Red Sea REEFER 200XL G2+ Mixed Reef Build

[Sdoutreefer]

I'd remove some from the top, but asides from that the natural rock looks sick too.

The top is what I like! I really need to cut the bottom half in half. Just don't know how hard it's going to be since everything is glued and grouted together.

There's 1 piece in there that I could pull and drop in the sump but that's not going to solve my problem

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/5/2024: It can't all be sunshine and rainbows.... Am I in a mini cycle???

Well, interestingly enough, I decided to do a water test and see where all the levels were. To my suprise, I registered AMMO: 0.8 and NO2 (Nitrite): 0.6.

At first, I was going to panickly do a water change, but I spoke to my reef mentor and he advised to drop the AMMO with prime for the fishes sake, and then let the NO2 ride since it gets quickly converted to NO3 (Nitrate).

Hopefully, everything balances out. I added a vial of Prodibio just to be safe too.

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/7/2024: Final piece of equipment and ocean rock!

I picked up a Reef Octopus Regal 150SSS and man it was a challenge to fit into the sump. Definitely an insanely good skimmer but man the Reef Mat made it a journey.

My idea behind getting the skimmer so early was to set up a recirculating CO2 Scrubber. I have everything I need including the Reef Octopus CO2 Scrubber lid. The entire idea behind this is to take my pH from 7.8 to 8.2-8.4. My alk is incredibly high, but with higher pH the coralline has a better chance of growing.

I'm also told that I can control this directly with hydros, which I have yet to figure out.

I did pick up 2 pieces of marco ocean rock rubble to seed the tank. My work place had it in a bin for over a month without any malicious critters. The biggest ones I want to avoid are vermatids and aiptasia.

I'm excited to see what it does over time. I also realize more and more that I want to collect acros, torches, mushrooms, and chalices. I'll definitely start buying more coral once the tank reaches some form of equilibrium and my Alk isn't so high.

 

[Roughneck]

Update 12/7/2024: Final piece of equipment and ocean rock!

I picked up a Reef Octopus Regal 150SSS and man it was a challenge to fit into the sump. Definitely an insanely good skimmer but man the Reef Mat made it a journey.

My idea behind getting the skimmer so early was to set up a recirculating CO2 Scrubber. I have everything I need including the Reef Octopus CO2 Scrubber lid. The entire idea behind this is to take my pH from 7.8 to 8.2-8.4. My alk is incredibly high, but with higher pH the coralline has a better chance of growing.

I'm also told that I can control this directly with hydros, which I have yet to figure out.

I did pick up 2 pieces of marco ocean rock rubble to seed the tank. My work place had it in a bin for over a month without any malicious critters. The biggest ones I want to avoid are vermatids and aiptasia.

I'm excited to see what it does over time. I also realize more and more that I want to collect acros, torches, mushrooms, and chalices. I'll definitely start buying more coral once the tank reaches some form of equilibrium and my Alk isn't so high.

Awesome man glad it all fit. I also think there's benifits of having the skimmer earlier just for the aeration alone. When my nutrients were too low (basically zero) I was still running it and set it just below where it would start dropping the skim.

Coming from zero nutrients problems, after feeding really heavy for 2-3 weeks I now need the skimmer... had phosphate at 0.21ppm and my tank just turned 3mths old hahah. The reef roids really helped with that. Now I'm stable at 0.1ppm phosphate and 8ppm nitrate with the skimmer and everything look happy.

You did a really good job with the cable/equipment management! We 200 owners know that the struggle is real hahah.

 

[JustinP.]

Awesome man glad it all fit. I also think there's benifits of having the skimmer earlier just for the aeration alone. When my nutrients were too low (basically zero) I was still running it and set it just below where it would start dropping the skim.

Coming from zero nutrients problems, after feeding really heavy for 2-3 weeks I now need the skimmer... had phosphate at 0.21ppm and my tank just turned 3mths old hahah. The reef roids really helped with that. Now I'm stable at 0.1ppm phosphate and 8ppm nitrate with the skimmer and everything look happy.

You did a really good job with the cable/equipment management! We 200 owners know that the struggle is real haha

That's a good point too! I didn't really think about the aeration.

Mannn that phosphate is crazy haha. I used to be stressed when I was above 0.01 LOL.

Thank you! I still have to rewire the reefmat and skimmer to clean up space, but yes. It's such a challenge. If we can make a 200xl look clean, we can make any tank look clean.

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/10/2024: NO more Ammonia and Recirculating CO2 scrubber.

So for the last few days my ammonia has been fairly high peaking at 1 ppm. I will not lie. I freaked out a bit to say the least due to the yellow tang being in there. After adding bacteria and priming the water. It has finally dropped to 0. I'm still going to prime the water every other day but I'm less worried about him. He's still eating good though!

I am afraid that I'll have to remove mister mystery wrasse. He unfortunately likes escargot LOL. It'll be expensive to up keep the tank with him around.

As for the CO2 Scrubber I set it back up and I'll start running it tomorrow. I'm ready to have good pH again haha. Essentially the skimmer collection cup chamber enters the scrubber and then exits through the pump intake. (Disregard the mess at the moment. I need to rewire some things and mount the scrubber)

I also upgraded my Avast Marine Plank! They had an upgrade kit which I decided to pick up, the cannonball, and also a shorter tube, which allowed me to move my MP10 up.

 

[mch1984]

Update 12/10/2024: NO more Ammonia and Recirculating CO2 scrubber.

So for the last few days my ammonia has been fairly high peaking at 1 ppm. I will not lie. I freaked out a bit to say the least due to the yellow tang being in there. After adding bacteria and priming the water. It has finally dropped to 0. I'm still going to prime the water every other day but I'm less worried about him. He's still eating good though!

I am afraid that I'll have to remove mister mystery wrasse. He unfortunately likes escargot LOL. It'll be expensive to up keep the tank with him around.

As for the CO2 Scrubber I set it back up and I'll start running it tomorrow. I'm ready to have good pH again haha. Essentially the skimmer collection cup chamber enters the scrubber and then exits through the pump intake. (Disregard the mess at the moment. I need to rewire some things and mount the scrubber)

I also upgraded my Avast Marine Plank! They had an upgrade kit which I decided to pick up, the cannonball, and also a shorter tube, which allowed me to move my MP10 up.

I've been thinking about getting the plank. I should have picked it up while it was on sale. I'm sure I'll catch it again at some point.

 

[JustinP.]

I've been thinking about getting the plank. I should have picked it up while it was on sale. I'm sure I'll catch it again at some point.

For sure! You can also get them discounted if you but a misprint. Great deal and it works the same. The only difference is that it looks a little different (when you're up close to it). It's mainly controlled with a controller though so you'd need an apex or a hydros.

 

[JustinP.]

For reference my pH at the moment ranges from 7.6 to 7.8. I'm hoping to hit the 8.1-8.4 range.

 

[mch1984]

For reference my pH at the moment ranges from 7.6 to 7.8. I'm hoping to hit the 8.1-8.4 range.

The marine buffer is doing a good job and making it climb. I just have to keep it there after that.

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/14/24: Remote reefing and High pH

It's been 3 days since I've been away from the Reef and everything seems good from a hydros standpoint. No temperature swings and pH has consistently been between 8.0-8.2 which is a large improvement from 7.4-7.7 (if was lucky lol). Hopefully everything continues to hold strong.

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/22/2024: Homemade fish food, making the new lid, and new corals!

So I came back from holiday yesterday and man there's a lot of work that needs to be done. I need to clean the skimmer, change the CO2 media, rewire a few things, test water, and do a water change. However, little by little it will get done for sure. My pH has dropped back down to a very low 7.8 which I can only assume it's due to the CO2 media being exhuasted. I did also note that with the recirculating configuration, there is a lot of condensation that gets trapped in the scrubber if there isn't any moisture trap.

Aside from that a buddy of mine hooked me up with some SPS frags including:
- JF Solar Flare
- Pink Caddy
- WWC Ninja Turtle Tenuis
- ARC Yellow Jacket Millie
- Green Slimer


We also spoke alot about the current fish food in the market, and I decided that I wanted to go down my own route and make my own, that way I know exactly what goes into it and I can ensure that my fish are getting what they need vitamin wise. I used shrimp, scallops, clams, cod, and salmon. I did rinse everything off in RODI and then blanched it in RODI. From there I blended it up into fine pieces (not like soup lol) and then added some spirulina for the microfauna. After that I put it in a ziploc with some more RODI and left it in my fridge. I think that It will last about 2-3 months. The best part was it costed about $15 which is about what I would've paid in mysis for a month. The greenish coloration in the photo is from the added spirulina (it is not mold or bad water).

Finally, I decided to hold off on an expensive lid for now and I opted in for the Red Sea DIY kit. It will take some extra time, but itll be fun to tinker with. I do have to wait until tomorrow to start cutting everything. I worry that I will have a noise complaint filed against me if I was running a saw all night haha.

 

[JustinP.]

Update 12/23/2024: Water Change, New fish, and Water Test

I did a 5 gallon water change and following that I did a water test where my parameters were:

Nitrate: 4.9
Phosphate: 0.06
Calcium: 500
Alkalinity: 8.8
Magnesium: 1440

I also transferred my yasha goby and candy cane pistol shrimp from my 15 gallon to this tank. Here's an updated photo of the tank!