Red Sea Reefer XL 425 New Build

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Today I returned my Maxspect XF330s and replaced them with MP40s. I’m not sure if I got unlucky but the noise was unbearable. Measured a 10dB high pitchwhine at 60%... The Vortech MP40s are totally silent in comparison.

1616522143009.jpeg


Started cycling. So if all goes well I won’t be posting for a few weeks :D
 
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The cycle completed on Saturday :cool:: I dosed 2mg/l ammonium chloride on Friday and confirmed 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites after 24h. As I have been following Dr Tim's fishless cycling method I was running hot 28°C (82.4°F) and low salinity (26ppt). I have been slowly decreasing temperature and increasing salinity.

Unfortunately my nitrates are through the roof. The Salifert test maxes out at over 100ppm (a dilution test shows the true value might even be 200ppm). I am not sure where all the nitrates came from as my RODI is perfect 0µS/cm (I have a dual DI-Resin stage on the output) and I only dosed about 8mg/l ammonia in total... Maybe those dead clams I had at the start have put out a ton more ammonia than I thought?

So to be safe I will be doing a full water change and start fresh, which will delay me by a few days. Better safe than sorry.
 
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Our first denizens arrived on Wednesday:
A GSP island and Royal Gramma boy named Claude.



After a very traumatic car journey, both seem to be doing much better now.
 
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Our first denizens arrived on Wednesday:
A GSP island and Royal Gramma boy named Claude.



After a very traumatic car journey, both seem to be doing much better now.

Very nice. Enjoy the life in the tank. I just posted a video of my tank from today. The GSP island you see in the video started as a tiny frag. It grows like crazy and will even spread on the sand. You will have to trim it. Can't wait to see how your tank progresses. I know it is hard waiting but you are smart to go slow. I bought a bunch of corals and fish in the 1st 6 months. I lost a few corals and a lot of fish. Once the tank/rocks are 9-12 months old it is waaaaay more stable.
 

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By the way, have citric acid on hand at the 6 month mark. Maybe sooner. I had been turning up my Jebao sow8 and reefwave25 gradually to improve flow. I cleaned both in citric acid today and had to turn the sow8 to its lowest setting and the reefwave25 to 30% (it was at 70%). I can't believe the difference.
 

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The cycle completed on Saturday :cool:: I dosed 2mg/l ammonium chloride on Friday and confirmed 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites after 24h. As I have been following Dr Tim's fishless cycling method I was running hot 28°C (82.4°F) and low salinity (26ppt). I have been slowly decreasing temperature and increasing salinity.

Unfortunately my nitrates are through the roof. The Salifert test maxes out at over 100ppm (a dilution test shows the true value might even be 200ppm). I am not sure where all the nitrates came from as my RODI is perfect 0µS/cm (I have a dual DI-Resin stage on the output) and I only dosed about 8mg/l ammonia in total... Maybe those dead clams I had at the start have put out a ton more ammonia than I thought?

So to be safe I will be doing a full water change and start fresh, which will delay me by a few days. Better safe than sorry.
You running a refugium? Mine has kept my phosphates at 0.02 and nitrates at 0 unless I feed a lot. FYI
 
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You running a refugium? Mine has kept my phosphates at 0.02 and nitrates at 0 unless I feed a lot. FYI
No this was just from cycling. There was nothing alive in there except bacteria. I will need to wait quite some time to see the running nitrates (once I add more livestock). The skimmer already takes a lot out before it’s processed to nitrates. If your fuge takes too much nitrates out you could just reduce the light period on your chaeto, save some money on food and electricity.
 
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I had a setback with the LFS. The royal gramma was scratching and they were no help. Since he had no white spots I thought it might be flukes. At the time I had no qt so I brought the GSP back to the shop and started the whole tank to hyposalinity at 15ppt. Initially it seemed to relieve him but 3 weeks into that the symptoms became clear. It was Brooklynella and it was too late. RIP Claude. So followed 2 weeks to bring the salinity back up and an 8 week fallow period. I’m taking it slow now. I built my qt in the meantime and said my goodbyes to the LFS. Since then I added a torch, frogspawn and hammer which are doing great. Then a chalice, micromussa and lithophyllon.
3B95C544-5C59-4736-A103-698F792419E9.jpeg


Just started my cleanup crew this week. I got 2 percula clowns in qt. She says hi by the way:
54D29614-3E93-4AA4-90AD-5E21D486DA3B.jpeg

10 more days of qt before they can go into the display.
Once they’re in I’ll take a month break with adding anything as I am totally exhausted :D
 
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I’m using a Nikon D780 with a fixed Nikkor 105mm macro lens. I’m finding it tricky to take the fish because depth of field is so narrow on macro and they keep moving.

For corals it’s much easier, my tips:
Set color temp to as high as you can on camera
Use RAW format for adjusting color temperature further in post
Get a tripod
Go high f stop and longer exposure for things that don’t move, gives better depth of field

Here’s my chalice in macro:
A2359FE8-2302-425C-BF49-7F6DEAF57352.jpeg
 

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I’m using a Nikon D780 with a fixed Nikkor 105mm macro lens. I’m finding it tricky to take the fish because depth of field is so narrow on macro and they keep moving.

For corals it’s much easier, my tips:
Set color temp to as high as you can on camera
Use RAW format for adjusting color temperature further in post
Get a tripod
Go high f stop and longer exposure for things that don’t move, gives better depth of field

Here’s my chalice in macro:
A2359FE8-2302-425C-BF49-7F6DEAF57352.jpeg
Ack. I’ve a d530 and it’s been a pain to manually focus the tokina 100mm macro. Im thinking of switching to canon. But this gives me some hope. In another thread I learned about focus stacking , where a series of macro shots with shifting focus is combined to increase the depth of field.
 

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I’m using a Nikon D780 with a fixed Nikkor 105mm macro lens. I’m finding it tricky to take the fish because depth of field is so narrow on macro and they keep moving.

For corals it’s much easier, my tips:
Set color temp to as high as you can on camera
Use RAW format for adjusting color temperature further in post
Get a tripod
Go high f stop and longer exposure for things that don’t move, gives better depth of field

Here’s my chalice in macro:
A2359FE8-2302-425C-BF49-7F6DEAF57352.jpeg
Great pics. Sorry about your loss. I look forward to your tank progress
 
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Julbra

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I had a chance to update my build thread with new pics and video if you want to check them out.
Looks fab, much improved since last time you posted. I’m trying not to look too hard otherwise I’ll be tempted to buy more stuff today. And I promised myself and family to take a break this month. They say I spend more time in the tank than with them, surely that cannot be true?!
 
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Ack. I’ve a d530 and it’s been a pain to manually focus the tokina 100mm macro. Im thinking of switching to canon. But this gives me some hope. In another thread I learned about focus stacking , where a series of macro shots with shifting focus is combined to increase the depth of field.
Yes indeed my photographer friend also told me about "focus stacking". I tried a couple with the auto feature on the Nikon and used zerene stacker. I wasn’t fond of my results yet. I think that will need much experimentation and practice from my side.
 

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Looks fab, much improved since last time you posted. I’m trying not to look too hard otherwise I’ll be tempted to buy more stuff today. And I promised myself and family to take a break this month. They say I spend more time in the tank than with them, surely that cannot be true?!
thanks. I've had the same issue at at times. I try to get them involved in the tank as well. I like to get all my tank work done sat am when they are all relaxing.
 
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The female clown decided to jump out of the tank last night at 11pm. It was incredibly lucky that I was still downstairs doing the washing up and heard a suspicious "splat" sound.

When I arrived at the scene with my red torch I found her unmoving on the wooden floor, looking very dead (probably stunned by the shock). She started flopping a few seconds later. I gently cupped my hands and she hopped on. After a couple of minutes hyperventilating by the frogspawn she seemed to have recovered. She ate well this morning as if nothing had happened.

Annoyingly, I ordered my polycarbonate lid months ago, before the clowns. Well, I can no longer wait for that, so the Red Sea DiY net cover kit is now on the way.
 

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The female clown decided to jump out of the tank last night at 11pm. It was incredibly lucky that I was still downstairs doing the washing up and heard a suspicious "splat" sound.

When I arrived at the scene with my red torch I found her unmoving on the wooden floor, looking very dead (probably stunned by the shock). She started flopping a few seconds later. I gently cupped my hands and she hopped on. After a couple of minutes hyperventilating by the frogspawn she seemed to have recovered. She ate well this morning as if nothing had happened.

Annoyingly, I ordered my polycarbonate lid months ago, before the clowns. Well, I can no longer wait for that, so the Red Sea DiY net cover kit is now on the way.
I have the Red Sea net cover. works well. easier if you have a Dremel with metal blade or something similar to saw the pieces.
 

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