Skibi’s Red Sea Reefer 250
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NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Well pretty much just been working on aquascape since I got home. Can’t believe I had all the rock in there took a whole bunch out and broke some larger pieces up. So far this is what I got let me know what you think. I’m kind of digging this look can’t decide if the small island if I should try and make it taller or leave alone?
I definitely like that better, just my opinion.
OP
OP
Finally got the aquascape done and water in the tank! Had the wife help with the rock and came up with something pretty cool really liking the new aquascape. Also helps the wife is enjoying it to! Man though it is so touchy to get the fine tuning just right on the return! A little turn changes a lot! But it is now running silent so happy with that! Time to get the salinity right and start adding the probes to the apex!
Looks great!! You’re right about that gate valve, mine worked flawlessly for nearly 2 years. I had to adjust it every once in awhile. I recently swapped it out for the DIY version because mine was acting up.
OP
OP
Thats great to hear it worked so well. At first i was going to have my cor return pump change speed and that with the day but i got to thinking it will probably mess with the valve so i just let it be a constant speed lol. What are you running your pump at % wise?
OP
OP
Can’t believe how happy I am with this tank. Never imagined how powerful and nice it is to have a controller on the tank. I don’t know how I have had a tank without one now lol. Got all the probes in and calibrated was super easy! It’s so nice to pull up my phone and see readings in real time! Also got my bio spira in heard good stuff about this product can’t wait to see the results. I also have this rats nest that I plan on taking care of today. I got everything set up and running knowing I’d come back and do cable management. Probabaly a mistake to do it this way but I’ll manage. The max spec gyre is in to and man that thing is awesome I love it! Can’t wait to see how coral and everything do in the future.
grassy_noel
Active Member
Can’t believe how happy I am with this tank. Never imagined how powerful and nice it is to have a controller on the tank. I don’t know how I have had a tank without one now lol. Got all the probes in and calibrated was super easy! It’s so nice to pull up my phone and see readings in real time! Also got my bio spira in heard good stuff about this product can’t wait to see the results. I also have this rats nest that I plan on taking care of today. I got everything set up and running knowing I’d come back and do cable management. Probabaly a mistake to do it this way but I’ll manage. The max spec gyre is in to and man that thing is awesome I love it! Can’t wait to see how coral and everything do in the future.
I'll second the recommendation for Bio-Spira. I used a bottle of Dr. Tim's One and Only on a new nano tank and (over?) dosed ammonium chloride. A week later I still had 8 ppm Ammonia...ugh. I added half a bottle of Bio-Spira and the next morning I had 0 ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, and like 50+ ppm nitrate. This stuff works!
powers2001
started reefing 1999
A good way to manage cords is to zip tie them in a coil then zip tie them to a rectangle of eggcrate. You can get several coils of cords zip tied to a section of eggcrate.
OP
OP
Well been a little bit since I updated but not much has changed. Just got back from an Florida vacation in Destin! It was nice to have the apex to see what was going on in the tank just Incase I needed someone to go over there and check on it. I realized ima need a bigger resivoir I want to be able to go away for a week and not have to fill it! Can’t believe how much evaporates out!! I haven’t done my cords yet but that will get done sometime this week. Also picking up another gyre pump for the other side of the tank and still debating on which protein skimmer I want. Hopefully soon get some new pics and updates of how the parameters are so I can add a fish yet or not!
OP
OP
Was able to get my wires somewhat cleaned up finally last night. Man that is such a pain to do! Next tank I will probably try and do a false wall and mount just the controllers to the outside of that make it look so much cleaner. But I think there will now be space to buy a 10 gallon resivoir which I’m super excited about. Need to be able to go away for a week and not have to worry to much. The one I’m looking at is from crystal reef aquatics looks super nice!
Tomorrow I get another shipment from BRS ended up ordering the other gyre pump and got a kessil refugium light excited to try out growing chaeto with it heard nothing but good things. Still on the hunt for the skimmer can’t make up my mind ugh.
Tomorrow I get another shipment from BRS ended up ordering the other gyre pump and got a kessil refugium light excited to try out growing chaeto with it heard nothing but good things. Still on the hunt for the skimmer can’t make up my mind ugh.
powers2001
started reefing 1999
Take a look at the R Octo eSsence 130-S. $100 less than Nyos 120 and slightly bigger. They solved a lot of problems with this skimmer and a lot of new features not found in any other skimmer.
powers2001
started reefing 1999
Video here.
OP
OP
Thank you so much powers! Exactly what I was looking for appreciate it!! I’ve been looking at the NYOS but at 400 I just don’t see what it’s all about. Now to order from BRS lol
OP
OP
Finally got my protein skimmer last Thursday! Love the essence 130 been getting a lot of junk out of the water already. Also got my Kessil h80 setup and the chaeto is doing great already running an alternate light schedule. Also got a few snails to put in to help with cleanup but really the only thing going on is a little brown on the sand not much on the rock at all.
On a side note I am having problems running both my gyre 230s they both work but when I plug either one into the B terminal it doesn’t run only A terminal is working on the controller. Been in touch with customer service still no resolve yet.
On a side note I am having problems running both my gyre 230s they both work but when I plug either one into the B terminal it doesn’t run only A terminal is working on the controller. Been in touch with customer service still no resolve yet.
OP
OP
Grabbed a quick shot of my new Fuge light. I plan on increasing the intensity over the next couple of weeks started out at about 50%. I am having trouble keelping my ph up not really sure what’s going on but at night my ph goes from 8.0 to 7.6 and some nights it’s only goes down to 7.8. Not really sure what to do or how to fix it I have my Fuge on reverse light schedule already. I also read I need more water movement on the top of the water so maybe that will be fixed when they send me my new controller since one of the 230s isn’t running due to a bad port on the controller.
So if anyone has any suggestions for stabilizing ph I’d love to hear them!
So if anyone has any suggestions for stabilizing ph I’d love to hear them!
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
I am no pH expert, but the refugium should help if on an opposite light schedule. I open the window in the tank room a little at night too since we are in AC lockdown and we exhale CO2.
powers2001
started reefing 1999
I'm curious as to how much noise those eSsence skimmers make. If you ever get the chance you should get a decibel reading on your skimmer with one of those smart phone decibel apps.
OP
OP
So been a little bit since I lasted posted decided I’d give a new update on the tank. I purchased a new ato resivoir and the Tunze Osmolator 3155. It was a little bit of a learning curve with the Osmolator mostly my fault on why I had so much trouble lol. First it was creating a siphon bc I had it going into the sump so moved it the return at the top of the tank. Then the pump was getting air locked because I can’t get it to sit up right. But now it seems to be doing fine. I gotta say the resivoir from crystal reef aquatics is amazing! It’s absolutley beautiful @Crystal Reef Aquatics . The whole purpose of this was so I can go a week without filling up the resivoir and so far it’s been perfect for exactly that!
On to the live stock I purchased a small cuc from world wide corals. Super happy with them all arrived alive and well. I plan on starting to transfer some of my old cuc from my Nano tank and eventually next week plan on putting my last fish from the Nano over.
Current live stock:
2 emerald crab
1 peppermint shrimp
1 clown fish (snow flake) also from the Nano
6 various snails astera, cerith, nass, trocus
On to the live stock I purchased a small cuc from world wide corals. Super happy with them all arrived alive and well. I plan on starting to transfer some of my old cuc from my Nano tank and eventually next week plan on putting my last fish from the Nano over.
Current live stock:
2 emerald crab
1 peppermint shrimp
1 clown fish (snow flake) also from the Nano
6 various snails astera, cerith, nass, trocus
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OP
OP
@powers2001 I will look into doing that but I can tell you it’s not much the tank is in my main living room and can barely hear anything I got running. I think the cor15 is the loudest thing I have for sure.
OP
OP
Not much new to really update on the tank just taking it slow trying to get parameters in check and stabil. The one thing that is concerning me is the ph every night it drops.it goes from like 8.0 to 7.72 -7.74 then when the main lights come on boom starts climbing again. Not really sure what to do I have a refugium set up on opposite light schedule and the power heads amies at the surface to crest more gas exchange hopefully. Any thoughts?
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