Reefer 250 build

[tenurepro]

So... Just went to see a man in a basement about a frag... An hour and a few $ later, I walked out with:
Ora purple cap
Christmas monti cap
Sunset monti (so excited about this one... Gorgeous)
blueberry wine acro (also gorgeous)
Red planet acro (also lovely).
That should be it for a while ... [emoji6]

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[tenurepro]

Did a water change and epoxied all frags into hopefully their final place. Skimmer went nuts with all that much epoxy so took it off line for a bit.

Here is full tank shot

Coral list: left to right
Glass - xmas montipora cap... Epoxy and crazy glue got it on the glass but for how long?

Top shelf: acro tenuis, red planet, blueberry wine, bonsai, Cali blue tort, pink lemonade, blue voodoo
Middle - red acan, Ora purple cap (hope it grows out of the shadow of the Tonga) meteor shower, cold water acro, rainbow monti (stunning in person), green birdsnest, montipora digitata, green slimer, green birds nest
Bottom/sand: frutopia zoa, green torch, green hammer, pink flowerpot, open brain, purple torch, green flowerpot, 3 blue mushrooms.

I think I have space for one more acro top shelf between pink lemonade and blue voodoo... Trying to leave 3 inches for growth.

Still having some algae that I scrub every few days off rock, but it's only growing on new rocks, not old rocks from nano... Wondering if it's just the coralline preventing growth of GHA on old rocks? But maybe I need a bigger cuc?

Parameters are kinda stable: alk 11.8 dKh, CA 460 ppm, Mg 1400; dosing Redsea reef foundation A (9 ml a day) and B (60 ml a day)

Growth is good. Month old acros are almost fully encrusting plugs. Monti digitata is a total rock star!

July 3 '16

July 15 '16

August 1 2016

Green slimer looking pretty and starting to encrust plug

Fish looking good... Now that corals are in place - time to think about adding a few more reef safe fish that are not going to disturb the peace.i would love to get an azure damsel in a year or so once my acros have grown... It should hang around in the acros and not bug other fish... For now, thinking of leopard wrasse ? Any other suggestions on good reef safe and non aggressive wrasses ?


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[tenurepro]

Well x-mas monti is not staying put on the glass... Any tips on sticking frag to glass would be greatly appreciated!


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[nightOwl]

Well x-mas monti is not staying put on the glass... Any tips on sticking frag to glass would be greatly appreciated!


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For encrusting Montis I use to use a epoxy coated magnets like the ones BRS use to sell for cheap. I just checked and did not see them cheap anymore. I think they use to be $6.50 for two now it looks like $10 for two...seems overprices now. Super glue (gel) one or two magnet to a shell or something light. Depending on the amount of epoxy you have make a small ledge and insert the magnet into the back that touches the glass. I normally super glue the magnet in the epoxy as well. I let the epoxy harden overnight. Attach the monti to it the next day. For some reason they seem to encrust on epoxy much faster than a frag plug or disk and before long it will grow on the glass. Let me know if you need a reference picture I will try to did up an old one.

I figure you already are aware of this this but also keep an eye on your spacing of your frags. I noticed some look pretty close to one another. Right now they are just frags but they will grow and need space.

 

[tenurepro]

For encrusting Montis I use to use a epoxy coated magnets like the ones BRS use to sell for cheap. I just checked and did not see them cheap anymore. I think they use to be $6.50 for two now it looks like $10 for two...seems overprices now. Super glue (gel) one or two magnet to a shell or something light. Depending on the amount of epoxy you have make a small ledge and insert the magnet into the back that touches the glass. I normally super glue the magnet in the epoxy as well. I let the epoxy harden overnight. Attach the monti to it the next day. For some reason they seem to encrust on epoxy much faster than a frag plug or disk and before long it will grow on the glass. Let me know if you need a reference picture I will try to did up an old one.



I figure you already are aware of this this but also keep an eye on your spacing of your frags. I noticed some look pretty close to one another. Right now they are just frags but they will grow and need space.

Thanks!


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[burton14e7]

Great looking tank mate! I'm in the processing of parting together my 250. I really like your ATO container. Mind telling me where you got that and how many days before you have to refill it with RODI?

 

[tenurepro]

Great looking tank mate! I'm in the processing of parting together my 250. I really like your ATO container. Mind telling me where you got that and how many days before you have to refill it with RODI?

Thanks! The container holds about 5 gallons of water. I bought the container from my LFS... Typical jug of distilled water of premixed saltwater. It lasts a good 5 to 7 days


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[burton14e7]

Thanks! The container holds about 5 gallons of water. I bought the container from my LFS... Typical jug of distilled water of premixed saltwater. It lasts a good 5 to 7 days

Ah, that's a good length of time. I guess I couldn't tell the depth in your picture. It looked thinner than the normal 5 gallon jug that I'm used to seeing. Thanks!

 

[tenurepro]

Ah, that's a good length of time. I guess I couldn't tell the depth in your picture. It looked thinner than the normal 5 gallon jug that I'm used to seeing. Thanks!

It is pretty thin. Actually I had three and one of them sprung a leak after about 6 month of use. There are more sturdy options from online retailers for sure


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[tenurepro]

Saw this little guy in my LFS yesterday and couldn't resist!

Was swimming around and looked healthy and the price was great too. It was mislabeled but I am fairly sure it's a black leopard wrasse. A leopard was on my fish list so couldn't pass it up. Debated about putting him straight in the reefer or QT. my old 30 gallon is still up with some live rock, sand and a few crabs / snails; lots of pods I bet. So in it went into the old 30g. Plan is to get him to eat prepared food and observe him for a week or two before putting him in the display. Hope he takes to pellets and flakes!


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[tenurepro]

Mini update: battling a bit of cyano. Nitrates and phosphates have been reading zero on seachem, but the tank is saying otherwise. Glass gets dirty 24h after cleaning and the few batches of cyano say high phosphates...

So I've been blowing rocks with powerhead, scrubbing, skimming wet, and preparing a large wc. Been slacking on water changes; was doing a small 5% every three weeks thinking that I may get away with it given low bioload and dosing plus gfo. Will also reduce gfo and try reducing light period a bit at the end of the day...
Corals look happy and encrusting though.

Leopard wrasse has not reappeared since hiding in the sand in my qt tank 5 days ago... Problem is - found a buyer for my nano which is now my qt, so the leopard has to be moved into display by Thursday... If he is still alive that is. Fingers crossed!


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[tenurepro]

We are now officially on day 60! Updates include:
Cyano + water movement:
Cyano is on the decline, and I am not actively removing it so that is good. I had upped the water flow on my vectra from about 5x tank volume to 15x. Also added a new mp10 on the other side of the original mp10. I a getting great water flow now, and I run a few detritus cleaning cycles during the day (tidal swell for 2.5 h and nutrient transport mode for 2.5 h) and man you can really see the junk that was sitting on the rock clear out. I think that my previous water movement was not sufficient. The pukani has a lot of crevices and it helps to beat it up with flow to clear up the build up. I had tested phosphorus over the last few days; before mp10; 0 ppb, one day after mp10; 8 ppb; two days after mp10 : 1 ppb. My interpretation is that the cyano was consuming detritus on rock, mp10 improved circulation which prevented detritus build up and allowed skimmer and gfo to reduce phosphates. Will dial back vectra gradually and stick with weekly water changes. Hopefully that will be the end of cyano

2: did a couple of tank organization projects with my old man who is good with plastics. We (he ) designed a custom shelf for the doser and bottle containers. This cleared up some space in the sump, including the stock ato tank which I can now convert to a fuge
Also did some chord management and now I have a few semi accessible plastic container to keep fish food and accessories. I got my label maker and labeled everything

Corals: are happy and encrusting well. Noticing new growth on 100% of the corals so happy about that.

Fish: old fish are all doing well. The black leopard wrasse disappeared again into the sand. If he makes it, I will name him Keyser Söze!

Got a new fish yesterday - a Florida blue reef chromis. He is in a 10gal QT; will observe for a month before moving it to DT


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[tenurepro]

Reefer 250 build

Pics soon

 

[tenurepro]

He is alive! Keyser Söze is alive!!!!
So after two weeks of hiding, I finally see my black leopard wrasse out and about... At 10 pm after lights out. He looks good cruising the rocks for some food. I guess the poor guys is still terribly jet lagged. Perhaps he has been out during the night while I was sleeping. Will try feeding him some mysis

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[tenurepro]

A little update. Been away on holiday for a week and a half. Had the autofeeder on which, even at the lowest setting, dumps twice as much pellets as I normally feed. Also had skimmer on dry; didn't want it to overflow when I am away.
Alk dropped from 11.8 to 10.6; CA dropped from 460 to 400ppm; phosphates went from undetectable to 0.09 ppm (Hanna phosphorus ULR), nitrates went from undetectable to barely detectable (<0.2 ppm on salfert).

Now the interesting bits; growth on all sps frags was very obvious,great PE, and a tad bit more color in some of the corals that were browning. Also a bit more GHA, and lower cyano.

Not sure if it was the drop in alk or the excess nutrients (or both) that fueled this growth. The alk and ca drop are also consistent with uptake by growing sps. I think my system was running a bit too clean, and there may be some merit to the 'increase bio load' advice I was getting re. Cyano.

I am planing to increase my fish; have 3 chromis in wk 2 out of 4 in QT. also planing on adding 3 more wrasses in a couple of weeks, then a royal gramma. That should up the nitrates. Away next week so we'll see how high Phosphates will climb and its effect on tank. Will try to maintain high alk like I have been (around 11.5)

Re. Black leopard wrasse (haven't seen him since his one and only midnight appearance. Hoping he is still alive but u am skeptical about a fish emerging from the sand 3 wks after intro)




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[neiltus]

I would love a leopard wrasse, but I have heard there a PITA to get to eat...

 

[tenurepro]

I heard that too. But I also know a few people that got them to eat pretty much everything. Mine just disappeared; perhaps it got too stressed during shipping


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[tenurepro]

Ok back from vacation with an update: so now had autofeeder on for three weeks straight. Last week phosphates were high (0.09 ppm) and GHA was starting to grow but Corals looked happy and were coloring up. I continued with the autofeeder (by necessity) feeding twice a day last week and today phosphates have dropped to 0.003 ppm, very very little GHA in the tank, no cyano, barely detectable nitrates, alk and ca dropped to 9.8 and 380. Corals look great; new growth and better color. Fish look fat.
I think I was running to clean first too month, worrying too much over parameters. I've decided to keep the autofeeder and not worry too much about parameter watching- just judge by how things are looking in the tank. Will keep alk above 8 and Ca above 400 but that is about it.


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[Jason777]

Which auto feeder are you using? I went back through the thread and probably just missed it.

 

[tenurepro]

I use an ehiem feeder and station. Feed twice a day but the feeder puts out more than twice the pellets I normally feed even at lowest setting

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