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BlueCheese3's first tank: Red Sea reefer 250

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BlueCheese3

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Hello all,

I figured I'd set up a quick tank thread to document my progress. More for myself so that I can see how far I've come (or not) in a year or two, but I hope that this journal can be interesting for others as well.

Background: I'm a freshwater guy, my pride and joy is my 90 gallon discus tank. However, every time I enter a fish store I always see these amazing reef displays, and I wanted to give it a shot myself. I asked around and did research, and learned as much as I could. The most helpful resource was spending many lonely nights watching the BRS 160 series. One day when purchasing fish food, I was discussing innovative marine and red sea tanks with the store owner when he referred me to a contact who was breaking down his tank. I bought his tank and all of his equipment for an incredible price, and eventually set up this tank.

Specs:
- Red Sea Reefer 250 (55 gallons, 11 gallon sump)
- 2 Radeon xr15 (g4 I think)
- 2 Vortech mp40qd
- Nyos quantum skimmer
- 2x Eheim Jaeger 150w heaters, controlled by the Apex
- Generic eBay refugium light
- Vectra m1
- Neptune ATK
- Neptune apex 2016 (I think, not too familiar with the apex terminology but this is the one with the 4 probes)
- Neptune WXM module for lights and pumps

I filled the tank up using RODI water and red sea coral pro salt (which I learned the hard way shouldn't be stored), added about 50 pounds of dry rock, and have been cycling for the last several weeks. The current residents of the tank are 1 scarlet hermit and 2 ocellaris clownfish, hoping to add first tester corals after the coral farmer's market tomorrow. Hoping to do a fairly mixed reef with mostly LPS and softies, with 1 or 2 SPS once I get there. I also really want a clam!

Upgrades I want to make: At some point I want to add a more permanent ATO reservoir, that will happen when the budget allows it to do so. Someday I would also like to get a more optimized refugium light at some point, but I don't plan to put too many fish in here quite yet, so that can wait.

If you have any suggestions for me or if I missed anything, let me know because all of this saltwater stuff is still new to me. I'm looking forward to adding some coral and continuing this into a hopefully awesome display!

Excuse the messy cabinet, still have to sort cords and clean up the trash from setting up.

IMG_9511.JPG
IMG_9513.JPG
 
Good luck with the build, looks like you’re off to a great start. Be careful at CFM, seems dangerous with an empty tank, haha


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Welcome! We have a similar set-up, tho you have kicked-up the flow a couple notches -- looking forward to your progress. If you haven't yet become a member, the club is a great boost to you tank's success.
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone! I'm excited to see how this tank progresses.

I just got back from the CFM with much more then I expected. I got 6 different types of zoanthids, a hammer coral, and a rock flower anemone. They are all currently acclimating and I will update with pictures once the corals go into the tank!

The farmers market was tons of fun, all of the vendors that I spoke to were incredibly nice and helpful. There were lots of beautiful corals, and I'm exited to see what I can add to my tank once it establishes itself a little more.

This week I'm going to build myself a screen top using the red sea screen top kit so that I can add more fish next weekend. I also need to purchase some chaeto macro algae.

Lastly, after reading around the forum a bit more I became a supporting member. This club seems great and I can't wait to attend some of the planned events!

Ok, back to acclimating these new corals!
 
I just made the screens and it’s wayyy easier with miter saw with a 80 tooth blade. Hack saw or grinder didn’t yield the results I was looking for.


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Update: corals are in the tank, everything is pretty closed up right now so I won't share pics quite yet, but everyone seems to be doing ok. The rock flower is hiding between some rocks which I was worried about initially but he's moved an inch or so which makes me believe he's fine. Turned the flow down (20% rc each) for now until stuff starts to open up.
 
I returned to my tank after a week in Bonaire for a scuba trip (which an untimely illness unfortunately turned into a snorkel trip.) Most everything was the same, one of the zoas has a new mini-polyp. Parameters were good, so I decided it was time for more livestock! I took a trip down to Neptune Aquatics and picked up a 1.5" yellow tang, a cleaner shrimp, some frogspawn, an acan, and a candy cane coral. I acclimated them to the tank and dipped the corals, and they are currently in the process of opening up!

I still need to build my screen top so I can add some fire fish, and I also need to get a snail or two to eat some of the algae that popped up while I was away.

I have two questions to all of the other reefers. First, how do you all take pictures of corals/fish that aren't so blue? I'm running the AB+ settings on my radions, which I'm pretty sure is a fairly blue spectrum. Should I just switch my lights to white? Is there some filter for my phone camera? Second, what is the best way to clean filter socks? I don't really want to run my washing machine every 3 days or so for just 2 socks, so do people buy 2 weeks or so worth of socks and then just wash them in the washing machine then or is there a faster way to do it? Washing them in the sink doesn't do much for me.
 
I haven’t used filter socks in two years.

I have radions as well running a modified SPS AB+. Two ways to added the red/orange back to the picture:
1. Adjust white balance in camera or during post
2. You can use an orange or yellow filter or buy a phone clip.

here are two different ones - I use the orphek and it’s pretty good.

ORPHEK LENS - 2020 Kit for Smartphones - 4 Included: Macro, CPL 37mm Polarized, 15,000k Orange, 20,000k Yellow - For ALL smartphone models: iphone, samsung, huawei, google pixel, tablets and more! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZJX6JT9/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_QDZuEb76F13R4

Polyplab Smartphone Coral View Lens Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DVMFBNP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cFZuEbR6E0TKV
 
Switch to mesh socks, then just pull them every few days, push them inside out and rinse them out in a sink until all the brown crap comes off. Have extras so you can swap and let the ones you just clean drip dry.
 
I had two sets but I’ve head of guys that will get like 30 of them. I only used socks when I did maintenance so that it would catch a bunch of the gunk that I stirred up.
 
So, now we hit the hard part of keeping any tank, with a rather depressing update:
I removed my socks, and then about week later I noticed a brown-red algae like substance growing over my rocks and corals. I did a water test and my nitrates were incredibly high, around 20. I realised that my skimmer wasn't skimming properly, and I assume it hadn't been for a while due to the fact that the cup was empty and I hadn't emptied in a week or so. I essentially just turned all of my filtration off for a week, except for the refugium that I added a few days ago, which is still on a very short photo period. Phosphates are at 0, which I'm guessing is a test kit error (salifert). What is the solution here? Waterchange and feed less until my refugium gets going? Most of the corals are doing fine, except for 2 colonies of zoanthids where the algae is growing over them, and I'm just brushing what I can off of them every day.

Attached is a picture of the algae under a microscope. I'm not sure if it's an algae or cyanobacteria, or even something else.
IMG_9638.JPG
 
Wouldn't freak out too much, all tanks go through an ugly phase aft the beginning.

Here is my journal

Mike's 200 & 40 gallon tanks

Should have said relatively small fish in the 200 as well, I have the tangs and want those the only big fish in there
bareefers.org

Almost 1 month later... the uglies
 
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