Reefer 350. Going bigger!

[Neffly4u]

I originally purchased an Aquatop Recife 40 AIO to start my reefing journey. It was planned that when the new house was finished and I needed to break down the tank it was the perfect time to get into a bigger tank. I started off wanting a Reefer 250 but when realizing the 350 included more tank for only $200 more I decided to go for the bigger tank. I SCOURED the internet as it seemed only the reefer 425 was the smallest tank that included leveling feet and a plywood stand. I saw a forum post that showed the 350 with these options. My LFS asked their Red Sea rep that told them the 350 didnt include these options. I assured them I had seen them in the wild and to double check. For anyone wondering...past a certain serial number all Reefer 350 tanks come standard with a Plywood stand and leveling feet. WOHOO!

picked up 70lbs of dryrock and got to scaping. Once i had my scape i added my sand, and filled it up with water.

Gear in the 350:
Neptune Apex EL
Cor 15 return pump (glad i went with the 15)
Reef Octopus Regal 150 Skimmer
Neptune Fuge light
Radion xr15 Gen 5 Pro

I only had one light from my 40 gallon so thats all the tank got.

I have my LFS that swears by Fritz Turbostart 900. Once the water cleared up I added my Fritz Turbostart. gave it a few minutes to mix around then added my 7 fish and let the tank cycle. Never had an issue with ammonia. the turbostart definitely works for cycling a tank.

Got my R.O. setup and the fuge light installed

My LFS finally got a Royal Gramma in. I couldnt resist. I let the lfs hold onto him for about 3 weeks then did my hybrid TTM before adding to the tank

After a few weeks I bit the bullet and picked up my second Radion xr15 and added my first batch of CuC. My blue dot toby was happy to finally have something to pick at all day

I decided to add a Tomini Tang to the crew. Picked it up from the LFS and ran it through the hybrid TTM

This is my TTM setup for anyone interested;

One night i noticed my Puffer which usually finds a home to sleep at night was moving up the wall. Upon further inspection i noticed that the puffer was sleeping with the enemy and rode the snail for a little while XD

 

[rhostam]

Congrats, upgrades are always fun! Good luck on your journey!

 

[dlaird76]

Nice start. Excuse my ignorance but what is a hybrid TTM? Some sort of quarantine or acclimatisation. Please share the details as I've never heard of this.

 

[Neffly4u]

Nice start. Excuse my ignorance but what is a hybrid TTM? Some sort of quarantine or acclimatisation. Please share the details as I've never heard of this.

Hybrid Tank Transfer Method is a quarantine process that mainly targets Ich. Every 3 days for 13 days you transfer the fish from tank to tank allowing any ich on the fish to fall off in the process. It incorporates a 30 minute Hydrogen Peroxide bath to cover more than just ich.

More information is on the humble fish forum:

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

Important: Tank Transfer Method is most effective when water temperature and salinity are kept within this range... Temp: 24C/76F - 28C/82F Salinity: 27ppt / 1.020 SG - 35ppt / 1.026 SG Tank Transfer Method is an effective (non-chemical) treatment for Marine Ich. However, it's weakness has...

humble.fish

 

[dlaird76]

Hybrid Tank Transfer Method is a quarantine process that mainly targets Ich. Every 3 days for 13 days you transfer the fish from tank to tank allowing any ich on the fish to fall off in the process. It incorporates a 30 minute Hydrogen Peroxide bath to cover more than just ich.

More information is on the humble fish forum:

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

Important: Tank Transfer Method is most effective when water temperature and salinity are kept within this range... Temp: 24C/76F - 28C/82F Salinity: 27ppt / 1.020 SG - 35ppt / 1.026 SG Tank Transfer Method is an effective (non-chemical) treatment for Marine Ich. However, it's weakness has...

humble.fish

Thanks I'll read over that.

 

[dlaird76]

Not sure if I'm understanding it correctly Are you moving the fish being treated between 2 quarantine tanks for the treatments before final release into the display tank on day 13?

 

[Neffly4u]

Not sure if I'm understanding it correctly Are you moving the fish being treated between 2 quarantine tanks for the treatments before final release into the display tank on day 13?

Yup! That's correct. I modified it and use two plastic shoe boxes in a bigger bath that has my heater and a pump so I don't have to sterilize those every 3 days. Every 3 days I place a new salt water filled tub in the bath with an air stone next to the old one and move the fish. I throw away the used air stone and 6" of tubing (since it was wet) and throw that shoe box in the dishwasher on a sanitize cycle. Gives me 13 days of one on one feeding and observation as well as disease management before they go into the DT

 

[dlaird76]

Got ya. So you are swapping out the shoe boxes every 3 days whilst everything in the big tub remains the same apart from the airstone and bit of airline

 

[Neffly4u]

Got ya. So you are swapping out the shoe boxes every 3 days whilst everything in the big tub remains the same

Exactly. Makes quarantining way easier that way.

 

[Neffly4u]

Added some coral to the tank. I figured i was a bit early on my coral start but had an old tank I traded for some coral so figured I would give it a go.

 

[Neffly4u]

After I had added the Hawkfish my goby had disappeared. It had been 3 weeks when one night I come down and there he is on the sand bed. I had no idea where this guy has been! Apparently he went on a swimabout and has returned from his self enlightening journey. XD

 

[Neffly4u]

This was about the time I started to learn about nutrients and their affect on the tank. Tank has been up for about 3 months now. I had a skimmer and refugium running. I noticed besides the Xenia and the GSP all the other corals were doing merely ok to say the least. I actually lost the one hammer coral and my Chaeto started to die off as well. Bought myself a Hanna phosphate tester and low and behold i had actually zero'd out my phosphate and nitrate was undetectable. *doh* I had a 30 gallon tank that was setup as a snail and crab quarantine that has been up much longer and was more nutrient rich so i pulled all the coral from the big tank and moved them into the former crab tank to a new Frag tank!

Also picked up a People eater paly while i was at it