Time to Get Serious (Red Sea Reefer 250 Build)

[AwildcatsZ]

This weekend I finally got around to making my lid using the Red Sea Kit. As soon as I started the process I regretted going this route. It was a very tedious and cumbersome process to measure in millimeters (luckily I had a tape that had a metric side), cut using a Dremel with a metal blade attachment, and getting the mesh together. I was not happy with the results and will be spending the money on an acrylic lid for a Christmas present to myself.

I would not recommend this product to another hobbyist setting up a Red Sea Reefer.

Another observation from this weekend is that some of my corals have slowly lost color (bleaching) since the power outage. My initial thought is that this is from the stress they went through and the small ammonia spike. They haven't gotten any worse, still fully extended, eat, and show no signs of other health issues. I will continue to monitor their health and feed with Reef Roids to boost their overall immune system.

All zoas, shrooms, and acans are healthy and colored. Just seemed to impact these three corals.

On a good note, I finally got my skimmer to get a darker skimmate. I still want it to be darker/thicker, but this is a step in the right direction.

With Reefapalooza California coming up this weekend, the tank is in good shape and I plan to add a handful of new corals! If you are attending RAP, stop by the t-shirt booth outside of the main door! I will be there with my wife from 2-6 both days! It's always fun to meet fellow reefers and chat about the hobby.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Reefapalooza weekend has come and gone. It was a great show. I got to meet a lot of fellow reefers that I have messaged back and forth with on forums, Facebook groups. Spoke with a lot of vendors on new products and saw a wide variety of corals.

RAP Day 1 (8/17)
My wife and I arrived before anyone was in and handed out swag bags to the first 250 people! Once our bags ran dry we took a moment to walk the floor. She had her heart set on finding a warpaint scoly and she ended up getting a beauty from Frost Corals at a great price.

She also wanted to find a clam. This has been something she wanted in our tanks since we met. I never felt we had a tank large enough for a clam, but this year her dream came true! She scored a beautiful clam from Clam Mania.

My shopping list was short as well. I wanted to find a large lobo colony for the sand bed. After narrowing my list down to a handful of potential pieces, I chose to go with two colonies from Iconic Reef. One is a day one standout, while the other has potential to be discovered!

Iconic Reef also hooked me up with a chunky frag of Pink Floyd acropora for $40. This is the first acropora I will attempt to keep. Its been 3 days now and its still looking good.

After scoring these great pieces my wife and I spent the rest of the afternoon selling t-shirts at the RAP booth.
My favorite part of Day 1 was getting to meet Peter from @ReefNewsNetwork! Great guy, easy to talk to, and just all around positive vibes. He truly loves the hobby, the hobbyists, and doing what he does.

RAP Day 2 (8/18)
We showed up later in the day as our shift selling t-shirts didn't start until 2:00. With our big ticket items out of the way I walked the floor a few times to see if there was anything unique that we can add to our tank. I ended up leaving the last day of RAP with a bright red with green eyed favia, yellow submarine favia, and rainbow chalice frags.

My wife also convinced me to take home a small yellow tang that one of the vendors was willing to give to us. I know there will be some people who say a RSR 250 is too small for a yellow tang, and I whole heatedly agree. I do however know that it is not small enough for a young tang and then rehome the tang as it outgrows the tank. Some disagree with the rehoming method, but I see it as the tang living the next year or two in a loving home where we will take care of it. It sure beats swimming in a small holding tank at a LFS.

Overall, RAP was a great weekend! My wife and I had fun meeting everyone and seeing all that was on display. Our tank is also starting to look more and more like the reef of our dreams!

 

[AwildcatsZ]

This Labor Day weekend I started to build the refugium portion of my tank. I built the stand that will support the 8 gallon cube. The stand sits approximately 7.5" high, enough room to store test kits under, and is reinforced with four steel "L" brackets. Probably over engineered, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I still need to paint it white and seal it. Also need to drill the cube and plumb it into my return line.

Added a new Jawbreaker to the tank via trade. The JB has orange, red, green, and is showing signs of purple. Also came with a second JB and a few babies on the plug. I traded a nickel sized WWC Bounce.

Non tank related update, my wife and I purchased a brand new 2019 Subaru Outback! I think I put more research into this car than I do before buying a new fish or coral...

 

[AwildcatsZ]

This weekend I decided I am going to try my hand at Acros. I had a few extra WWC Bounce lying around my sand bed, so I decided to trade one away for a nice Acro pack.

For a WWC Bounce slightly larger than a quarter, I got Vivids Confetti, Pirates Reef Fruity Pebbles, JF Fox Flame, WWC Heart Breaker, Tierra Del Fuego, and Walt Disney.

I also got chunky frags of Blue Oregon Tort and Miyagi Tort. No pics yet.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Over the last few weeks I have seen that the tips of my SPS corals have been turning white, and eventually some of the flesh has melted away. The base of these frags are still alive and most of them are even continuing to encrust the plugs. This leads me to believe these are signs alk burn. I tested my nitrates using a Salifert test kit and they came up as near zero.

My solution to raise nitrates is to dose stump remover. I did quite a bit of research on how to do this properly and decided to go with a basic product that I found at Lowes. I dissolved 4 table spoons of this product in 4 liters of DI water and continued to dose 2ml per 1 gallon of water until my nitrates were at 5 ppm. Since doing this I have seen my SPS getting color back at the tips and my zoas and LPS are much larger and show great color.

New additions to the tank have been a Crescent Tailed Fairy Wrasse and Tail Spot Blenny. I have captured and found a new home for my yellow tang. My next goal is to get good pictures of the fish in my tank...wrasses are fast...

 

[powers2001]

@AwildcatsZ I don't think low nitrates would be the cause of this. Although SPS do ingest some nitrates, it is like junk food to them and they do much better on more complex food like aminos, proteins, and like organic compounds. I would definitely check your PAR levels if you haven't yet. It is completely impossible to judge light intensity with the naked eye and light intensities that are too high burn coral tissue for sure. I couldn't grow SPS for the life of me and LPS on the bottom of the tank was doing just fine. I bought a Seneye, lowered PAR to acceptable levels, my SPS took off and I never looked back.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

@AwildcatsZ I don't think low nitrates would be the cause of this. Although SPS do ingest some nitrates, it is like junk food to them and they do much better on more complex food like aminos, proteins, and like organic compounds. I would definitely check your PAR levels if you haven't yet. It is completely impossible to judge light intensity with the naked eye and light intensities that are too high burn coral tissue for sure. I couldn't grow SPS for the life of me and LPS on the bottom of the tank was doing just fine. I bought a Seneye, lowered PAR to acceptable levels, my SPS took off and I never looked back.

I have mapped out the PAR when I first got the Radions up and running. Since then I have lowered the intensity as the PAR levels were a little high. It has been a week since I have raised my nitrates above 5ppm and below 10ppm (Salifert test kit) I have noticed that the SPS have not lost any additional tissue and the polyp extension has improved. I will continue to monitor and report any changes.

I'm not saying what you said is wrong, but for now raising the nitrates seems to have stopped the issues.

 

[powers2001]

@AwildcatsZ that's great to know you're finding results with the nitrates. We all find different methods of successes at times and it's good that we can share them here. There's no right or wrong way to reef.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

I have been seeing my tank slowly die before my eyes over the last few weeks...I have officially lost every SPS frag, one lobo, all of my acans, and my scoly. This has been awful to watch and I do not know what it could be from. I sent for an ICP test and the following results came back (see attached PDF).

The only glaring thing is that my salinity is much lower than both my Refractometer (1.026) and Apex Salinity Probe are showing.

I have some trace elements that are low, but is this really something that would kill this many corals? I started to do some large scale water changes of 15 gallons at a time. The goal is to do 3 large changes this week and see if it stops the loss of coral.

Right now my four torch corals are doing well. The Aussie gold is beginning to show signs of stress. My mushrooms and zoas are all doing fine. My clam is happy and a favia coral is doing well.

 

[atp0726]

I had an opportunity to build my Apex equipment cabinet this weekend so it’s all prepared for the move one month away.

First step was to modify the shelf height of the Ikea cabinet. I lowered the shelf to allow 18” of clearance at the bottom. This will be where my ATO reservoir sits.

Next was cutting the false wall/mounting board for the Apex. The wall has hinges to allow easier access to the plugs in the back. I got this idea from a few people on R2R and BRS.

The color scheme I decided to go with was white and orange for this build. White board with orange grommets has a nice look to it. This color scheme will carry through to the plumbing of the tank.

Once everything was dry, all that was left was to hang the wall/door. This proved to be a little challenging to keep proper and even gaps on the edges. The only thing that went wrong is that the added weight of the equipment throws the frame of the entire cabinet off balance. In return the wall/door catches on the shelf. I have to lightly lift when pulling to open it. I plan to strengthen the frame with some supports to help this issue.

Any issue with the equipment nearest the hinges hitting the side of the wall when you open the false wall? I am thinking about doing something similar but wondering if placing equipment to close to hinges will cause it to hit when opening.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Any issue with the equipment nearest the hinges hitting the side of the wall when you open the false wall? I am thinking about doing something similar but wondering if placing equipment to close to hinges will cause it to hit when opening.

It does hit the side of the cabinet, but it doesn't prevent me from opening it enough to get to the mess of wires in the back. I'm not sure there is a way to prevent the equipment from hitting the side wall...unless you recess the controller boxes in the false wall.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

I have picked up my maintenance over the last month to try and combat whatever it was that has been causing my tank to struggle and some of my corals to die. My weekly routine consists of the following:
- 10 gallon water change on Sunday
- 5 gallon water change on Wednesday
- Siphon sand bed each water change
- Skimmer has been adjusted to get a wetter skimmate
- Lighting schedule has been completely changed

For now, the stressed corals have seemed to be coming around. Some of them are even healing from receding. I think that I may have messed my water chemistry up by dosing the root killer to raise nitrates. I would not say that it was the product itself, but my lack of knowledge about it prior to dosing. This maintenance schedule will continue for the next couple weeks before adding a couple new corals to see if the problem has been resolved.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Exciting equipment update:
I have been given the opportunity to beta test the new EcoTech Mobius app (controller).

It was very easy to connect my two Radions and Vortechs to the app. The app presets the AB+ schedule on the radions which is a very nice feature. You can easily adjust the intensity as you please, or create your very own schedule (as I chose). The Vortech schedule is also very easy to set up. You can drag and drop the preset patterns on a 24 hour time bar and adjust as needed. All in all, it took me about 1 hour to have the lights and pumps up and running under the new app.

My initial thought is that this is about to change everything with how we run our tanks! It was pretty much plug and play with the Radions and Vortechs. This was very nice compared to the additional modules and programming knowledge needed with the Apex system. Moving forward I will be running the Apex and Mobius on my aquarium as the Apex controls everything that is not EcoTech product.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Finally had a chance to use my only "reef related" Christmas gift, a Shop Vac! My wife got it for me as she was tired of hearing me complain about not having a way to clean my sump. This made maintenance a lot easier and the sump is clean as the day I set up the tank.

I have also started to dose Vibrant to help clear up a bubble algae outbreak. I had a small piece come in on a frag which I thought I removed, but it started to take over my rock work.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Livestock Update:
My maintenance routine has paid off and my tank is back to full health. I decided to part ways with one of my baby OG WWC Bounce mushrooms and got a SPS pack in return. The pack included the following:
- WD (Chunky frag)
- TGC Cherry Bomb
- Rocky Mountain Diablo Milli
- Forest Fire Digitata

I haven't had a chance to get any good pictures of the new frags, but all of them have been in the tank for 2 weeks now and have had full polyps extension and color.

Along with coral, I added new fish to the tank. I traded another OG Bounce for the following fish:
- Male Pintail Wrasse
- Melanarus Wrasse
- Long Nose Hawkfish
- Yellow Watchman Goby
- Tiger Pistol Shrimp

These have joined the existing DaVinci Clownfish, Twelve Line Wrasse, and Crescent Tail Wrasse. All of the fish were eating pellets and frozen mysis the very next day.

I will be trying to get pictures of all of the new live stock, but its pretty challenging to get a good photo of wrasses!

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Equipment Update:
This weekend I finally attempted to drill holes in my refugium for the bulkhead fittings. I ordered a diamond blade drill bit on amazon and used it to cut guides through a scrap piece of wood. After clamping it in place I had my wife pour water on the drill bit as I let the drill do the work. Overall it was a very painless process and now I am ready to start dry fitting my plumbing to the fuge.

I will be running an AI Prime Fuge light and growing cheato after I have finished running Vibrant to kill bubble algae. For now I plan to load it with some live rock to get more surface area for bacteria and pods.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Spent last night dry fitting the plumbing for the refugium. Going with a gate valve from Bulk Reef Supply to control flow into the fuge. I'm debating adding a 90 degree where the water enters the fuge box to reduce noise and promote flow to the bottom of the fuge.

After getting the fitting figured out with cheaper white PVC, I cut and assembled my colored PVC plumbing. I have water being mixed so I can glue and install tonight.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Fitted and glued the colored PVC last night and filled up the refugium. Had a small leak out of one of the bulk head seals, which was quickly resolved by loosening and tightening back up. Made it through the night without any flooding or leaks, so I think its good to go!

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Earlier this week I picked up two new corals from a local reefer in Southern California. I got a beautiful Lobo and Button Scoly. Lobo corals have to be one of my favorite corals with their shape and color patterns. They've only been in the tank for 2 days and are already puffy and eating like pigs.

A current full tank shot. All of my SPS are beginning to encrust the glue and some starting to grow onto the rockwork. Very happy with where my tank is at.

 

[AwildcatsZ]

Livestock Update:
It has been 2 months since we lost our male clownfish. We waited some time to make sure there weren't any problems with the tank that caused the death before purchasing a new clown. Since then new corals and fish have been added and all survived.

Since it was my wife's clownfish that passed, she got to pick its replacement. She wanted a black storm, but they have been hard to come by. A friend of mine gave me a lead and I got in touch with @Clownfish Depot. Brian and I sent some messages back and forth and he was able to hook me up with an amazing "Super Black Storm" clownfish!

Oreo, his new name, arrived on Tuesday. He was swimming and very active in the shipping bag. I acclimated as instructed and have him in an acclimation box to allow our resident clownfish to get used to her new mate. I plan to let Oreo out into the DT over the weekend, but he seems to be enjoying his new home and the decor in his box.