Darkrabbit's Red Sea Reefer 250... reef

[darkrabbit]

Good luck on the dosing setup, that's in my near future so I am excited to see your journey with it as well. This is easily one of my favorite build threads ;-)

Thanks, I appreciate that I checked your thread, MAN you scored a great set of hardware! I love that sump... Your set up is VERY similar to mine

Your rock scape is looking very good... I want to do some rearranging, I am just not sure in what way to do it. With a sand sifting goby I really needed to figure out how to arrange corals so that they don't get spit on or tipped over.

 

[Aaron Shapiro]

Thanks, I appreciate that I checked your thread, MAN you scored a great set of hardware! I love that sump... Your set up is VERY similar to mine

Your rock scape is looking very good... I want to do some rearranging, I am just not sure in what way to do it. With a sand sifting goby I really needed to figure out how to arrange corals so that they don't get spit on or tipped over.

Thanks! I messed with a bit this morning too. Gonna update my thread.

I'll tell ya, the trouble I'm having is learning HOW to dose. I'm currently not dosing anything in my smaller tank — I think I understand on a surface level... Measure one day, then measure the next to see what the consumption is, then dose to compensate...but a walkthrough would be supes helpful haha...

-a

 

[darkrabbit]

Thanks! I messed with a bit this morning too. Gonna update my thread.

I'll tell ya, the trouble I'm having is learning HOW to dose. I'm currently not dosing anything in my smaller tank — I think I understand on a surface level... Measure one day, then measure the next to see what the consumption is, then dose to compensate...but a walkthrough would be supes helpful haha...

-a

That's essentially it. I'll definitely be doing a write up.

 

[DelRayTank]

Following along while I build my own Reefer 250!

 

[darkrabbit]

I should add as well, I use Aquarimate to track all my dosing and testing. I use it for everything but you can see from the screenshot when you combine your test results, and then cross reference with your dosing, you can figure out pretty fast what your consumption is.

 

[Aaron Shapiro]

I should add as well, I use Aquarimate to track all my dosing and testing. I use it for everything but you can see from the screenshot when you combine your test results, and then cross reference with your dosing, you can figure out pretty fast what your consumption is.

That's also a good tip, you prefer Aquarimate over Apex's built-in functionality?

 

[darkrabbit]

That's also a good tip, you prefer Aquarimate over Apex's built-in functionality?

By a country mile. First, Apex is very clunky in terms of the UI used to analyze data. Second, there's no way to export the data from the Apex, so you're depending on their storage. Third, related to the former, the amount of data history they store is abysmal. You might get a few weeks if you have a lot of logging and that's it. If you don't want a lot of data points you might get 2 months. But regardless, the window of data you can see at any one time is 7 days. So want to see a trend over a month? Haha nope. $1200 for a system and you get 5MB of storage lol. Thanks guys.

The Aquarimate will export data into a few formats including CSV, and I've been using it since Jan and haven't lost any data. Not even sure there is a storage limit....

And the other cool thing, Aquarimate will read data from the Apex. You set up an integration between them and they will poll the Apex for data on whatever parameter you want. I pull ORP at the click of a button.

-J

 

[darkrabbit]

Turns out trochus snails are dropping dead in my tank. And I guess they’re tasty to Nassarius snails. Dont know why....

Sorry about the rotated image. This forum is weird on mobile devices.

 

[darkrabbit]

Remember my underfeeding?

With respect to my underfeeding, I made minor adjustments but this is the full run down of my situation:

This is what I have in my tank:

Fish:

1 x Regal Tang
1 x Yellow Tang
1 x Diamond Goby
2 x Clowns

Inverts:

1 x Turbo Snail
7-8 x Scarlett or Blue legged Hermit crabs
1 x Electric Orange Hermit Crab
1 x Blood Shrimp
1 x Cleaner Shrimp
1 x Strawberry Conch
4 x Nassarius Snails
1 x Emerald Crab

All my Trochus snails are dead, FYI. Eaten.

Corals:

3 x Goniporas
1 x Hammer
1 x Torch
1 x fairly large Palythoa colony
1 x small Palythoa colony
2 x small Zoanthid colonies
1 x Plate Monti
1 x Kenya Tree
1 x Xenia colony
1 x Acan colony (small, 4 heads)

I think that's it...

My feeding I mentioned before:

- 1/2 cube mysis shrimp
- ~6 pellets of New Life Spectrum Algaemax (very small pinch)
- ~6 pellets of New Life Spectrum Marine Formula (very small pinch)
- ~ 1/4 tsp of Reef Roids

- Every 2 or 3 days a half sheet of nori. Only the Emerald and the Yellow Tang seem interested, but honestly the Tang devours mysis shrimp. Likes it WAY more.

Any other nonsense:

- Dealing with red algae / cyano right now. Not sure why.

My most recent water nutrient test (and other relevant params):

Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0.01
Alk: 8.9
Cal: 395 (a bit low)
Mag: 1520 (a bit high)
Salinity: 1.025

The problem:

My plate monti is starting to brown a bit and the corals don't seem to be terribly happy. I mean some are but others just are... meh.

So I think I am at the stage where my nutrients are WAY too low and I need some trace of Nitrates.

My plan:

- Increase feeding, add 1/2 cube brine or mysis shrimp at night, see what happens. NO FLAKE. Gonna keep this out as it could introduce more phosphates
- Remove GFO and carbon (it's done its job with GHA)
- Monitor and adjust as needed

I considered turning off the skimmer for a bit but it's already skimming pretty dry.

I would LOVE it if my filtration could be limited to the refugium chaeto and the skimmer... Removing the carbon and GFO should be okay for now, but I still have red algae / cyano so I am not sure what that's about. Super low nutrients and cyano? what the heck.... anyway. I am going to run it like this for a few weeks and see what happens.

I am open to any other ideas

 

[Aaron Shapiro]

So you're running some tangs in a 250? That's tempting....

 

[darkrabbit]

So you're running some tangs in a 250? That's tempting....

Sure! They seem happy and they're pretty small. Once they get too big I'll take them back to the LFS. I already had to do that once with my urchin.

My plan is to migrate them to a larger tank once I get one but I don't see that happening for another few years at least, so the LFS exchange is likely.

 

[Aaron Shapiro]

Sure! They seem happy and they're pretty small. Once they get too big I'll take them back to the LFS. I already had to do that once with my urchin.

My plan is to migrate them to a larger tank once I get one but I don't see that happening for another few years at least, so the LFS exchange is likely.

Gotcha, I'd be way into a small yellow or blue tang for a year or two.... Wonder if catching it later would be a pain.

 

[darkrabbit]

Gotcha, I'd be way into a small yellow or blue tang for a year or two.... Wonder if catching it later would be a pain.

I dunno... with 2 nets I don't think you'd have much problem. That being said I've never had to, but I am pretty confident since my tank isn't that big it wouldn't be too bad.

 

[darkrabbit]

Quick water test today:

Alk: 8.8
Cal: 405

Stuff is eating stuff.

Right now I am manually dosing:

Alk: 2mL / day Red Sea Reef Carbonate
Cal: 2mL / day Red Sea Reef Calcium

I'd say I am maintaining with this dosage, with a SLIGHT increase in calcium. So I am going to keep doing this for now. I want 440-450 calcium

Once I hit 440 I will back down to 2mL.

By that time I will likely have a dosing pump.

 

[tonydig11]

I think you are still overfeeding. I rotate flakes, pellets or frozen daily and only what they can eat in say 20-30 seconds. Then I spot feed the corals reef roids 2x a week

 

[darkrabbit]

I think you are still overfeeding. I rotate flakes, pellets or frozen daily and only what they can eat in say 20-30 seconds. Then I spot feed the corals reef roids 2x a week

Really... Ok. I will keep that in mind, thanks! I might post and ask in the forum. I just don't want to starve them, and the nutrients are non-existent.

 

[darkrabbit]

I got a Blue Tuxedo Urchin!!

I went to Fragbox (fragbox.ca), an LFS in my area that I've been using lately as they have great stock, to pick up some filters for my RODI system. Started to show 2 TDS so figured time for a change. Anyway, in the tradition of leaving with more than I intended, I picked up a tuxedo urchin!

I have been waiting to find one of these for many months, and they happened to have 5 that day. So I picked up the one that looked the most 'happy' and now he's doing urchin things in my tank. He's already piled all sorts of shells and junk on his body

There's an urchin in here somewhere

Added some new algae, pods, and MarinePure blocks

While at the LFS I picked up some new algae to add to my sump: Dragon's breath. It's quite nice, and I wanted a bit of variety in the fuge for Triton method.

I also picked up a bottle of copepods and a MarinePure block. Added both to the fuge on the weekend. Pulled out the remaining Matrix, I don't think I want to use it going forward. We'll see, but I'd prefer a 'cleaner' block thats easier to deal with when it gets full of crap.

This is what the fuge looks like now:

Going Triton

Decision made, I am going full Triton this year. Over the next month I will be ordering:

2 x DOS dosing pumps
Between 2 and 5L of the core Triton reagents (1, 2, 3a, 3b)
A 3 pack ICP test

In preparation for this, I have removed all media from the tank (which I planned to anyway) AND I am slowly dropping Alk down to 8. This is the recommended level when starting Triton. I will likely get the reagents ASAP and start dosing, then do the ICP test in December.

I think now is a good time. I have almost no SPS in the tank so a slight swing in parameters won't cause a mass bleaching.

Reason I am ordering so much reagent off the bat is two-fold:
- I live in Canada and reagents seem non-existent here. So if I am making a trip across the border to get it I might as well get a lot of it and save some money
- Triton has had supply issues in the past. This will not be a problem for me if I plan ahead.

I will likely order from BRS as there's a number of other items I need that are a pain to source here, so might as well do it in one fell swoop.

Anyway.. this is going to be an expensive month :/

 

[1$adream]

Didnt realise triton requires removal of media. Intrested to see how this develops

 

[darkrabbit]

Didnt realise triton requires removal of media. Intrested to see how this develops

It doesn't necessarily but I should have been more clear

Triton does not recommend any filter media before the fuge as things like filter socks, floss, etc, can take nutrients out which feed your macro algae. Your chaeto and whatever else should do the job that your socks or floss do. Hell I'd love to lose the skimmer too, as I see a lot of 'matter' in it that I feel my chaeto would chew on nicely. But I won't mess with that idea until I am well established Triton-wise. In an ideal world, my skimmer should be very bored once my fuge is running at peak efficiency

From what I understand, you can still run carbon and it is in fact encouraged. Otherwise it is 'as needed' and triton will tell you based on ICP testing whether you should. In fact a Triton staff member posted on here a while back that running carbon is a good thing because it pulls potentially nasty chemicals out of the water.

Is carbon necessary for longevity with Triton?

I have always run carbon for brief periods to clarify the water or when my other (more sensitive) half complains of sea smells. My only experience is of running a small amount passively (half a cup in a 200 gallon system), although I do use Vertex Rox 0.8 and it is relatively impassive as the...

www.reef2reef.com

When it comes to GFO, this is more 'as needed' or not at all, I would think, as a functioning fuge coupled with limiting PO4 introduction with food (i.e. not putting cubes straight into the tank, no flakes, etc.) should keep it to acceptable levels.

I removed all media because I want to start with a 'clean slate' as it were. I will likely add carbon back (as needed) but GFO is out as my PO4 is very low (0.04), and I also want to see if it starts to climb again without filtration because if it does, it means that I haven't completely eliminated my root cause.

 

[darkrabbit]

Just to add to the discussion...

Here's another thread... Triton saying both carbon AND GFO recommended 24x7. Though GFO quantity should be adjusted if PO4 drops too low.

Do you run carbon and gfo 24/7?

I've read through the guide a couple times and am still a little confused. Are we supposed to run carbon and gfo 24/7? I'm designing my system and am trying to figure out if I need 1 or 2 reactors. I used to just run my carbon passively with a bag tossed in the sump but from my understanding...

www.reef2reef.com

So there we go. I guess I might be running carbon 24x7 but GFO I am going to be very careful with.