Red Sea e260 Build Thread

[Ricox]

This tank has been up and running for a bit but I thought I'd start a build thread for it.

Monday 17/01/2022
I bought a second hand Red Sea E260 from my LFS that came with all equipment including the sump upgrade for $5000 AUD. about $3700 USD
Tank
2 x stock Ai Hydra 26s
2 x return pumps
1 x Hailea Chiller
1 x Octo skimmer (not sure which model)
1 x Eheim 200 watt heater
1 x aquael 150 watt heater
2 x filter socks

Tuesday 18/01/2022
I cleaned out all of the equipment and put the tank together.


Monday 31/01/2022
I went back to my LFS and constructed an aquascape from caribsea liferock. However they were out of sand.

7/02/2022
I bought the sand from my LFS.


Wednesday 17/02/2022
I start mixing saltwater and filling up the tank

Friday 26/02/2022
The tank is finally filled up. (tiny RO unit) And I get the return pumps and lights on. I also seeded the tank with a few little pieces of Live rock from my nano reef tank.

Saturday 5/03/2022
I added two nassarius snails and two hermits from my nano tank to this tank after tank shutdown and I bought putty from my LFS adding the top plate to my scape. Also turned on and attached the chiller.

Saturday 19/03/2022
My tank finished It's cycle and I added a pair of clowns.

That is my tank so far. I know some of the pics are bad.

 

[Ricox]

I plan to have it mostly Lps dominated not sure whether I will try sps or not.
Stocking plan so far:
2 clownfish
Firefish
2 Bangaii Cardinals
One Spot Foxface
Diamond Goby
Bristletooth tang
Six line wrasse (willing to take the risk of aggression)
Mandarin (maybe) - I will decide later if I want the challenge

 

[Ricox]

Also forgot to mention that is the order I will add them to the tank

 

[Kmst80]

Looking good. What r u using as filtration?

 

[Ricox]

Right now I just have two filter socks and some ceramic filter balls. As well as the skimmer.

 

[Ricox]

I will probably look to add carbon later on and maybe a refugium.

 

[Kmst80]

I Build a fuge a couple of weeks ago. I use live rock as filter. Good idea with the fuge if you want that mandarin.

 

[Ricox]

Wow! Nice setup! did you plumb and set that up yourself? I was thinking also of filling up the back compartment with some live rock rubble to provide somewhere safe for copepods to breed for the mandarin and was also going to use that space for the potential refugium. The only thing about the refugium is that I am worried that there won't be enough algae growing than in the display tank for my future tang and foxface to eat?

 

[Kmst80]

Wow! Nice setup! did you plumb and set that up yourself? I was thinking also of filling up the back compartment with some live rock rubble to provide somewhere safe for copepods to breed for the mandarin and was also going to use that space for the potential refugium. The only thing about the refugium is that I am worried that there won't be enough algae growing than in the display tank for my future tang and foxface to eat?

i Just ordered 5 precut 10 mm acrylic sheets and the cement to glue them, glued them myself. I purchased pipes and fittings from bunnings as well as stainless steel angles and bolts to fix them. The light is a cheap ebay double led grow light with set times when it comes on.

For copepods a refugium is good but have a read through this thread too, i have set up 2 containers like it and get a good amount of pods of them.

More pods.

My outside pod culture has exploded. I have millions of pods following on from last year. I will have live pods to feed until late summer at least now. So easy to culture nothing could be easier. All that's needed is a container, I use one of those under bed storage boxes, old tank water,a leaf...

www.reef2reef.com

When i read that you are aiming for a bristletooth and a foxface i thought its gonna be a bit tight for natural growing food. But then i thought the bristletooth likes slime algae, mine eats cyano and i supplement with nori, he likes to get mysis and frozen brine shrimp too. The foxface from what i've read likes macroalgae, like caulerpa. Maybe if you get that refugium just grow caulerpa in it and feed it to the foxface.

 

[Ricox]

i Just ordered 5 precut 10 mm acrylic sheets and the cement to glue them, glued them myself. I purchased pipes and fittings from bunnings as well as stainless steel angles and bolts to fix them. The light is a cheap ebay double led grow light with set times when it comes on.

For copepods a refugium is good but have a read through this thread too, i have set up 2 containers like it and get a good amount of pods of them.

More pods.

My outside pod culture has exploded. I have millions of pods following on from last year. I will have live pods to feed until late summer at least now. So easy to culture nothing could be easier. All that's needed is a container, I use one of those under bed storage boxes, old tank water,a leaf...

www.reef2reef.com

When i read that you are aiming for a bristletooth and a foxface i thought its gonna be a bit tight for natural growing food. But then i thought the bristletooth likes slime algae, mine eats cyano and i supplement with nori, he likes to get mysis and frozen brine shrimp too. The foxface from what i've read likes macroalgae, like caulerpa. Maybe if you get that refugium just grow caulerpa in it and feed it to the foxface.

Thanks for giving such a detailed and well thought out reply! I have heard that caulerpa can easily breed by itself and take over the display tank? Also did you add another return pump for your fuge?

 

[Kmst80]

Thanks for giving such a detailed and well thought out reply! I have heard that caulerpa can easily breed by itself and take over the display tank? Also did you add another return pump for your fuge?

I just fought a caulerpa invasion, bought the bristletooth to take care of it just to work out he doesn't touch it.But i read everywhere that foxfaces and rabbitfish and certain tangs keep it under control and devour it.
I had to use reef flux coz mine went out of control and was everywhere.

From my returnpump in the sump half way to the tank i got 2 T joints so i used one of them going into the fuge and the drain goes back into the sump. So even if i loose power the fuge can not overflow.

 

[Ricox]

That looks complicated....

 

[Ricox]

I will probably try something in the back compartment of my display tank as it can be an all in one tank without the sump upgrade so I have some empty space there. I will probably just try chaeto for the fuge though. Also I have a pretty large stocking list anyways so it will probably encourage a lot of algae growth. Just worried right now though cause I have zero algae growing in the display tank. I might see if I can add a non algae eating blenny to the list to add some more personaility to the tank. Also how big is your tank? Sorry for all the questions...

 

[Ricox]

Also I am planning to go back to my LFS to pick up fish this saturday. Do you think it will be fine if I add a firefish and a pair of bangaii cardinals? Or should I just pick up the firefish and leave the Bangaiis till another week. It will have been a week since I added the pair of clowns.

 

[Kmst80]

I will probably try something in the back compartment of my display tank as it can be an all in one tank without the sump upgrade so I have some empty space there. I will probably just try chaeto for the fuge though. Also I have a pretty large stocking list anyways so it will probably encourage a lot of algae growth. Just worried right now though cause I have zero algae growing in the display tank. I might see if I can add a non algae eating blenny to the list to add some more personaility to the tank. Also how big is your tank? Sorry for all the questions.

I got 324 lt in the display and the whole system is 373 lt.
At the moment i got two clowns, a coral beauty and the brisltetooth. My firetail goby disappeared months ago never to be seen again.
I am aiming for a mandarin, watchman goby(if i ever find one in australia) and maybe a small school of yellowstriped cardinalfish and if the tank can handle it more...

 

[Ricox]

Nice! thanks for you're replys!

 

[Kmst80]

Also I am planning to go back to my LFS to pick up fish this saturday. Do you think it will be fine if I add a firefish and a pair of bangaii cardinals? Or should I just pick up the firefish and leave the Bangaiis till another week. It will have been a week since I added the pair of clowns.

I would take it slow to add new fish so bacteria can grow with it. I left always at least 2 weeks between new fish and only bought one or a pair of fish at one time.
When r u gonna start with corals?

 

[Ricox]

I was thinking of leaving that till after fish. But not too sure yet.

 

[Ricox]

When did you add corals?

 

[Kmst80]

My first was the frogspawn and went in with my two clowns as soon as it was cycled. I didn't know about the algae cycle back then but again it didn't hit me hard except of the cyano.