Seymour's Red Sea Reefer 350

[ReefingwithO]

My tank is exactly a year old but since I'm spending more and more time on R2R I figured it was time to move my build thread here.

I'm going to try and summarize in as few posts as possible then upgrade regularly going forward.

I upgraded from a 50 "breeder". I wanted to correct a couple of mistakes I did with the new tank.

I went for the Aqueon pine stand - The tank is in my living room in my apartment and when we had visitors, that's the first thing they were drawn to. After spills, drips and time the pine stand looked terrible. I'm also tall 6"5 and there wasn't enough space in the stand to work.

I had a single drain overflow that was noisy.

I had a deep sand bed and wanted to run as far away from it as possible.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Here is a photo of the tank the right after I had it cycled and transferred my livestock from the old tank.

Lights
The first lights was a Kessil AP700 unit. I had to raise the unit too high to get full coverage and my wife complained of the light spillage. I got two Kessil A160 to supplement the edges but I didn't like the look and the color difference was noticeable.

I thought of the getting another AP700 unit to supplement but the software on the Kessil was bad. It was still in beta a year after the lights were released and still didn't have an android version. I moved to 2 Radion G4 Pro units and sold the AP700. I miss the Kessil shimmer but don't regret the decision.

Skimmer
I started with a Vertex Omega 130 that i carried over from the old tank. I moved to a Omega 150 when the 130 couldn't keep up. Then I went with a Skimz recirculating model after I saw a BRS video on it. It took up all the space in my sump. Now I settled on the Skimz SM163 DC skimmer which is working great and unless something drastic happens this will be the last skimmer I purchase for this tank.

Other equipment

• 2016 Apex
• 2nd EB832
• Neptune Auto Feeder
• 2 Tunze 6095
• Tunze 6045 in the sump to help dissipate chemicals when they are dosed.
• 2 DOS units - I running alk and calcium, the other doses vinegar and a free unit. I was dosing magnesium but realized that it is not needed.
• DDR holds the alk and calcium
• JBJ Artica chiller in the summer and Jager 250 watt heater for the winter.
• Vectra M1 return pump that also feeds my GFO reactor, chiller and refugium
• Neptune PMUP runs my carbon reactor.
• Tunze Osmolator ATO

 

[ReefingwithO]

Here is a photo of the tank from May last year

 

[ReefingwithO]

A few days ago I completed the Apex upgrade and cleaned up my cabinet a bit

Before


After

 

[ReefingwithO]

Here are some shots of where the tank is today

 

[ReefingwithO]

Here are some shots of where the tank is today

Here is a photo of the toadstool leather last May. It has easily quadrupled in size.


The color undergoes a change depending on where in the tank I place it.

Low light or not enough blues it's a tan color
Low flow the polyps are out more and the stalk is longer but thinner.
Higher flow the stalk shortens up but is thicker.
As I place it higher in the tank it changes to nice green color, less polyp extension though but higher growth.

The clowns host it and they love it.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Sump photo



When it was initially done it was all grey and red PVC. I screwed up gluing the pipes together and had a separation and small flood. I ran to Lowes and got whatever parts I needed to fix it and I haven't bothered to redo it since.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Tank Stocking

• 4 inch Naso Tang
• 5 inch Yellow Tang
• 4.5 inch Blue Tang
• 5 inch 1 Spot Foxface
• Coral Beauty
• Flame Angel
• 3 Leopard Wrasses although I haven't seen one for about 2 weeks. (They've done this before)
• Red Dragonette
• 2 Oscellaris clownfish
• About 6 inch Copperband Butterfly

Tank Parameters

• Alkalinity 9 - This is the only parameter I'm 100% sure about. I just realized my Red Sea test kits expired a while ago and I'm waiting on replacements to be delivered
• Calcium 450
• Magnesium - 1350
• Nitrates - under 5
• Phosphate - haven't checked in 5 months - no algae at all

I dose 20ml of vinegar per day, I recently switch from a 1:2 Vodka:Vinegar mix.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Maintenance

• I clean the glass every 2 days or a light film develops
• I used to change filter socks every 2 or 3 days but I removed them yesterday. I want to see how the tank responds. I got a pump to vacuum the sump.
• I do a 30% water change about every 2 months and that is for trace elements and a quick refresh
• I dose the Red Sea trace elements program
• My ATO container is about 7 gallons and I refill every Saturday.
• I run a little GFO and that get's changed every 2 months
• Carbon I run in a BRS mini reactor and gets changed once a month.

 

[Reefltx]

Do you have your chillers output back into your sump or display?
Just curious, as i'm currently planning my build.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Do you have your chillers output back into your sump or display?
Just curious, as i'm currently planning my build.

The chiller outputs back into my sump. With my layout I wouldn't know any other way to do it without it being messy.

My friends setup goes from his return pump to his chiller and then from the chiller to the display. He had to oversize his pump a bit for the added head pressure.

 

[ReefingwithO]

My sea cucumbers are all out tonight.

I got one about 6 months ago and now I see 3 of them. The longest one is about 8 or 9 inches.

 

[JayBee26]

Here is a pic of my 350...it 5 weeks old...been fighting diatoms patiently for 2 weeks...hoping that its just new tank syndrome ....any suggestions toward expediting.process...

 

[Ftrain576]

Two nice 350's. JayBee26, you might want to swap that toadstool to the rear left where that frogspawn is, cause it will grow big real fast just like Oseymour's.

 

[Preme]

Very beautiful 350

 

[ReefingwithO]

Here is a pic of my 350...it 5 weeks old...been fighting diatoms patiently for 2 weeks...hoping that its just new tank syndrome ....any suggestions toward expediting.process...

Your tank is looking nice at 5 weeks. We all get that diatom bloom and I don't know of any way to speed up the process. Might cause more trouble than it is worth.

 

[Mikemccafe]

My sea cucumbers are all out tonight.
Do they reproduce asexually ?
I got one about 6 months ago and now I see 3 of them. The longest one is about 8 or 9 inches.

 

[Mikemccafe]

Do they reproduce asexually ?

 

[JayBee26]

Thanks Seymour...thats what I figured...i have actually had that toadstool about 1 1/2 years... my tank was switched over from a 250 5 weeks ago... has not grown very much... unlike everything else i Have

 

[ReefingwithO]

Bonus video of a 10 gallon nano I set up for my 2 sons in December. It's going well so far with a macro algae reactor as the main filtration and no skimmer.