RWB's Reefer 250 build and lesson's learned

[Boaz]

Time to start my build thread. Readers beware. I'm not the most patient person and don't recommend doing things like I do. I'll try to document my lesson's learned along the way.

Returning to the hobby after 15 or 20 years away. We had a mostly fish only tank for about 10-15 years. A lot has changed.. In March, my wife began the discussion with "I'd like to have an aquarium again". I was up for it, my son is grown and out college and working. No more running around the country for baseball games. Returning to the hobby sounded good to me. We spent a few weekends driving around to LFS and looking at tanks. Eventually we selected the Red Sea Reefer 250. Would have liked bigger, however space limitations prevented that. The LFS was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Without a lot of research, we brought the tank home on March 13th and I spent the weekend building the stand and placing the tank.

Lesson Learned: Know what your a willing to sacrifice for the tank size and placement. Looking back, I'd have sacrificed some more space for the larger tank, maybe the 350. I knew this from my previous experience, the first tank is never large enough, Just didn't listen to my own advice. The TV could have moved over 6-12 more inches and the world would not have ended.

This is the first picture I have of the tank in place on March 16.

 

[blaxsun]

Is this the newer G2 model? Any plans for a ReefMat?

 

[Boaz]

Is this the newer G2 model? Any plans for a ReefMat?

It's not a G2. Ver 2 of Gen 1. I did add a reef mat on June 18th. I got lucky and was looking at email when I got an "in stock" email. Bought it within 5 minutes and they were sold out again shortly after. 10 days in and I'm a huge fan. Hated changing those sox every three or four days. Seems like the roll will last months and my sump water has never been clearer. I didn't even look at changing the default settings. I am a little concerned my Cheato will die without any nutrients. And it makes the sump very tight on space. Will definitely be a challenge to do any work down there without removing the Reef Mat. Even that's not too hard. Modding the sump was a pain. I actually drained it and pulled it out. I can't imagine doing that part with the sump in place.

 

[Boaz]

Quick update: Tank's up. Water's in. Throw in some bacteria the LFS sold me. Still not doing much research, just eager to get this thing going. But, there is this annoying gurgling from the overflow. Turning the valve back and forth for several days... I'm starting to think I might have a problem. Talk to the LFS. He says he just set one up. You have to keep turning clockwise a long way. Just keep turning it. Well.... get it all the way closed and still gurgling. I know something's wrong. Read a few posts on the problem that say a gate Valve is much better. Buy and install a gate valve. Gurgling stays. Dummy me. Maybe, just maybe, if you install the plumbing correctly, you'll have less problems. I had reversed the drain and the emergency overflow pipes. The valve was closing the emergency drain, not the main drain.

Lesson learned: There's good info in them manuals and maybe, if you read them, you will install the plumbing correctly the first time. Gotta laugh at your mistakes and learn from them. That's about a $100 lesson for the gate valve and other plumbing I replaced with Red pipe. I do like it better than the stock grey pipe. Also Reefers, make sure you have plenty of conversion pieces/fittings for metric to standard. Mess your only one up and your return pump/sump could be down for days. happy reefing.

 

[DarkReefer]

This thread should be some fun reading, I can just tell

Welcome back to the madhouse that is marine aquariums!

 

[Boaz]

This thread should be some fun reading, I can just tell

Welcome back to the madhouse that is marine aquariums!

Thanks. It's great to be back in the hobby.

 

[Boaz]

I jumped ahead with that plumbing story... I do recall spending a lot of time searching for that answer. I never saw a post about the plumbing being reversed. Kinda embarrassing, but still funny to me.

After a nice long 3 day cycle, on March 17th, I added my first fish, a blue-green Chromis, a cleaner shrimp and some snails and 3 small Frags. I don't know the exact corals, I think a blue star polyp and something else that was supposed to be easy. In the old days, my damsels got big and mean. Had them for years and years, so I was determined to use something else to get things started. For equipment, I added the Apex. The package included 2 Wave pumps so I could get the water moving. One advantage to being older, not necessarily smarter, I have a lot more flexibility with the budget. I'm starting to look for equipment to make the maintenance easier. I know I'll be attentive at first, but long term life will intervene. I'll get busy with another project and won't test or change the water as often. I'm determined to prepare for that time.

Equipment on March 17th:
Red Sea Reefer 250 Gen 1 V2 - I think the plumbing changed in V2 from straight down to hook left and around the corner, then down.
Red Sea Skimmer 300
Reefer LED 90's
Aqeon Return Pump (no discussion. LFS selected)
Heater (Aquatop)
Apex and Energy Bar (Temp, Salinity, PH and ORP probes)
Reef Crystals Salt

Lesson: Obviously, rushing in won't help or shorten the time to get things running. By March 20th, the Chromis died. He never seemed to get acclimated to the tank. I'm a little sad, since I do care about these creatures and had no intention of killing him. Overconfidence on my part. RIP.

 

[Boaz]

On March 18th, snails and a cleaner shrimp were added with the Chromis. These were from LFS #2.

On March 19th, I go crazy and come home from LFS#1 with 2 Black Storm Clownfish, a Yellow Watchman Goby and a Blue-Green Chromis #2. If that's not enough, I bought a few Frags. Green Star Polyp, Zoa, Goni, and orange plate coral. I have no idea what I was thinking. Pure impulse buys.

On March 21st - I ordered a Neptune Trident. I love that the Apex gives me a quick reading on the tank parameters. I want more of that. That's the day Chromis #1 died.

Things look pretty good for a few days. The rest of the fish are acclimating and eating well. On March 24, I'm starting to see some brown algae growth. I was aware the brown uglies were coming, from my previous experience. My confidence is growing. By March 26th, The brown algae is starting to cover the dry aquascape.

Disaster strikes! On March 27th, I wake up to a very cloudy tank. I'm not sure what to do, searching the web for clues and waiting for the LFS to open. I'm at the store when it opens. Andrew tells me it's probably a bacterial bloom. Turn out the lights for 3 days and add some nitrifying bacteria. I buy a few more snails for my CUC.

That 3 days seemed like a lifetime…. Slowly the tank cleared up and luckily, all the fish and coral survive.

Lesson: Cycling is important. Should not be skipped. I got lucky and everything survived, but that could have been $100's of dollars in lost pets. The Clown pair alone were $250. I took a giant risk adding too much way too early. Looking back, I'd be telling a very different story if I lost everything. My lack of patience again. I suspect a reefer's second tank is much easier to let cycle. I'm sure I'll find out one of these days.

Need to work on my lighting for photos...

 

[Boaz]

Why write a build thread? It is forcing me to review the steps I’ve taken, mistakes I’ve made and my successes. In just a few posts, I’ve learned a lot about my journey. I think it will be a good review if I add a tank or upgrade in the future.

Regardless of my brush with disaster, I continued to stock the tank. About 9 days later, on 4/2 I added 2 Chromis and the next day found a smallish Powder Blue (one of my favorite fish). I don’t have a good explanation for overstocking at this early stage, so I won’t bore you with a bad one… One of two Chromis dies within a day. So far, I’ve lost 2 Chromis, both within 2 days of introduction. Otherwise, the fish are healthy, eating well and seem to be doing good.

I didn’t log it, but I recall doing several water changes of 15% after the brush with bacteria. I knew I needed to focus on water quality. It became my #1 concern and I became obsessed. I knew my RO (no DI) system was old and weak and ordered a 6 stage RODI. Later I upgraded to 7 stage with separate cation and anion stages. Looks like I’m burning through way more anion. I’m on well water and don’t trust it. I’ll later learn my well water has high iron and silica from a test at the local water store. That means more frequent filter changes on the well filter. They told me 5 micron will remove the iron. Fairly cheap insurance for upping my water game. Somewhere I also learned I should not use iron remover salt in the water softener. Check! My well is also low PH although my tank is holding from 7.8 to 8+ steady. I’ll be watching PH closely. I begin checking with additional test kits once or twice a week to validate the Apex is reporting correctly. I became serious about weekly 10-15% water changes and changing filter socks at least twice a week. That’s a big pain in the you know what. The Apex and refractometer are in line, but the Hanna reports salinity low by over a point. Still reports off to this day, even after several calibration attempts. I choose to go with 2 out of 3 matching. My LFS, who I’ve grown to respect quite a bit, said he uses only the refractometer. Tip - find someone you trust on the little questions. 

During this period, I’m reading a lot on R2R and watching a lot of YouTube videos. Trying to become more educated about this hobby. It’s quite unbelievable how much there is to learn. Added some Chaeto to the sump and 2 more frags around April 10th. All said, April was fairly quiet and we just enjoyed our new family members.

Have a great weekend Reefers!

 

[ScubaFish802]

I'm following along and living my dream of having black substrate through your thread. I can't ever seem to bring myself to order anything other than fiji pink for some reason Looks good so far!

 

[Boaz]

@ScubaFish802 - I like the look of the black. It’s extremely coarse compared to others. It’s also attracted to magnets, at least my Arag-alive is, so you have to be careful cleaning the glass. i recently set up a 35 gallon automatic water change tank with a DOS. I change 1 gallon a day. Love it so far. However, that means no gravel filtering is occurring with water changes. My plan was to do a gravel filter once a month, in addition to AWC. Yeah, right! I can tell that’s going to get done less and less over time. I had a discussion with my wife about going to bare bottom over the next 6 months. Still talking thru it. She agreed it might be best option. Strangely, I see 4 or 5 purple spots on the rocks. If those are coralline, I’ll probably slowly remove some gravel each month. The tank is only 4 months old. That would be very early for coraline, but someone else may know better. Trying to take it slow and think through the implications of both keeping the gravel and going bare. Will update as we go. Need a good macro lens to get a photo of the purple spots. Too small to capture with my phone.

 

[OldRed1]

Looking forward to following along! Really appreciate your blunt honesty and that you’re willing to share the tough lessons learned.

Any thoughts on what might have killed your chromis?

 

[Boaz]

Sorry for the late reply. Thought I answered OldRed1. Both chromis never acclimated to the tank. They were listless for a day or two and passed. All my other fish are alive and doing well. Had a suicide with a jumper which taught me to cover the tank. More on that later.

 

[OldRed1]

Sorry for the late reply. Thought I answered OldRed1. Both chromis never acclimated to the tank. They were listless for a day or two and passed. All my other fish are alive and doing well. Had a suicide with a jumper which taught me to cover the tank. More on that later.

Oh no! Well, we’re glad to hear the other fish (sans the jumper) are healthy and happy!

Funny you should mention the tank cover. When I first came to R2R looking for advice, among the first things that was recommended was a cover. I ended up with a custom cover from Kraken Reef.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Sorry for the late reply. Thought I answered OldRed1. Both chromis never acclimated to the tank. They were listless for a day or two and passed. All my other fish are alive and doing well. Had a suicide with a jumper which taught me to cover the tank. More on that later.

I didn't have any luck with Chromis in my last tank either. They ended up the same. From my understanding they are frequently captured using cyanide, and this leads to various issues. (also doesn't help that they all seem to come in with uronema).
Really a shame, I love the way they look in a group!

 

[Boaz]

Another factor is source. My primary LFS (aka #1) doesn’t carry Chromis. I bought all at two other stores. I was discussing Chromis with LFS#1. I hoped with 3 they would look like a mini school and swim together. Andrew told me you need really large numbers to get them to school. Based on my experience, I have to agree. One of mine has grown larger and he bullies the second which mostly stays in a hole in the rocks. He only comes out to feed. Not at all my goal. I think I need to find him a new home so he can thrive. Reefing is a learning process all the time.

 

[powers2001]

I didn't have any luck with Chromis in my last tank either. They ended up the same. From my understanding they are frequently captured using cyanide, and this leads to various issues. (also doesn't help that they all seem to come in with uronema).
Really a shame, I love the way they look in a group!

@ScubaFish802 and @Boaz third a lot of problems with blue green Chromis. Tried several times. Found a site about the horrors of importing ocean caught fish. Said these Chromis are the #1 fatality with acclimation issues and that they stem from cyanide. Also noted probable Uronema on a couple Chromis. Always examine dead fish you remove from tank. You could learn something that will save the rest of your fish. @Boaz great to another Reefer 250, I have one too. You've got a great start. Not sure if you mentioned it, what lights do you have? Looks like Red Sea.

 

[Boaz]

Thanks @powers2001 I obviously had a similar experience. The two survivors are alive and healthy. Interestingly, one has grown larger and mostly bullies the second one. The only schooling in my tank is the big one telling the little one to go hide in the rocks.

For lighting, I had a real battle with wireless connections dropping on the LED90's. Maybe because they are about 1/2 way between 2 Access Points in my house. Maybe because they are limited to wi-fi 4. I'm on Wi-Fi 5 and 6 for devices that support it. I finally gave up on them and bought 2 Radion x15 gen 6 a few weeks ago. I'm very happy with the upgrade. I do believe that had I taken enough time, which I never seem to have enough of, the RS can produce equally as well. I just got frustrated with the constant disconnection notices and they always seemed to be disconnected when I wanted to do something. Time is money, right?

 

[Boaz]

Back to the build.... After the bacterial bloom, things were quiet for the rest of April and I worked on my water. Not drastic changes or chemicals, just tried to become educated and improve things slowly. As described above, I started with the new RODI so I have great water to start with. I started collecting a few Hanna testers. I found I had high phosphates and treated it with a round of Phosphate-E. Took about a week to complete the treatment and that was back in line. Also added some Potassium and Boron per an ICP test. I only addressed the items that showed way out of bounds.

In early May, I added a yellow tang and a male anthias. About two days after the new additions, I was watching the fish early one morning. My wife walks up and says the PB was covered in spots last night. I'm staring straight at the tank and don't see a thing. I laughed and said you must have dreamed it. It had to be a nightmare. She reluctantly walked away, confused and not really sure if she saw them or not. About two days later, I see a salt spot on the PB. NOOOOO! I fought ich back in the old days and knew it wasn't fun. Had quite a few casualties too. And I wasn't prepared for that fight now. No hospital tank. No medications. Nothing. Then the spots disappear that night. A few days later, I see a few more. During this time I'm preparing for treatment and posted a thread on R2R. But I'm not really knowledgeable about current treatment methods, although it was copper back in the early 2000's as well. I buy meds. I start the hospital tank up. No time to cycle, just get it running. On May 8th, added an 18w UV sterilizer to my DT. It's really confusing, because the spots appear and disappear randomly. (I now know that's part of the lifecycle). Sometimes it's up to 5 days between any indication. And I'm dreading taking the DT apart to catch the fish.That PB will never go willingly...

Well, it's been about 8 weeks now since the last spots were seen. I'm fairly sure I have ich in the tank, but hopefully it's under control and managed with the UV and good water quality. Let's hope I don't have to revisit this topic in a future post. The lesson here is quarantine fish. The cost of losing a new fish, is a lot less than using all your fish. My education continues every day.

On a side note: I broke all the rules adding one tang with the PB established in the DT. They played at fighting for a day or two, swinging their tails at each other. Now they are best buds, constantly following each other around the tank. Not sure why it works, but they never fight, even during feeding time. I think I just got lucky.

 

[powers2001]

Thanks @powers2001 I obviously had a similar experience. The two survivors are alive and healthy. Interestingly, one has grown larger and mostly bullies the second one. The only schooling in my tank is the big one telling the little one to go hide in the rocks.

For lighting, I had a real battle with wireless connections dropping on the LED90's. Maybe because they are about 1/2 way between 2 Access Points in my house. Maybe because they are limited to wi-fi 4. I'm on Wi-Fi 5 and 6 for devices that support it. I finally gave up on them and bought 2 Radion x15 gen 6 a few weeks ago. I'm very happy with the upgrade. I do believe that had I taken enough time, which I never seem to have enough of, the RS can produce equally as well. I just got frustrated with the constant disconnection notices and they always seemed to be disconnected when I wanted to do something. Time is money, right?

@Boaz I have read similar LED90 stories. I could have some problems with my GEN4 XR15's and a WXM module. Haven't set it up yet and haven't had any experience with either. This is a hybrid system with the other lighting being DIY dimmable T5's with DIY: ballast, harness, leads, reflectors, and reflector connection to Ecotech Radion RMS rail. I will take some tinkering.