Randy's Red Sea Reefer 250
- Thread starter RandyC
- Start date
RandyC
Supporting Member
This is actually from my grow out/frag tank and not my reefer, but check out the polyp extension from this TGC Cherry Bomb I got a couple months ago. Still need to get this thing to color up more though, only have a little bit of red barely showing on some of the ends of the polyps.
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RandyC
Supporting Member
Yup, just over in Castro Valley. PM when you're feeling better.
xcaret
Guest
Crazy hair, seems the 80’s are back
RandyC
Supporting Member
I've been running lower flow than I should have been since I set up my tank and had been meaning to adjust it for a while since I went SPS dominant, but I've just been forgetful and lazy. If I had to guess it was probably around a 15-20x turnover with all pumps combined, but then the issue compounded when I got a BTA (held in a jailcell) and put sponges on my mp40s to prevent their untimely death. I finally took the time to reevaluate my flow in the tank and I've upped my mp40s significantly. Around a 2.5-3x increase that should be putting me in the 40-50x tank turnover range. I didn't make any changes to return pump and no new coral has been added to the tank for a good 6 months.
I did this on December 5. I honestly didn't expect to see much of a change in growth. And if I did, I figured it would be barely noticeable or benefits would be over a longer period. What happened has surprised me. In less than a month, I have had to increase my carx effluent drip rate by ~18% (9.5ml/min to 11.2ml/min) so far. There definitely is new growth that I can see on a weekly basis. I don't remember a time in my tank that I've seen this type of growth in my acros or had to up my alk/cal dosing by so much over such a short period of time.
I wish I had taken more pictures on the day I increased flow for comparison purposes. I just didn't think it would make a huge difference. Here's a few progression images that I could find.
PC Rainbow - 16 days apart
CRC Purple Cadillac - 6 days apart
Walt Disney - 45 days apart
I did this on December 5. I honestly didn't expect to see much of a change in growth. And if I did, I figured it would be barely noticeable or benefits would be over a longer period. What happened has surprised me. In less than a month, I have had to increase my carx effluent drip rate by ~18% (9.5ml/min to 11.2ml/min) so far. There definitely is new growth that I can see on a weekly basis. I don't remember a time in my tank that I've seen this type of growth in my acros or had to up my alk/cal dosing by so much over such a short period of time.
I wish I had taken more pictures on the day I increased flow for comparison purposes. I just didn't think it would make a huge difference. Here's a few progression images that I could find.
PC Rainbow - 16 days apart
CRC Purple Cadillac - 6 days apart
Walt Disney - 45 days apart
ashburn2k
Supporting Member
RandyC
Supporting Member
Which chalice? Most chalices have done okay in my tank.
RandyC
Supporting Member
Day 847
Things continue to chug along without a lot of fanfare (good thing!) and my alk consumption continues to increase. I'm up to 30% more effluent being dripped today than on 12/5. Last week, I added back a second LED panel on my fuge to get better spread throughout the whole fuge. I had previously removed it because I was going through a cycle of crazy growth spurts (doubling in size every week for 4-6 weeks) then complete die off. I think I was trace element limited because of the intense growth and no amount of water changes could keep up and trying to figure iron and iodine dosing was painful. The panels are dimmable, so this time around, I'm running about 40% of total wattage of the panels vs the 100% I had previously.
Some coral porn for today. Here's an Acan echinata I picked up from CRC a long while back as a single head. The orange on this thing is super bright.
Things continue to chug along without a lot of fanfare (good thing!) and my alk consumption continues to increase. I'm up to 30% more effluent being dripped today than on 12/5. Last week, I added back a second LED panel on my fuge to get better spread throughout the whole fuge. I had previously removed it because I was going through a cycle of crazy growth spurts (doubling in size every week for 4-6 weeks) then complete die off. I think I was trace element limited because of the intense growth and no amount of water changes could keep up and trying to figure iron and iodine dosing was painful. The panels are dimmable, so this time around, I'm running about 40% of total wattage of the panels vs the 100% I had previously.
Some coral porn for today. Here's an Acan echinata I picked up from CRC a long while back as a single head. The orange on this thing is super bright.
RandyC
Supporting Member
Day 862
I’m still continuing to see an uptick in the amount of alk being consumed. I’m currently dripping 55% more effluent than I was before on Dec 5 from the calcium reactor. (14.7 vs 9.5 ml/min); pH in the reactor has remained the same at ~6.7.
Here’s a growth comparison for one of the top growers in the tank, PC Rainbow. (Edit: I originally had the wrong picture labeled for 12/14)
Chalices are also getting some good growth as well. No size comparisons unfortunately.
Goldmeister Chalice
Avatar Chalice
I’m still continuing to see an uptick in the amount of alk being consumed. I’m currently dripping 55% more effluent than I was before on Dec 5 from the calcium reactor. (14.7 vs 9.5 ml/min); pH in the reactor has remained the same at ~6.7.
Here’s a growth comparison for one of the top growers in the tank, PC Rainbow. (Edit: I originally had the wrong picture labeled for 12/14)
Chalices are also getting some good growth as well. No size comparisons unfortunately.
Goldmeister Chalice
Avatar Chalice
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RandyC
Supporting Member
I did add a third XR15w during the second week of November. But it was mostly for spread. I measured the PAR and lowered the intensity of all the lights to have the same PAR as before at the top. But obviously, there are going to changes and I’d imagine that the bottom and middle is getting slightly more light. This could also be contributing to it.
RandyC
Supporting Member
Whoa...over a year and no posts. Talk about slacking.
The Cliff Notes version of the update: Reefer 250 is still running steady. I added a 6x3x1' frag/growout tank in my garage. Worse problems I've had over the year: Masterflex died on calcium reactor and alk dropped enough to piss off and kill a few frags in the garage tank and had a NO3 & PO4 deficiency (read zero) problem while I was away on a vacation and some acros paled out. Otherwise, things mostly running on auto-pilot. Had a second Masterflex die (boo!) on the Reefer 250 calcium reactor, but that happened without much fanfare as I caught that early on. I have become new best friends with the Ecotech Versa peristaltic pumps.
So for now (and probably in the future), I'll just entice you with pics from the tanks at home.
BC Aquatic Man Table
Just a random no name wild special
TSA Bill Murray
Juggernaut Bounce
A bright-A$$ rhodactis
The Cliff Notes version of the update: Reefer 250 is still running steady. I added a 6x3x1' frag/growout tank in my garage. Worse problems I've had over the year: Masterflex died on calcium reactor and alk dropped enough to piss off and kill a few frags in the garage tank and had a NO3 & PO4 deficiency (read zero) problem while I was away on a vacation and some acros paled out. Otherwise, things mostly running on auto-pilot. Had a second Masterflex die (boo!) on the Reefer 250 calcium reactor, but that happened without much fanfare as I caught that early on. I have become new best friends with the Ecotech Versa peristaltic pumps.
So for now (and probably in the future), I'll just entice you with pics from the tanks at home.
BC Aquatic Man Table
Just a random no name wild special
TSA Bill Murray
Juggernaut Bounce
A bright-A$$ rhodactis
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