Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Build/ Upgrade and Tank Move

tritonpower · Feb 28, 2022

Garage update. I decided to have more fun in the garage. I drilled a 2nd tank. This is only 10 gallons on the left, 20 gallons on the right. I plumbed them both into a 20 gallon fiji cube kit sump. The plumbing was a PITA. Working well now. Temperature is the main issue. It's in the 50s in the winter and 90s in the summer out there. So far lots of fans and lots of heaters are working. The 10 gallon is still going through the ugly stage. I am using the 10 gallon as a quarantine tank. Any new fish go in there for 2 months before the house tank. Not sure about the green chromis though. I feel the house tank may be pretty full of fish for now. We'll see.

tritonpower · Apr 25, 2022

Tank update. Things are going well. Everything is growing well. Mushrooms are at risk of taking over the tank.

tritonpower · Apr 25, 2022

Still struggling with Aiptasia. I got a file fish at my LFS. It ate great and looked good for a few weeks then stopped eating and died. I then ordered a biota filefish from algae barn. It is so small! Smaller than my thumb. It is doing ok so far but gets tossed around by the wave makers quite a bit. Still eating though. I put a rock with Aiptasia in the acclimation box with the file fish it ate it within minutes. That was exciting to see.

tritonpower · Jul 1, 2022

July 2022 update. Full tank shot. Tank is doing well. Biota filefish is growing well. He has eaten all but 2 aiptasia that I could find so doing his job well despite being so tiny. The back right toadstool is getting huge. It will be shadowing my SPS soon so it will have to go. It is 8inches tall and 8 inches wide and growing rapidly. I will move it to the garage tank and consider selling it.

tritonpower · Jul 1, 2022

Tank update video

tritonpower · Jul 1, 2022

Garage tank update. Dosing these tanks with all4reef with a single dose]ing pump which is really easy. It's holding alk, calcium, and mag levels well. Added a cherub pygmy angel and black blenny to help with algae. So far the algae is winning. Also added a pygmy pufferfish. Tanks are doing well except for the algae. I also found aiptasia in the sump even though I have never seen it in either display so I added a couple peppermint shrimps to the sump.

Julbra · Sep 19, 2022

tritonpower said:
Tank update video

Really lovely colours. Are you target feeding the acans? I have one acan that is doing great, from a single head to 17 in about 10 months but it requires feeding twice a week. Spot feeding reef roids or dropping one LPS pellet in each mouth seems best. He also gets excited when I drop AB+ energy on him.
When we went on holiday for 10 days we came back and it looked completely different, all dried up and tiny heads. After one feed it got plump again.

Note: ours is a micromussa lordhowensis not sure if echinatas require the same

tritonpower · Sep 19, 2022

Julbra said:
Really lovely colours. Are you target feeding the acans? I have one acan that is doing great, from a single head to 17 in about 10 months but it requires feeding twice a week. Spot feeding reef roids or dropping one LPS pellet in each mouth seems best. He also gets excited when I drop AB+ energy on him.
When we went on holiday for 10 days we came back and it looked completely different, all dried up and tiny heads. After one feed it got plump again.

Note: ours is a micromussa lordhowensis not sure if echinatas require the same

I've been doing once a week and the rainbow is looking a little better. thx for the input, I'll try twice a week

tritonpower · Jan 3, 2023

Jan 2023 update. Tank is doing very well. See video attached.

I removed the birds nest that was in the left upper corner since it was getting so big. I gave it to a friend and it looks great in his larger tank. I ordered a few more SPS to take its place from coraleuphoria.com including a Walt Disney (my wife and daughter have had Disneyland passes for years..made it easier to justify the price with the wife!).

My SPS on the top are growing well. I had to trim some since they were stinging each other and I moved the trimming to frags in the garage. Not sure how they will do in a less mature tank. Time will tell.

My biota file fish was eating aiptaisia great but then he ate 2 heads off my purple torch so I brought him to my LFS. He ended up being sold to a friend of mine. Small world.

Lots of stuff going on in the garage including quarantine system. See post below.

Petcrazyson · Jan 3, 2023

Following along for the journey! Awesome thread. Not a big fan of Melanarus but yours has made me rethink mine lol. Love the rock scape!

Petcrazyson · Jan 3, 2023

What light set up do you have? Really good shots btw.

tritonpower · Jan 4, 2023

New garage 40 gallon breeder drilled with custom built stand and plumbed 10 gallon quarantine tank.

see video below.

I feel fish do better with established tanks including when quarantining. I prefer to quarantine in a tank with mature rock and mature sand. I have a 40 breeder (40B) plumbed with a 10 gallon tank ( I prefer 20 gallon but I broke my 20 gallon so this is what I have for now). When it is time to quarantine I then turn off the return pump to the 10 gallon to isolate it. I have a Tunze ATO, in tank filter, and in tank protein skimmer that can be used depending how long the quarantine is. For now I have the ATO set up for the 2 springer damsels I picked up today. If they need a long quarantine I will add the filter and perhaps the protein skimmer but that is mostly when I have a lot of fish together. I have done this several times thus far with success and no fish loss although part of this is luck and an LFS that tends to have decent fish.

I plan to grow SPS in the 40B. I had a couple SPS stinging each other and so I trimmed them and placed a couple frags in my garage 40B. Not sure how they will do since the tank is not as mature as my 3 year old house tank but time will tell.

I have 2 redsea LED50s on the 40B which work well. Using all4reef for now in the 40B with a doser. Works well when not a lot of corals. I rarely adjust the doser. I keep alk at 9.0 which ends up keeping calcium at 420ish and mag at 1350. Also includes trace elements. I will end up sending an ICP at some point to see how it does.

tritonpower · Jan 4, 2023

Petcrazyson said:
What light set up do you have? Really good shots btw.

I have a redsea LED90 in the middle and 2 LED50s on the sides. I have been very happy with the redsea lights. Thanks for the props. Can't wait for the new SPS.

tritonpower · Jan 4, 2023

Petcrazyson said:
Following along for the journey! Awesome thread. Not a big fan of Melanarus but yours has made me rethink mine lol. Love the rock scape!

I call mine Jaws for a reason. I cannot keep any shrimp. He will eat them in seconds. Any snail that ends up upside down is done for. Hermit crabs and emerald crabs must hide all day long. Otherwise....he is great. I also have a Christmas wrasse in the garage. He/she is acting similarly. I got a queen conch today and he/she may or may have not killed it already. Beautiful wrasses but man are they aggressive!

Rudzbrewski · Jan 5, 2023

Things seem to be progressing nicely! I really like your fish population. Many of the same ones I would ideally have in my DT. In the next couple months I may have the time to re-establish the QT and make another attempt. Just discouraged and not as confident after recent issues getting new fish QT and introduced to the DT

Gumbies R Us · Jan 5, 2023

Your progress has been very good and neat to see!!! I really like how your tanks are turning out!

tritonpower · Jan 6, 2023

Gumbies R Us said:
Your progress has been very good and neat to see!!! I really like how your tanks are turning out!

Thanks. I am really enjoying it.

tritonpower · Jan 11, 2023

Added 4 corals I got from coral euphoria including a Walt Disney frag. Light acclimating now. Looking forward to watching them grow

tritonpower · Jan 24, 2023

So it is time to upgrade. Click my build thread and it will link to the new tank I ordered. Innovative Marine NUVO EXT 200. Not sure what I will do with the 425 XL. It is very sentimental to me. May be hard to sell but I should. We will see.

Petcrazyson · Jan 24, 2023

tritonpower said:
So it is time to upgrade. Click my build thread and it will link to the new tank I ordered. Innovative Marine NUVO EXT 200. Not sure what I will do with the 425 XL. It is very sentimental to me. May be hard to sell but I should. We will see.

Look forward to it! IM is what I’m looking to use as an upgrade as well!