Trying to "do it right": My RedSea Reefer-S 850

[beesnreefs]

Second set of fish arrived! A bonded pair of Genicanthus Bellus angels.


This pair came QT'd from Striker's Reefing and I gotta say, Phelipe was wonderful to work with. Fish showed up looking fantastic and were readily eating a variety of frozen foods within an hour of entering the tank.

The Anthias, however, were less than pleased. All 3 darted for the caves and hid until the food came out!

So excited for this addition....now to think of names....

 

[ctopherl]

Jeez replying to your R2R thread on a plane? Thats dedication! Ok that sounds much better than the cutting/scraping video Red Sea has to remove from the older tanks.

Safe travels!

I really can’t figure out how to get the tray out without just attempting sheer brute force. It wiggles a bit but something is holding it in. Any suggestions? Or just rip it out?

Edit-rip it out approach worked

 

[beesnreefs]

I really can’t figure out how to get the tray out without just attempting sheer brute force. It wiggles a bit but something is holding it in. Any suggestions? Or just rip it out?

Edit-rip it out approach worked

Glad it worked!! You’re going to love the ReefMat

 

[beesnreefs]

So a few hours after arrival the female Bellus started swimming oddly. It looks like she’s fighting to stay up, swimming pointed up, and working semi-hard.


She’s active and eating like a champ but has been like this for 2+ days now. I’ve asked around and most people seem a bit perplexed. I’m told that typically when they have buoyancy issues it’s the opposite way - they point down, not up. The vendor suggested Bellus sometimes have issues after shipment and thinks this should resolve over time.

I’ll continue feeding 3-4 times a day and keep an eye. But I feel bad for her. Hoping we can get her back to good.

 

[beesnreefs]

Another big day today. Testing, water change, added some new corals, and the Bellus is back to normal! Oh also got my

Nitrates are slowly growing (8.4 today, 6.6 last week). Finally have measurable phosphates (0.03). Did a 10% water change, something I plan on doing weekly from here on forward. I’m hopeful the routine maintenance, ProBio population, and added corals (to consume nitrates/phosphates) help me find a nice balance like I have

Just starting to get some uglies (looks like some small patches of maybe orange diatoms?)

Moved a few more corals from the 65 to this tank. Removed each one and placed them in clean water, inspected for pests (aiptasia and vermetid are my primary concerns). Anything I found was fully scraped off. I then used a toothbrush and peroxide to clean skeletons and bases. Finally, placed the whole coral in a dilute peroxide bath. Once clean, they were moved to the new tank:


Fun story about that torch…it came from a spawning in the 65! One day we found a tiny bright green nub on the skeleton of a button scoly. Over a few weeks it grew into a full blown torch, eventually killing the button scoly. You can still see the scoly skeleton:

I also had a chat with @Kenneth Wingerter (he’s great) about my goals with PNS ProBio. I’d like to try and establish a population to help with nitrate management biologically. He suggested I soak some substrate in Substrate Sauce for 24 hours and then placing it in the sump. So I’ve started that experiment:

And today my female Bellus started swimming normally! Very happy about that:


Finally, my Reefin Ain’t Ezyid arrived today. It’s fantastic. Couldn’t be happier:

My LFS QT’d a Midas blenny for me. They’ve been holding him until the lid came. Now I can pick him up later this week! And Friday I’m getting three wrasses (an Exquisite, an Ornate Leopard, and a Radiant) from @Dr. Reef. So excited!

Man, I sure am loving the journey with this

 

[beesnreefs]

Soooo frustrating! ‍ But don’t worry, I’m laughing

My old tank has an annoying aiptasia problem. And because I have a hawk fish, I’ve never been successful in keeping berghia or peppermints. They quickly become expensive snacks.

So when transferring corals to the new tank I took great care to inspect then in a separate container and kill/scrape off any aiptasia I found.

Just got this picture from my wife

Love this hobby, but it looks like I’ve got a new task when I get home. And I’ll be ordering some peppermints (no hawk fish in this tank!) from @AlgaeBarn

 

[whitcory]

I hate that stuff. Aiptasia. I had the same thing happen. I took care to inspect, view, and treat all new corals only to find some in my tank. I killed them off but still annoying and something to stay on top of. Good luck with it. I use the red-sea product and has worked well.

 

[whitcory]

Following and really loving your tank. I just ordered a Bellus Angel from TSM aquatics. It will arrive in a few weeks. I have heard about bladder and swimming problems. I hope mine comes in OK shape. Yours is looking awesome and I am glad I went that route with my tank. Keep up the good work.

 

[beesnreefs]

I hate that stuff. Aiptasia. I had the same thing happen. I took care to inspect, view, and treat all new corals only to find some in my tank. I killed them off but still annoying and something to stay on top of. Good luck with it. I use the red-sea product and has worked well.

Ugh, me too! I've learned some lessons that I think will help me keep this newer tank cleaner. Hoping it works out. Thanks for the recommendation on the RedSea aipatisa stuff!

Following and really loving your tank. I just ordered a Bellus Angel from TSM aquatics. It will arrive in a few weeks. I have heard about bladder and swimming problems. I hope mine comes in OK shape. Yours is looking awesome and I am glad I went that route with my tank. Keep up the good work.

THANK YOU! It's amazing how much of ourselves we can put into these tanks. Means a lot to hear someone else is enjoying the journey with me

I think you're going to love your Bellus! They seem like really neat fish. What's your tank like?

 

[beesnreefs]

Some more updates:

The old tank has grown torches like mad. Being a small display it doesn't seem to take long before the torches get "too big". Luckily, my LFS is just a mile away and they have been wonderful in letting me bring the torch colonies in so they can cut them for me using their coral saw. Since I've got some higher-end torches I always give them a head or two in payment.

Well, this last one was a pretty unusual one. I never had a name for it but the LFS was sure it was some kind of Dragon Tamer. They offered to sell some of the frags for me on consignment and we could split the proceeds. How cool is that! Well, they were able to sell two heads so far....gave me enough credit to cover the cost of my new Midas blenny, the cost for the 30 day QT they did with him at my request, enough salt water for this week's water changes on both my tanks, RO to cover me for at least 2 weeks....and a splitting 3-mouth high-end torch I've had my eye on at the shop for the last month!

Felt pretty good walking out of the shop the other day with all that in tow and never having to pull out the wallet

Here's the torch this morning (under daylight settings - keep in mind the Stratons at full LPS/SPS programming do not have the heavy blues). It's the one on the left:

In the morning ramp up (which is full blues/UV only) it looks straight fire. Absolutely glows!

And here's my new Midas blenny. He's settled in to the routine right quick:

 

[dstockwell]

Very nice.

 

[whitcory]

Ugh, me too! I've learned some lessons that I think will help me keep this newer tank cleaner. Hoping it works out. Thanks for the recommendation on the RedSea aipatisa stuff!

THANK YOU! It's amazing how much of ourselves we can put into these tanks. Means a lot to hear someone else is enjoying the journey with me

I think you're going to love your Bellus! They seem like really neat fish. What's your tank like?

Here is a shot of my tank. I've ordered the Bellus. I cannot wait to see how he looks. Trying to grow out my corals. It will quickly get crowded in there! Following your posts for sure. I have a Redsea 625 XXL. On the smaller side of what you have.

 

[beesnreefs]

Here is a shot of my tank. I've ordered the Bellus. I cannot wait to see how he looks. Trying to grow out my corals. It will quickly get crowded in there! Following your posts for sure. I have a Redsea 625 XXL. On the smaller side of what you have.

Love it! The arches are great. It’s going to look awesome when the corals fill it in.

Post a picture of your Bellus when you get it

 

[beesnreefs]

Well, a month after lights-on, the uglies have finally arrived.

I'm guessing this is the typical "started with dry rock" diatoms. Going to test my patience to stay the course. Luckily I'm out of town the next 6 days so I can't be home to futz with things

Plan is for "steady as she goes" and trusting the process I've come up with. I've got a strong micro and miso biome in place and have settled into some consistent practices (same fish feedings in the same amounts at the same time each day, phyto dosing daily, weekly 10% water change, etc).

I've got a 4-pack of Jay's Reef Bugs 7-species copepod mix coming next week. Hoping that boost of pods will be a natural clean up crew for these uglies. Otherwise, I'll keep doing the same thing I've been doing.

Going to be interesting to see what happens after October 25th. That's the day we are breaking down the old tank and moving the rest of the corals over, including several SPS...so I'll have to turn up the intensity on the lights in the new tank. Good news is my SPS are currently quite used to 200ish PAR so I don't have to crank the lights up too high yet.

 

[whitcory]

This is the worst part. You do all that care work time and effort to make your tank beautiful and then after some time….it looks awful for a while. This too shall pass. Stay the course. Looking good!

 

[beesnreefs]

This is the worst part. You do all that care work time and effort to make your tank beautiful and then after some time….it looks awful for a while. This too shall pass. Stay the course. Looking good!

Thanks for the supportive words. Stay the course...as tough as it is...that's the plan!

 

[beesnreefs]

Some updates…

Got three new fish from @Dr. Reef. All are wrasses, a radiant, ornate leopard, and exquisite. As usual the packaging was fantastic. The exquisite was very stressed on arrival and died a couple hours after release in to the tank

The radiant and leopard are fantastic. Active, friendly, and healthy. Both readily hunt for pods and accept prepared foods (the radiant is even eating some pellets!).

Also spent some time today moving some more corals over form the older tank. Specifixally, I moved four torch colonies (God, Todd’s, Dragon Tamer, and Banana), a holy grail micromussa colony and a big rainbow chalice.

The uglies seem to have stabilized a bit and light even be slowly receding.

I have a new HYDROS dosing pump and have a 5L dosing container coming in the mail today or tomorrow. I’ll be starting on All For Reef once the container arrives.

Here’s how it all looks today after adding the new corals and a 15g water change:


One thing I’m very pleased by is how the nutrient levels are stabilizing. I’m feeding three times a day, which is one more daily feeding than I’d done on the old tank. So I expected nutrient management to be a bit tougher (especially before having a bunch of corals in there to eat up nutrients). I really think the PNS ProBio seeding I did has helped. Here’s how things are looking:

I’m striving for heavy in/ heavy out so this feels good to me. As I add more fish, increase amount of food, and continue to up the amount of AF Power Elixr I add each day I expect the numbers to increase a bit but I’m happy with how it’s stabilized at a reasonable level.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Some updates…

Got three new fish from @Dr. Reef. All are wrasses, a radiant, ornate leopard, and exquisite. As usual the packaging was fantastic. The exquisite was very stressed on arrival and died a couple hours after release in to the tank

The radiant and leopard are fantastic. Active, friendly, and healthy. Both readily hunt for pods and accept prepared foods (the radiant is even eating some pellets!).

Also spent some time today moving some more corals over form the older tank. Specifixally, I moved four torch colonies (God, Todd’s, Dragon Tamer, and Banana), a holy grail micromussa colony and a big rainbow chalice.

The uglies seem to have stabilized a bit and light even be slowly receding.

I have a new HYDROS dosing pump and have a 5L dosing container coming in the mail today or tomorrow. I’ll be starting on All For Reef once the container arrives.

Here’s how it all looks today after adding the new corals and a 15g water change:


One thing I’m very pleased by is how the nutrient levels are stabilizing. I’m feeding three times a day, which is one more daily feeding than I’d done on the old tank. So I expected nutrient management to be a bit tougher (especially before having a bunch of corals in there to eat up nutrients). I really think the PNS ProBio seeding I did has helped. Here’s how things are looking:

I’m striving for heavy in/ heavy out so this feels good to me. As I add more fish, increase amount of food, and continue to up the amount of AF Power Elixr I add each day I expect the numbers to increase a bit but I’m happy with how it’s stabilized at a reasonable level.

Please email my claim dept and we will get that doa taken care off for you. I am really surprised Radiant made it through shipping. I have lost most all through shipping. I am glad yours is happy. Thank you for your support.

 

[beesnreefs]

Please email my claim dept and we will get that doa taken care off for you. I am really surprised Radiant made it through shipping. I have lost most all through shipping. I am glad yours is happy. Thank you for your support.

Thanks Mike! I contacted them as soon as the fish died. The customer service was fantastic! They were responsive and immediately offered to replace the fish or refund me which is pretty awesome. I requested a replacement fish and hope to have it in a couple of weeks.

The Radiant wrasse showed up the least stressed of all 3 fish. Of note, it was the only one in a blacked-out bag. Not sure if that helped or not but he's doing great now! Super active and eats like a champ...quickly becoming my wife's favorite fish in the tank

Thanks for all you do to support the hobby, @Dr. Reef!

 

[beesnreefs]

Another weekend in the evolution of this tank of joy. Got some big steps in the process checked off the list yesterday.

In addition to regular maintenance I vacuumed the rock a bit. In some spots I’m getting a snotty looking, brown/orange growth that I assume is some sort of chrysophytes (which I had the last time I started with dry rock). I suspect it will resolve in a few weeks on its own.

Amped up the lights to get closer to the PAR I’m after in various spots. Absolutely loving the flexibility with these Stratons. Having three of them - and having the ability to adjust each individual light in sections front/middle/back - makes it incredibly easy to dial in specific PAR in specific areas of the tank. My sticks will be getting 200-250 PAR for now. Torch island is hitting around 150-175. Corals in the sand are getting around 100. @ATI North America has an awesome product here.

The old tank is being torn down and sold off this coming Tuesday so this was my last chance to move corals over. I intentionally left the SPS frags this long to give the new tank as much time as possible to stabilize. Yesterday, they all got moved over. Every piece was inspected and cleaned of any possible pests. I scrubbed the frag plugs with peroxide to minimize the risk of any unwanted algae transferring over. I also installed a simple HYDROS dosing pump and started dosing All For Reef.

Here’s my current collection of SPS frags after being cleaned and moved:

And enjoying a quiet Saturday morning on the couch with the best (and comfiest) view in the house:


Tuesday my two new tangs show up from @tsmaquatics. A gem and a blonde naso. I’ll also be moving my white tailed bristletooth tang, cigar-sized Royal Gramma, and melanurus wrasse over from the old tank.