Back in the game... RSR 250 build
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Flameback Pair
started reefing 1999
@coley650 Great start on the tank. I have a RSR 250 too !!!
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coley650
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Since last post there has been a few changes...
The algae issue - Got on top of that quickly. I added another small powerhead to prevent it taking hold in any dead deadspots and ran the lights a little lower. I still get a buildup on my glass and scrape daily but it's the general stuff you get on the tank I would however like to see if I can mitigate that going forward.
Low nutrients - I trimmed the Chaeto back, I didn't want to do anything too drastic and suffer a swing so probably could have trimmed further. I cut 1/3 back, I guess I need to find the sweet spot but it grows so fast! After some discussion with some of the guys in my area the general consensous was more bio load and over feeding. At the moment I have 2 clowns, 2 chromes, 1 wrasse and a royal gramma who are getting 2 cubes of frozen a day which feels like an overfeed so hopefully that's right.
I'm thinking I of running the skimmer at night or just running the fuge and an X-filter, jury is still out. A couple of the guys that use them swear by it so we'll see.
ICP - Sent one in around 3-4 weeks ago and the turn around was quick really just a few days. It wasn't too bad although there were traces of zinc and copper. Putting the zinc down to floss another reason I'm leaning toward x-filter and not sure on the copper. I think the copper is due to a contaminant from somewhere opposed to an element build up. I got some buckets mixed up and I'd cleaned one out that was going in the garden with normal water but I think it ended up mixed up and used for WC ages ago. Can't be sure can't wait anything anywhere, if it's not down on the next ICP I'll be dismantling the return to check for rust!
Their recommendation was 6 water changes after a detox dose.
Magnesium was really low, this was a bit of a surprise and sure enough after checking my doser the Mag wasn’t drawing the liquid so sorted that. Retested it this weekend and normality has resumed!
There were other trace elements but I decided to go with what I thought were most important, Iodine, Strontium and Potassium. The reason being I swapped over to Tropic Marin salt so wanted to wait until the prescribed water changes are done and new ICP. That way I can work with the parameters of the salt I'll be using going forward!
Aquascape - So when I started planning getting back into this I was mainly pulled toward LPS with a view of a few SPS. That's gone out the window now, I do have some LPS but the tanks steering toward SPS dominant. Problem I had was the rockwork wasn't done with that in mind and I found that A - it looked to much like a wall with no depth or texture B - the light spread in the middle of this wall wasn't good enough for SPS. I toyed with getting a 3rd light but seems a waste of money considering I'm looking at going another way with lights on my upgrade in the future.
If I'm honest I was unsure how I was going to do this and read up very differing advice so settled on this.
1. Large container with a heater and powerhead in it.
2. Take all the rock out carefully and put it in there.
3. Built 1 island at a time as close to the design I'd sketched.
4. Keep the LR wet with a spray bottle of tank water.
5. Put structure back in tank.
6. The same with the second island.
7. Then re-arranged all my SPS (thankfully they weren't a pain to move)
8. 15% water change.
I had my QT tank set up with water from my system to put the fish in but actually they were ok and surprisingly curious so let them be as they would have been more stressed by me trying to net them! Was happy to wake up to polyps out on everything and all the fish swimming about!
I read what started as an interesting thread about aquascape and it did get me thinking about how much LR I had against needed and all the deadspots the Great Wall of 250 had! Anyways it went well, its not something I want to do again which means I'm happy with it lol (for once) and I learnt some bits along the way!
Before:-
After
I still have a lot of rock but didn't want to imbalance the tank just create a scape that works better for lighting and coral.
Apologies for such a long post, not updated in a while!
The algae issue - Got on top of that quickly. I added another small powerhead to prevent it taking hold in any dead deadspots and ran the lights a little lower. I still get a buildup on my glass and scrape daily but it's the general stuff you get on the tank I would however like to see if I can mitigate that going forward.
Low nutrients - I trimmed the Chaeto back, I didn't want to do anything too drastic and suffer a swing so probably could have trimmed further. I cut 1/3 back, I guess I need to find the sweet spot but it grows so fast! After some discussion with some of the guys in my area the general consensous was more bio load and over feeding. At the moment I have 2 clowns, 2 chromes, 1 wrasse and a royal gramma who are getting 2 cubes of frozen a day which feels like an overfeed so hopefully that's right.
I'm thinking I of running the skimmer at night or just running the fuge and an X-filter, jury is still out. A couple of the guys that use them swear by it so we'll see.
ICP - Sent one in around 3-4 weeks ago and the turn around was quick really just a few days. It wasn't too bad although there were traces of zinc and copper. Putting the zinc down to floss another reason I'm leaning toward x-filter and not sure on the copper. I think the copper is due to a contaminant from somewhere opposed to an element build up. I got some buckets mixed up and I'd cleaned one out that was going in the garden with normal water but I think it ended up mixed up and used for WC ages ago. Can't be sure can't wait anything anywhere, if it's not down on the next ICP I'll be dismantling the return to check for rust!
Their recommendation was 6 water changes after a detox dose.
Magnesium was really low, this was a bit of a surprise and sure enough after checking my doser the Mag wasn’t drawing the liquid so sorted that. Retested it this weekend and normality has resumed!
There were other trace elements but I decided to go with what I thought were most important, Iodine, Strontium and Potassium. The reason being I swapped over to Tropic Marin salt so wanted to wait until the prescribed water changes are done and new ICP. That way I can work with the parameters of the salt I'll be using going forward!
Aquascape - So when I started planning getting back into this I was mainly pulled toward LPS with a view of a few SPS. That's gone out the window now, I do have some LPS but the tanks steering toward SPS dominant. Problem I had was the rockwork wasn't done with that in mind and I found that A - it looked to much like a wall with no depth or texture B - the light spread in the middle of this wall wasn't good enough for SPS. I toyed with getting a 3rd light but seems a waste of money considering I'm looking at going another way with lights on my upgrade in the future.
If I'm honest I was unsure how I was going to do this and read up very differing advice so settled on this.
1. Large container with a heater and powerhead in it.
2. Take all the rock out carefully and put it in there.
3. Built 1 island at a time as close to the design I'd sketched.
4. Keep the LR wet with a spray bottle of tank water.
5. Put structure back in tank.
6. The same with the second island.
7. Then re-arranged all my SPS (thankfully they weren't a pain to move)
8. 15% water change.
I had my QT tank set up with water from my system to put the fish in but actually they were ok and surprisingly curious so let them be as they would have been more stressed by me trying to net them! Was happy to wake up to polyps out on everything and all the fish swimming about!
I read what started as an interesting thread about aquascape and it did get me thinking about how much LR I had against needed and all the deadspots the Great Wall of 250 had! Anyways it went well, its not something I want to do again which means I'm happy with it lol (for once) and I learnt some bits along the way!
Before:-
After
I still have a lot of rock but didn't want to imbalance the tank just create a scape that works better for lighting and coral.
Apologies for such a long post, not updated in a while!
Last edited:
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coley650
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Took some par readings on the new aquascape, getting a much better reading across all exposed rock work for coral placement. Reading were taken with powerhead I’m so will probably bring the lights down a little now [emoji1417]
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coley650
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Looked into the X Filter but seems my drain compartment is too small for it and would need the baffle taking out. With it being an acrylic sump means getting a tool on it which I don’t really want to do.
Shame because it looks really good, then noticed one came up for sale at a bargain price today! Doh!
I also enquires about the Orphek V4 lights hitting the UK next month, I was really keen on 2 of these for my upgrade with a view of getting one now and another later. Was gutted really because of the cost of them... The reviews are great and I guess you pay for quality but £900 each and £120 for gateway is just too steep for me. Naively I thought £500-£600 each [emoji2364].
I’ll have to go back to the drawing board with that one closer to the time of upgrading.
Did some husbandry on the sump cleaned it out properly and did a water change in there. Took the opportunity to swap the skimmer and fuge section around to run truer to triton, added I higher baffle to give the fuge a bigger volume that matches what it was. Seems better, the Chaeto collects all the nasty stuff and then the skimmer has a go at it, water seems clearer!
Shame because it looks really good, then noticed one came up for sale at a bargain price today! Doh!
I also enquires about the Orphek V4 lights hitting the UK next month, I was really keen on 2 of these for my upgrade with a view of getting one now and another later. Was gutted really because of the cost of them... The reviews are great and I guess you pay for quality but £900 each and £120 for gateway is just too steep for me. Naively I thought £500-£600 each [emoji2364].
I’ll have to go back to the drawing board with that one closer to the time of upgrading.
Did some husbandry on the sump cleaned it out properly and did a water change in there. Took the opportunity to swap the skimmer and fuge section around to run truer to triton, added I higher baffle to give the fuge a bigger volume that matches what it was. Seems better, the Chaeto collects all the nasty stuff and then the skimmer has a go at it, water seems clearer!
Last edited:
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coley650
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Put a loc-line nozzle on today, not because the sand was getting blown everywhere but mainly to have more control of where to send the flow. I've got them pointing either side of the weir to add some flow there. Seems to be ok, there is a bit of back pressure on the return pump which isn't a big issue for I just adjusted the flow, I'll keep an eye out.
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Nice! You should add this to the PAR Database!Took some par readings on the new aquascape, getting a much better reading across all exposed rock work for coral placement. Reading were taken with powerhead I’m so will probably bring the lights down a little now [emoji1417]
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Cool. It is in the link in my post.
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coley650
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Couple of snaps from the tank tonight after some great advice on balancing the white for pics [emoji1417] Hopefully no more blue pics!
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coley650
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Tested the NO3 and PO4 to see if there’s been an increase.
Have managed to get some nitrate, would prefer it to be sitting at 2 but I find it easier to bring down than increase so pleased with that.
Hard to gauge if it’s the amount of Cheato I trimmed back or increased bioload I added a tomini tang or both? Not sure, will keep an eye on it.
I don’t want to add any more fish now until I get a bigger tank so be good to keep the balance where it’s currently at.
Little nervous as going on holiday this week and have a house sitter, if something going to go wrong you can bet it’s when you’re away! I’m sure it’ll be fine.
I have some bits ordered for when I get back so that’ll be good, love deliveries!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Have managed to get some nitrate, would prefer it to be sitting at 2 but I find it easier to bring down than increase so pleased with that.
Hard to gauge if it’s the amount of Cheato I trimmed back or increased bioload I added a tomini tang or both? Not sure, will keep an eye on it.
I don’t want to add any more fish now until I get a bigger tank so be good to keep the balance where it’s currently at.
Little nervous as going on holiday this week and have a house sitter, if something going to go wrong you can bet it’s when you’re away! I’m sure it’ll be fine.
I have some bits ordered for when I get back so that’ll be good, love deliveries!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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coley650
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So got back from a week away today. I was quite anxious to go away and leave the tank but thank fully all was ok.
Things that didn’t go great:-
I’d been in the tank the day before I went away and must have stirred some sand up at the back. The day I went away got a text from my seneye to say my PH had dropped from 8.3 to 7.6. This is really unsual for my tank as PH rarely moves outside of 8. When I checked the app NH4 was at 44! NH3 was still 0, I had a minor panic and thought it must have been something I’d done. I keep Stability just in case and asked the tank sitter to add 15ml. Within an hr everything was back to normal with no further issues.
Things that went well:-
Came back to lots of my frags based out and some noticeable growth on most corals [emoji1417].
Came back to some stuff I’d ordered and spent most of the day doing that and a water change.
Added some diffusers to my Radions, made quite the difference to blending, I did turn the overall output up by 5% to counteract the loss of par, I’ll take some proper readings tomorrow.
Also got round to to adding a rowaphoss and carbon reactor. Running off a small pump in RO type containers at the back of the sump. Decided to give the Rox 0.8 a go too I’m hoping to see some clarity in the water.
Last job I got round to was changing DI resin and adding an additional DI chamber, was simple enough just moved the TDS to the last output.
Will do some testing tomorrow [emoji1417][emoji41]
Things that didn’t go great:-
I’d been in the tank the day before I went away and must have stirred some sand up at the back. The day I went away got a text from my seneye to say my PH had dropped from 8.3 to 7.6. This is really unsual for my tank as PH rarely moves outside of 8. When I checked the app NH4 was at 44! NH3 was still 0, I had a minor panic and thought it must have been something I’d done. I keep Stability just in case and asked the tank sitter to add 15ml. Within an hr everything was back to normal with no further issues.
Things that went well:-
Came back to lots of my frags based out and some noticeable growth on most corals [emoji1417].
Came back to some stuff I’d ordered and spent most of the day doing that and a water change.
Added some diffusers to my Radions, made quite the difference to blending, I did turn the overall output up by 5% to counteract the loss of par, I’ll take some proper readings tomorrow.
Also got round to to adding a rowaphoss and carbon reactor. Running off a small pump in RO type containers at the back of the sump. Decided to give the Rox 0.8 a go too I’m hoping to see some clarity in the water.
Last job I got round to was changing DI resin and adding an additional DI chamber, was simple enough just moved the TDS to the last output.
Will do some testing tomorrow [emoji1417][emoji41]
NY_Caveman
likes words, fish and arbitrary statistics
Beautiful images!
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coley650
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Decided to increase the bio load in the tank to try and maintain a level of nitrate. Ended up with a Koi Fairy Wrasse who I think is amazing, his colour really sets the tank off and a Yellow Tail. I have a thing for wrasses it seems. All went in ok although the Koi didn’t show his face until today but all seem to get on with no issues at this point!
Took a couple of other pics, even the emerald made an appearance!
Few other frags for good measure
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Took a couple of other pics, even the emerald made an appearance!
Few other frags for good measure
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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coley650
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Bit of an update:-
Triton:- Sent my last ICP test out last Tuesday still heard nothing a week later. I was impressed on my first test as it was a quick turn around. I emailed them because I haven’t even had the notification to say they’ve had it and they asked me to wait another 2 weeks? That would be 3 weeks total which isn’t helpful!
Doser:- Came home yesterday morning and it had decided to overdose Triton base elements 1 (mg). Did a magnesium test which was inconsistent, 1800 then in the afternoon 1590 then this morning 1260? Can’t be right this was the Nyos kit so may have to buy another one and see what’s what!
Snails:- They seem to suffer high mg but all seem ok and noticed this morning some snail eggs so maybe isn’t that bad we’ll see.
I’ll get a water change done today and pick up a new test kit. I can’t find any evidence that mg will overly upset coral so [emoji1693].
Annoyingly I only posted last week about swapping to a WiFi doser!
Triton:- Sent my last ICP test out last Tuesday still heard nothing a week later. I was impressed on my first test as it was a quick turn around. I emailed them because I haven’t even had the notification to say they’ve had it and they asked me to wait another 2 weeks? That would be 3 weeks total which isn’t helpful!
Doser:- Came home yesterday morning and it had decided to overdose Triton base elements 1 (mg). Did a magnesium test which was inconsistent, 1800 then in the afternoon 1590 then this morning 1260? Can’t be right this was the Nyos kit so may have to buy another one and see what’s what!
Snails:- They seem to suffer high mg but all seem ok and noticed this morning some snail eggs so maybe isn’t that bad we’ll see.
I’ll get a water change done today and pick up a new test kit. I can’t find any evidence that mg will overly upset coral so [emoji1693].
Annoyingly I only posted last week about swapping to a WiFi doser!
