Randy's Redsea Reefer 250 and the rest of the Coral Farm

[RandyC]

----- Frag Tank (Day 133) -----

Received a couple of new acro boogers from @TopShelfAquatics at the front door today. Looking forward to seeing these develop.

TSA Optimus Prime

TSA Endgame

 

[RandyC]

Now can you honestly see a difference in the 3 nems? They all look really close to one another. Great collection for sure.

Thanks! Up close, for sure. Details are in the striation pattern of the tentacles. Also, the spacing of the striations can make them brighter one or the other.

Awesome collection of sps. I’ve been truly debating on getting a uv and may just break down and buy one. Lol that’s pretty good for temp on your tank with only using fans.
How much top of water are you using on each tank? Definitely one thing you couldn’t do in Florida.

I'm borderline on whether I subscribe to having a UV unit on any tank I own, but I'm pretty close to saying you should. I believe there are a good number of pros to having one and very few negatives.

I actually have no idea how much water I use. My ATO container gets top off automatically from my RO/DI reservoir and my reservoir gets automatically filled from my RO/DI unit. Haven't paid much attention to it other than making sure it's not completely empty.

 

[RandyC]

----- Reefer 250 Day 1038 -----

Just a top down view for today. Reefer 250 has really been on auto-pilot with minimal intervention from me. Just how I like it.

 

[RandyC]

----- Frag Tank (Day 140) -----

I love me some polyp extension. Could watch this for hours on end.

TGC Cherry Bonb

Tyree Tierra del Fuego

 

[RandyC]

Random pict dump from around the tanks.

Cotton Candy Goniopora

OG Bounce. Was hoping to grow this to a ginormous size, but it split into two pretty quickly for me.

A little Euphyllia love

 

[RandyC]

----- Frag Tank (Day 149) -----

Frag tank is continuing to chug along without too much fanfare (in a good way). Effluent drip rate of the calcium reactor has increased significantly since my dino problem was brought to bay (~8 weeks ago). I have increased the drip rate from 5.0ml/min at the end of my dino problem to 20.0ml/min today.

Also, I have been dosing 2ml of Red Sea Trace Colors ABCD twice a week. I mostly do this to keep chaeto alive as I have seen in my other tanks that without it, my chaeto ends up melting even with a consist water change schedule.

That shade of blue of an OG Oregon Tort is hard to beat.

RRC Pink Cadillac

ARC Fireworks

Some new additions from the last couple of weeks. Can't wait to see how the colors develop on these!

BC Space Laser

BC Cricket Spine

RMF Red Devil

TSA Haymaker

 

[RandyC]

----- Frag Tank (Day 151) -----

I'm a fan of progression shots and wish more people would do them. While I understand every tank has it's own take on "life" and everyone's progression is different, I like that it gives me a checkpoint to compare to and see if I can do better.

TSA Optimus Prime - July 10

TSA Optimus Prime - July 28

TSA Endgame - July 10

TSA Endgame - July 28

BC Bohemian Table - July 28 - I forgot to take a pic when it went into the tank on June 26

 

[sticksreef]

Hey @RandyC . Been following your build. So you dont dose anything like reef energy or acropower or reef roids? Only trace colors and calx reactor?

 

[RandyC]

Hey @RandyC . Been following your build. So you dont dose anything like reef energy or acropower or reef roids? Only trace colors and calx reactor?

No on the reef energy or acropower. I used to dose acropower when I was running an ULNS, but after I got nitrates to at least 2.5 and phosphates at least 0.03, I really didn’t notice a difference with or without acropower. After doing it for months, I discovered I'm not a fan of ULNS. I think you walk too fine a line with near zero nutrients that can cause too many potential issues. So I only use a calcium reactor and Red Sea trace colors.

I wouldn’t consider reef roids dosing. I do use reef chili when I feed. My tanks are fed pretty heavily.

I make a mixture in a squeeze bottle that will last around 3-4 days (in the fridge) that gets fed to the tanks twice a day. It's made up of:
- LRS Reef Frenzy
- PE Mysis
- PE Calanus
- Reef Nutrition ROE
- Reef Nutrition Oyster Feast
- BRS Reef Chili

I also load my auto feeders with New Life Spectrum pellets and reef chili and that gets fed twice a day as well.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Love the progression photos. It’s pretty cool to look at month to month and see how everything is going. Looking at it everyday you may not notice much differences.

 

[RandyC]

More pics from the frag tank.

Vivid Confetti

ASD Rainbow Fruit

WWC Hippie Juice

 

[Zuma]

Really great tank and collection of corals; appreciate all the detail on your build as well.

 

[RandyC]

Another progression post of a frag. Here's my RRC Jawdropper frag. This little booger of a frag (3 polyps!) came from Cornbred that shares the same lineage as the BigR Corals Jawdropper. My Jawdropper frag has lived in both my Red Sea Reefer 250 and The Frag Tank, but currently calls The Frag Tanks its home. (I've come to realize that I really should be calling it my growout tank and not frag tank.)

It definitely hasn't been my fastest grower, but it's growing. Still lacking on that Jawdropping-esque color that makes this frag cost so much. Here's to hoping it comes in sooner than later!

The little booger snot when I got it back in October 2018. Yes, terrible picture and yes, ridiculously small frag (if you can call it that).

November 25, 2018

January 29, 2019

February 26, 2019

April 23, 2019 (First picture of Jawdropper in The Frag Tank)

July 4, 2019 (First pic post-dino battle in Frag Tank - around 5-weeks since)

July 31, 2019

 

[Gablami]

I can’t believe cornbred shipped a frag that small. I’d be embarrassed, unless it was WYSIWYG. But I guess they’re known for that. Nevertheless, it looks like it’s doing great in your tank!

 

[RandyC]

I can’t believe cornbred shipped a frag that small. I’d be embarrassed, unless it was WYSIWYG. But I guess they’re known for that. Nevertheless, it looks like it’s doing great in your tank!

It was wysiwyg. But the macro shot made it seem a little bigger than it was in reality.

 

[RandyC]

This is why I like to force myself to regularly take pictures of the tanks (even those times it’s just a quick shot with my phone). I hadn’t realized how much my RR Pink Cadillac had grown until I randomly came upon this old picture of it.

May 7

Aug 2

 

[RandyC]

----- Frag Tank (Day 161) -----

Really happy with how The Frag Tank is going. I've been running alk a little low for the past few months (not on purpose - was having trouble keeping up with consumption) and it's been around 7.5. I've pushed it back up to 8ish over the past week.

I've had this one for a while, but it stalled (as in no growth for a long time) where it was placed. Since moving to The Frag Tank from the Reefer 250 it has been starting to color up and growing quite well.

ASD Freak Machine

--- More progression shots for everyone! ---

BC Grafted Hung's Unbelievable Rainbow! (Jun 9, 2019)

BC Grafted Hung's Unbelievable Rainbow! (Aug 7, 2019 - 60 days later)

SC Orange Passion (July 4, 2019)

SC Orange Passion (Aug 7, 2019 - 35 days later)

JF Fox Flame (July 4, 2019)

JF Fox Flame (Aug 7, 2019 - 35 days later)

TSA Optimus Prime (July 26, 2019)

TSA Optimus Prime (Aug 7, 2019 - 12 days later)

BC Cricket Spine (July 26, 2019)

BC Cricket Spine (Aug 7, 2019 - 12 days later)
@Battlecorals : the shade of red on this thing is amazing! Haven't seen another like it.

BC Bohemian Table (July 28, 2019)

BC Bohemian Table (Aug 7, 2019 - 12 days later)

 

[Wrangy]

Hot dang!! Looking good mate!!

 

[RandyC]

Hot dang!! Looking good mate!!

Thanks! Can't wait to see these frags grow into some (mini) colonies.

 

[panui22]

I @RandyC saw you posted your light schedule and had your overall intensity at 69%. I’m running 3 xr15 on my reefer as well but using a WXM module to program and there’s no overall intensity. You can only adjust each point individually. I was wondering what your peak point intensity was? Hopefully that makes sense.