Reefandthecurious’s170 reefer

[Reefandthecurious]

Hi new to REEF2REEF.
I wanted somewhere that I could write down my progress and also learn how to keep a healthy thriving reef tank. Feel free to give any advice or suggestions.

I got the tank August 30 2018. I decided to go with the Redsea reefer 170 because it came with everything built in. Before choosing the reefer 170. I looked online and found a used tank with everything included for $700. I went to go see it and noticed that it had this weird smudges in the sides. I ask the owner what it was and he said it was silicone from fixing up a leak. That scared me off because since I’m new to the whole aquarium hobby. I didn’t want to risk building or buying a tank that may end up leaking or even worst cracking.

I wish I had taken more pictures of when I actually got the tank,set it up,etc but sadly I don’t. Fast forward to today and this is how my tank looks now.

I have all the cables for all the equipment plugged to a power bar but I don’t like how it looks any suggestions how I can make it look more organized?

I’m not too sure on the specific equipment names but here’s my how my sump looks

I’m following the mixed reef recipe Red Sea suggests on their website. So far I’ve only started dosing NoPox because I had little diotomes outbreak before. Im only testing nitrates since that’s what my lfs said to do. So right now I’m using Salifert nitrate test kit. I plan on buying more of the recipe in couple days. Do I need the whole recipe right away or can I wait until I test?

Water parameters:
Salinity 1.026
Nitrate 50ppm
Temp 78

I’m running Ai prime HD lights.

I have quite a lot livestock right now and was hoping to add maybe 1 or 2 more fishes.

Livestock:
4 clownfish
2 blue devil damsels
2 royal blue tangs
1 sea urchin
Snails
1 Emerald crab
1 Blue crab
1 sally light food crab
4 hermit crabs

Was planning on getting bubble bee snail crab and Halloween hermit crab. Is that too many invertebrates for the size of my tank?

Last but not least a pic of my reefer.

I have these corals that I’m growing on frag rack. I’m still undecided as to where I want to place them. Any suggestions?

I feed the fish daily and the corals twice/week. I’m dosing the no pox as suggested on the Red Sea recipe 2.8ml for my tank. is that good amount or too much?

Look forward to meeting everyone and hearing any advice or suggestions you may have for me. Thanks

 

[saintsreturn]

Welcome to R2R and good job on starting a build/tracking page

The easiest way to clean the wiring up for now, is to get a small cabinet of some kind that matches your setup and place it on the side. There are some amazing threads on here where people discuss that in detail. I personally love one that a guy did with a kitchen island thing from target. Hides everything, looks great and it practical for testing water and doing maint stuff on top of. That said, the reefers look great with a hanging ikea cabinet near them. I had the room in the stand to build a box for all my stuff and it virtually hid all of my wires. Now, one piece of advice there.... keep everything separate. What i mean is when you start running wires into a cleaner look, do not zip tie them all together. When you replace your heater or clean you pumps, this becomes a major PITA. Just go with velcro straps and run the group to a single point.

What i did was pick up a GFCI plug from HD and then ran that from my plug to my box. One wire out to that can be seen. From there, i plugged everything into my control box and kept it separate.

Congrats again

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Welcome to R2R and good job on starting a build/tracking page

The easiest way to clean the wiring up for now, is to get a small cabinet of some kind that matches your setup and place it on the side. There are some amazing threads on here where people discuss that in detail. I personally love one that a guy did with a kitchen island thing from target. Hides everything, looks great and it practical for testing water and doing maint stuff on top of. That said, the reefers look great with a hanging ikea cabinet near them. I had the room in the stand to build a box for all my stuff and it virtually hid all of my wires. Now, one piece of advice there.... keep everything separate. What i mean is when you start running wires into a cleaner look, do not zip tie them all together. When you replace your heater or clean you pumps, this becomes a major PITA. Just go with velcro straps and run the group to a single point.

What i did was pick up a GFCI plug from HD and then ran that from my plug to my box. One wire out to that can be seen. From there, i plugged everything into my control box and kept it separate.

Congrats again

Thanks for the advice. That sounds like a really good idea I’ll stop by ikea on the weekend have a look at some hanging cabinets. And yeah having another cabinet would help a lot with WC. How do you do yours? I siphon into a 5gal tank pretty easy because I have a python siphon but when I have to put in the new Rodin water I have to use small bowls. Is there a easier way?

 

[saintsreturn]

Thanks for the advice. That sounds like a really good idea I’ll stop by ikea on the weekend have a look at some hanging cabinets. And yeah having another cabinet would help a lot with WC. How do you do yours? I siphon into a 5gal tank pretty easy because I have a python siphon but when I have to put in the new Rodin water I have to use small bowls. Is there a easier way?

If and when i do a small change, i siphon out into a bucket and just dump it in the street. When i do a larger change, i run the hose to the toilet and drain it in there.

For filling fresh salt water, i have a mix station in the garage with a pump large enough to push the water to my tank. I really hate lifting buckets. For top off, i have a pull out drawer container from BRS sitting next to my tank and a float valve setup moves water as needed.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I don't know how I missed your first post! Welcome to R2R! Nice tank and thank you for sharing! Time to meet some of your new reefing family!!!

#welcometor2r

 

[DSC reef]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Welcome to R2R

 

[Fudsey]

Welcome to R2R ! ! !

 

[dylana407]

Very nice.

 

[buddy.]

I am really liking that natural rock scape look, It might give me some inspiration for my tank

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks and sounds good! Welcome to the forum!

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Thanks buddy. I was thinking of changing it after going through some other build threads with much better rock scapes. Even got the better half complaining about it. But you have convince me to just leave it alone for now lol

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Everything looked good after the water change. I don’t know what happen luckily I caught this. Don’t know how long the blue tang been like that. I’ve been out all day even went to the LFS to grab some new coral and invertebrates. Can anyone ID how the blue tang died?

 

[WallyB]

Everything looked good after the water change. I don’t know what happen luckily I caught this. Don’t know how long the blue tang been like that. I’ve been out all day even went to the LFS to grab some new coral and invertebrates. Can anyone ID how the blue tang died?

I have never seen anything like this before. NOt the chewed up look that happens after they die. THE BOTTOM BLACK.
Maybe I never looked for something like this.
My Firefish looked pretty bad after being killed by being pulled into my Maxijet pump, but this unbelievable.

When was the last time you saw him swimming? Healthy? Got a photo in White Light.
You posted above and he was alive just this last Wednesday.

I suggest you post in the Fish Disease forum https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

There are some experts there who can help better.
They can also warn you if you need to react and do something to save the rest of your fish.

Even if things are ok. Looks to me like you had more than one Blue Tang and more than 2 clowns. That will be trouble.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

I have never seen anything like this before. NOt the chewed up look that happens after they die. THE BOTTOM BLACK.
Maybe I never looked for something like this.
My Firefish looked pretty bad after being killed by being pulled into my Maxijet pump, but this unbelievable.

When was the last time you saw him swimming? Healthy? Got a photo in White Light.
You posted above and he was alive just this last Wednesday.

I suggest you post in the Fish Disease forum https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

There are some experts there who can help better.
They can also warn you if you need to react and do something to save the rest of your fish.

Even if things are ok. Looks to me like you had more than one Blue Tang and more than 2 clowns. That will be trouble.

Appreciate the quick response I didn’t know where to go with this situation Thanks! Unfortunately I don’t have any other pics as my water wasn’t that clear so I had went out today to buy filter floss and carbon. Come to think of it I noticed one of my blue tangs was rubbing against rock last night. Could that be a symptom of something? The last time I seen him swimming was today I’m not too experienced but to me he looked healthy.

 

[WallyB]

Rubbing against rock just once is nothing to worry about.

But if it's continuous that could be clear sign of a disease.

Keep a close eye on ALL your fish. Try and get good photos of your fish. Not blue light, but only white lights.
Best focus your can get. Zoom into those photos and look for weird things, that are no regular skin, even color.

Look for color changes.
Look for white specs on skin.
Look for red bruise marks on body.
Look for the fish's skin to look shimmery.
Look for poo that looks different. Stringy, white, not powdery.
Look for weird behavior like always rubbing on glass, or rocks. Or swimming into a powerhead like wanting to cool down.

I'm not an expert on diseases since there are so many. I only know ICH, and wounds/infections.

Then take the photos to the other forum section and someone will help you.

What they will tell you if you find out your tank has a contagious disease is you will have to treat the fish.
Possibly in tank with Meds. Or if more drastic medicine that would hurt your corals, then fish would have to be removed and treated in a separate tank.

I hope it's nothing, but I've lost quite a few fish from diseases in Quarentine Tanks. That is why it's always suggested to Quarentine fish before putting in your tank.

Did you add any new fish recently? New fish could bring disease.
Once fish are in your tank and they are healthy for long time, the chance of disease is lower but not zero, since things like dirty tank, or bad water conditions can also make them sick.

All the best. When you post on the Disease forum. Let me know. I will follow along since I can find your other posts anywhere.

Take care.

 

[WallyB]

Never mind. I posted and then notice you got experts helping you.

Like I said and they are saying. You have the wrong fish in that tank.
So maybe you are lucky and it's not disease, just two tangs, and one was stronger.
I hope so.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Rubbing against rock just once is nothing to worry about.

But if it's continuous that could be clear sign of a disease.

Keep a close eye on ALL your fish. Try and get good photos of your fish. Not blue light, but only white lights.
Best focus your can get. Zoom into those photos and look for weird things, that are no regular skin, even color.

Look for color changes.
Look for white specs on skin.
Look for red bruise marks on body.
Look for the fish's skin to look shimmery.
Look for poo that looks different. Stringy, white, not powdery.
Look for weird behavior like always rubbing on glass, or rocks. Or swimming into a powerhead like wanting to cool down.

I'm not an expert on diseases since there are so many. I only know ICH, and wounds/infections.

Then take the photos to the other forum section and someone will help you.

What they will tell you if you find out your tank has a contagious disease is you will have to treat the fish.
Possibly in tank with Meds. Or if more drastic medicine that would hurt your corals, then fish would have to be removed and treated in a separate tank.

I hope it's nothing, but I've lost quite a few fish from diseases in Quarentine Tanks. That is why it's always suggested to Quarentine fish before putting in your tank.

Did you add any new fish recently? New fish could bring disease.
Once fish are in your tank and they are healthy for long time, the chance of disease is lower but not zero, since things like dirty tank, or bad water conditions can also make them sick.

All the best. When you post on the Disease forum. Let me know. I will follow along since I can find your other posts anywhere.

Take care.

The only new fish I’ve added were the two blue tangs about a month ago. As for dirty tank the only that I can relate to that is my water wasn’t clear. But I’ve resolved that problem by buying filter floss and carbon. As for water condition I will buy Red Sea marine care test kit as per advice by @JoshH. I will give updates here as well as my post on the fish disease forum.

 

[Reefandthecurious]

Aside from the unfortunate passing from one of my tangs this is how I originally planned to post the update.

Yesterday I went to my LFS and bought two new corals one being a zoa and the other acan.

Princess 99

Aussie acan

Apologize for the bad quality pics. I will be purchasing Coral lenses soon.

I also bought a Halloween hermit crab
Which seems to be hiding at the moment.

Halloween Sea urchin

And finally 2 bumblebee snails

Had a lil aiptasia growing on one of my other zoas. Took care of that problem

 

[WallyB]

If you want to clear up your water get the appropriate number of bags of CHEMi pUrE from boyd enterprizes. not the elite or the blue version, just the regular. it does wonders and will keep fish healthy and ph in check.

i have used it for over 20 years and nothing but good results. when the time times to replace like every 3 moths, only change one bag at a time to keep bateria in the others.