joro's Red Sea Reefer 170 Build

joro · Oct 20, 2016

MrsBugmaster said:
I need to get one of those too when I get some more money.

Fortunately it's not too sporty price-wise but I definitely think it's an invaluable asset if you have 2 or more EcoTech products in the tank (or multiple tanks for that matter). The setup on the MP10s alone was worth the price since it gave me the flexibility to adjust settings throughout the day and the Vectra was just icing on the cake

Was able to catch a decent pic of the sun corals tonight, seems like everyone is responding very well to the new flow parameters! This is my first time trying NPS and I'm amazed at how quickly these guys eat. I've been feeding mysis to each head about 2-3 times a week and it seems as soon as I get to the next head, the head I just fed is already back out again.

MrsBugmaster · Oct 21, 2016

Nice sun coral

joro · Oct 22, 2016

Finally finished the cord management / cleanup exercise and installed the Neptune ALD module with 2 detectors (I may add one more down the road). The movement of the EcoTech controllers and Apex display really freed up a ton of space on the inside. Now I have room to add a doser and/or reactor in the future should I need/want to. I also started dosing the BRS 2-Part solution a few days back and everything is spot on now in terms of Calcium / Alkalinity.

Next project is to mount all these frags hopefully tomorrow

Chrisfish · Oct 22, 2016

joro said:
Fortunately it's not too sporty price-wise but I definitely think it's an invaluable asset if you have 2 or more EcoTech products in the tank (or multiple tanks for that matter). The setup on the MP10s alone was worth the price since it gave me the flexibility to adjust settings throughout the day and the Vectra was just icing on the cake

Was able to catch a decent pic of the sun corals tonight, seems like everyone is responding very well to the new flow parameters! This is my first time trying NPS and I'm amazed at how quickly these guys eat. I've been feeding mysis to each head about 2-3 times a week and it seems as soon as I get to the next head, the head I just fed is already back out again.

Beautiful sun coral!

joro · Oct 24, 2016

I finally got around today to mounting the frag haul from MAMAX a few weeks back and I must say things are looking pretty well thus far. The corals are still not at full extension since I just moved them but for some reason the colors under the night blues tonight was incredible. The scoly is ticked with the move to the other side of the tank but I think he'll be fine, he did have his feeders out tonight after lights out. I'll get some pics in the coming days once everything fully extends again.

On another note, the Red Sea Fan had almost all of it's polyps out tonight after I cleaned it yesterday with a toothbrush (it had a bit of algae collecting) which is good. I feed some phytoplankton tonight in both the sump/DT so hopefully it's getting what it needs! The sun corals have been doing pretty well too with the spot-feeding of mysis/selcon a few times a week.

revhtree · Oct 24, 2016

Looks good!

joro · Oct 24, 2016

revhtree said:
Looks good!

Thanks! I got another shot today and everyone seems to be really happy at full extension with the exception of the scoly, who still is retracted a bit. Moving him from one side of the tank to the other shouldn't have really effected flow and/or lighting so I'm wondering if I should be worry or just give him a few days to come back out? I did check tonight and he had his feeders extended after lights out; however, they were extended as far as they have been some nights (I also just fed him two nights ago some mysis). Thoughts?

revhtree · Oct 25, 2016

Like it!

Daniel@R2R · Oct 26, 2016

joro said:
Thanks! I got another shot today and everyone seems to be really happy at full extension with the exception of the scoly, who still is retracted a bit. Moving him from one side of the tank to the other shouldn't have really effected flow and/or lighting so I'm wondering if I should be worry or just give him a few days to come back out? I did check tonight and he had his feeders extended after lights out; however, they were extended as far as they have been some nights (I also just fed him two nights ago some mysis). Thoughts?

Some of our animals are just finicky. Is he getting the same amount of light in the new spot? If so, it may just take him a day or two.

joro · Oct 27, 2016

mdbannister said:
Some of our animals are just finicky. Is he getting the same amount of light in the new spot? If so, it may just take him a day or two.

There may be a few centimeters of height difference in the sandbed but for all intents and purposes it should be exactly the same. Here's a pic of what it looks like today and placement in the tank if it helps. He's not been looking great even after a few days, I'm a little concerned

Daniel@R2R · Oct 27, 2016

#LPSExperts anybody got any ideas?

Reefapprentice · Oct 27, 2016

Can you get a better picture of the right side of the a scoly? Looks like tissue recession compared to the pic you have of it opened. Is it in direct flow?

joro · Oct 27, 2016

Reefapprentice said:
Can you get a better picture of the right side of the a scoly? Looks like tissue recession compared to the pic you have of it opened. Is it in direct flow?

The power head (an MP10) is behind the rock so definitely not direct flow. Here are a few pics of the right side.

Reefapprentice · Oct 27, 2016

Somethings definitely effecting it. I'd try a lugols dip to try see if it's a bacterial infection. The lighting change also might of shocked it as the ones I've had are particularly sensitive to lighting changes.

joro · Oct 30, 2016

I did a larger water change today (a little over 50%) in an effort to get down the nitrates which have been a little high. Shortly after doing so, the scoly started plumping back up again and now looks a little better. I previously tested Nitrates at around 10 ppm last week so would be a little surprised if this is what caused the issue but I'll continue to monitor. On an unrelated note, I was brushing the bi-color monti cap (near top center of pic) with a soft toothbrush tonight to get some algae bits off of it that came off the sea fan and now those areas are a little white. Does this mean it's bleaching?

joro · Oct 30, 2016

Here's a better pic of the scoly (which is open even more this morning) and the white patches mentioned in the previous post. Any ideas what may be causing this?

aythatguy26 · Oct 30, 2016

Nice build!

joro · Nov 21, 2016

So it's been a few weeks without an update; however, I've been busy battling algae and traveling like a mad man

! I dedicated Saturday to doing some much needed maintenance on the tank and after a thorough vacuuming and 25%+ water change, things are looking decent. I added 2-3 fistfuls of calerpa in the sump and re-seeded them with another bag of pods from @AlgaeBarn (which, by the way, the mandarins have been loving!). I stole the idea from a fellow reefer but I put the calerpa in a hamster ball in the sump to prevent it from running over the edge into the return section which was a major issue with the last ball of chaeto I had. This is my first time experimenting with calerpa, so should be interesting.

On another note, the red sea fan did not make it and I attribute most of it to the algae problem which had a fondness to attaching to the fan despite the high flow (basically in front of the MP10). Nitrates has been tracking well with the water change - despite the lack of one for a few weeks - and I did add 2 SPS corals, a ORA birds nest and an encrusting monti. I've had terrible luck with SPS in our larger tank which I attribute mainly to the lights, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I'll add some more pics later when I have a chance!

revhtree · Nov 22, 2016

Looks nice!

AlgaeBarn · Nov 23, 2016

joro said:
So it's been a few weeks without an update; however, I've been busy battling algae and traveling like a mad man ! I dedicated Saturday to doing some much needed maintenance on the tank and after a thorough vacuuming and 25%+ water change, things are looking decent. I added 2-3 fistfuls of calerpa in the sump and re-seeded them with another bag of pods from @AlgaeBarn (which, by the way, the mandarins have been loving!). I stole the idea from a fellow reefer but I put the calerpa in a hamster ball in the sump to prevent it from running over the edge into the return section which was a major issue with the last ball of chaeto I had. This is my first time experimenting with calerpa, so should be interesting.

On another note, the red sea fan did not make it and I attribute most of it to the algae problem which had a fondness to attaching to the fan despite the high flow (basically in front of the MP10). Nitrates has been tracking well with the water change - despite the lack of one for a few weeks - and I did add 2 SPS corals, a ORA birds nest and an encrusting monti. I've had terrible luck with SPS in our larger tank which I attribute mainly to the lights, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I'll add some more pics later when I have a chance!