. Really the two can be problematic. When I took the blue tang out for meds, the powder tang gave him a real hard time when he was re introduced. I am afraid that I may have to take the blue tang back to the LFS. I am not sure how to get them to be friends again. I have read that maybe I can quarantine them in a small tank?

 

[Boby-reefs]

Love the progress I just started cycling my xl425 it’s a lovely tank good luck with everything happy reefing

 

[Boby-reefs]

Love the progress I just started cycling my xl425 it’s a lovely tank good luck with everything happy reefing

It’s dusty it was sitting in the garage for a while

 

[Kayanarka]

I like it. I was doing a bunch of research last night and learned there may be some better products out there if I ever decide to upgrade. A lot of people seem to think highly of water box and Innovative Marine. I am happy with my red sea tanks for now. My 250xl amonia alert badge is finally turning yellow so maybe I can put the clowns back in again soon.

 

[Kayanarka]

I have two of these cups. The blue material is course pad from BRS. I was surprised at how stiff it was, but it makes a good initial stage for my manual pre filters.

The white stuff is just bio foam brick. I switched to these two materials because the filter floss I was using was clogging just way too fast. Once it clogged the water would just bypass this stage. Now the filters do not clog between cleanings, and as you can see from the buckets below, they trap a lot of waste.

Daily manual labor nutrition export. We are heavy feeders.

 

[Kayanarka]

The green wrasse decided to grace me with his presence today. It was hard to get a good photo of him. I am not going to mess with the lighting so this is the best you get:

 

[Kayanarka]

The fish list right now:

RS 450XL
Blue tang, powder tang, 4 clowns, green wrasse, 2 small red head gobies, mandarin dragonet, small royal gramma, pistol shrimp , yellow rose gobie, femal lyretail anthius, 2 cardinal fish.

RS250

Clown Tang, 2 purple firefish, blue stripe wrasse, longfin black misbar clown

I have a murderer in my RS450 tank. Heard several snaps last night. Woke up this morning to my wife upset that our sand shifting goby is not there to greet us like always.

In the process of removing the offender we discovered that the pistol shrimp we thought had died was still alive, and had been camping out with his replacement.

This guy is on his way back to the LFS right now, and hopefully his smaller ex roomate did not learn any bad habits.

Fish lost to this tiger pistol:


2 Fire dart fish

2 yellow watchman gobies

Many snails

And out favorite fish ever, Mr. Sand Shifter Goby


Mr. Sand Shifter Goby you will be missed.


I truly hope our next SSG is as engaging as out first one was.

 

[Chrisv.]

Nice build thread!

 

[Chrisv.]

Wow did you set this up at the end of September?

 

[Kayanarka]

Wow did you set this up at the end of September?

The 450 was a transport, was a tank of one of the owners at Biggs Lagoon before I bought it. The bacteria survived the move nicely.

 

[Chrisv.]

The 450 was a transport, was a tank of one of the owners at Biggs Lagoon before I bought it. The bacteria survived the move nicely.

Cool! I was going to say: this doesn't look like a two month old tank!

 

[Kayanarka]

Well it was not the pistol shrimp that killed our sand shifter goby. We found him dried up behind the tank tonight ;Facepalm. Well atleast we found out we were rocking two pistol shrimp. We did take the tiger pistol back to LFS, but I should let them know he may not be quite the killer we thought he was...

We bought a new goby tonight, a yellow rose goby. I heard a couple claw snaps, and I do not see the new gobie. I hope he is not pistol shrimp food....

 

[Kayanarka]

I moved our sun coral onto the glass, below the gyre pump. This thing is so much work trying to shove food Into the mouths. I am hoping being bow the pump will drag some food to him as was suggested in a video we watched about these corals.

My powder tang is such a jerk. He scared the bejeezus out of our new lyretail anthius. The lyretail has herself wedged tightly behind some rocks. I hope it ends up OK tomorrow. If the powder tang continues to bully I may have to move the lyretail to the 250.