Reef it Simple Red Sea Reefer XL 300

[reefitsimple]

Hello to everyone my name is Vaggelis and i am glad to finally present you me new Reef Tank!!

I'm happy that after my first nano reef tank (Fluval Evo 13.5) santa brought me an upgrade! The Red Sea Reefer XL300.

Currently i am in the cycling stage started from 1/12/2020.

Dimentions: 90x55x57.5cm

System Volume: 300litres (65gal)

Skimmer: Red Sea Skimmer 300

Rocks: D-D

Sandbed: Caribsea fiji pink

Filtration: for the time being i have only added 20x Maxspec Bioballs and the filter sock that came with it

Lighting: As i am moving from a Fluval Evo 13.5 i have already an AI Prime 16 HD that will use and upgrade to 2 in the next months.

Pump: Skimz Quiet Pro 4000L/h QP4.0

Heater: 2x Eheim 150 watt


I am still in search of wavemakers but due to Corona situation all of foreign sellers need about 3 months for delivery time. ( i am thinking about Jebao CP series)
and trying to figure cable/panels management inside the cabinet.


Regarding the Clycling i used Microbacter 7 and frozen food for the first 2 weeks and now i am on Nite-Out Microbe-Lift and removed any excess food leftovers.
Yesterday measurements:

Ammonia: dropped to 0.5mg/l from 1mg/l
Nitrite: Just started to notice 1-2ppm
Nitrate: arround 5ppm.

I also increased the temperature to 29 Celcius in order to promote bacteria production.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Great start. #Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[reefitsimple]

Great start. #Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Thanks alot!!Happy to join the community!!

 

[reefitsimple]

Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Just yesterday i noticed that i had done a mistake! I didnt kept Microbe-lift bacteria in the freedge for the two past weeks meaning that i was putting just water on the tank...

Yesterday i bough microbacter 7 again and started dosing it!!

Ammonia is still at 0.5mg/l.

 

[reefitsimple]

Today I ordered finally 2x Jebao SLW-20!!! Now its a waiting game!!

 

[reefitsimple]

Also i have a question if anyone can answer.

I have been cycling the tank from 1/12/2020. But still i have 0.5mg/l Ammonia, Nitrite is about 0.2ppm and Nitrate is around 12-15ppm.

Isnt it supposed to be 0 ammonia when i have so much nitrate?

 

[Flazh510]

Also i have a question if anyone can answer.

I have been cycling the tank from 1/12/2020. But still i have 0.5mg/l Ammonia, Nitrite is about 0.2ppm and Nitrate is around 12-15ppm.

Isnt it supposed to be 0 ammonia when i have so much nitrate?

Welcome to the red sea club.
Nice tank. Have you done 5-10% water change with Rodi?
Thats what i did and it help

 

[reefitsimple]

Welcome to the red sea club.
Nice tank. Have you done 5-10% water change with Rodi?
Thats what i did and it help

Thanks alot Flazh!!

Today i have under 0.5mg/l ammonia Nitrite is around 2ppm and Nitrate is around 20ppm so i am preparing 30 litres to do a water change. I think tomorrow i will add the first 2 Occelaris that i have in another tank.

 

[taliesin]

I also have one of the Jabeo's in my 120 (along with a Icecap 4k, and 2 MP40s). It starts a little noisy for the first few days and then dead silent after that. So if you find it's like that, give it a few days to break in.

 

[reefitsimple]

I also have one of the Jabeo's in my 120 (along with a Icecap 4k, and 2 MP40s). It starts a little noisy for the first few days and then dead silent after that. So if you find it's like that, give it a few days to break in.

Thanks alot for the Info!! I had the same problem with Red Sea skimmer 300. In the start of its use it was doing a very disturbing noise in the low frequencies. Now after 2-3 weeks i barely hear it when i have the tv on.

 

[reefitsimple]

Welcome to the red sea club.
Nice tank. Have you done 5-10% water change with Rodi?
Thats what i did and it help

Just to let everyone know!

Ammonia was under 0.5mg/l on friday so went and did a water change of 10%. After 3 hours that i did a measurement ammonia was on 0, nitrite was around 0.1ppm and nitrated dropped to 12ppm.

I have scheduled another water change in about 3 days and i think it will drop nitrite to 0ppm and nitrate to 8ppm which is ok.

Today i will move two occelaris from my fluval evo to the xl 300 and put 2 corals for test. I already moved the AI Prime 15 HD to xl 300 so corals will have the same spectrum as on fluval evo that they are now.

 

[Nelson Tiago]

Nice build and very nice tank. I'm considering this instead WB. I love this sump, in the WB, the sump takes a lot of space, not small like this, but, also Aquaforest will release the tanks very soon so my eyes are on them. Please, keep us posted!

 

[Ashy]

Any update?

 

[reefitsimple]

So i have some news after so many Months! I wasnt writing anything cause i had to let the tank start to maturing.
In short i had problem with one of the Salifert test and was adding magnesium which led to high magnesium in the tank. Instantly i started water changes but it created Dinos.

I used Dino X to beat it and microbacter 8. When the Dinos were starting to fading i lost 70% of my corals and half of the fishes i had inside. As you can understand After Dinos i got Green Hair Algae and Cyano (The problem list goes on...).

Before one month i dropped in a dolabela and from then GHA disappeard leaving me with Cyanobacteria.

Corals now seem to grow even if i have Cyano. I am in the stage of adding phosphate because when i use Hanna checker i get always 0.

I am in a stage of leaving the tank to do whatever it needs by its own as i have understand disturbing it may cause many problems.