James Wetton Reefer 525xl Build

[jameswetton2895]

depending on what you want to keep coral wise, I would add a easy grower coral to see how my system responds. If you have 2 clowns in there already I would wait at least a month from when you added them before placing new additions in the tank.

Thanks, I was in a position where I had to move the old 170 so I took the opportunity to add the small yellow tang, small powder blue tang and super small six line wrasse. All are doing well ( see pics )

I am wanting to add a clown tang or shoal tang to this system at some point but don't know if it's best to wait or if waiting will encourage tang aggression ?

Presume coral could be added fairly soon then, is there any other parameters I should be scheming regularly other than NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4. Then the foundation elements when coral is in ?

 

[jameswetton2895]

You can start slowly adding coral frags now.

Oh that's exciting, softies to start with ?

 

[jsker]

Oh that's exciting, softies to start with ?

As @john.m.cole3 suggested, go with hardy corals to start. I started with mushrooms , and polyp type corals. I still have my first mushrooms and polyp corals in my tank today, and they have been through alot. I have also had good luck with a blue stag coral. Mushrooms will spread, I would get one and see how things go.

 

[jameswetton2895]

As @john.m.cole3 suggested, go with hardy corals to start. I started with mushrooms , and polyp type corals. I still have my first mushrooms and polyp corals in my tank today, and they have been through alot. I have also had good luck with a blue stag coral. Mushrooms will spread, I would get one and see how things go.

Ok, that's great. I also had mushrooms survive various ordeals in one of my earlier tanks. They seemed to do better the less I cared haha. Any LPS corals that are hardy ?

 

[jsker]

Ok, that's great. I also had mushrooms survive various ordeals in one of my earlier tanks. They seemed to do better the less I cared haha. Any LPS corals that are hardy ?

I have and good luck with Catalaphyllia lps corals in the past, and monti's

 

[john.m.cole3]

a duncan or a candy cane are cheap, hardy, and you will be able to detect fluxuTIONS IN YOUR TANK BASED ON HOW THOSE CORALS LOOK. iF THEY ARE PUFFED OUT AND FULLY EXTENDED YOU'RE GOOD. iF YOU SEE THE POLYPS START TO RECEDE AND NOT EXTEND ALL THE WAY, YOU MIGHT WANT TO DO SOME MORE TESTING AND OBSERVING. nO NEED TO measure ammonia and nitrite after your cycle has taken place. I lie to keep a close eye on alkalinity. I test it every day because I use a kalk dispenser. If you are on a doser, you should test frequently in the beginning until you figure out your consumption rates of your alk, calc, and mag. then, you can go to weekly testing of Alk, nitrate, and phosphate. Calc should stay within a good range once you get your alk dialed in. Mag should stay replenished with water changes but it will also be fine if you choose to dose the AF product line. (sorry about the all caps above, lol)

 

[jameswetton2895]

a duncan or a candy cane are cheap, hardy, and you will be able to detect fluxuTIONS IN YOUR TANK BASED ON HOW THOSE CORALS LOOK. iF THEY ARE PUFFED OUT AND FULLY EXTENDED YOU'RE GOOD. iF YOU SEE THE POLYPS START TO RECEDE AND NOT EXTEND ALL THE WAY, YOU MIGHT WANT TO DO SOME MORE TESTING AND OBSERVING. nO NEED TO measure ammonia and nitrite after your cycle has taken place. I lie to keep a close eye on alkalinity. I test it every day because I use a kalk dispenser. If you are on a doser, you should test frequently in the beginning until you figure out your consumption rates of your alk, calc, and mag. then, you can go to weekly testing of Alk, nitrate, and phosphate. Calc should stay within a good range once you get your alk dialed in. Mag should stay replenished with water changes but it will also be fine if you choose to dose the AF product line. (sorry about the all caps above, lol)

Haha no worries, thought I was going to get a telling off when I first saw it .
That's a good idea, might try and get some single head duncans and candy canes. Probably a mushroom colony as well and see how stuff gets on. Yeah I'm still trying toying with the AF product line and also the Red Sea reef foundation seems to have very good results. Seen a lot of tanks run on all Red Sea products and really like the progress. So tricky choice ... Are you guys dipping all corals before they go in the tank and if so which dip are using ?

 

[john.m.cole3]

coral RX and remove from plug if possible

 

[jameswetton2895]

coral RX and remove from plug if possible

Didn't actually realise this was available in the uk but just found it in the smaller size and also the single shot form. Have heard really good things about polyp lap reef primer, don't know if anyone else has any experience of this ?

 

[jameswetton2895]

Ok Results are all still the same as last time,

NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 2

Happy with these at this stage. I have a very small toadstool that came out of the reefer 170, it hasn't really extended any polyps yet but it standing up straight every day which must be a good sign ?

Did the general maintenance on the tank today which included stirring the sand to get rid of any ugly diatoms on the substrate, Cleaning the filter socks ( 2nd time since I set the tank up ) and emptying skimmer cup ( 3rd time since tank set up )

Ive said this before but the skimmer is unreal. I have only used bubble magus skimmers in the past and this produces a far thicker and darker skimmate than anything I've used before. see pic below

Not sure what this strange white strip is on my yellow tang today but never seen it before, he's eating and behaving normally. Any help ?

 

[jameswetton2895]

Update on water testing, I have been ill for the last week with stomach flu so not been keeping up with the testing. My fiancée has had to learn how to keep the ATU full and also feed the fish, this has led me to now wanting to set up a bigger ATU somewhere because it only lasts 3 days even in winter. I have also been doing some dosing pump research and the Pacific Sun kore 5th doser seems to have amazing reviews and also comes with a load of extras, such as a atu pump which I could use when I find a place for the bigger reservoir.

More research has also led to me wanting to run the full Red Sea Reef Care range which will include
Reef Foundation A, B and C for Calcium, Magnesium and Alkalinity replenishment.
Reef Colours for all the trace elements missing form RF A,B,C
Reef Energy if the corals require addition food ( Also love reef roads had massive success with these couple of tanks ago )
Finally N0P04x so control the nitrates ( I am happy with rowaphos to control the P04 but will see how using both goes...

18/12/16 ( 12/18/16 if your in the USA )

NH4 ( Ammonia ) - 0.5 ( think this level is ok at this stage in the cycle )
No2 ( Nitrite ) - 0.1 ( again happy with this reading for now )
No3 ( Nitrate ) - 5ppm ( Hmm think this is fine at the moment )

Giving that it still very early days and that I have intruded more fish than would be ideal at this stage I am happy with the results. My biggest long term concern is Nitrates which I hope to control using a combination of No3P04x by red sea as mentioned above and also my large overkill of marine pure media in the sump.
I will be trying to keep a closer eye on the Nitrates over the next few days and will probably look to start dosing N03P04x after xmas if they are still increasing.

Finally still having a bald spot appearing at the front of my glass where the sand is getting blown around, this must be from my powerbeads because the return Modification has directed the RP flow to the side so must be where the flow is meeting in the middle and going straight down the front of the glass, will play around with placement and settings in the coming days now I'm back on my feet. Anyone had any experience with the new gyre pumps by Maxspect ?

 

[jameswetton2895]

More pics coming up, know thats what everyone is looking for haha

 

[jameswetton2895]

Found some pictures on my phone of some old tanks that I have had in the past ... let me know what you think and what you think I should do with my current set up, still deciding on how I want to stock it.

Love this pic of my little goby chilling in the duncan

This is the full tank shot of the picture above. My first proper tank never liked the blue backing and also didn't really know what I was doing in terms of foundation elements, don't know how I kept it all going.

Massive torch coral that ended up literally falling into 2 pieces, see bottom picture ??? Strange but kept growing fine

Clearly struggling with cyano on the rocks however this Duncan was grown from a 2 head frag into this in 3 months. whoop whoop haha

Full tank shot of the 2 above pics, bad cyano due to a lack of flow looking back. Still confuses my how weell all the corals did in such low flow.
This tank started off with :
1 green mushroom
3 blue mushrooms
1inch frag of xenia
2 head duncan frag
2 x single head acan frags
1 torch coral.
Oh and all grown with a crappy Led light that wasn't controllable and had only white and blue channels. Still never found the brand name of it haha.

 

[jameswetton2895]

livestock update :
Cockfeild farm was having a closing down sale wfoch sounded to good to miss. Managed to pick up 2 really nice corals and a couple of fish from abyss aquatics in Manchester.

19 head Aussie Duncan

2 large head branching torch coral

Clown tang

Also got a golden eye tang but he's camera shy at the moment so pic to follow.

 

[jameswetton2895]

What does anyone know about injecting nano bubbles ( more likely micro bubbles ). Been doing lots of reading and wondered if anyone had any experience with them ... good or bad ?

 

[john.m.cole3]

What does anyone know about injecting nano bubbles ( more likely micro bubbles ). Been doing lots of reading and wondered if anyone had any experience with them ... good or bad ?

I do it and everything I hear (when people actually try it) is good also. Here's a thread about it... http://reef2reef.com/threads/microscrubbing-im-ready-to-try-it.271376/

 

[jameswetton2895]

I do it and everything I hear (when people actually try it) is good also. Here's a thread about it... http://reef2reef.com/threads/microscrubbing-im-ready-to-try-it.271376/

Will have a read. Thought I had found all the threads this morning haha. What sized air pump are you using ? ( how many litres per hour ) and are you producing them using an air stone and your return pump ?

 

[john.m.cole3]

Will have a read. Thought I had found all the threads this morning haha. What sized air pump are you using ? ( how many litres per hour ) and are you producing them using an air stone and your return pump ?

that thread will cover wehat to get and how to apply. after you read it if you have more questions please do ask.

 

[jameswetton2895]

Thanks john.m.cole3

 

[jameswetton2895]

that thread will cover wehat to get and how to apply. after you read it if you have more questions please do ask.

Ok read that thread. Nice that you managed to avoid all the agro that the other thread had The only question I have is can you send me more info or a link to the app you said you are using with your test kits, I couldn't find it on the app store.

I haven't been set up long so not expecting to see huge changes as there shouldn't be much detritus and gunk in the rocks or sand. How long do you think an air stone will work efficiently for ?