RSR 250 - The build, the progress and likely some downfalls!

[Redengine]

Hi all, I have a build thread in another forum so apologies for the multiple forums but I think it's good to get out there and widen the net of advice ect.

Brought a 2nd hand tank with an already established refugium and I was in two minds if I was going to run with it or not. The previous owner wasn't running a skimmer but I plan to add some hard coral eventually so want to run a skimmer. So with that I going to change the sump to accommodate.

Here's what I have and planned upgrades:-

TMC return
X2 Radion XR15's G4 Pro
X2 VorTech Quiet Drive QD MP10w and MP40w
30 kg live rock
Redsea Base Sand(pink)
D-D Schego 300W Titanium Heater, TMC V Therm 300 Heater
Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO
Bubble Magus Curve 5
Simply Aquaria Dual Temp Controller
EcoTech ReefLink
Kessil H380 for sump
Existing refugium contents
Jacob P4 Doser
Osmosis 4 Stage RODI unit

Eventual wish list:-

Kamoer F4 - 4 Channel Dosing Pump
Apex Controller

Live rock is already cured and literally went from tank to tank and was submerged for the 45min trip home.

Done a week of testing so far and looks like I'm on track. I'd really like to run Triton but my fuge is too small so not sure where to go with it??

Here's what we have so far!!!





Moving on there was a CUC added of:

1 Conch Snail
2 Nassarius Snails
2 Turbo Snails
4 Hermit Crabs
1 Emerald Crab
1 Bumblebee Snail
2 Trochus Snails

Then after that m lovely clowns, Royal Gamma and a neon goby (these were weeks apart!

Last week was interesting week, lost the neon goby feedback pointed towards some sort of bacterial infection and prolapse. Was gutted as no one wants to lose anything!

First major lesson learnt.. QT! On the back of that, I've just up a small QT tank as a precaution going forward as well as keeping a close eye on the other fish who appear to be doing great.

QT that wasn't expensive to set up, 30l tank £40, aquael heater £22, HOB filter with UV £40, used old sump aquael led light, seachem ammonia and PH alerter, hiding tube stolen from my brother in laws tank in the shed (sterilised).

Medication:-
Prazipro
IchX
CP Treatment (yet to be purchased)

I toyed around with a UV install but I'm still undecided there's so much debate on them.

Parameters all looked fine, tested them after the loss.







Chaeto is huge and my skimmer isn't producing much as a result. I'll be trimming it back next week for sure.

CUC are working hard except a couple of snails which I suspected was due to slightly high mag since starting triton. I know the idea of triton is to reduce water changes but I feel a new system long term does better with them so I'll be doing them but less frequent, 2-3 weeks possibly until it reaches a bit of maturity.

And that... Is where I am to date! Thanks for reading :spin3:

 

[Redengine]

Since last post there has been a few changes...

The algae issue - I started to get what looked like Dino or Diatoms, tested the water and had 0 nitrate and 0.015 phosphate. Got on top of that quickly. I added another small powerhead to prevent it taking hold in any dead deadspots and ran the lights a little lower. I still get a buildup on my glass and scrape daily but it's the general stuff you get on the tank I would however like to see if I can mitigate that going forward.

Low nutrients - I trimmed the Chaeto back, I didn't want to do anything too drastic and suffer a swing so probably could have trimmed further. I cut 1/3 back, I guess I need to find the sweet spot but it grows so fast! After some discussion with some of the guys in my area the general consensous was more bio load and over feeding. At the moment I have 2 clowns, 2 chromes, 1 wrasse and a royal gramma who are getting 2 cubes of frozen a day which feels like an overfeed so hopefully that's right.

I'm thinking I of running the skimmer at night or just running the fuge and an X-filter, jury is still out. A couple of the guys that use them swear by it so we'll see.

View attachment 1305289

ICP - Sent one in around 3-4 weeks ago and the turn around was quick really just a few days. It wasn't too bad although there were traces of zinc and copper. Putting the zinc down to floss another reason I'm leaning toward x-filter and not sure on the copper. I think the copper is due to a contaminant from somewhere opposed to an element build up. I got some buckets mixed up and I'd cleaned one out that was going in the garden with normal water but I think it ended up mixed up and used for WC ages ago. Can't be sure can't wait anything anywhere, if it's not down on the next ICP I'll be dismantling the return to check for rust!

Their recommendation was 6 water changes after a detox dose.
Magnesium was really low, this was a bit of a surprise and sure enough after checking my doser the Mag wasn't drawing the liquid so sorted that. Retested it this weekend and normality has resumed!

There were other trace elements but I decided to go with what I thought were most important, Iodine, Strontium and Potassium. The reason being I swapped over to Tropic Marin salt so wanted to wait until the prescribed water changes are done and new ICP. That way I can work with the parameters of the salt I'll be using going forward!

View attachment 1305299

Aquascape - So when I started planning getting back into this I was mainly pulled toward LPS with a view of a few SPS. That's gone out the window now, I do have some LPS but the tanks steering toward SPS dominant. Problem I had was the rockwork wasn't done with that in mind and I found that A - it looked to much like a wall with no depth or texture B - the light spread in the middle of this wall wasn't good enough for SPS. I toyed with getting a 3rd light but seems a waste of money considering I'm looking at going another way with lights on my upgrade in the future.

If I'm honest I was unsure how I was going to do this and read up very differing advice so settled on this.
1. Large container with a heater and powerhead in it.
2. Take all the rock out carefully and put it in there.
3. Built 1 island at a time as close to the design I'd sketched.
4. Keep the LR wet with a spray bottle of tank water.
5. Put structure back in tank.
6. The same with the second island.
7. Then re-arranged all my SPS (thankfully they weren't a pain to move)
8. 15% water change.
I had my QT tank set up with water from my system to put the fish in but actually they were ok and surprisingly curious so let them be as they would have been more stressed by me trying to net them! Was happy to wake up to polyps out on everything and all the fish swimming about!

I read what started as an interesting thread about aquascape and it did get me thinking about how much LR I had against needed and all the deadspots the Great Wall of 250 had! Anyways it went well, its not something I want to do again which means I'm happy with it lol (for once) and I learnt some bits along the way!

Before:-
View attachment 1305291

After
View attachment 1305293

I still have a lot of rock but didn't want to imbalance the tank just create a scape that works better for lighting and coral.

Apologies for such a long post, not updated in a while!


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