GraniteReefer 250 build

[MainelyReefer]

Before I began filling I figured out a solution to the Kessil light brackets barely fitting without being submerged, since they are metal that’s not ideal.  I wanted not to attach to the glass as well because it seems sketchy to me. So I made a flush mounting system that is attached to the wall via 3” decking screws in studs.  The mount is made of 1/2” HDPE board cut two feet long and two inches wide.  1/4” acrylic was cut to size and used as a spacer to match the Kessil brackets thickness.  The result is exactly how I imagined it which feels great.

the ultimate goal was to keep the tank 2.75” off the wall to allow for MP10’s and these brackets.  To achieve this I had to cut the plastic bolts that come with the Kessil clamp and then grind them to perfection.

again the results were rewarding.

The brackets can slide in this design which is better than the initial plan of just directly screwing the brackets to a piece of strapping or something.  This way the lights and brackets can be fully removed or I could upgrade to a third a360 down the line!  The look will be perfectly concealed too and leaves the light in a more desirable height/centering.

[MainelyReefer]

Tank is full and salt is added now I’m just waiting for it to get to temp, then I am going to be transferring the 4g into the refugium and trying to take rocks from my mantis tank and put them in the display, confirm he’s still in the 10g then I can add the 40g with it’s corals and fish.  The 10g in the backgroundyou can see I got my RFG nozzles installed, they slowed the flow so much I had to max my pump to equalize the drain with the setting it was at when my pump was running at setting 8/10 with out the RFGs

[MainelyReefer]

Somehow I lucked out and the Mantis ditched the rocks as I pulled them and I was able to isolate him and give him a nice new piece of pukani, which he immediately began bashing to his desired shape.  This is exciting as I have been having a nightmare all week that he would murk my whole tank by stowing away somehow.

 Now tomorrow I will add the base rocks from the 40 and scape while the fish sit in the 4g poopico which is running empty now as I transferred the liverocks, Xenia, and pistol to the refugium.  I left the pump and heater running with water and live sand and performed a 50%wc and will likely replace all the water with stuff from the 40 moments before placing the fish in, but I wanted the pods to be there for the mandarins to snack on.

[MainelyReefer]

Full transfer is complete!  Pair of mandarins, pair of clowns, YWG, GCG, bangaii cardinal, and the newest arrival a tomini tang all in a 4g awaiting the scape to be complete and the sand to settle.

The sump is this guys favorite new thing

i think I nailed it on keeping with my planned scape, which is to maximize rockwork for pods grazing area for the mandarins, all while keeping 2-3” between the rockwork and the walls minimum at any one point so the tang can make laps.

Island to the left is three giant pukani rocks from the 40, island to the right is 9 smaller rocks compounded from new pukani, 10 pounds of KP Aquatics liverock, and the contents of my 4g.

Hard to photograph the depth the pukani has

The only potential casualty is my pistol shrimp who made it in alive but was acting a bit wonky and looked as though his snapper may have been damaged.  Time will tell if sand starts mounding. He looks whole enough haha

[FISHnChix]

What in the world is that tool? On the left side of the tank on the sand bed??🤔

[MainelyReefer]

 

 

9 hours ago, Weikel said:

What in the world is that tool? On the left side of the tank on the sand bed??🤔

Perhaps the oceanbox designs custom frag holder that’s made for a 2” growout disc held 3” off the wall, I had them made for a growout where the host said the corals would have to stay on a 2” disk to be viable, and of course the growout frag came in on standard plugs so I own the uselessly cool frag racks.  24k gold lepto has encrusted that one so it gets to fit somewhere maybe the overflow box

[FISHnChix]

50 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

 

 

Perhaps the oceanbox designs custom frag holder that’s made for a 2” growout disc held 3” off the wall, I had them made for a growout where the host said the corals would have to stay on a 2” disk to be viable, and of course the growout frag came in on standard plugs so I own the uselessly cool frag racks.  24k gold lepto has encrusted that one so it gets to fit somewhere maybe the overflow box

Ha ok now I see it . It looked like some sort of meter lol..

[MainelyReefer]

Brand new Kessil a360we died today.  I called Kessil, kept getting a voicemail.  Left a message I was disappointed.  Called once more got a representative who asked for s/n and then gave me two options. One option of shipping the unit then once they receive they send replacement or put my card on file and get one sent tomorrow with a return sticker for the defective unit.  I chose to get one as soon as possible and risk them being douchey down the line and saying it’s my fault, but I get the feeling they are good, so far they have had stellar customer service(when I finally reach them).  Before this I couldn’t locate the bracket that came with the gooseneck and they sent one for free no questions asked. Fingers crossed the failure was a fluke. I have also finished making the Red Sea DIY mesh top.  What a pain.  My 2 year old took a corner piece and stopped construction for a few days until my wife fished it out of the pack and play.  The screen mesh it comes with is miserably weak, luckily they give you 4x more than you actually need.  

Atleast my fish will be safe.  This came in the mail

scoly is huge and happy

not sure watchmen are ever happy

[MainelyReefer]

Went snowboarding up north, stopped in a LFS and got a tiger pistol.  Hopefully he moves sand a little more than the candy cane pistol. 16$

  Going in at 1”  he buried himself in the sand under a mushroom then at lights out disappeared.  Smart move with my bangaii cardinal he is a pistol shrimp eater.  Also worth mentioning, with the added depth/height of the tank the mandarins have been mimicking what I know to be their mating ritual.  Pic now video later.  Their belly’s have also been massive with the influx of pods from the live rock.

[MainelyReefer]

New Kessil arrived! Pretty great customer service, now I just put my broken one in the mail with the supplied return sticker and I’m good to go!  Hopefully a brand new light failing isn’t a sign of future reliability. They are wicked bright and look good!  Even when the other defective unit was running I complained to my wife it’s color and intensity weren’t matching the other Kessil, and the new one does exactly! 

Coolest fish in the Sea

[MainelyReefer]

Went to a LFS and traded in my Gorgonian frags and a small 1x1 square of eagle eyes and rastas.

I got $60 in store credit, Score! For a cool $65 I got this anemone(had more existing credit already)  

currently in a 3x3 nem box from oceanbox designs with a 3x3 grow out tile on the bottom

[Cutter79]

following

[JBM]

pretty

[MainelyReefer]

Major cleaning of the tank yesterday as I allowed it to build up algae on the back wall, I think hair algae like my 2 cubes of frozen plus pellets a day!  For two weeks now I have been watching my filter sock somehow strip itself of detritus, but with my ripping algae into the water column it quickly filled.  I rinse it in some hot water and in the sink strainer I see some movement.  It was one of the porcelain crabs! He must have been eating what the filter captured!  Somehow he made it through a hot freshwater bath.  Maybe he’s tidal in nature, at any rate he’s in the display now.  

[MainelyReefer]

New Blenny from divers den

First time owning a blenny and moments in the tank and I can tell he has more personality than your average fish.

[MainelyReefer]

Coming to the end of a fluconazole treatment I was running to get rid of GHA and a few other unknown macros that rode in on the KP Aquatics rock.  During this time(a month) I haven’t cleaned the glass to allow film algae to take hold and hopefully become the dominant algae.  

I cleaned the clowns this window and they harass me for pellets.  Look at how algae free those rocks are now though! And the GSP killing back the JF Rainbow Monti...😩

The main reasoning behind allowing the tank to build film algae was to make a happy pod population.  I swear my mandarins are growing faster in here than the 40.

all the glass walls are covered in pods, success! Snack away Poe and Rey!  I haven’t added any pods either, only what rode in and self populated.

[MainelyReefer]

The stock float switch clogged on the ATO this week, unclogging it was a breeze.  However my wife has been hassling me about my MTS and I whipped out the drill and am converting the ATO into a Mantis tank.  This will allow me to take down my IM10 which is really a boring tank to maintain.  Sump monsters rule!

More pics to come

[MainelyReefer]

Dry Fitting

Intake to the rear powered by a sicce .5 that sits in the return pump chamber, 1/2” drain with low profile strainer to the front and it drains where the main display does before the filter socks.

filling it up

pump on and drain flowing smooth and quiet(wife approved)

I’ll let it run empty for a few hours to prove concept then start aquascaping and put in the Mantis!  

Smart Micro ATO operating out of my IM 5g hydrofill ATO reservoir is already hooked up

[MainelyReefer]

No longer running the ATO converted tank as it was loud and I considered it a weak point in system reliability.  I also have aptaisia and bubble algae starting in OH JOY!  I have also been neglecting cleaning the glass which made me neglect feeding pellets which has resulted in less than fat mandarins.  Being fed up with my laziness I bought a Hammerhead Plus magnet cleaner which decimated the algae on the glass! Now I can see the tank again which beyond the aforementioned issues is actually doing well considering my lackadaisical husbandry as of late.    Tonight I reluctantly used aptaisia X to fight back against the bastards.  I say reluctantly because I think that stuff just pisses them off and spreads them, but without a filefish, berghia nudis, or peppermint shrimp it was my only option short term.  

Some good news is that I scored a 40$ Scoly at a LFS called Reef Junkeez in MA.  The owner didn’t really want to sell it for that cheap(why are coral retailers always like that?) to the point where he even tried saying maybe it wasn’t a scoly and was a bowerbankie.  It’s missing a pizza slice of its body but I couldn’t resist.  Confirmed colors are red with spots of blue and purple, we will see what it grows into.

here is my giant happy scoly, thing is like a tea plate 

and a topdown of the new one for size reference

And another random topdown, look at that giant Ricordea towards the bottom!

And the scoly eating

it's too bad scolys are kind of controversial to have due to the lack of aquacultured specimens, however the giant one I have was a 20$ Craigslist rescue coral, and this new one only 40$ and missing a chunk it makes me feel less guilty(probably wrongfully so)

Sump Xenia needs harvesting

[MainelyReefer]

New scoly happy and hungry, he showed great feeding response.  I have high hopes he will thrive and turn out to be a stunner.  Hermits cleaned him and the plug up all night of algae, nice to have CUC that knows what their job is.

Junky Feeder photo as my iPhone focuses on the crash landed millennium falcon instead, you can also see the poop he’s letting out by his mouth from my feeding last night. 

Bonus mandarin shot

[MainelyReefer]

This past Sunday Rey wasn’t moving much and it caught my eye, upon further inspection something had attacked her.  There was a whitish area near her right gills and missing chunks from her fins.  Poe was defensive towards any other fish who got near.  She slunk into the rockwork and I haven’t seen her since which is a horrible sign for a fish who needs to actively hunt.  I fear she has died.  This has been pretty devastating and embarrassing.  Poe is looking great so I don’t think it was disease, my guess is the YWG or the tang or maybe even the MP10 but that’s been in tank in one place on the same settings for months.  Maybe she got stunned by the nem?  As the days pass I’m losing hope she is just recouping in the rockwork and fear for the worst.  She was growing so big too.  Here is a photo of her stationary on sunday , potentially the last photo of her.

She was eating and hunting normally the day before, maybe a mandarin miracle will happen but at this point I’m convinced she’s a goner.  I feel bad for Poe as now he’s a loner again but Atleast he didn’t die as that would be worse as he’s been with me for 3 1/2 years and is “wild”

[MainelyReefer]

I applied some aptaisia x on Friday and I have considered maybe she somehow ate some residue and got poisoned too but I have used that stuff before with no ill effect but keeping all options on the table so those who wish to attemp mandarins can steer clear of potential causes.  And that wouldn’t explain the visible damage unless that happened afterwards when she couldn’t evade an attack.  

[Tempestas]

Sorry to hear about the mandarin. Really sucks...

[MainelyReefer]

Aiptasia have been an issue in this tank, and aiptasia X doesn’t work and maybe made matters worse by making them release planula and triggering a massive aptaisia uprising.  So I have purchased 14 Berghia Nudibranches that are 1/4” in size.  They look like small hedgehogs.

heres the food and a Berghia lower left hand corner 

Nudi in tank near JF rainbow monti