Skibi’s Red Sea Reefer 250

RiptideAquaculture · Sep 8, 2021

impressive build! great job!

Skibi · Sep 17, 2021

Big things coming for the tank. Picked up some stuff got another energy bar and a controller board from adaptive marine. I then bought a sheet of expanded pvc because I'm going to make my own cabinet and put the controller board as the face of the cabinet with a hinge on it. Its going to be similar to the adaptive reef controller cabinet but mine will be taller.

I'm to the point ima have to start dosing alk my tank is loosing .1 to .2 dkh so I got a dos and will be putting a container in the cabinet for alk and calcium. Really like the brightwell products and it's recommended to use on the moonshiner since there are no trace elements in them.

Skibi · Sep 28, 2021

Finally got my cabinet almost done just have to mount the front on a hinge and put a lock on it. Also got some 3d printed parts from printed reef ecotech holder, as ring and tunze holder they are amazing highly recommended. Ended up grabbing a few shots of the coral been looking amazing too!

Skibi · Oct 14, 2021

Finally got my cabinet finished up and controllers mounted. Also my essence skimmer bit the dust so I just purchased the nyos 120 already way happier and the ability to control the air and water separately is awesome! I did get 3 new fish also a tomini tang, lightinging maroon clownfish and a green clown goby. Also got a red serpent starfish. I purchased all these fish already quarinted so I don't have to mess with that. I will be adding led lights on a door switch programed to apex will update when I get that done.

powers2001 · Oct 14, 2021

@Skibi wow what an update! What happened to the Essence skimmer? I’ve got one myself but haven’t ran it yet. Nyos gets great reviews. Better watch your Maroon they get nippy, but might just be when paired up. How do you like your Adaptive Reef cabinet? Are you going to put more on it? Printed Reef 3d stuff is great. They’ve done a lot of custom printing for me.

Skibi · Oct 14, 2021

Not sure i just think it got old and the pump gave out on it have never truly been happy with it so wasn't sad to see it go lol. I like the cabinet the only thing thats adaptive reef is the front i made the cabinet part myself to suite my needs better. Ya i wish i would of looked into 3d printing sooner i also got some stuff from harrys aquatics almost have eliminated all my magnets now in my tank.

Williamson’s Reef · Oct 29, 2021

Nice build. Glad you beat dinos… 9 months of it is rough. And a tank move is always hard. That’s when I had a crash and took a break for a few years. How has the Neptune feeder been for you? I’ve been thinking about picking one up for vacations.

Skibi · Oct 29, 2021

Thanks! Ya it was rough for sure they've really wasn't that bad my tank really didnt skip a beat I was surprised. As far as the auto feeder it's been great for me I'm not going to lie when I first got it I was hesitant because I had just seen where someone had one catch on fire and ruin their house lol.

Williamson’s Reef · Oct 29, 2021

Skibi said:
Thanks! Ya it was rough for sure they've really wasn't that bad my tank really didnt skip a beat I was surprised. As far as the auto feeder it's been great for me I'm not going to lie when I first got it I was hesitant because I had just seen where someone had one catch on fire and ruin their house lol.

O wow! I didn’t see that about the fire. Maybe I’ll hold off .. lol

powers2001 · Nov 1, 2021

Skibi said:
Thanks! Ya it was rough for sure they've really wasn't that bad my tank really didnt skip a beat I was surprised. As far as the auto feeder it's been great for me I'm not going to lie when I first got it I was hesitant because I had just seen where someone had one catch on fire and ruin their house lol.

@Skibi @Biggestfish I have the Apex AFS and looking at it, it’s highly unlikely an AFS caught fire. A short in an AquaBus port most likely from saltwater splash or creep might do it. It is powered directly by AquaBus connection which is 12V DC also making it difficult to catch fire. It’s basically an average run-of-the-mill auto feeders controlled by an Apex.

I’ve been looking at The Plank auto feeder by Avast Marine Works and I think I’ll try one. Since I’ve never used one I can’t give a review here but the reviews are great. They’re designed to feed tiny amounts of freeze-dried food all throughout the day and not just feed two or three times a day like the AFS. The Plank has a little mixing tube to rehydrate the food and gradually release it into the water column. Since the food is from a freeze-dried source it is neutrally buoyant once rehydrated. The food won’t float to the water’s surface so you can run the return pump and wavemakers continuously. Also since the food stays buoyant it won’t settle to the bottom where it will get trapped and rot. The reviews on this are really really good plus great customer service and you don’t need an Apex for it.

Williamson’s Reef · Nov 1, 2021

powers2001 said:
@Skibi @Biggestfish I have the Apex AFS and looking at it, it’s highly unlikely an AFS caught fire. A short in an AquaBus port most likely from saltwater splash or creep might do it. It is powered directly by AquaBus connection which is 12V DC also making it difficult to catch fire. It’s basically an average run-of-the-mill auto feeders controlled by an Apex.

I’ve been looking at The Plank auto feeder by Avast Marine Works and I think I’ll try one. Since I’ve never used one I can’t give a review here but the reviews are great. They’re designed to feed tiny amounts of freeze-dried food all throughout the day and not just feed two or three times a day like the AFS. The Plank has a little mixing tube to rehydrate the food and gradually release it into the water column. Since the food is from a freeze-dried source it is neutrally buoyant once rehydrated. The food won’t float to the water’s surface so you can run the return pump and wavemakers continuously. Also since the food stays buoyant it won’t settle to the bottom where it will get trapped and rot. The reviews on this are really really good plus great customer service and you don’t need an Apex for it.

A splash does make more sense as the cause. The plank does look impressive. Let me know your thoughts if you get one. Thanks

powers2001 · Nov 1, 2021

Biggestfish said:
A splash does make more sense as the cause. The plank does look impressive. Let me know your thoughts if you get one. Thanks

@Biggestfish if all goes well I plan to get one right after the Holidays. So keep checking my build thread.

—Mitch

Williamson’s Reef · Nov 1, 2021

powers2001 said:
@Biggestfish if all goes well I plan to get one right after the Holidays. So keep checking my build thread.

—Mitch

Will do.

Skibi · Nov 30, 2021

Got around to finishing my new rock work for the left side of the tank super happy with how it turned out alot of caves and swimthroughs for the fish. Now that it's done and in the tank I'm really contemplating redoing the other side now haha.

Perfectly_Imperfekt1 · Nov 30, 2021

Nice aquascape

powers2001 · Nov 30, 2021

Skibi said:
Got around to finishing my new rock work for the left side of the tank super happy with how it turned out alot of caves and swimthroughs for the fish. Now that it's done and in the tank I'm really contemplating redoing the other side now haha.

@Skibi can you remind us what your right side aquascape looks like with a pic? I like the left side!

Skibi · Dec 1, 2021

Sure here the new one with frags mounted and the right side just looks like a stack of rocks with a tunnel. Gotta say this reef moonshiners method is amazing the frags I had on a rack for a couple months ended up mounting 2 weeks ago are encrusting on the new rock my Duncan that was 3 heads is now 12!

powers2001 · Aug 28, 2022

powers2001 said:
@Biggestfish if all goes well I plan to get one right after the Holidays. So keep checking my build thread.

—Mitch

@Biggestfish @AVAST Marine wow almost a year since the post in the quote. I bought an Avast Plank about Feb this year if I remember right. See my build thread, can't remember which page you'd have to search. However a few months after buying the Plank they had an upgrade that offered considerable improvements for a ridiculous low price I couldn't pass up. The upgrade kit takes you up to the Plank version 3.5 and it simplifies the design and assembly while eliminating a part or two. A guy did an excellent review and assembly demonstration video of the upgrade, The Coral Reef Talk channel I believe, let me know if you're interested I'll PM you the video link.

@Skibi let us have an update on the tank and how the Moonshiner's Method is working!!

Williamson’s Reef · Aug 28, 2022

powers2001 said:
@Biggestfish @AVAST Marine wow almost a year since the post in the quote. I bought an Avast Plank about Feb this year if I remember right. See my build thread, can't remember which page you'd have to search. However a few months after buying the Plank they had an upgrade that offered considerable improvements for a ridiculous low price I couldn't pass up. The upgrade kit takes you up to the Plank version 3.5 and it simplifies the design and assembly while eliminating a part or two. A guy did an excellent review and assembly demonstration video of the upgrade, The Coral Reef Talk channel I believe, let me know if you're interested I'll PM you the video link.

@Skibi let us have an update on the tank and how the Moonshiner's Method is working!!

I ended buying 3 last week. I haven’t put them online yet though. Hopefully soon.