The Bear's 425 XL build.

TheBear78

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Evening all,
I posted a while back about the new tank in the "New to Saltwater..." forum but thought I would create a build thread now to document my experience.

Equipment list
RedSea Reefer 425 XL in white
2 x RedSea ReefLED 90
TMC Reef Pump 4000
Maxspect Jump Gyre 4K
Bubble Magus Curve 5
Inkbird temp controller
2 Eheim 300w heaters

Media
30kg Real reef rock (88lbs)
10kg Ocean Rock (22lbs)
30kg Betta Samoa sand (66lbs)
2 x 1kg bags, Maxspect nano spheres

I rinsed the sand under the tap to remove the unbelievable amount of dust. This took a fair while then after one last dunk in RO I spread it around the tank.
Two redesigns and a bit of faffing with the rock and I am happy with the layout. I bought one bug lump of the cheaper white ocean rock yo use as a base then decorated it with the real reef rock. No fancy shapes for me, just a stylish pile! I hope...

I filled it up with RO with just two trips to my LFS. Luckily they have barrels to borrow as I only had 5!
Once full and leak checked I began heating but struggled to get over 24 degrees C (75). My initial plan was to run a pair of DD titanium heaters but while I wait for stock at the LFS they loaned me a 300 watt heater. Clearly it wasn't up to the job so I had to add a second and now I am stable on the inkbird controller (calibrated) at 25 degrees C (77).

Once warmed through I began cycling with a pair of Clown Fish using ATM Colony.
This has gone well and I have been carrying out ~10% water changes every two weeks initially while I monitor and learn how the levels behave. This will no doubt increase in time at which point I will definitely need my own RODI station!

A few weeks in I added a smal CUC consisting two snails (not sure which type...), a banded Coral Shrimp and two black leg hermits.
I have since added a pair of Halloween Hermits, another couple of snails and 4 emerald crabs. These are helping emencely with the Dino' outbreak.

I am now trying a couple of coral plugs just to see how they react. I have a small Zoa' frag with about 10 heads, a green leather (lettuce?) and some GSP which is on it's very own rock!

I have seeded copepods with a view to building up enough of a population for a dragonet and I am now seeing some kind of bugs on the glass just above the sand. I will top these up as often as is practical for a few months to see how the numbers settle.

Just yesterday I added a Royal Gramma Basselet who is full of character and a great addition.

Finally, some pictures! (Just phone snaps)
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The GSP had just been spooked by a crab.

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TheBear78

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A quick update;

One of my Clowns jumped. I found it in the morning a little too crispy to put back in so not very happy. I now have a DD jump guard and am no longer a member of the "hopefully my fish won't jump" club...
My LFS (owned by my Step brother) was good enough to exchange my one remaining Clown for another pair to prevent any hostility with adding just one.

PO4 crashed and a week of increased feeding didn't change anything so I added 7 Green Chromis. Another week on and PO4 was up to 0.03 ppm (NO3 stable at 6 ppm). Diatoms and possible Dinos disappeared overnight.
Another week on and PO4 up to 0.08, NO3 8 ppm. I've cut back slightly on my increased feeding and have increased my skimming times to prevent it climbing too much higher.
I did notice a small square if Cyano on one rock after my diatoms/Dinos disappeared and I was expecting to enter the next phase of uglies. I brushed this off while siphoning to remove all traces and so far, after about 4 days, I have not seen any more. Fingers crossed that's the end if it but I am not holding my breath!

Schoolboy error...
I dropped the lighting (2 x RS ReefLED 90) down to 10% blue, 5 % white while acclimating the Green Chromis' and forgot to turn it back up! It's been quite sunny in the UK recently and I just put the dull lighting down to brighter ambient light. All my corals still opened and have been feeding so no harm done but obviously they will not have been in optimum conditions. Back up to 50% blue, 10% white now (the tank looks much nicer...) and hopefully this won't affect algae growth or I'll drop the white back to 5% again.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 64 36.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.9%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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