Red Sea Reefer 200xl build

[monti mike]

I’m really happy with the growth and it’s fun to see the frags working their way up to little colonies. Someone mentioned that the color of the a. Nana (top rock in previous post) looked a little pale or like the “ice” variety. I guess I didn’t really notice because I see it everyday- but it is a little pale!

My nutrients are always low and when I tested again nitrate was 0 (Nyos) and phosphate was 0.01ppm (Hannah). So I’m trying to slowly increase the nutrients by adding about 1/8 teaspoon of reef roids at night to see what happens.

It’s a balancing act though because I really don’t want to fight off a ton of nuisance algae. I’ll admit that nutrients too low is a problem I never thought I’d have!

here are some pictures from today:

growth of pc rainbow and Oregon tort:

Attempt at a macro shot! Brooding hermit over AEFW survivor:

 

[monti mike]

I ordered a custom lid from clearview lids. The DIY egg crate and mesh lid works fine but I figured it’s time for an upgrade. I’ll post pics on when the new lid gets here. It sounds like it could be a few months before it’s done but that’s fine. I’m not in a rush. I also ordered so sps evo gel and easy booster. I’m curious to see if it helps the sps color. I’m really trying to feed more and get the nitrate and phosphate up. Sometimes I feel like I’m overdoing it with the feeding but the nutrients are still low. The chaeto reactor probably needs to be on a shorter schedule but I’d rather grow chaeto than green hair algae.

What else is going on... I did a 10% water change this weekend and it made the clam... um...

Also watching this montipora setosa and cap to see what will happen. Will they grow around each other? Or battle it out? Time will tell

 

[monti mike]

Just checked the tank at night with a flashlight and I stumbled across a crime scene

 

[Ryan Avery]

Top down shot of the maxima clam. Clams may be my favorite thing about reefing. They’re so interesting and the colors are amazing.

That’s really cool clam!

 

[monti mike]

That’s really cool clam!

It is! It’s a stunner and getting big!

 

[monti mike]

I just got my first order of easyreef booster and evo. I’ll take some pictures of the acros today and then another pic in a month to see if there’s any noticeable difference.

 

[monti mike]

I just got my first order of easyreef booster and evo. I’ll take some pictures of the acros today and then another pic in a month to see if there’s any noticeable difference.

These don’t come with the adapter so if you’re ordering either of these make sure you order the connector too. I was excited to get this running today but I guess I can wait a few days.

EasyConnect 25

EasyConnect 25 adapter for EasyBooster and EasySPS EVO 250ml bags

www.coralvue.com

 

[monti mike]

Coral pictures on 12/5. Next update in a month

 

[Reefahholic]

Hi, nice upgrade. What % are you running your G5's at? What spectrum? AB+? Thx!

 

[monti mike]

Hi, nice upgrade. What % are you running your G5's at? What spectrum? AB+? Thx!

Hey thanks! I’m running AB+ with a 75% intensity from noon - 4pm. I run the lights more blue at the beginning and end of the day. I’m pretty happy with the Blue - the color with all the channels at 100% reminds me of the 14k metal halide bulbs I used to run.

 

[esther]

She’s been jealous of the aquarium since the beginning! Here’s little Gigi trying to steal the Marco rocks when I was aquascaping. I put those cushions up to try to ‘block’ her that obviously wasn’t working! She’d jump over the cushion and steal a small rock and crunch on it. She’s naughty! Ha!

Def my fav part of the build thread! Pupper!!

Wow!

This scoly is BEAUTIFUL!

This conch may be my favorite invert. He cracks me ups and here he is tonight with his eyes poking out of the sand. He looks like a little alien.

I have two of these in my tank! I love conchs.

I’m going to try out Red Sea AB + It’ll be interesting to see if it has any impact on growth and color.

How do you like this so far? Are you still using it?

Looks like my emerald crab is expecting babies

Maybe a dumb question, but how can you tell? Also, did it have babies??

 

[monti mike]

Def my fav part of the build thread! Pupper!!



This scoly is BEAUTIFUL!



I have two of these in my tank! I love conchs.



How do you like this so far? Are you still using it?



Maybe a dumb question, but how can you tell? Also, did it have babies??

Thanks for the kind words and for checking out my build! Sadly the scoly didn’t make it. I think it got blasted with too much light and it never recovered... sucks!

Agree on conches! Their eyes crack me up. They look like goofy aliens. They do a pretty good job keeping the sand clean too, so that’s a plus!

I used up two bottles of AB + but I don’t think I saw any noticeable difference. My nitrate and phosphate have been 0, and no acros have died, so maybe it did something to keep them alive. Who knows? I’m experimenting with the easy reef stuff now and I’m a lot more impressed with the results I’m seeing. I’ll post an update at the one month mark but everything has really noticeable growth - stay tuned!

It was pretty unexpected to see the emerald crab with eggs! I was checking out the tank at night with a flashlight and saw her picking at her abdomen area and saw something in the “flaps”. At first I thought I had some new unknown crab pest to deal with! If you zoom in on the picture you may see the ‘crab caviar’. My profile pic (at the moment is the pom pom crab with eggs too. No crab babies though.

 

[esther]

Thanks for the kind words and for checking out my build! Sadly the scoly didn’t make it. I think it got blasted with too much light and it never recovered... sucks!

Agree on conches! Their eyes crack me up. They look like goofy aliens. They do a pretty good job keeping the sand clean too, so that’s a plus!

I used up two bottles of AB + but I don’t think I saw any noticeable difference. My nitrate and phosphate have been 0, and no acros have died, so maybe it did something to keep them alive. Who knows? I’m experimenting with the easy reef stuff now and I’m a lot more impressed with the results I’m seeing. I’ll post an update at the one month mark but everything has really noticeable growth - stay tuned!

It was pretty unexpected to see the emerald crab with eggs! I was checking out the tank at night with a flashlight and saw her picking at her abdomen area and saw something in the “flaps”. At first I thought I had some new unknown crab pest to deal with! If you zoom in on the picture you may see the ‘crab caviar’. My profile pic (at the moment is the pom pom crab with eggs too. No crab babies though.

I'm having a heck of a time getting PO4 below 0.06. Reef Roids keeps it up. lol Have you tried that?

I guess if your SPS is doing well, then I wouldn't change anything.

 

[monti mike]

I'm having a heck of a time getting PO4 below 0.06. Reef Roids keeps it up. lol Have you tried that?

I guess if your SPS is doing well, then I wouldn't change anything.

Reef roids and a little trisodium phosphate did the trick! I followed Randy’s recipe and did some manually dosing to bring it up above 0 - I just hit 0.03 ppm today. There sps were growing but they were definitely pale.
My fish are going to be cranky if I have to start cutting back their over feeding

 

[monti mike]

1/18

 

[monti mike]

The clearview lid came today and I couldn’t be happier. It looks great! Definitely worth the wait.

 

[shadow1013]

Any updates?

 

[monti mike]

It’s been a while since I gave an update. Unfortunately my heater malfunctioned and the tank was at 94 degrees. Usually the profilux controller would have caught it and turned off the heater but I just moved and didn’t have the controller set up yet. All the acros are dead along with the wrasse and the gold assessors. The clowns are stressed but still alive, their nem is gone though.

I pulled out the faulty heater and floated bags of ice in the tank to bring the temp down, but the damage is done. This really sucks - I’m debating tearing down the whole tank.

But for tonight I just finished up an emergency water change and I’ll see how things look in the morning. I think the plan now is to just to do small daily water changes and hope for the best.

 

[Robertellis30]

Let me guess it was a colbolt neotherm heater.

 

[ReefRondo]

So sorry to hear this! This exact scenario happened to my frag tank a few years ago (a staff member knocked my temp probe out of the tank whilst removing a piece of rock to take home) and it is devastating. Hang in there buddy things will be great again!