Back in the game... RSR 250 build

[coley650]

Hi all, decided to set up again after many years and a lot seems to have changed! After much reading and deliberating on what to do and what's best I've decided I'll roll with what I fancy, what could go wrong!!!

Picked up my tank a week ago which came with an already established refugium and I was in two minds if I was going to run with it or not. The previous owner wasn't running a skimmer but I plan to add some hard coral eventually so want to run a skimmer. So with that I going to change the sump to accommodate.

Here's what I have and planned upgrades:-

TMC return
IT LED’s - Radion XR15’s[emoji736]
X1 SW4 & X1 RW4 wave maker - x2 VorTech Quiet Drive QD MP10w and MP40w[emoji736]
15 kg live rock - Plan to add another 15KG
Sand[emoji736]
Heater - D-D Schego 300W Titanium Heater[emoji736]
Existing refugium contents

As a priority I will be buying:-

Tunze Osmolator[emoji736]
Bubble Magus Curve 5[emoji736]
V2 Pure 50 Advanced Reverse Osmosis System with TDS Monitor - I have no clue on this so suggestions/advice would be great. Not sure if this is too much or little?!

Eventual wish list:-

Simply Aquaria Dual Temp Controller[emoji736]
EcoTech ReefLink[emoji736]
Kamoer F4 - 4 Channel Dosing Pump
Kessil H380 for sump[emoji736]

Live rock is already cured and literally went from tank to tank and was submerged for the 45min trip home.

Done a week of testing so far and looks like I’m on track. I’d really like to run Triton but my fuge is too small so not sure where to go with it??

Here’s what we have so far!!!

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Welcome back to the hobby! Nice looking tank!

 

[DarthSimon]

Any Apex gear in your horizon to run that nice tank?

 

[coley650]

Any Apex gear in your horizon to run that nice tank?

Not at the moment, I move house in 10 months and plan a bigger tank as I’ll be on the ground floor so I’m thinking will probably upgrade then!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Sounds like a good plan. Welcome to R2R!

 

[Captain Quint]

Welcome to R2R, back to the hobby and selecting some good equipment and a great plan.

Thanks for sharing the pics as well.

~cheers~

 

[Billldg]

Welcome to R2R!!! Welcome back!!!

 

[DarthSimon]

Keep us informed on how your tank is going!!! We are here to help....

You can start a build thread and we can enjoy your progress!!!

 

[jsker]

Very impressive setup, and a great way to come back

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great and welcome to R2R!

Very neat and tidy, and clean

And it looks like your just down the road from me!

 

[coley650]

The tank looks great and welcome to R2R!

Very neat and tidy, and clean

And it looks like your just down the road from me!

Thanks! Aw awesome well hi neighbour!

 

[coley650]

So things have been steady and consistent, I added the CUC as suggested and they’re all doing a cracking job, I still have some algae but my plan is to manage it now rather than fire fight later (excuse the pun I also happen to be a firefighter [emoji23]).

I’d like to get my phosphate down it’s sitting at 0.25 and nitrate at 10. I was a little confused as the fuge was in place from the start as that’s the position I was in buying the tank off someone else. I noticed the caulerpa was going white so was potentially about to crash/go sexual and release all those nutrients back and there was a lot of it so.... I assume it’s because it didn’t have much to take on during the cycle, so took it all out and left the little bit of Chaeto I had in there so keeping with a safer Macroalgae! There’s some pods in there too!

I’ll keep testing and hopefully see the phosphate drop.

I also added a couple of clowns a few days ago and they’re doing great, eating like monsters although they’re hosting the side glass!

Given the fuge revamp I decided to hit the Kessil H380 from my wish list which should arrive in a few days.

Other parameters are:-
Nitrite 0
Ammonia 0
Salinity 1.026
PH 8.2
Temp 26c
Calcium 440
Alkalinity 11

I’ll keep you updated!

 

[coley650]

Another round of testing done since starting Triton. Need to get a magnesium test kit any recommendations?

Cheato growth is through the roof here’s a before and now pic about a week apart.

As a result my nitrate is 0 and phosphate 0.1. So I’m thinking I need to over feed a bit to get the nitrate up a touch.

Daily testing for Triton is:-

I’m dosing 3ml a day. Does anyone else find the 3a & 3b crystallises and the top of the dosing tube?

I’d like to clean the sand too, I have a gravel cleaner but not convinced it’s effective!

At the moment everyone is happy [emoji4]

 

[coley650]

Been an interesting week, lost a neon goby posted on the forum and the feedback pointed towards some sort of bacterial infection and prolapse. No one wants to lose anything in the tank so was gutted. On the back of that, I’m in the process of setting up a small qt tank as a precaution going forward as well as keeping a close eye on the clowns who appear to be doing great.

The qt is 30l, small led, heater, hob filter with floss and sponges seeding in my sump, ammonia alerter and some hiding places for the fish. Will post when it’s done. Qt is totally new to me so a little nervous, such as do I leave it constantly running or as and when??

I toyed around with a UV install but I’m still undecided there’s so much debate on them.

Parameters all still look fine, tested them after the loss. Also using my own RO too although I trust my LFS it’s more convenient and gives me a little more control of the tank.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should keep as medication just in case?

Chaeto is huge and my skimmer isn’t producing much as a result. I’ll be trimming it back next week for sure.

CUC are working hard except a couple of snails which I suspect is due to slightly high mag since starting triton. I know the idea of triton is to reduce water changes but I feel a new system long term does better with them so I’ll be doing them but less frequent, 2-3 weeks possibly until it reaches a bit of maturity.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

Sorry about your neon goby. You have a very nice looking tank I'm following along

 

[coley650]

Sorry about your neon goby. You have a very nice looking tank I'm following along

Thank you, hopefully it was an adhoc incident.

 

[coley650]

QT is set up and ready to roll, sponge still seeding in my sump I’ve also added some floss to seed as well. I was in 2 minds if to run a permanent QT or one I can break down. For now it’s not permanent until I come across some good evidence that it’s more beneficial to do so.

It wasn’t expensive to set up, 30l tank £40, aquael heater £22, HOB filter with UV £40, used old sump aquael led light, seachem ammonia and PH alerter, hiding tube stolen from my brother in laws tank in the shed (sterilised).

I was worried I’d fall into having tanks everywhere but it’s actually quite discreet and looks ok. In the process of stocking up on meds. Might buy a frag shelf for QT of coral but worried that light might not be enough??

Here’s some pics as promised.

Medication list so far will be:-

Prazipro
Fluke solve
Tremizol

Not sure what else to add???

In other news I’ve had a play around with the flow, I think if I’m honest I’d been hooked on what was working for others and matching those settings but my torch got a bit grumpy and maybe it wasn’t best for my layout/setup. I have an MP40 and MP10 so based on layout was probably a little too much flow but, it’s looking a lot better/steadier now.

Also considering some form of light blocker between my refugium and skimmer chamber only because I’m a bit ocd and don’t like the bits of algae on the skimmer!

 

[coley650]

Lights just firing up and this guy is climbing and here was me thinking he’d stick to the sand! Conch is certainly earning his keep!!

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

I love when you have a clean up crew that does their job. Looking good!

 

[coley650]

Brought a couple of corals today with the intention of picking up some coral rx. I ended up upon recommendation using reef primer and wow what a product.

Inspected the coral visually and could see nothing. My LFS is a good one with very maintained systems.

So to the point... after acclimated read the instructions worked out how much I needed per litre 9g. So mixed 18g in 2l of tank water, leave in dip for 5 minutes and then out into clean tank water give it a bit of a shake to shake off anything dead inside before transferring to tank!

You can see the amount of flat worms that were lurking in the skeleton of the coral in both the dip and then the shake off bowl. Unfortunately they look like red dots in the pic because they’re dead but I assure you they crawled out and fast!

I’ll be using this product going forward for sure!


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