Reefer 250 (new photos 4/14)

[davy jones]

Things were looking a little off on closer inspection last night so i did some testing (been putting a floor in downstairs, tank has been kind of neglected ) and Things are wayyyy off.
Salinity 1.027
Cal ~500
Alk 7.9dkh (this is fine)
Mag 1600
Nitrates 25-30ppm
Phosphates 0
All tests are done using Red Sea test kits.
This brings up a few questions,
1. I use no phosphate removal media what so ever, no carbon dosing, no gfo, no biopellets, no GAC nothing. So having it at 0 makes me wonder.
2. I have been dosing 2 part for the last 6-8 months at very low doses, not sure why my cal and mag are sooo high.
3. Trates are high, but i skipped 3 weeks of waterchanges due to life. Neglected to change filter socks and havent sucked up detritus, as well my skimmer has been running kind of funny for the last month or so.

So, i switched from dosing 2 part to red sea reef foundation products (A-Alk B-Cal C-Mag) and have the calcium dosing turned off so it will drop slowly. As for mag i plan on dosing that by hand once every month or so if it needs it. By doing each one seperate im hoping i can control the levels a little better.

I played with the skimmer last night and got a good foam head going again, gonna run it a little wet for a few weeks to pull nitrates down, Added 1L of matrix (wanted to do this for a while anyways) and dosed some n03po4x i had sitting around. Trying to lower it slowly as to not damage anything by a sudden shock, however i think my corals are being negatively affected by this as i have almost 0 PE on my sps. As well, any time a coral gets damaged in any way (stung, tissue loss, my fault, whatever) They ALWAYS die. No matter what. It will just slowly continue losing tissue till its gone. New corals always look great and slowly go down hill. Most live, but hardly ever grow or color up very nice.

I have between 10-15 gallons of water made up for a waterchange im doing tonight (use a tote for storage, not sure on exact volume of water made) And i use HW Marine Mix reefer salt, I am thinking of switching to Aquaforest salt however as it is closer to what i keep my tank at for parameters. Might even switch to the whole program and go probiotic.

Ultimately i think the main issue was my fault in the end. I have a vertex omega 150 on a 65 gallon system. I am pretty sure it stripped the water clean a while ago, causing some tissue loss in a couple already sick sps. Things were getting pale as well, so i started feeding heavy to increase nutrients. I might trade my skimmer for a deltec sc1350. It is more appropriately sized and has amazing reviews.

[davy jones]

Ive decided that since there isnt much information available about the aquaforest line of products here in the US as well as the fact that i could get it on sale for black friday i figured why not and bought most of the items in their *guide*

Ill be doing a sort of progress type post here for people to follow along with if anyone is interested. If not then i guess im just using the thread to log information for myself haha

Products:
Reef Salt - Packaged nice, like the bucket it comes with. Havent used it as of right now.
Bio S - Bacteria additive, nice little bottle with easy instructions. 1 drop per 27 gallons daily first 2 weeks, then use after a large waterchange, fish addition or fish loss. Dosed 3 drops last night.
AF Amino Mix - Same bottle as the Bio S (and all other additives i guess) dosing of 1ml per 27 gallons every other day after lights out. Dosed 3 drops last night after lights out.
AF Build - Claims to assist corals in uptake of calcium and alk, looks similar to Kz Coral snow but doesnt make the water as cloudy. Same dose as above but i dosed this am while lights were still out
AF Energy - I think it is similar to red sea energy A and B type products. Even has a flourecent green color like they do. Dosed 3 drops this morning while lights were out.
AF Vitality - Not sure what is in this but it is supposed to help corals with their slime coat and heal/prevent issues. A destressor of sorts im guessing. Dosed 3 drops this morning as lights were out.
FishV - Viatmins for the fish. Personally i think this is kind of a gimick as the frozen mysis isnt goign to absorb any of this but whatever, it was less than $7 so what the hell, added 1 drop to the shrimp cube as it thawed.

I plan on doing a night and morning after dosing schedule of the products i have. Ill dose 2 bottles at night and the other 3 in the morning before work. Then per the instructions ill skip a day and do it all over again.

I plan on buying pro bio s and -np pro as well but this is good for now. Also will make the switch to the Probiotic salt when i run out of the stuff i have (was out of stock when i made my order)

Information that may or may not be pertinant..
-Vertex omega 150 skimmer
-Seachems Matrix 2L in various sump chambers
-Using red sea no3po4x recently as i have high nitrates
-I think my red sea no3 and po4 tests are bad.. Showing 60+ nitrates and 0 Phosphates.. even after a 20 gallon waterchange on a 65 gallon system. I have 0 algae on the rocks and scrape the glass every ~4 days. I plan on testing a brand new batch of saltwater to see what the kit reads..
-I dont run carbon or GFO, but i might set my brs reactor up with the AF carbon and zeomix and maybe the phosphate minus (if i get a second test and the levels are crazy out of whack)
-I have almost no polyp extension from any of my sticks. Aside from the Stylo, which I dont think is doing too good.
-I picked up the upgrade from a 4 stage to a 6 stage ro/di thing during the sale too. Maybe something isnt getting removed that should be.
-Pink lemonade is encrusting pretty rapidly but no upward growth. Colors are fine but more on the green side than the yellow.
-Cali tort is growing slowly but growing. Nice blue/green/purple coloration. Sometimes i see the green polyps but rarely.
-SSC is encrusting, but not growing. And has been an ugly pinkish color since the day i got it from brian (1StopCorals). Not sure if it is lighting or flow or nutrients or what but maybe we will see a change. I havent seen polyps on this since i had the dino outbreak 8 months ago. (6 Months free! *knocks on wood*)
-Rics and Yumas are spittin out babies left and right. No issues here!
-Hammer corals are doing good.
- Anthellia is growing fast. I think im gonna pull the rock and scrub it off with tooth brush or something.
- Havent been able to keep duncans alive since I moved and removed the sand bed ~6 months ago. Tried and lost 3-4 different frags/mini colonies. However i got a whisker coral (isnt that the same thing?) from petco minnetonka about a month ago and it looks amazing. All while a different duncan slowly loses flesh and never has its polyps open.
-Currently i have had issues keeping Monti caps alive. Even the ones i bought at the fragswap turned gray and chalky in days and i dont think they are gonna make it another week. Shame. No idea what the issue is as i have a few acros doing fine.
-My biggest issue: Any time a coral loses tissue or flesh or gets stung or anything, it ALWAYS dies. There is never a recovery. Not sure what my issue is there but it is very frustrating..

I am not expecting any miracles here, but im hoping that by me using a program with a guide (instructions to somewhat follow) that it keeps my attention on the tank and therefore do better maitenence and the like. lol a little better health and growth would be nice as well but we will see!

Sorry for the wall of text.

Reference pictures before starting program:
Sad Starburst cap
Sad (drawing a blank and cant remember the name right now) Cap
Stylo. Small little white spots have no tissue/polyps. I think it is my 6 line wrasse, he seems to pick at that coral from time to time. Not sure if he is eating things or the coral it self.
Right side of the tank. With most of the sps.
Happy cali tort
First time ive seen growth tips other than encrusting on this guy. (Still prior to Aquaforest)
FTS prior to Aquaforest. Also just after the monti caps were added. So about a week prior to starting the program. All other pictures are from last night.

Created a new thread just for the aquaforest transition comparison but i figured i needed to add the info to my tank thread as well.

[davy jones]

Tank update.

 

Added the smallest tunze powerhead to blow behind the rock the rics are on to remove the dead spot there, will see how that goes.

 

Nitrates are down to 10ppm before the waterchange last night (15 gallons) so it is likely around 6ppm i would guess.

 

Phosphates should be around .04ppm after the WC as well so this is in the right direction.

 

Ive noticed that all the frags i have on plugs and in the frag rack started encrusting recently which they have all just sat and did nothing for the last month so that is good!

 

Hopefully things continue in this direction!

[drgibby]

Loving this build just saw it and caught up. Very nice corals and pictures. Are you enjoying the Reefer 250? Its the tank i would prefer but the price tag has my wife in a hissy...

[davy jones]

Loving this build just saw it and caught up. Very nice corals and pictures. Are you enjoying the Reefer 250? Its the tank i would prefer but the price tag has my wife in a hissy...

 

I do like the tank. If i had to do it again i would go Custom and go shallow. something larger would be nice lol. 48x30x18 would be ideal in my eyes.

 

Overall the build quality of the reefer is good, i just wish it was wider and shorter. And had a bigger sump. lol

[Nola Bear]

just caugth up on your build. Look forward to seeing the progress with aquaforest...

[davy jones]

Going to try and simplify things a bit. Been sort of neglecting the tank since stuff just slowly gets worse and worse. here is my plan.

 

Stop neglecting the tank.

Smaller waterchanges (used to do about 15 gallons a week or so. Gonna cut back to between 5 and 10 for stability)

I might add sand back. idk what the deal is but the tank did way better for me with sand up until i had dinos atleast.

Switching to red sea coral pro salt. 

Going to have my water sent off and tested to see if there is anything i need to correct.

Replacing my rodi filters.

Running red sea reef spec carbon in a reactor.

And im going to read through my whole thread to see where the tank looked the best and what the parameters were, bulb combo, flow placement and all that. 

I am also going to try to update this thread every couple of days! And be more active on the forum lol, it helps me maintain interest in the tank and hobby which i need.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: I wish i kept better notes on how things were doing. Parameters, flow settings, pump placement, led intensity and height, bulb combo etc. it is sad to go through the thread from beggining to end and see how many coral and fish i have killed. I am going to have my water tested by https://www.icp-analysis.com (like triton but based in the US) and see what is off. I might also rent a par meter to test lighting and see where everything is at again.

[davy jones]

Did some changes today, removed all the anthillia, changed the rockscape just a tad. Did my first waterchange using RCSP salt. Moved mp10 back to the right side of the tank instead of back wall. Replaced the ph probe on my apex to keep better track of that since its been bad the last 7 or so months.
ph 7.9
Alk 7dkh 
Cal 410
Nitrates ~10

Changed about 7 gallons or so with rcsp salt, tested alk again and it jumped to 7.7dkh. I eventually plan on raising alk to the 9 range or so so the jump wont be so bad, and if my tank can live at that range i plan on keeping it around there. Depending on things i may try the red sea reef care program numbers of alk around 12dkh and cal at 450 but it all depends on the reaction of my coral as i increase alk.

Will take a picture tomorrow when lights go on. Going to try and keep up to date weekly here so i have a journal of my progress as well as params so i can go back and look

[davy jones]

Quick update. Seems as though the tank is responding really well to the RCSP salt. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the bad side of things, my Coral beauty has started nipping at my rfa's. and she needs to go. How do you catch a fish??

[DaveFason]

Looks like things are bouncing back. As well your photos have improved big time! 

 

Try a fish trap from @Marine Depot. They have a few that work well. 

 

-Dave

[davy jones]

Just now, DaveFason said:

Looks like things are bouncing back. As well your photos have improved big time! 

 

Try a fish trap from @Marine Depot. They have a few that work well. 

 

-Dave

Thanks Dave, Sure have had my ups and downs but figuring it out as i go! 

As for the pictures i also have a DSLR now, however i have NO idea how to use it so for now these are all from my cell.

Thanks for the tip on the traps, ill check them out!

[blizzardscout2]

I know I have been where you are. Just keep at it. I find taking your eye off the ball is always what led me to have problems. Keeping a routine that you always stick to so you have a grip on the water quality is probably the most important. Check out Aquarimate app. It really helps me to schedule reminders and keep a log of everything including parameters. Those RFAs and Maxis are spectacular!

[davy jones]

2 hours ago, blizzardscout2 said:

I know I have been where you are. Just keep at it. I find taking your eye off the ball is always what led me to have problems. Keeping a routine that you always stick to so you have a grip on the water quality is probably the most important. Check out Aquarimate app. It really helps me to schedule reminders and keep a log of everything including parameters. Those RFAs and Maxis are spectacular!

Things have actually seemed to do really well since the salt switch. I also have tried to find a balance between neglect and too much tinkering which i think may have helped.

 

Had a local frag swap this last weekend and picked up some pieces as i havent bought anything in a while, and man i lucked out. Everything came from other reefers and not vendors and the sizes of some of these "frags" go into small colony territory. At the price of LESS than that of most "frags" I will try to upload some photos tonight or tomorrow maybe

[blizzardscout2]

Awesome! Look forward seeing them. I run RSCP too. I switched 2 years ago and have enjoyed this salt.

[davy jones]

Some photos of what i got at the swap and of the tank

 

PC Rainbow

Blue stag

ORA Spongodes

Tyree Undata 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orange and green yuma,

2 bluespot mushrooms with a free green and orange rhodactis,

Large green torch colony

Large 30-40 head colony of duncans

 

 

 

 

 

 

All this for less than 2 bills