Red Sea Reefer 350 w/ 2 ReefLED 90's & 1 ReefWave 45

[Lithoman]

Hey SCHAULJ.... We have a lot in common. Red Sea 425XL here started my cycle 9-22-19 .. have had most the issues you have had. I am OCD and this is not a good hobby with that..LOL. My cycle took 5 weeks..longest wait I ever had. Bought the ApexEL controller system.. best purchase yet.. got one MP40 dialed down 20-45% tons of flow. I started having algae problems.. started to freak out... purchased Vibrant and cleaned up the algae problem.. Noticed a little stringy algae started with bubbles on the algae.. Phos low and no nitrate.. started feeding heavy and added ME Coral NO3 and it cleared up in a week... I know its a pain in the beginning but keep smiling it will get better.. pic of my tank.. and i'm still testing every other day.. PH was a major issue to get above 8.. dosing 2 part plus a few other tweaks now has my calcium and alkalinity stable...any questions just keep asking.. people here are great..
Good Luck

 

[SCHAULJ]

Thanks Nburg, appreciate it! Ive learned a lot along the way.

 

[SCHAULJ]

Lithoman - thanks for commenting on my thread/build. You have a great set up! I also have OCD so this has bothered me for awhile now. Ive been impressed with the brightwell products - NeoNitro and NeoPhos. They are doing exactly what they say they will do. Buying the Red Sea ReefWave 45 next month once it hits the stores. Apex is in my future for sure!

And yes... love this site. Lots of helpful reefers on here.

 

[SCHAULJ]

Little Tuesday update.

Skimmer cup drain line is still emptying into the sump - still a steady stream... cup would fill with water in a matter of minutes. It may take up to 4 or 5 days for this to slow down to a point I can start collecting again based on reading a few other build threads that have used this same technique after a chemiclean treatment.

Tuesday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - None
NeoNitro - None

Test
Nitrate 12ppm (Red Sea)
Nitrate 20ppm (API)
Phosphates .05ppm

 

[SCHAULJ]

Thursday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - None
NeoNitro - 23ml (Should increase Nitrates to 10)

Test
Nitrate 8ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphates .06ppm

 

[SCHAULJ]

10% WC today to get the skimmer back online. This did the trick. The gunk is now collecting in the cup like normal. Removed old carbon - added 100gr of fresh carbon.

Post chemiclean treatment - complete a 20% WC, add 200gr of reef spec carbon to filter cup (recommended post med treatment), let drain line from skimmer drain into sump for 1 week, complete 10% WC. This will get your skimmer dialed back in!

Sunday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 10ml (should increase phosphates to .08)
NeoNitro - None

Test
Nitrate 12ppm (Red Sea)
Nitrate 10 or 20ppm (API)
Phosphates .05ppm

 

[SCHAULJ]

Battling for more than 2 months now - minimal progress. Frustrating!

Tuesday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 14ml (should increase phosphates to .08)
NeoNitro - None

Test
Nitrate 12ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphates .04ppm

 

[ScottB]

Battling for more than 2 months now - minimal progress. Frustrating!

Tuesday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 14ml (should increase phosphates to .08)
NeoNitro - None

Test
Nitrate 12ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphates .04ppm

Sorry to hear. I forget, Are you Posting to the main Dino thread “Are you tired”? Check it out if not.

 

[melfish]

Dinos suck. The smell of them makes me sick! If it gives you any hope, I have occasional outbreaks of dinos in my tank and they just go away by themselves after a period of time. I stopped trying to treat them, nothing worked, then I figured out they’ll sort themselves out. I have maybe 1-2 outbreaks a year for anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months and then one day I’ll be looking at the tank and realise, oh, they’re gone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There is a product called Dino X which I used for a little bit. It did work but from memory they came back when I stopped dosing. A microscope can ID the strain if you want to try targeted treatments.

Good luck with it all, I hope this gives you some hope Love the tank. I hope to upgrade to a Reefer 350 this year!

 

[SCHAULJ]

ScottB ive read a large chuck of that giant thread! Good read for sure. I have minimal interest in purchasing a microscope though so staying away from that page currently as thats the bulk of the feedback I would get I think .

I put my mixing stations cobalt mj1200 in front left side of the display. Pointed the flow downward a bit... immediately kicked up a bunch of the stringy things, they detached, floated to top and into the overflow. Going to keep this pump in the display until this is solved or until I need it to mix some salt water. Increased flow should help! Waiting on the ReefWave 45 from Red Sea.. supposed to be on shelves this month.

Friday Test
Nitrate 16ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphates .06ppm (Hannah ULR)

Friday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 10ml (Should bring to 1.0ppm)
NeoNitro - None

Enjoy the weekend all!

 

[jk1151]

ScottB ive read a large chuck of that giant thread! Good read for sure. I have minimal interest in purchasing a microscope thought so staying away from that page currently as thats the bulk of the feedback I would get I think .

I put my mixing stations cobalt mj1200 in front left side of the display. Pointed the flow downward a bit... immediately kicked up a bunch of the stringy things, they detached, floated to top and into the overflow. Going to keep this pump in the display until this is solved or until I need it to mix some salt water. Increased flow should help! Waiting on the ReefWave 45 from Red Sea.. supposed to be on shelves this month.

Friday Test
Nitrate 16ppm (Red Sea)
Phosphates .06ppm (Hannah ULR)

Friday Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 10ml (Should bring to 1.0ppm)
NeoNitro - None

Enjoy the weekend all!

I also tried to be patient for the Red Sea gyres but finally broke down and purchased 2 maxspect 330s for my reefer 425xl. So far they seem to be pretty good. Can’t wait to hear what people think of the Red Sea gyres! Great information and fun to read through your build. Thanks for sharing. I am just getting started. Tank only running for 2 weeks so far. No animals, just trying to get it cycled.

 

[SCHAULJ]

I also tried to be patient for the Red Sea gyres but finally broke down and purchased 2 maxspect 330s for my reefer 425xl. So far they seem to be pretty good. Can’t wait to hear what people think of the Red Sea gyres! Great information and fun to read through your build. Thanks for sharing. I am just getting started. Tank only running for 2 weeks so far. No animals, just trying to get it cycled.

Aquascape looks great - well done! Make sure you monitor your nitrates and phosphates closely after cycle - do not let them hit zero. Ive been battling dinos for too long! Stinks...

Good luck. Off to a great start.

 

[SCHAULJ]

10g WC complete.

Nitrates - 16ppm (Red Sea Kit)
Phosphates - 0.03ppm (Hannah ULR)

Dosed
MicroBacter7 - None
Neophose - 20ml (Should increase to .08/.09)
NeoNitro - 0ml

I have green hair algae in the tank now which is a positive sign. These increased nutrients (phos and nitrates) are allowing algae to grow. Which will now hopefully compete w/ the dino and eventually starve them out.

I can deal w/ green hair algae... This dino has to go...

 

[SCHAULJ]

Wednesday Test

Nitrates - 20 or 40ppm, really hard to tell (API)
Phosphates - 0.22ppm (Hannah ULR)

Dosed
MicroBacter7 - 0ml
Neophose - 0ml
NeoNitro - 0ml

Not sure what happened w/ my N & P the last few days... Will closely monitor if they do not drop ill complete a WC this weekend. Plenty of nutrients in this tank now...

 

[SCHAULJ]

Friday Test

Nitrates TBD
Phosphates .08 (Hannah ULR)

 

[SCHAULJ]

Good Morning. Still have a case of the dinos.. Will do a diluted Red Sea test tomorrow when im making RO water to get a more accurate Nitrate number

Saturday Test
Nitrates 40ppm (API)
Nitrite 0ppm (API)
PH 8.0 (API)
Phosphates .08ppm (Friday - Hannah ULR)

Was at my LFS the other day, they said the red sea rep was recently in the store and told them that the ReefWave will be in stores before months end... so next week. Anxious to get this in the tank!

 

[SCHAULJ]

Made some RODI water today which allowed me to do a diluted Red Sea Nitrate Pro test.

Monday Test
Nitrates 16ppm
Phosphates .05ppm (Hannah ULR)
Temperature 78.3 F (Hannah Salinity Tester)
Salinty 1.024 (Hannah Salinity Tester)

More and more hair algae growth. Had to move my lights back towards more blue as the BTA was not happy... at all. Dinos appear to be thinning out a bit... Not really sure. Hopefully the GHA is out competing the dinos... time will tell. Its been a frustrating fight.

 

[SCHAULJ]

I think my plan going forward is to test phosphates every other day to see if I can develop a pattern. It appears my phosphates drop .01ppm each day... If true I will need to dose 3 to 4 ml each day of NeoPhos to keep this stable with my current feeding schedule and fish load.

Nitrates im already moving to weekly testing.

Wednesday Test
Phosphates .03ppm (Hannah ULR)

Dosed
NeoPhos 7ml (should increase phosphates to .05)

 

[SCHAULJ]

"It appears my phosphates drop .01ppm each day..." Ha, so much for that. My phosphates were .11 today. Which means they increased .08 with out me dosing anything yesterday or today.

Friday Test
Phosphates .11ppm (Hannah ULR)

Dosed
NeoPhos 0ml

 

[SCHAULJ]

Happy Sunday all. Cleaned up the sump today - used the VCA detritus vacuum attachment which works great for sucking up all the muck. I also took apart the skimmer and gave that a deep clean as well.

Completed a 20g WC. Vacummed the entire sand bed. Fresh bag of reef spec carbon the in the cup.

Looks great for the next hour or so... then the dino comes back.

Looking at getting a UV to see if it solves this issue...