Dan's RSR-S 850 Mixed Reef

[Alexander1312]

One of the most anticipated journal updates. Great that you will restart doing it as you are certainly a master level coral grower many of us can learn from (and I know you are using Kalk ..).

I do think though posting failures is as insightful as successes, and it would have been very interesting to get a better understanding of the dino issues. Lots of folks with mature tanks do not know what people who are starting a new tank are going through and recommend stuff that may or may not work (hint: nassarius snails are not the answer …).

Looking forward to more updates!

 

[dandemeyere]

One of the most anticipated journal updates. Great that you will restart doing it as you are certainly a master level coral grower many of us can learn from (and I know you are using Kalk ..).

I do think though posting failures is as insightful as successes, and it would have been very interesting to get a better understanding of the dino issues. Lots of folks with mature tanks do not know what people who are starting a new tank are going through and recommend stuff that may or may not work (hint: nassarius snails are not the answer …).

Looking forward to more updates!

Thanks for the kind words, Alex! To your point on kalk, I removed my ATO over a year ago and simply have my daily kalkwasser (continuously dosed) dialed in to my evaporation rate. So for daily alkalinity/calcium, I have:

• 5 liters of fully saturated kalkwasser
• 100ml of ESV part A and 100ml of ESV part B
• 20ml of Tropic Marin All For Reef
  • I could dose more ESV, but I know AFR has trace elements that I thought would be beneficial to add to the mix

Regarding the dinos, the most frustrating part for me was knowing they were almost certainly caused by my nutrients bottoming out. In hindsight it was likely preventable. Unfortunately I waited a few weeks after the dinos appeared to take the issue seriously when I noticed coral losses. I ran tests and found that my phosphate levels had hit 0.00. Normally, my tank runs at 0.08–0.12, and I’ve never needed to dose phosphates or use removal methods like lanthanum. After confirming the 0.00 readings multiple times with the Hanna checker, I began dosing phosphate to raise the level to 0.05, but by the next day, it was back to 0.00. The following day, I dosed enough to reach 0.10, but again, the reading dropped to 0.00 by the next day. Something in the tank—whether dinos, algae, or corals—was consuming the phosphates almost immediately. Eventually, I was able to stabilize the phosphate levels, and with the addition of a UV sterilizer, the dinos were eradicated, allowing the tank to recover. Since then, I’ve been testing phosphate and nitrate weekly to ensure the levels never bottom out again. One of the painful lessons that cost me thousands in designer SPS

 

[Darkxerox]

Did you have any dry rocks added into the system at the same time as the transfer? @Ayman ran into the same issue when adding new dry sand without curing it and I've seen others add fresh Marco or other dry rock and trigger a bloom.

Plus you went up in size, so the new water may have effectively diluted any nutrients out, and new rock absorbing things too.

Appreciate you telling your story! What kind of lighting setup are you using now? Looks like maybe blades plus radions?

 

[dandemeyere]

Did you have any dry rocks added into the system at the same time as the transfer? @Ayman ran into the same issue when adding new dry sand without curing it and I've seen others add fresh Marco or other dry rock and trigger a bloom.

I only added live rock from my existing system. When I knew I was going to upgrade, I added more rock to my 425 to start culturing it so I'd have more for the transfer.

Plus you went up in size, so the new water may have effectively diluted any nutrients out, and new rock absorbing things too.

I actually used water from my 425 to ensure the new tank had normal levels of phosphates and nitrates. I was transferring 25 gallons a week from the 425, so the process took nearly two months. However, I realize now that I should have been testing the nutrient levels in the new tank as well. I assumed everything was fine since I was testing the nitrates and phosphates in the 425 weekly.

Appreciate you telling your story! What kind of lighting setup are you using now? Looks like maybe blades plus radions?

It's likely a bit overkill but I have 4 Radion XR30s and 2 57" AI Blade Grows. The XR30s give the punch and the blades give next coverage/spread.

 

[MarcosDelgado0]

Two years since my last post! So quite a gap to cover here...

About two years ago I decided to upgrade to a Red Sea Reefer-S 850:

• Display Tank Dimensions - 71"L x 25.6"H x 26.75"W
• Display Tank Volume - 180 Gallons
• Total System Volume - 225 Gallons

Here's a pic of the tank and plumbing when I was setting it up in March 2023:
View attachment 65000
View attachment 64999

To try and minimize the pain of the transfer, I spent weeks leading up to the move transferring water from my RSR 425XL to the 850 – that way I knew the water in the 850 had a healthy nutrient ratio as well as the right parameters. I also moved over 7-year-old live rock from my 425 sump to seed the 850 as well. I put a ton of thought into this transfer and tried to be extra patient, but unfortunately when I did the 425->850 transfer, the 850 got dinos and wiped out all of my SPS colonies. It was really heartbreaking throwing out grapefruit sized colonies of walt disney, homewrecker, etc. and some even bigger colonies of oregon tort, TSA bill murray, etc. It's a big reason why I didn't post on this thread for so long. I fragged what I could of the dying colonies and banked some with some friends, but basically it was a reset for my SPS (my LPS made it through). In hindsight, I should have ID'd the dinos right away and started UV since it was the free floating kind. I thought my tank would mature through it, but that hubris really bit me.

Anyway, here's the tank in July 2023 shortly after all the SPS colonies died and the tank was effectively reset:
View attachment 65001

I kept the aquascape minimal and low as I knew I wanted to grow more SPS. I'll try to share more about the journey between then and now, but here are a few pictures from this weekend (all SPS were grown from 1" frags in less than 2 years):
View attachment 65002View attachment 65003View attachment 65004View attachment 65005View attachment 65006View attachment 65007

When the tank hits two years, I'll try to clean it up more for a better picture. I also have a ton of frag racks which isn't pleasing to the eye but I'm thinking about plumbing in a separate frag system so hopefully at some point this year all of those frag racks will be gone so I can make my display a display again

Nice update! I bought that 425 from you awhile back, I have since sold it but it was a nice tank! I didn’t even notice you had a tank journal on it, crazy to see its potential because I was never able to fill it with corals like you did lol.