Another Risk, reefer 350

[Bucs20fan]

For your aiptasia woes, you really have two options since Aiptasia products are off the plan for you. Peppermint shrimp and a filefish. I would never recommend peppermints to anyone and I wont do that here either. So you can go with a filefish, but they sometimes get a taste for corals so you will have to watch that. The only other option would be a copperband butterfly. That comes with its own set of difficulties as well. My best option for you would be buying some berghia nudibranchs. They arent cheap but they will only eat aiptasia, hence they will die off when its all gone, but they will breed in your tank and local reefers that have aiptasia will gladly take them off of your hands.

 

[Risk1994]

Read this entire build thread, very good read. And awesome setup. All of those tubes are vermetid snails, Harmless for the most part, but very unsightly and their webs they use to take food from the water column can irritate corals. Bumblebee snails will eat them, but youve got them in plague proportions, so id get some of those asap.

Thanks for the kind words. I've since purchased around a dozen berghia, havent seen any effect yet, Ill keep you posted.

Also purchased a half dozen bumblebee snails. Theyre in QT currently.

 

[Risk1994]

Behold the spinning ball of cheato! Took a while to make this work. (started with cheato I had soaked in fresh water for 2hrs!). Its finally grown to the point I can get it to spin reliably. I started this really just as a way to keep up PH at night (reverse light cycle). Not sure how much of an affect its having in that regard, I do have to daily dose nitrate/phosphate though.

 

[Risk1994]

This coral has grown alot but the base is just a skinny stalk, should I be concerned?

If it falls it'll be right onto some torches so certain death.

 

[Risk1994]

So I CANNOT keep an anemone. This is my second BTA and both did the exact same thing....within a week they split in two, then over the next couple of months they move all over the tank while slowly withering away and dying.

The tank is over a year old, parameters are very stable, Im growing SPS (see pics above) what am I missing?? The first one I tried to feed mysis periodically, this one I've tried not feeding but the exact same result both times.

 

[Risk1994]

FTS 12/11/22

FTS 12/13/21



FTS 4/4/22

 

[Risk1994]

12/12/21...

today...


12/13/21

today...
(I got that green mushroom long ago, but the orange grew so large it had it completely covered, was a nightmare prying it off that rock and thought I killed it, looks to be making a comeback)


4/4/22

today...


4/4/21

today...
I had to frag that torch basically in half, it was rubbing against the front glass, placed the other half on the side.

 

[Risk1994]

Im posting these pics warts and all. As you can see, lots of issues with aptasia and cyano.

Aptasia is a nightmare. I had an absolute plague. Used F-aptasia which works but utterly hopeless against such a huge infestation. I got 10 berghia 3 months ago, looks like they're starting to make a dent. Just got an aptasia eating filefish also...well see about him. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Cyano is a never ending battle . Once a week I siphon out what I can and blast the rocks. It just always comes back...absolutetly relentless. I know I can do chemi-clean (and have) and lights out for 3 days (and have) and those work but it always comes back. If I dont siphon once a week it gets EVERYWHERE. Im really tired of having to break out the canister filter every week to get it all off just for it to come back a few days later. Its not just a patch here and there, it gets everywhere.

I've moved power heads around to get flow to the worst areas, made sure I never bottom out nutrients (I have to dose them)...I just dont know, if I cant figure out how to get it under control it might be the thing that drives me out.

 

[Risk1994]

Maybe the elf can help...

 

[Andreas' Reef]

Aaand this happened...

I felt a physical pain in my stomach looking at that ---

 

[Risk1994]

Trying to forget

 

[Risk1994]

I cant believe I havent updated this thread in 6 months!

I've gone through aptasia/vermatid/cyano then dyno (ugh) outbreaks which have all been dealt with more or less.

I've moved from all for reef to a large kalk vat in the basement, RHF style. This was nice but I got tired of lugging a 50g tub out of the basement every couple months to clean. I've since moved to a kalk stirrer from Avast. I have to clean it every couple weeks but its fairly easy. Its fed from a BRS 50ml/min dosing pump during lights off. I wanted the PH and cost benefit from the kalk hence the switch (mostly).

Also added a few fish, royal gramma/aptaisia eating filefish and 3 chromis. I really didnt want the chromis but my daughter loves them. Turns out they're my favorite fish now. They're not nearly as colorful as the other fish but 3 schooling fish really add something to a tank...makes it really look like a part of the ocean.

My clowns have started spawning regularly and my anemone's keep splitting.

I'm giving yet another try for montipora (bubble gum digi) which I have never been able to keep and my xenia have gone hog wild on the left, completely engulfing the base of my green slimer. This doesnt bother me. I like xenia and I anything I can do to take real estate from cyano/dyno is a good thing.


The birds nest on the right isnt doing great, I think because the mp40 was blowing right on the section thats dying. The green slimer isnt as green...could it be that the xenia is harming it? Also the other birds nest isnt as green and my frogspawn seems slightly less fluffy. IDK, could just be a downturn.

 

[Risk1994]

Aaaand this happened...

What your looking at is not salt creep, its a bubble in the silicon .

I have a thread about it here...

I never registered the tank for the extra 1yr so the tank is out of warrantee....by 1 month.
I called Red Sea and they said they'd send me a new tank/stand at no cost to me . Its still a huge PIA but at least I'm not out thousands.

 

[Reefer500]

Just went through reading your whole build thread and love the tank!

Bummer this happened but awesome RedSea is sending a complete replacement. Really leaning towards them for my next build, their customer service seems top notch.

 

[Genvid]

I also have a RedSea Reefer 350, I also started at the same time as willows, also with dry stone and the same problems with cyano. I have never done QT, for me it is a lot of work and time, it is better to buy things that have already passed quarantine. There were ups and falls, I love LPS, and after a year and a half I just try SPS.