Lehigh Red Sea Reefer 450

[Bob the Bass]

Day 1:
Hey Reef2reef been using this site for years so I figured its time to make a build thread. I've been reefing for a little over 6 years now and have been around fish tanks of some kind literally since I was born, so I am not new to the hobby. Looking forward to see where this thread goes and what the community has to say.

I have recently taken over as the care taker of a Red Sea Reefer 450 in the lobby of one of the university buildings at Lehigh University (I am a student). The tank was originally donated by @EcoTech Marine and is well equipped to become a truly awesome reef. This isn't exactly a build thread since the tank has been running for a number of years, but the professor who has been taking care of the tank has been very busy and doesn't have the time to take care of the tank that she used to. I'm hoping to return this tank back to its original glory. This thread is going to follow this tank's journey from squalor to baller and everything in-between. Here is what the tank looked like on Day 1 of the project.

As you can see she needs a good scraping and a water change. The rock work is great, but completely over grown with red turf algae. I have added 5 Mexican Turbo snails to start combating the algae, and am open to dosing the tank if anyone knows of a faster fix for RTA. Anyway onto equipment:

Equipment list:
Tank:
Red Sea Reefer 450 (92 gal)
Filtration & Sump Area:
Red Sea sump (24 gal)
ATO system (3.6 gal)
Filter Socks x2
Nyos Quantum 220 skimmer
Ecotech Marine Vectra M1 (2000 gph)
BRS Carbon and GFO Dual Reactor
3~ gallon refugium box (below)
Chiller:
It exists not sure of brand and not set up, will update this
Lighting:
Ecotech Marine Radion XR15 x2
Heater:
Cobalt Neo-Therm 150W x2
Powerheads:
Ecotech Marine MP40 x2

The skimmer and reactor have been offline for some time, so first things first is getting those up and running. I want to make the refugium bigger as well (not the ATO conversion I've seen in other threads) and am open to suggestions. Also want to add a third light in the center of the tank to increase PAR. New filter socks have since been installed.

Fish:
Foxface Rabbitfish
Orange Butterflyfish (reef safe?)
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Lavender Tang (not entirely sure of species)
Ocellaris Clown Pair
Spot Tail Blenny

Inverts:
Mexican Turbo Snails x5
Nassarius Snails
Sand Sifting Sea Cucumbers x15
Emerald Crab
Flame Shrimp

These guys were really spooked when I took the pictures but are healthy and eating. Worried about the butterflyfish picking at the new coral but the green mushroom was really healthy so decided to take the risk, although I'm not committed to keeping him.

Coral:
Old:
Rock Flower Anemone x3
Elephant Ear Mushroom
New: (soon to be added)
Neon Toadstool Frag
Green Sinularia Frag
Corky Sea Finger Frag
Sea Whip Frag
Nuclear Ring Zoa Frag
Red Digitata Frag
Neon Green Paly Frag
Condy Anemone

All the coral/nems in the tank now are very healthy so hopefully the new stuff I'm adding will do well. If not, I fragged all of the "new" coral from the 125 gal display I have at home aka it was free and I can always get more.
The build thread for that tank is here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/in-with-the-new-125-gallon-build.554616/#post-5699282


I have since cleaned the tank, rearranged the rock work, and gotten the reactor back online. This is the most up to date picture I have:

To Do List:
ERADICATE RED TURF ALGAE
Fix overflowing skimmer
Add sand (glass showing in the middle)
Add "new" frags
Add wrasse
Get test kit to determine parameters
Improve refugium
Add lighting
Add refugium light
Set up chiller (before summer)
Enjoy tank

Goal:
I want to turn this tank into a very low maintenance, low cost tank with a great coral selection. I realize that after I graduate in over a year that the tank may go back to state it was when I found it so I want to prepare it to be more self sufficient. I plan to add hearty softies and sps to the tank that need little care and can handle some swings in parameters (no collector acros here). That being said I don't see why I can't create an impressive show tank with these constraints. By the end of this I want the tank to be something that can be admired by the whole school and not just by me. Looking at the tank I see immense amounts untapped potential, I think its time we tapped into it. More pictures will follow soon. Wish me luck!



All comments/questions/suggestions/criticisms are welcome. Actively looking for new softie coral suggestions so let me know what you guys like and what I should add.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice tank! Just needs a little TLC.

 

[Bob the Bass]

Nice tank! Just needs a little TLC.

Thanks, yeah it really isn't in too bad shape. Probably going to add the new frags today!

 

[VSVP bet]

is the donation of our toadstool stool tax deductible?

 

[Bob the Bass]

is the donation of our toadstool stool tax deductible?

Idk about taxes but maybe the registrar can hook me up with free tuition. How many JF Homewreckers can one semester buy?

 

[Bob the Bass]

Day 13:
Yeah I know the timeline doesn't really add up considering when I started the thread, but I really started taking care of the tank Jan 31 so this is day 13 as far as Im concerned.

I added in all of the "new" corals from the list in my first post yesterday and everything is looking good. I decided to glue most of them onto smaller rocks so that they both have room to grow and I am able to move them around the rock structure as needed.

In other news I blew out the AC adapter to right Radion XR15 :mad: while I was organizing the tangle of wires and plugs. Didn't even get it wet, thing just stopped working on me! Just part of the process I guess, so that is why everything is on the left side of the tank.

Eywa Toadstool:

Condy:

Sea whip:

Yellow Ring zoas:

Original Shroom:

Didn't get close ups on all the corals, but I will soon so I can better track progress/growth.

Also organized the mess of chords and got a picture of the chiller.

Anyone ever use one of these before? I have no idea how to set this thing up and don't have the instruction manual. Im thinking of getting an inkbird temperature control system for the tank so I can plug in the heater and chiller and not have them both running at the same time, but that is very dependent on getting this thing running. LMK if you have this chiller or have some tips on set up!

 

[Bob the Bass]

Finally caught a few pictures of the tang, but I still am unsure of the species. Can anyone identify this tang?

 

[Bob the Bass]

Day 75:

The Mexican turbo snails have been hard at work and I am almost rid of my Red Turf Algae Infestation.

I began dosing the tank with NoPox (12mL per day) last week and am hoping to reduce the high nitrate and phosphate in the tank so I can start adding more coral and fish. I have also begun a weekly dose of SeaChem Reef Buffer to raise the alkalinity in the tank.

My current Parameters are:

Ammonia - 0 - .2 ppm
Nitrate - 10 - 20 ppm
Nitrite - 0 - .05 ppm
Ph - 8.0
Alk - 5 dkH 1.79 Meq/L
Calcium - 460 ppm
Phosphate - .17 ppm

My goals are to get ammonia to 0, nitrate to 2-5 ppm, nitrate to 0, Ph to 8.2, Alk to 8 DkH, calcium is fine, and phosphate to .02 - .04 ppm.

Since I am planning on running mostly soft corals I do not want to starve the tank of nutrients because I do not have an algae problem.

Here are some pics of the tank:

This picture is taken just before I added 10lbs of aragalive sand to cover up the bare spot in the middle.

Looks better doesn't it?

Here you can see the neon polyp toadstool (eywa) doing great even under the high nitrates.

Its pretty easy to tell by comparing these pictures to those in my first post how much damage the turbo snails have done to the RTA. Almost all of the rocks look puffy and covered in purple fuzz at first, and now you almost don't notice any RTA. Those guys really did the trick!