AstroReefer's 425XL build

[DrMike]

You did such a great job! very impressive!

 

[CDavmd]

You did such a great job! very impressive!

Thanks ;Happy !

 

[CDavmd]

...random shots- Fish

 

[AngryMike2016]

Is it just me, or are red firefish super adorable?

 

[CDavmd]

Last night the tank was full of swimming white specks again.

Another mithrax crab spawning event. Scooped up a few and looked under the scope. Fascinating planktonic stage- First Zoaea

 

[CDavmd]

Major set back- [emoji20]

Impending disaster :(

Sooo....despite my precautions I think I have a disaster starting in my new system. I'm leaning Velvet but could be Ich. System is about 5 months old -Started with Marco Rock, Tropic Eden Sand, and about 10 pounds of KP Aquatics live rock from Florida. I further seeded with a mixture of Pods...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[CDavmd]

Well I was staring at my fallow tank and suddenly saw my peppermint shrimp swimming erratically...then there were hundreds of swimming white specks...last week the corals got crab for dinner. Tonight it’s shrimp cocktail

 

[CDavmd]

....some coral images while I'm fallow:

 

[AngryMike2016]

Beautiful, beautiful build. Wishing you the best of luck with the fallow period.

 

[CDavmd]

Beautiful, beautiful build. Wishing you the best of luck with the fallow period.

Thanks bud....74 days to go!

 

[AngryMike2016]

Ooof, that's rough. How are you keeping up nutrients for the corals?

 

[CDavmd]

Ghost feeding a cube of brine every 3-4 days. Also doing my routine coral feeding with Reef chili and Reef roids. Thought about using some of Dr Tims ammonium as the corals would love it and it will keep the bacteria happy, but if I let it get too high my inverts will suffer.

In any event- checked today and Nitrate is where its always been 5-12 on Nyos kit, and phosphate at 0.02

 

[CDavmd]

I was looking over some of my corals and started comparing to when I mounted them back in May- surprised how much some have grown. Others have simply encrusted but no real upward growth. Most of my brown outs have taken on the recovery green color and look to be coming back strong. Here's a few before and after pics-

Purple Bonsai

Diablo Mili- one of the brown outs coming back nicely

WWC Slimeball

Bennet Yellow Tort

Walt Disney- very sloooow

Blue tip Stag

 

[AngryMike2016]

Very nice progress on those acropora.

 

[CDavmd]

Very nice progress on those acropora.

thanks!

 

[CDavmd]

I'm back! Fallow period over finally. I went about 83 days. Lost some fish during the long quarantine interval but survivors are all doing well and look healthy.

I re-introduced 3 wrasses a couple weeks ago, the Melanarus, yellow Coris, and Flame. All doing well so far. I'm not taking any chances- despite treating everyone with copper during the long Fallow, I am using the Tank Transfer Method prior to introducing them back into the system. Later next week, my diamond tail flasher, red fin fairy, and shrimp goby will go in. This will be followed a week later by my clowns and firefish, and eventually my Tangs.

Corals have really taken off during the fallow period- lots of growth and tabling. I had to make some moves in the aquascape to give them further room to grow, also the amount of ATI essentials Pro was going up and getting prohibitive. I added a Calcium Reactor and just got it dialed in.

 

[MikeYasin]

Looks great! Which reactor did you go with? My 425 is chugging Red Sea alk and wondering if it’s time to pull the trigger on a CR.

did you find space in the left cabinet to put the CR in?

 

[CDavmd]

Looks great! Which reactor did you go with? My 425 is chugging Red Sea alk and wondering if it’s time to pull the trigger on a CR.

did you find space in the left cabinet to put the CR in?

I went with the Geo 612 (single), the CO2 Doser, and Kamoer pump. I set it up in my basement next to my water station and ran the RO tubing up through the same hole in the floor that I ran my AWC lines through. Its working great and I have it pretty dialed in. I'm going to back off a bit and restart the DOS such that it supplies the last 10% of the needed Alk and will control that with the Trident.

No room in my cabinet for anything else so the basement solution worked well.

 

[CDavmd]

Finally! All fish healthy and back in the reef!

 

[MikeYasin]

Congrats! Looks great!