The Replacement - Red Sea Reefer 200 G2

mattyams

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I'll update this as I have more time as this was kind of an emergency buy/replacement. My 30 gallon nano, which I repaired a base glass crack 8 years ago, finally busted at the seams and started to leak. Enter my amazing wife's approval and the Red Sea Reefer 200 G2. My local shop was amazing and gave me their black Friday deal on it because of the situation.

Coming from a 30g nano to this is a huge change for me. I've never had a sump. I've never had a reef this large. I've got a mind full of "what ifs" racing. Everything that was in the nano is moving over to the RSR and will have to suffice for now.

Equipment:
AI Hydra 64
2x MP10QD
Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite w/ CO2 scrubber
Ecotech Vectra S2
Red Sea ReefMat 500
Tunze 3155 Osmolator
Neptune Apex - Trident, FMM for RODI/ATO res refill and leaks, pH, salinity, ORP, temp. EB8. Few solenoids for rodi flush/fill/etc.
200w Cobalt Heater
Turbo Twist 6x UV
Trigger Sys 5g ATO res
Salt - Tropic Marin Pro Reef

Fishys:
2 Percula Clowns
Lawnmower Blenny
2 Blue/Yellow Damsels
Six Line Wrasse

Corals:
Button Scoly
Pink Tip Elegance
Hammer
Peach Tip Torch
Emerald Bounce Discosoma
Trachy
Nightshade Acan
Oddball Acan
Poisonberry Blasto
Sourpatch Rhodactis
Rock Flower Nem
Rainbow Yumas x3
GSP
Firework Cloves
Zoas - Yellow Brick Road, Daisy Cutter, Everlasting Gobstopper, WWC Bloodsucker, Mandarin Orange, Punkrockers, Rastas, Utter Chaos, and some other I have no dang clue the names.

Inverts:
Snails and crabs
2x Tiger Conchs
Cleaner shrimp
RBTA

Only pic I have is of the chaos:
PXL_20221114_045955632.jpg


Will post more updates as things start to clean up/calm down.
 
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BlakeStew

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Having completed a tank move in May from a 20 gallon to a reefer 350 I would recommend using Fritz Turbo start when you add your livestock. Assuming you have fish. This will essentially insta cycle your tank. I lost a few pieces of coral but nothing huge. I have a large stag horn colony that survived.

Realistically speaking here, be prepared to lose some pieces but absolutely be ready for your corals to lose color. The lack of nutrients in your new tank will cause their coloration to become very bland. Its normal, mine lost their color but are still growing and my SPS are still encrusting.
 
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mattyams

mattyams

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Having completed a tank move in May from a 20 gallon to a reefer 350 I would recommend using Fritz Turbo start when you add your livestock. Assuming you have fish. This will essentially insta cycle your tank. I lost a few pieces of coral but nothing huge. I have a large stag horn colony that survived.

Realistically speaking here, be prepared to lose some pieces but absolutely be ready for your corals to lose color. The lack of nutrients in your new tank will cause their coloration to become very bland. Its normal, mine lost their color but are still growing and my SPS are still encrusting.

Thanks for this! I'm not moving any of the sand over as it's quite gross and has bits of carbon in it from a rogue media reactor a few months back. What rock I did have will move into the tank but I'll need to add more because of the change in volume. Fritz will still be good with this, yeah? Also, the corals and 2 fish I did have are in my 25 gallon nano that I luckily had set up.
 

BlakeStew

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Thanks for this! I'm not moving any of the sand over as it's quite gross and has bits of carbon in it from a rogue media reactor a few months back. What rock I did have will move into the tank but I'll need to add more because of the change in volume. Fritz will still be good with this, yeah? Also, the corals and 2 fish I did have are in my 25 gallon nano that I luckily had set up.
Yes! the Turbo Start instantly cycles your tank so you can immediately introduce fish. Using turbo start without adding fish would defeat the purpose of using it. https://fritzaquatics.com/products/fritzzyme-turbostart-900-saltwater

Good move on not moving over your sand bed, that would create nightmares with the detritus. It would likely be deadly doing so as it would have so much bacteria that it would be harmful.

You should have more people start to comment on this thread as it matures. There isn't much for people to ask about or comment about yet do don't be discouraged. Frequent updates and pictures go a long way in a build thread.
 
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mattyams

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Update time. Took a 2 week vacation to Japan and surprisingly everything in the tank is doing great! Added a few new toys: Vectra S2, ReefMat 500, Trident, Curve 5 Elite skimmer and Turbo Twist 6x UV.

Added 2 damsels, lawnmower blenny, and a six line since the last update.

To no ones surprise, my parameters were a little outta whack after my vacation but I manged to get them straightened out fairly easily.

A few new corals also wildly appeared because the sales were out of control the last month or so.

Main post updated with new toys. Here's a shot from today after adding the new livestock from Aqua SD:

PXL_20221230_222238523.jpg
 
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CoachRichardson

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Update time. Took a 2 week vacation to Japan and surprisingly everything in the tank is doing great! Added a few new toys: Vectra S2, ReefMat 500, Trident, Curve 5 Elite skimmer and Turbo Twist 6x UV.

Added 2 damsels, lawnmower blenny, and a six line since the last update.

To no ones surprise, my parameters were a little outta whack after my vacation but I manged to get them straightened out fairly easily.

A few new corals also wildly appeared because the sales were out of control the last month or so.

Main post updated with new toys. Here's a shot from today after adding the new livestock from Aqua SD:

PXL_20221230_222238523.jpg
Any updates? How's it going?
 

CoachRichardson

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Loving following along becuase I just did the same thing. Tomorrow is a week and a half in. Diatoms are running wild as of today. My copepod order from algae barn got delayed because if weather in Denver. Would have had them in on Friday…then the holiday. Hoping they shipped today and I can have them in by this Friday. Lost my Royal Gramma. Was doing great for 2 days and just totally disappeared. Never showed again. Added a quarantined Coral Beaty and he died 2 days later. He had a 7 day guarantee so I have a credit on him. Ordered a Biota Yellow Tang that will be here Thursday. He will be nice in there for a while. My corals are really struggling with the transition. My torches have never opened back up fully yet. My frogspawns weee huge for the first two days. They have been really closed up for a few days. They did split heads from two to four but haven’t opened back up yet. Ordered a second Nero 3 today for more flow.
 
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mattyams

mattyams

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Loving following along becuase I just did the same thing. Tomorrow is a week and a half in. Diatoms are running wild as of today. My copepod order from algae barn got delayed because if weather in Denver. Would have had them in on Friday…then the holiday. Hoping they shipped today and I can have them in by this Friday. Lost my Royal Gramma. Was doing great for 2 days and just totally disappeared. Never showed again. Added a quarantined Coral Beaty and he died 2 days later. He had a 7 day guarantee so I have a credit on him. Ordered a Biota Yellow Tang that will be here Thursday. He will be nice in there for a while. My corals are really struggling with the transition. My torches have never opened back up fully yet. My frogspawns weee huge for the first two days. They have been really closed up for a few days. They did split heads from two to four but haven’t opened back up yet. Ordered a second Nero 3 today for more flow.

You might be moving too quickly. A week and a half isn't much time for a bioload to get established, but then again...I don't know the whole story, nor am I am expert. All your params good?
 

thedraque

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I might be getting a Reefer 200 soon as well, can you show some pictures of the sump? curious how the Reefmat 500 squeezes into this small sump, and you fit a UV sterilizer too? what ATO reservoir are you using?
 
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mattyams

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I might be getting a Reefer 200 soon as well, can you show some pictures of the sump? curious how the Reefmat 500 squeezes into this small sump, and you fit a UV sterilizer too? what ATO reservoir are you using?

Sorry for the delay in getting a pic for you. The Reefmat sure does "fit" and most definately is a squeeze. The UV is mounted on the side wall at the top left. ATO reservoir is a trigger systems that is actually outside of the tank on the right. I also have a side cabinet I got from Target that houses my Apex, Ecotech, PSUs, etc.

PXL_20230110_180629988.jpg

PXL_20230110_181057811.jpg
PXL_20230110_181403822.jpg
 
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mattyams

mattyams

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Replaced the XR15 with a Hydra 64. The XR15 just wasn't cutting it in terms of par that I was looking for.

PXL_20230110_183555360.jpg
 

durningc

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Sorry for the delay in getting a pic for you. The Reefmat sure does "fit" and most definately is a squeeze. The UV is mounted on the side wall at the top left. ATO reservoir is a trigger systems that is actually outside of the tank on the right. I also have a side cabinet I got from Target that houses my Apex, Ecotech, PSUs, etc.

PXL_20230110_180629988.jpg

PXL_20230110_181057811.jpg
PXL_20230110_181403822.jpg
You wouldn't happen to know what end cabinet is from Target or a link to it online. I need that same setup you have and I have now spent an hour on their site of 3oo+ pages of furniture and can't find it.
 

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