Reefer 200XL No More: Maddie's Lagoon Transformation

[design.maddie]

I have no updates other than I swapped back to Prime Reef frozen food only because I ran out of my frozen brine shrimp.

I do have the tiniest bit of algae growing in the display since I swapped my Refugium to 12/12 on/off. I am not too worried about it right now and will wait and see if things settle out. I did contact ReefCleaners about shipping. The temps are so high right now I wasn't sure if shipping would even be feasible. We looked over the next week and we won't have as day that is below 105 the entire trip so we decided to put off my order. I would love to have a LFS for situations like this.

 

[design.maddie]

BAD NEWS!!!

My front pane of glass is now about to pop off. The silicone has less than 1/8th of inch still attached. I don't know what made me look but it is scary looking. I have insurance if it pops but F@#$!!! They don't make my tank anymore. I really need some advice on how to work through this.

 

[design.maddie]

Well, it is official. After purchasing all Red Sea gear in 2021 I can now say that the skimmer failed, the lighting failed, and now the display tank has failed. I may be leaving the hobby after this.

 

[design.maddie]

I sent in a tech support request to Red Sea. After how they dropped the ball so horribly with the LED replacement, I don't have much hope for them resolving this issue.

 

[DarkReefer]

I recently saw something on youtube about doing a patch job for a tank that was about to let go.
I think it was Gallery Aquatica TV.
They used a piece of glass and siliconed it in with the tank running to provide a temporary fix. Perhaps you can do something like this to get you a bit more time so you can make some other arrangements.

 

[design.maddie]

Is everyone ready?

It starts with this.

This is going to be a long journey.

First bucket being transferred.

We just repeat till it is all there right?

Drain and pour.

I swapped over to my pump to speed things up a bit.

Water level is dropping fast.

PPE of course is required.

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Let us do a quick photo shoot of all the corals coming out.

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Down to the bottom now.

I can't believe me eyes.

Handful of toxins?

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AND we are there.

 

[design.maddie]

Where do we start this write up at?

Red Sea has continued to fail me with their products and support. I understand that I was an early adopter of these new systems, but 3 years and a top-of-the-line aquarium fails? Come on! People had been warning me about their products for what seems like a year now. One heck of a “I told ya so!”

First there was the pure luck of noticing the seam splitting.

I still can’t believe I noticed the dang split in the silicone seam. Maybe all the people in the hobby telling me to keep an eye on that area of the tank had made me sub conscientiously keeping an ongoing observation. I don’t think it really matters at this point. All I do know is I am grateful for everything that allowed me not to flood my apartment. That headache would have been much worse than what I had dealt with.

Second came the 36 hours of trying to figure out my best solution in the moment

I called and called. I called every fish store in my state. No one had a tank the size and specs that I was looking for. My spec was reef ready, tank and stand, 40-75 gallons. I didn’t need lights, or a sump or skimmer. Nothing. I was in touch with BRS the entire time and while they had not sold me the tank they reacted so fast to the situation and tried to assist as best as they can.

I found a few different size stock tanks at a local feed store. They had one that was around 150gallons (I really wanted that one hehe) I picked up one that was 50 gallons. I didn’t know how I would work a skimmer or my lights into the setup but knew it was my best option for the time being and it only cost me $85.

I made an SOP list and prepared the area to allow me to work efficiently and without having to focus on what to do and more on how to handle the inhabitants. This all paid off in spades.

Third came the day of the transfer

Let me start off this part by saying that the actual transfer took 3-4 hours. I started removing the water and everyone in the tank seemed fine. When I reached the point of about ½ the water removed I noticed the stress of the fish start to rise. They were at the front corner near me, eyeballing me. “What is happening?” I won’t go too much into details here because of all the photos above but everything went smoothly except one thing. I lost a fish for about 1 hour. My scooter blenny buried itself in my sand bed and even with only ½ inch of water above the sand he just stayed there and did not move. It took me running my hands through the sand 3-4 times before he finally jumped, then I jumped. “YAY!!!! SCOOTA!!” “Whew!” All present and accounted for Sir! Now, moving the equipment. At this point I still was not sure how I was going to incorporate my current equipment list into my new setup. Just a heads up, I didn’t figure it out.

Forth is where the wreckage needs to be picked up

I am still in the process of cleaning up all the mess. I have a tank that has been running for a few years and no hose outside to wash things with. I can’t move any of the tank or stand alone, so I needed to wait for my son to be off school. All I can do during the day is cup by cup of water/sand and let it dry in buckets on my back patio. I don’t have a way to run my skimmer so I will be giving that a deep cleaning. I should include that my return pump will be getting the same treatment.

Fifth step is where I need to resolve the problem completely

Here is the fun part, where do I go from here. I need to figure out my new ideals for running this new setup. RO/DI top off is setup. Lights need a proper support structure. I have concrete ideas on how to best run a skimmer, if at all.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Very sad to see this. I have the same tank but it’s the G2, but that does not give me any comfort whatsoever.

 

[design.maddie]

 

[design.maddie]

I have been in contact with Red Sea. I submitted photos as requested to help process my claim and for use in their R&D. They were speedy in their replies which is nice to experience. The warranty on my system is outside the 3-year warranty by a few months. This means they were unwilling to replace my tank. They offered me a discount that seemed a bit like a slap in the face (10% off after subtracting tax and shipping). The company’s product fails right outside of their warranty, and they would require me to pay for shipping on top of purchasing an entire new system. I am not too surprised. I will probably not be buying another one of their products. Maybe it is time to change the title of this thread.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Sorry about your tank. Such a shame a tank failure was the cause to take your beautiful tank down. I stopped buying anything Red Sea a year ago.

 

[Cell]

Sorry this happened to you. Shame on Red Sea!

 

[MnFish1]

I would add 1+ 1 and if it doesn't equal 2. Would not proceed further.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

I would add 1+ 1 and if it doesn't equal 2. Would not proceed further.

??? riddles?

 

[nuxx]

Too bad

One thing I don't miss about having a tank is situations like this...

At first I would look forever at the seams to see anything weird, then it faded.

Also had the tank full with fresh water for a good amount of time to get over some of my fears. 500 gallons of water is bad, but 500 gallons of saltwater...

 

[Snoopdog]

Sorry, I lost my Max e260 the same way but I had less of a notice than you did. Ignore @MNFish he is our local Redsea apologist and pops up in these threads to basically pour salt in the wound. When mine failed my fish who had been healthy for years got stressed enough I lost three, so keep an eye on them.

 

[design.maddie]

I crashed my tank when I reused sand during a move to my current location. I was not interested in repeating that tale. Here is what I picked up at the store today. Two simple things that should add to the idea of the new lagoon? tank? pond thingy?

Rinsed out this sand with tap water for about 5 minutes. Still looks like it is a bit mucky at the bottom right. I'll knock that out when I do a flush with RO/DI

Here we go! sand for sand loving critter. Could there be a wrasse in the future?

I was capable of getting it to the bottom without disturbing the sand, talk about feeling accomplished.

Overall tank shot as it stands right now.

OOHH!! Did I mention yet that I dropped on of my AI Primes into my tank when messing around with setting it up? yeah, down to only one now. The one that went swimming only turns red when plugged in.

I'm still smiling here and loving what I have. Thank you for all the support, everyone. I truly appreciate every last one of you.

 

[design.maddie]

Now, I need to figure out how to get ahold of an Admin/Mod to move my thread to a different sub-forum Now that I am no longer an AIO.

 

[design.maddie]

Someone is sleeping in the sand last night. w00t w00t!! success! Hey there Mr. Scoota

 

[design.maddie]

I find it difficult to monitor the coral's health from top down. I noticed 2 days ago that I had a coral not looking so hot. As I started to examine the rest of my colonies, I noticed that I had a few colonies that are rather close to death. These are the SPS that have bleached nearly completely. My heart sinks, please don't let this be another huge hit. What could it be? Well, first test was temp, then Alk. Alk reads at 7.6. Yup! Figured out what it was. But how? I dose AFR. I hear it every morning. I'm going to have to do something crazy with chemicals and science. I start looking into it and I get a semi gameplan going. I go and look at something near my doser and I notice the hose to the tank is not connected. The hose after 2 years had become blocked with mineral deposits, and I assume the backpressure caused it to pop off from the doser.

Here you can see all the junk inside the hose. I went ahead and replaced both hoses on the doser.

Now, to resolve my issue, I normally dose 10mL per day. I bumped that up to 15 the first two days and caused the Alk to rise slowly to 9. I am going to go back to the 10mL a day tomorrow and allow it to settle back in at 11. I hope those colonies are able to pop back. They were so beautiful pieces.