Red Sea Reefer Deluxe 525 XL Build
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RickLRMS
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I ended up making some changes to the aquascape, but it is now in place. I need to rinse then add the sand (CaribSea Special Grade Argonite Dry). I’m also getting ready to add water and cycle two quarantine tanks, one for fish and one for the CUC.
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RickLRMS
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I had a misfire on my quarantine tanks; I had purchased two “Lifetime “ 8’ tables at Sam’s Club that had a 2,000 lb capacity (evenly spread). I did the square inch calculation and that should work fine. Did not account for the sag quotient. Badly unlevel. So made a trip to Home Depot, built two crude stands (these are in my shop), and they are heating up now. The one with sand is for the CuC (edit:and coral) and I plan for it to stay up with the next batch always getting ready.
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On December 27th I added Dr. Tim's One & Only and Dr. Tim's ammonia to both QTs. I (per instructions) added additional ammonia on the 29th (Day 2). Monitoring ammonia and nitrite. I may have jumped the gun but I ordered some livestock (invertebrates, no fish) from WWC during their 30% off end-of-year sale. Due in on the 14th of January which should give plenty of time for the invertebrate QT to get ready. May have made a mistake, but I have had the DT since early September so I decided to let the discount push me. I keep finding myself paralyzed by indecision; everything about this, my new hobby, seems to bring with it multiple viewpoints and many contradictions. If it was a mistake I'll make it and move on. One way or the other I'll get to my way of doing things. 
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RickLRMS
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The QTs weren't cycling with the Dr. Tim's -- nothing was happening -- so I delayed the arrival of the inverts and four coral until Feb 4th and ordered and added an API bacteria bottle to the invert QT and now it's
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Even though my display tank it's still dry, I am finally caring for some livestock so I almost feel like a real reefer—-though, given a major mistake, not a very good reefer.
I ordered a cleaner shrimp, ten super nassarius snails, ten trochus snails, ten tiny blue-legged hermit crabs and—-as mentioned above—-given the 30% off WWC had at the end of the year I went ahead and ordered some coral: three zoas and an ultra orange ricordea. All arrived on Feb 4th. I temperature acclimated each bag then drip acclimated each emptied bag for forty minutes prior to adding to my invert QT. I’ve since read trochus snails should be drip acclimated longer (one suggestion was ten hours) but I’m not sure how to maintain heat for that length of time.
WWC suggested waiting to dip the corals, which I did, putting them into the QT undipped then dipping them a couple of days later. I’m not sure that was best, though, and would appreciate any input.
As to the mistake, it was a major one. I blame it on being under the weather—-better than just calling myself an idiot. In the days leading up to the 4th I never checked nitrate levels, didn’t check them before putting in the livestock. I’d been adding ammonia periodically to ensure it was processing the ammonia out. Dumb, I know. When I checked afterward it was super high, well off the NYOS nitrate test chart. It’s a 20 gallon tank which I estimate to be about 14 gallons of water once the sand, rock, and head space are taken away (that doesn't seem logical, I know, but with some measuring it's what I came up with). I think it took me four water changes (over two days time) of six gallons each to even get it on the chart: between 95 and 160 ppm nitrates. With additional water changes I've gotten it down to between 12 and 25 now. But I'm not sure how much damage it did with them going into the water with nitrates that high nor any idea how long it might take any damage caused by high nitrates to show up. So far they seem okay but time will tell. [Edit: Never mind the following edit; doing the same thing for my fish quarantine tank and it has nitrates off the chart, zero nitrites (no fish yet, finishing cycle).Edit: I have since read if nitrites are present, nitrates can read 10 to 100 times higher than actual. Since I didn’t check nitrites maybe the nitrate test was reporting way over actual.]
As to my fish QT, as the Dr. Tim’s bacteria I had added was still a no-show, I added a bottle of the ATI a couple of days ago. Hopefully it’ll do as it did on the invert QT and get the cycle kicked off.
I ordered a cleaner shrimp, ten super nassarius snails, ten trochus snails, ten tiny blue-legged hermit crabs and—-as mentioned above—-given the 30% off WWC had at the end of the year I went ahead and ordered some coral: three zoas and an ultra orange ricordea. All arrived on Feb 4th. I temperature acclimated each bag then drip acclimated each emptied bag for forty minutes prior to adding to my invert QT. I’ve since read trochus snails should be drip acclimated longer (one suggestion was ten hours) but I’m not sure how to maintain heat for that length of time.
WWC suggested waiting to dip the corals, which I did, putting them into the QT undipped then dipping them a couple of days later. I’m not sure that was best, though, and would appreciate any input.
As to the mistake, it was a major one. I blame it on being under the weather—-better than just calling myself an idiot. In the days leading up to the 4th I never checked nitrate levels, didn’t check them before putting in the livestock. I’d been adding ammonia periodically to ensure it was processing the ammonia out. Dumb, I know. When I checked afterward it was super high, well off the NYOS nitrate test chart. It’s a 20 gallon tank which I estimate to be about 14 gallons of water once the sand, rock, and head space are taken away (that doesn't seem logical, I know, but with some measuring it's what I came up with). I think it took me four water changes (over two days time) of six gallons each to even get it on the chart: between 95 and 160 ppm nitrates. With additional water changes I've gotten it down to between 12 and 25 now. But I'm not sure how much damage it did with them going into the water with nitrates that high nor any idea how long it might take any damage caused by high nitrates to show up. So far they seem okay but time will tell. [Edit: Never mind the following edit; doing the same thing for my fish quarantine tank and it has nitrates off the chart, zero nitrites (no fish yet, finishing cycle).
As to my fish QT, as the Dr. Tim’s bacteria I had added was still a no-show, I added a bottle of the ATI a couple of days ago. Hopefully it’ll do as it did on the invert QT and get the cycle kicked off.
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The fish quarantine tank is now cycled, processing ammonia with no issue. Time to figure out where to buy the first fish.
The invert QT is still rocking along, twenty-one days now with critters in the tank. My rocks have turned green with algae, though no strands of it. Just a dark tint to the rock. This started about two weeks ago, very lightly tinted, but got darker as the days passed (photo below). My parameters checked today were:
Still have no real idea if I'm doing things right, but I'll keep plugging along. Below is the photo of the greenery on my rocks, and includes my cleaner shrimp who, by the way, molted a few days ago.
The invert QT is still rocking along, twenty-one days now with critters in the tank. My rocks have turned green with algae, though no strands of it. Just a dark tint to the rock. This started about two weeks ago, very lightly tinted, but got darker as the days passed (photo below). My parameters checked today were:
- Salinity 35ppt
- Nitrate between 5 and 12, though much closer to 5
- Phosphate 0.59ppm
- dKH 6.8
- pH 8.2
Still have no real idea if I'm doing things right, but I'll keep plugging along. Below is the photo of the greenery on my rocks, and includes my cleaner shrimp who, by the way, molted a few days ago.
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Long delay due to issues with the fish quarantine tank and, well, life in general but—the first three fish went into the fish quarantine tank yesterday! Two clownfish (Meriadoc “Merry” and Peregrin “Pippin”) and a yellow watchman goby (Wally). I will be ramping the copper up over the next couple of days.
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Update:
The fish (two clownfish and a yellow watchman goby) in my quarantine tank have completed their fourteen day medicated food regimen, still have a bit of time to go on the copper bath, and then will be hanging out for observation for a couple of weeks. Probably about a month left. I did find out my two clown fish are of different types. One is an ocellaris, the other a percula. Who knew? Well, the guy who looked at the post on another forum where I asked if they were okay. I didn't know, I thought I had bought two ocellaris.
My invert tank is still doing well. I had one of my blue legged hermit crabs molt; at first I thought he had died. It's unlikely he's the first but that's the first molted exoskeleton I've seen. My cleaner shrimp has molted several times — and grown quite a bit. The photo below shows growth from when he went into the tank on February 4th to today. You have to look close to see him in the picture on the left.
Both of my quarantine tanks are running high on phosphates, which I'm working to address. Nitrates are okay.
As for the display tank, my plumbing has arrived to connect my COR-20 pump to the return line. But I have something coming up this weekend (daughter's wedding) that means it is likely going to be next week before I can hook it up. but I'm hoping (really hoping) by the end of next week it will have the sand bed in and be full of water and circulating, the cycle started. It has been nine months since it arrived after all. I think it is time the tank got wet. Getting 140 gallons of water from my shop (where the mixed tank area is) to my house (where the display tank is) will be a pain in the backside. Hopefully I will come up with some ways to make the process as easy as possible, but I think I'll always be slogging the water from the shop to the house. I do have a garden cart my son and I built a few years back that will at least make the transport a little easier. But I will be doing it 15 gallons at a time.
The previously mentioned cleaner strip, whose name, by the way, is Skittles.
The fish (two clownfish and a yellow watchman goby) in my quarantine tank have completed their fourteen day medicated food regimen, still have a bit of time to go on the copper bath, and then will be hanging out for observation for a couple of weeks. Probably about a month left. I did find out my two clown fish are of different types. One is an ocellaris, the other a percula. Who knew? Well, the guy who looked at the post on another forum where I asked if they were okay. I didn't know, I thought I had bought two ocellaris.
My invert tank is still doing well. I had one of my blue legged hermit crabs molt; at first I thought he had died. It's unlikely he's the first but that's the first molted exoskeleton I've seen. My cleaner shrimp has molted several times — and grown quite a bit. The photo below shows growth from when he went into the tank on February 4th to today. You have to look close to see him in the picture on the left.
Both of my quarantine tanks are running high on phosphates, which I'm working to address. Nitrates are okay.
As for the display tank, my plumbing has arrived to connect my COR-20 pump to the return line. But I have something coming up this weekend (daughter's wedding) that means it is likely going to be next week before I can hook it up. but I'm hoping (really hoping) by the end of next week it will have the sand bed in and be full of water and circulating, the cycle started. It has been nine months since it arrived after all. I think it is time the tank got wet. Getting 140 gallons of water from my shop (where the mixed tank area is) to my house (where the display tank is) will be a pain in the backside. Hopefully I will come up with some ways to make the process as easy as possible, but I think I'll always be slogging the water from the shop to the house. I do have a garden cart my son and I built a few years back that will at least make the transport a little easier. But I will be doing it 15 gallons at a time.
The previously mentioned cleaner strip, whose name, by the way, is Skittles.
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RickLRMS
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Adding sand to my display tank. For those of you who are not aware, wet sand is heavy! I checked with a reliable instrument, each of those buckets weighs 17,000 pounds. The reliable instrument was my back, and it swears up and down that’s what they weighed.


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RickLRMS
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After eight trips with the STU, the rock work is underwater. The blue containers will hold seven gallons but I’m only filling them 1/2 full because my back isn’t what it used to be. I’ve had issues with both the pump I was going to fill them with and the pump I was going to empty them with, so I’m having to use a 1 gallon pitcher and manually move the water. It is time consuming and not much fun.
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The Apex is connected, up and running. The probes are calibrated and installed. The return pump is pumping, the WAV Powerheads are running, and — hopefully — the nitrogen cycle is in process. When I first turned the return pump on, my plumbing left something to be desired and I sprayed water in all directions – well, really, only in one direction. Had to fix that. But, finally, I feel as if I’m getting somewhere. Starting to get excited about moving my three fish from the quarantine tank and my snails and cleaner shrimp and hermit crabs from their quarantine tank into this display tank.
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I added an Auqa Gadget 15 Gallon Hydrofill Reservoir from Innovative Marine along with a Prism Auto Top Off from ReefBreeders to pump out of the reservoir. I wanted a Tunze Osmolator 3155 but nobody had them in stock.
The closed cabinet door on the right hides a rat’s nest of wires, but it also has an Adaptive Reef controller cabinet which I hope to use to tame the rat’s nest. But it may be a couple of weeks before I can get to that part of the project, though I have already mounted the Apex energy bar.
Currently waiting for the nitrogen cycle to kick in; I used two bottles of ATI starter, but it doesn’t seem to have had any effect. I’ll take new measurements today. I have a third bottle which I suppose I’ll add sometime in the next day or so.
The closed cabinet door on the right hides a rat’s nest of wires, but it also has an Adaptive Reef controller cabinet which I hope to use to tame the rat’s nest. But it may be a couple of weeks before I can get to that part of the project, though I have already mounted the Apex energy bar.
Currently waiting for the nitrogen cycle to kick in; I used two bottles of ATI starter, but it doesn’t seem to have had any effect. I’ll take new measurements today. I have a third bottle which I suppose I’ll add sometime in the next day or so.
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I haven’t had a picture of my invertebrate quarantine tank on here in a while. It is to be a permanent fixture to keep snails and crabs available for the display tank as needed. It does currently need the sand bed vacuumed.
I haven’t been able to keep sand in that front left corner. My powerhead on the right side is not an adjustable speed motor/pump. I may upgrade it one day. Everything in there now has been in there — by far — long enough to be ready to go to the display tank.
I haven’t been able to keep sand in that front left corner. My powerhead on the right side is not an adjustable speed motor/pump. I may upgrade it one day. Everything in there now has been in there — by far — long enough to be ready to go to the display tank.
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After much more money than expected and much more time than anticipated, there are critters in the display tank. I moved the two clownfish and the yellow watchman goby from my fish quarantine tank on Saturday, and moved my cleaner shrimp from my invertebrate quarantine tank on Sunday. Photo below has all four in the picture-though the goby is tricky to see.
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