Dan's Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Mixed Reef

[dandemeyere]

Equipment List:
Tank: Red Sea Reefer 425 XL
Dimensions: 47"(L) x 22.6"(D) x 22"(H)
Size: 88 gallons (display), 24 (sump), 112 (total)
Lights: 3x Gen5 EcoTech Radion XR30 Blue
Return: Neptune COR-15
Flow: 3x EcoTech MP40
Heater: 2x Neo-therm 150W
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160 with re-circulating CO2 Scrubber
Controller: Apex
Dosing: 4x EcoTech Versa
Daily additives: 4L of fully saturated kalkwasser, 90mL of Tropic Marin All-For-Reef, 10mL of ESV two-part

Tank Progression:

(November, 2020)

(June, 2021)

(December, 2021)

(March, 2022)

 

[Apon]

Love the green toadstool and Deresa clam. Where did you get them?

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Is that a doliatus rabbit I see?
Has it been well behaved?

 

[Zumareef]

Nice! I like that big green stag and three island aquascape.

 

[dandemeyere]

Love the green toadstool and Deresa clam. Where did you get them?

Thanks! The toadstool is Biota's "Cultured Ultra Green Toadstool". It's so big I've had to trim it recently so I have 4-5 frags of it growing out. The derasa clam is an ORA aquacultured derasa that I got online.

Is that a doliatus rabbit I see?
Has it been well behaved?

It is! It's been very well behaved. Haven't seen it nip any corals and it eats bubble algae, which is a huge perk. It's the biggest fish in my tank so it's on my mind to get a bigger tank when I'm able to so it has more swimming room. At this point, it's like a family pet as it even eats out of my hand!

Nice! I like that big green stag and three island aquascape.

Thank you! I know the bali green slimer staghorn is a very common coral, but I love it. Bright, fast grower, and really awesome growth patterns. As for the aquascape, the island on the left actually came from my RSR 170 and the middle/right islands were made in advance of the upgrade to the RSR 425. I used dry marco rock + marco mortar to create the structures, then I used a diamond hole saw to create holes for frag plugs (partially worked, would do it differently next time around), and then I put the rock in a bin with heat/flow/light and bottled bacteria for 3 months. Once the rock had coralline algae encrusting, I initiated the upgrade to combine the mature rock from old tank with this semi-cultured rock into the new tank. Worked quite well actually!

 

[Apon]

Let me know if you ever sell a frag of it or trade for it.

Not sure if we ever met, but I am in SF and can meet up whenever.

From your pics it looks like it grows fast. You can view my tank on the spotlight forum. my build tread is there these days.

 

[dandemeyere]

Let me know if you ever sell a frag of it or trade for it.

Not sure if we ever met, but I am in SF and can meet up whenever.

From your pics it looks like it grows fast. You can view my tank on the spotlight forum. my build tread is there these days.

@Apon Definitely! I have 5 frags of the toadstool right now and I'll set the nicest looking one aside for you

About once every month or two I post a bunch of my frags (like this) and then meet up at Aquatic Collection, but I can always meet elsewhere. I'll send you a DM the next time I post. For this next batch, I finally cut a few frags of my favorite coral, Vivid's Pink Passion:

 

[tankguy]

price on the vivid pink passion ?

 

[dandemeyere]

price on the vivid pink passion ?

I paid more money for this frag (link to where I bought it from and for how much) than I'd care to share with my wife but I won't be selling for nearly that. When I think about pricing my corals, my goal isn't to make money. My goal is to recoup some of my costs while pricing attractive enough where it's far lower in price than what you'd see from the reputable online vendors. This way people walk away feeling like they got a solid deal and I don't feel so bad with how much I spent to get them in the first place lol. Win/win! And at the end of the day, attractive pricing is better for the BAR community and it's better for our hobby to be increasing corals acquired through "locally sourced" aquaculture.

I also like to wait 2-4 weeks after I frag to ensure the coral I'm selling has already encrusted and has started to grow again. I also used to work at a LFS so I take the packaging of corals very seriously so they don't get damaged and the time from bagged -> delivered is minimized. Lastly, I can 100% guarantee there won't be any coral-related pests (other than vermetid snails). I sold a hammer frag two years ago and the person found a euphyllia eating flatworm on it and I was so embarrassed/mortified. They were a PITA to eradicate but since then, I haven't bought any new corals (and this is why I don't do trades) so I know for sure my tank is pest free which honestly allows me to sleep easy at night.

Okay that's a long preface to your question! I'll probably price the frags from $40 to $80 depending on the size. The standard 1" frags will be $40 and larger, multi-branched frags will be $60 or $80. I do the same for the TSA Bill Murray, but the other SPS I sell I price at $10 to $20 per frag. This next batch has Vivid's Pink Passion, ORA Red Planet, BC Lemon Hammer, Oregon Tort, Red Robin Stag, Bali Green Slimer, TSA Bill Murray, Indo Bottlebrush Turaki, Cali Tort, and Blue Sapphire Mille.

I have few colonies that are almost ready though (maybe May or June?): Vivid's Confetti, more Vivid's Pink Passion, Watchguy Blue Floyd, and TGC Cherry Bomb (maybe, colony is still small).

And later this year I'll be ready to frag my Jason Fox Homewrecker that cost a small fortune to buy. It's still small, but I'm loving the colors and it's starting to grow nicely. Here's a pic of it from the weekend:

 

[tankguy]

Looking forward to the next buy from you

 

[dandemeyere]

Did a slight re-work of the right side of the tank:
(Before)

(After)

A few reasons for this:

• The MP40 on the right was always blasting a coral no matter where I positioned it so this arrangement enabled flow all along the front panel without hitting any corals directly, which means I can really crank up the indirect flow in the tank.
• The slimer was so big it was hiding the corals behind it including some of my favorites (ex: Vivid Confetti, TSA Zombieland, RMF Pyschoberry).
• I just wanted to mix things up lol. Giving the tank a new look and feel makes the tank feel new again and raises my interest in it.

On a separate topic, something I've been wrestling with this year is growth vs. coloration. I'm experiencing amazing growth, but my coloration isn't what it used to be. Here's a side by side showing my Vivid Pink Passion (left) and TSA Bill Murray (right) 5-months apart:
(January 2022)

(June 2022)

The growth is excellent, but I've lost some color pop. Here's what the Vivid Pink Passion used to look like last August:

Vs. what it looks like as of last night:

I know that frags and smaller colonies are more colorful than large colonies, but it's more than that. When I look at pictures of other large colonies from last year vs. this year, there's definitely less pop. A recent ICP test showed I'm lacking on certain trace elements (potassium, iodine, etc.) so I'm up'ing my water change game as well as dosing Red Sea's trace elements to see what effect that has on coloration. The only exception to all of this has been my homewrecker, which continues to blow me away in daylight and actinic:
(Daylight)

(Actinic)

 

[rdriggett]

What a stunning tank and coral collection!

 

[RandyC]

Did a slight re-work of the right side of the tank:
(Before)

(After)

A few reasons for this:

• The MP40 on the right was always blasting a coral no matter where I positioned it so this arrangement enabled flow all along the front panel without hitting any corals directly, which means I can really crank up the indirect flow in the tank.
• The slimer was so big it was hiding the corals behind it including some of my favorites (ex: Vivid Confetti, TSA Zombieland, RMF Pyschoberry).
• I just wanted to mix things up lol. Giving the tank a new look and feel makes the tank feel new again and raises my interest in it.

On a separate topic, something I've been wrestling with this year is growth vs. coloration. I'm experiencing amazing growth, but my coloration isn't what it used to be. Here's a side by side showing my Vivid Pink Passion (left) and TSA Bill Murray (right) 5-months apart:
(January 2022)

(June 2022)

The growth is excellent, but I've lost some color pop. Here's what the Vivid Pink Passion used to look like last August:

Vs. what it looks like as of last night:

I know that frags and smaller colonies are more colorful than large colonies, but it's more than that. When I look at pictures of other large colonies from last year vs. this year, there's definitely less pop. A recent ICP test showed I'm lacking on certain trace elements (potassium, iodine, etc.) so I'm up'ing my water change game as well as dosing Red Sea's trace elements to see what effect that has on coloration. The only exception to all of this has been my homewrecker, which continues to blow me away in daylight and actinic:
(Daylight)

(Actinic)

What are the levels of nitrates and phosphates? Sometimes colors can become muted and pale if you are running either at zero or near zero levels.

 

[dandemeyere]

What a stunning tank and coral collection!

Thank you!

What are the levels of nitrates and phosphates? Sometimes colors can become muted and pale if you are running either at zero or near zero levels.

I agree this could definitely be a driver of the coloration issue. My phosphates are always between .08 - .12, but my nitrates are typically between 0ppm - 3ppm. I have been dosing nitrates because of this and I'm trying to dial it in right now as I'd prefer to have Nitrates stable at 5ppm - 8ppm. I ordered a nitrate Hanna checker last week to help get dialed in here so stay tuned!

 

[Darkxerox]

What an incredible tank! Saw the FTS you posted in the other thread and had to check out the journal! The toadstool is so huge I thought it was a carpet anemone at first.

 

[tankguy]

You'll get your colors back. Tank looks awesome

 

[dandemeyere]

What an incredible tank! Saw the FTS you posted in the other thread and had to check out the journal! The toadstool is so huge I thought it was a carpet anemone at first.

Thank you! Yes that toadstool is a monster and started as the size of a half dollar. The SPS junkie in me wants to get rid of it because it's taking up 1/3rd of the tank and sometimes I worry about softie chemical warfare, but it's the home to my clownfish and any non-reefer who sees my tank thinks it's the coolest thing in the tank

You'll get your colors back. Tank looks awesome

Thanks Bob! I hope you're right with the colors - I just need to keep the tank dialed in and let the colors take care of themselves (hopefully)

I hope your SPS collection is doing well!

 

[tankguy]

Thank you! Yes that toadstool is a monster and started as the size of a half dollar. The SPS junkie in me wants to get rid of it because it's taking up 1/3rd of the tank and sometimes I worry about softie chemical warfare, but it's the home to my clownfish and any non-reefer who sees my tank thinks it's the coolest thing in the tank

Thanks Bob! I hope you're right with the colors - I just need to keep the tank dialed in and let the colors take care of themselves (hopefully)

I hope your SPS collection is doing well!

Very happy tank is doing really well

 

[Zumareef]

Tank update please! Such a great reef.

Curious, why do you dose both Tropic Marin All-For-Reef and ESV two-part?

 

[dandemeyere]

Tank update please! Such a great reef.

I ended up selling the monster toadstool on the left to create a new SPS bommie so the full tank shot won't look that great I also have a bunch of frag racks in the display right now too Once the left side of the tank starts to grow in, I'll take a new FTS and share it.

Curious, why do you dose both Tropic Marin All-For-Reef and ESV two-part?

I dose 4L of fully saturated kalkwasser as my base Alk/Calcium additive and I've experimented with All-For-Reef and ESV for the supplemental needs on top of that. I liked All-For-Reef because I thought it would enable me to switch from 3 dosers & dosing containers (ESV Alk, ESV Calc, ESV Mag) to one. I also liked that All-For-Reef comes dry and can be made into solution at home. I quickly realized my Mag needs were higher than the base All-For-Reef recipe so I went back to dosing AFR + ESV Mag. Then I topped out the max daily dose of AFR and needed to dose ESV Alk/Calc to further supplement my consumption needs. The reason I dosed both for a while is that AFR and ESV have different trace elements they add to their solutions and I thought both would give better coverage for trace elements more broadly. Unfortunately, I didn't notice any benefits to dosing both so I took the AFR offline. Right now my daily consumption is 4L of kalkwasser plus 100ml of ESV Alk, 100ml of ESV Calc, and 30ml of ESV Mag.

In other news, my wife and I have a son arriving in May and given our house is relatively small, I'll be moving my office & fish tank into the garage once I finish insulating it. I'm a bit nervous to move the tank and disrupt the system, but there's a chance I'll be able to upgrade (or potentially plumb in another system) as part of this which definitely excites me.