Reefer 250 build

[tenurepro]

One of the new ornate leopards is out this morning. Picking at rocks but did not take any of the frozen shrimp yet


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[tenurepro]

Sadly - the red star melted away over the past two days

Also, the new leopard wrasses are jet lacked. Haven't been seen them, but I see signs of sand displacement in the morning. Last night I checked at 3 am and found one out. Tried to feed her but she ran into the sand. Not sure what to do? Hoping they get on eastern standard time soon!


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[tenurepro]

Ornate wrasse update : I added 2 females 12 days ago. One has been coming up late at night and stays up for a couple of hours in the morning before going to sleep. She took a nls pellet a couple of days ago but today she actually took a few pelletes during morning feeding, so that is a pretty good sign. She was actively searching for them and chewing them.

Still have not seen the other new ornate. I am going away on vacation next week, so I've added an extra feeding cycle on my autofeeder (3 times a day) just to make sure there is a lot of pellets to go around.

Here is a picture of the new ornate (background) with the ornate I already had - Ariel



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[dmarkham]

Red Sea has always had nice setups imo. I had a RSM and love it. These new tanks are even better. If I did not luck into my current set up I would have went this route. Nice set up by the way.

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by dmarkham

Red Sea has always had nice setups imo. I had a RSM and love it. These new tanks are even better. If I did not luck into my current set up I would have went this route. Nice set up by the way.

Thanks very happy with the reefer 250


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[tenurepro]

Heading out for a pre-Christmas vacation to Cozumel. Hope to get some scuba in.
Finally managed to get and setup an ecotech battery backup - good thing too as we are expecting freezing rain and ice in Toronto in a few days. I only connected one mp10 to maximize run time. Setup a temp ato container with 10 gallons of water - should be good for 10+ days. Auto feeder is in place and have a friend coming to clean the skimmer twice next week.
Hoping I come back to a happy tank!


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[tenurepro]

Back from first leg of vacation. Sps look in good shape in terms of color and growth. I was dosing kalkwaser while away (4 tsp per 5 gal Rodi). Lack of co2 in the house raised ph to about 8.3 - 8.4 (from 8.2 and 8.3) and I think this helped with growth - noticing very obvious signs on the mr packman and several other frags. Alk dropped to about 7.3 from 8.9, so started dosing alk in addition to kalk to keep things balanced.

On the fish front - I saw some bullying today - the resident ornate leopard wrasse was picking on one of the new ornates that I added two weeks ago. The poor wrasse would get chased around till it hides in the sand. Perhaps my tank can only support a single leopard . Will try to catch the new wrasses and find new homes for them, after I get back from my second half of family holidays.

Merry x-mas and happy holidays for everyone!


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[tenurepro]

You know your are a reefer when your are staring at your tank when you are at home and staring at natural reefs when you are on vacation...
Here is a little movie of some cool fish from Cozumel Mexico. I had planned on scuba but my left ear didn't cooperate so went snorkeling instead. So nice to see tangs, angelfish and wrasses in the natural environment.

https://youtu.be/Cq-AF5uKScc


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[tenurepro]

6.5 month update. Things are going well. All but two Sps frags are growing and coloring up.
Here is an update video, featuring some underwater footage taken with a GoPro
https://youtu.be/b-e3NbFmn_o

Picked up 4 more sps frags from a local reefer. Two encrusting montiporas - mystic pink (with blue polyps) and mystique (green with blue polyps). An light blue acropora tenuis, and ORA's bird of paradise.

New ornate wrasses are not playing nice together, one is now in jail (aka fuge). Wondering if a little chill time will help. I may sell one off.


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[tenurepro]

Shelfs: finally built a little shelf for the cabinet. I had some stackable plastic containers for adaptors and fish food etc. but the system didn't work too well when I tried to add the ecotech battery backup in the cabinet. I built a custom shelf out of 1"x6" cedar, 1"x3/4" and 1"x3" nailing strips. Bottoms shelve for the battery, middle for adaptors and top for food and tank goodies. A few pics...

Bottom shelve

Complete unit

Unit in the reefer 250 cabinet

This still gives me lots of space for the 5 gal ato jug.

Minor change of scape: been thinking about changing the middle tier in the center-left of the tank. Initially, I had a couple of flowerpots, a torch and a hammer on the bottom, and a red forest fire digi in the middle tier. The digi mysteriously faded away and yesterday I woke up to this

Seems like the torch is attacking the hammer. Then I wondered if the torch also attacked or bothered the red digi that was slightly above it? Anyway I took out the torch and placed it in the sand to the back. Flowerpots also got moved to the sandbed off to the back. Then I rearranged the rockwork to create a lower bench with a couple of archways.. I really like the look...

New arrangement

I also epoxied some new frags:
Ora birds of paradise... great color and motion

New encrusting mystique monti... stunning blue polyps on green base

New encrusting mystic pink monti

And a new acropora tenuis. Mother colony is baby blue



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[WatDatThing]

You did a great job. I would be scare to add all that in such a short time.

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by WatDatThing

You did a great job. I would be scare to add all that in such a short time.

Thanks!


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[tenurepro]

Wrasse update
I added 2 new ornate wrasses to the tank with a resident ornate about a month ago. One wrasse is MIA. The other new ornate was getting bullied by the resident ornate. Moved resident to fuge jail for 4 days, which allowed new ornate to feed and get comfortable in the tank. She now eats pellets and frozen shrimp and stays up for most of the day. I got an acclimation box from a fellow reefer and put the resident ornate in the box for 2 days now. There doesn't seem to be any obvious attempts at aggression now. I drop some pellets in the acclimation box which attracts both wrasses to the box, they can get within an inch or two apart from each other and no charging or posturing.
I plan to release the resident ornate tomorrow morning - hoping they stay amicable!




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[tenurepro]

A little video on making waves in the reefer with ecotech mp10s
https://youtu.be/Jg0e1fEbIRQ


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[neiltus]

What is your wrasse count now?

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by neiltus

What is your wrasse count now?

3 + 1 hiding in the sand still to be seen
I love wrasse!


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[tenurepro]

Wrasse update...
The acclimation box worked! My two leopard wrasses get along now... yay!
https://youtu.be/m00teO6oCUY


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[tenurepro]

Haha, took a break from this tank to swim in a 660,000 gallon tank... with 21 sharks....
https://youtu.be/U2wPiFBeEqs


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[rillaboratories]

nice!

[tenurepro]

Originally Posted by rillaboratories

nice!

Thanks!


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[tenurepro]

Some led light updates. I cranked the radions very high very fast in month 3 and 4, which combined with low nutrients and high alk made my frags unhappy and pale. I dropped the lights down, improved water chemistry and slowly brought up the radions from 55 to 70% max intensity (sps ab+) over the past 2 months. All but two frags have significantly improved in color, which is great to see.
Here is the latest par readings


The 15% increase in radion intensity really improved par readings along the central row of frags mounted on the top shelf. Many are in the 200 par range. I still have some room if I want to crank the lights higher, but I am planing to keep lights as is for the next month before tweaking things.

But not all acros are in the sweet 200 to 300 range... the Bottom left shelf is still stuck at par of ~ 100; mostly unchanged from two month ago. I am not too surprised because it juts out to the corner of the tank where the led have poor coverage. Most of the increase in led intensity was felt in the center.

So back to my original dilemma from November. Should I raise or reposition that shelf by a few inches up or center to give it more light. Sure I can keep cranking the leds to get more light on the corner but I worry that this will overexpose the sticks on the top shelf...

I can keep things as is but the bottom left shelf has seen the least growth out of all the tank so it certainly can use a little intervention...

What are your thoughts on the matter?



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[tenurepro]

Hmmm... I don't why, but I am getting a sudden urge to buy an Apex controller... I like probes, I like graphs, I like programming things... seems like there could be great possibilities for nerding out...


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[pelphrey]

I just setup an apex classic not long ago. Good investment for sure!

[mystikal]

I've been on the fence as well about the apex....I'm thinking I've done fine so far without it. Maybe the future after I get a new tank lol

[tenurepro]

It's mostly because I have to manually unplug skimmer, ato and return whenever I target feed, then I have to plug return back, wait a few min before turning skimmer and ato. Would be nice to do this with the touch of a button on my phone. Also, now that I am dosing kalkwaser, would be great to have the option to stop the ato if ph gets too high


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