Oseymour's Red Sea Reefer 350

[oseymour]

I'm 4 months into this build but someone convinced to start a tank build thread anyway.

I started the new tank in February 2016.

I upgraded from a 50 gallon breeder to the Red Sea Reefer 350 which is about 75 gallons (47 long, by 20 wide by 21 high) It's not a large upgrade gallons-wise. I live in a apartment so space is a concern. It's also nice to finally have a silent tank vs the glass-holes overflow.

My equipment list

2 Tunze 6095 located on the back wall in each corner - I previously had Vortech Mp40s but I put the tank too close to the wall to put them on the back.

Kessil AP700 with 2 Kessil A160 at the ends. - I had to raise the AP700 high to get full coverage of the tank. My wife complained about the light spilling over into the living room so I had to lower them and add the supplemental lights at the end.

Vectra M1 Return pump - This has a manifold that is running my Skimz skimmer and GFO reactor.

Skimz SM162 Skimmer - I decided to try the Skimz skimmer after seeing BulkReefSupply use it on their new build. This is performing awesome.

SkimZ BR83 Biopellet Reactor - I feed heavy so carbon dosing helps keep my nutrients down

I used about 50 pounds of Pukani rock.

I have 2 blocks of marine pure in my sump. Since I was making the transfer with fish, I had these running in the sump of my old tank for a couple months.

I brought my Apex over from my old tank

 

[oseymour]

Here is a picture of the tank when I first set it up. (before I added the 2 Kessils at the end)

I was able to transfer 5 fish from my old 50 breeder with no issues. I think curing the rock for 5 weeks, using Dr Tims bacteria and the Marinepure blocks really helped.

New Red Sea Reefer 350 by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

 

[oseymour]

Here are some pictures of the tank I took a couple of days ago.

I'm currently stocking 9 fish.

• Copperband butterfly - ate all my acan and brain corals but is my wife's favorite fish. (I'm fighting a losing battle with this)
• Flame angel
• 2 clownfish - my first ever saltwater fish
• Flasher wrasse
• Leopard wrasse
• Hippo Tang - got him when he was a baby - he will have to be re-homed eventually. This is something I've done with a number of fish before
• Tomini tang
• Purple Tang - My friend had this is a 20 gallon tank and he had a bad case of head and lateral line disease. He is healing up nicely.

Red Sea Reefer 350 Full tank shot by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

Lights going down by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

 

[oseymour]

Picture of the sump area.

• Skimz SM162 recirculating skimmer in the middle
• Biopellet reactor on the left.
• Aquamaxx reactor running GFO.
• BRS mini reactor running carbon.
• On the right is my Apex
• BRS dosing pumps and 2 containers with Calcium and Alkalinity.

Red Sea Reefer 350 Sump area by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

 

[reefiness]

Looks awesome!

 

[oseymour]

My flame angel hovering over my zoa garden
Flame Angelfish by Oral Seymour, on Flickr


Copperband butterfly
Copperband Butterfly by Oral Seymour, on Flickr


Pair of clownfish in their leather
Clownfish in Leather Coral by Oral Seymour, on Flickr


Purple Tang - healing nicely from the head and lateral line disease - he's the boss of the tank
Purple Tang by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

 

[oseymour]

I hated the return on the Reefer tanks, It was blowing all the sand away from the front of the glass. Broadfield made me this return where he added loc-line to the reefer return tube.

Here is the image
IMG_6031 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

Here is how it looks on the tank. I can direct the flow where I need it to
Loc line return by Oral Seymour, on Flickr

 

[Jackooze]

Tanks looks great. I am doing the same upgrade to the return tube

 

[duromega]

looks great, keep the pics coming,..

 

[rjl09]

Nice. I've been thinking about modding the return too. It looks good. Keep up the good work!

 

[oseymour]

Thanks for the kind words. I love this tank. I think one of the reasons for success (so far) is the fact that I added biopellets from the start.

My wife and kids help feed the tank and they are heavy handed feeders. In my past tanks, I was always trying to implement pellets or vodka as a reaction to high nutrients.

 

[reefiness]

Thanks for the kind words. I love this tank. I think one of the reasons for success (so far) is the fact that I added biopellets from the start.

My wife and kids help feed the tank and they are heavy handed feeders. In my past tanks, I was always trying to implement pellets or vodka as a reaction to high nutrients.

Just be careful, may be best to try to educate your family on proper feeding, and maybe have a booklet or something where someone can check off when the fish were fed.

Even though you are using biopellets from the start, I believe rapid fluctuations in nutrient content can still cause issues. From my understanding carbon dosing is meant to take care of a pretty constant level of nutrients which are just not taken care of in other ways. I also could be totally wrong with that information. Its just based on my personal understanding on how carbon dosing, and bacterial populations work.

 

[Jackooze]

Tank looks great

 

[oseymour]

Just be careful, may be best to try to educate your family on proper feeding, and maybe have a booklet or something where someone can check off when the fish were fed.

Even though you are using biopellets from the start, I believe rapid fluctuations in nutrient content can still cause issues. From my understanding carbon dosing is meant to take care of a pretty constant level of nutrients which are just not taken care of in other ways. I also could be totally wrong with that information. Its just based on my personal understanding on how carbon dosing, and bacterial populations work.

I'm not sure what "proper feeding" is. Every tank is different - this tank gets fed a lot and I believe I have the proper nutrient control methods in place - oversized skimmer, pellets and 30% water changes once a month. The tank has stabilized with a nitrate reading of around 5, it's been holding steady for a while now. Phosphates fluctuate a bit between .05 and .03.

I have what I believe to be an overstocked tank and I feel the heavy feedings has helped to control aggression.

 

[oseymour]

My rose bubble tip anemone split yesterday!

Good news for my wife as she is very excited about this, she has been wishing for this to happen for months now. Me? I'm worried it's going to move around and cause damage. So far both anemones are isolated on their own rock.

I had stopped feeding it directly for about 2 months now.

 

[oseymour]

I was using Kalkwasser in my top off container to maintain calcium and alk. The slight heat wave we had in NYC last week had my cooling fan running non-stop which increased evaporation and I overdosed the tank.

I usually maintain alk at about 8.5 and it's at almost 12! My mushrooms and SPS are not happy at all. No polyp extension on the SPS. Surprisingly, all the other corals look fine so far.

I also just purchased a bunch of corals at Manhattan Aquariums. They are closed starting today for remodeling and all corals and livestock was 50% off. I was late to the sale but still got some good stuff.

As soon as my alk is back down and they open a bit I'll post some pictures.

 

[ecvernon]

Nice tank. I'm sorry about your kalk over dose. I loved the effects of using Kalk in The past and the same thing happened to me once. After that accident I made sure to put some code in to monitor PH of the tank. How high did your PH go up to during that day? Could an alarm code on the apex helped?

 

[oseymour]

Nice tank. I'm sorry about your kalk over dose. I loved the effects of using Kalk in The past and the same thing happened to me once. After that accident I made sure to put some code in to monitor PH of the tank. How high did your PH go up to during that day? Could an alarm code on the apex helped?

After checking Apex Fusion PH log, the highest it went was 8.34.

I had my alarm set to above 8.5. The thing with using the Tunze Osmolator is that it ads water slowly throughout the day as it evaporates so it's not a huge spike as if you overdosed with 2 part.

I removed the kalk and once the alk is back to normal ranges I'll use 2 part with my BRS dosing pumps.

 

[Branespikin]

Thanks for the kind words. I love this tank. I think one of the reasons for success (so far) is the fact that I added biopellets from the start.

My wife and kids help feed the tank and they are heavy handed feeders. In my past tanks, I was always trying to implement pellets or vodka as a reaction to high nutrients.

So after your tank cycled you started using biopellets right away? Any particular brand you using? Im setting up my reefer 250 soon and was debating wether or not to run biopellets?? I have not dine that much research on biopellets yet.

 

[oseymour]

So after your tank cycled you started using biopellets right away? Any particular brand you using? Im setting up my reefer 250 soon and was debating wether or not to run biopellets?? I have not dine that much research on biopellets yet.

Yes I set up biopellets immediately. Overstocked tank and heavy feeding it seemed like a no-brainer. I started with a very small amount and worked my way up to the right amount.

I am using Vertex biopellets but I think it and the BulkReefSupply brand are the same.

I've done carbon dosing in the past using vodka, the biopellets was my way of automating the process. If it's your first time using it you have to watch your tank closely.