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Graham's 425XL Build


gws3

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Typically I do a poor job documenting and sharing my builds, so I thought I would try a bit harder with this one. My wife suggested it would be nice to have a tank in the living room as all my reef tanks are in the unfinished basement. She didn’t have to twist my arm very hard. The only good spot for a tank in our living room is to the side of the fireplace, which really dictates a four foot by two foot tank. I planned to plumb this tank into an existing 700 gallon system, so I was not worried about heat from the fireplace in the winter. We both wanted a modern look. I did some research and we settled on a Red Sea Reefer 425XL with a white stand. I ordered the tank on September 1st but knew it would be a bit of a wait as their facility is in Houston and they just got hit by Harvey. Fortunately, they were open for business not too long after and I received the tank on September 22nd.

 

I’m not a very patient person so I assembled the tank that afternoon. I ran the plumbing through the floor, along the basement ceiling and to the sump in the basement that weekend.

 

The following weekend I did the aquascape. Pursuant of the modern look this tank will be SPS dominated (they always are for me) with minimal rock work. I tend to add too much rock during aquascaping in an effort to provide maximum real estate for acropora. So this time I was very careful to keep the rockwork to a minimum. The intention of this tank is purely aesthetic, not for aquaculturing SPS. In other words I want this tank to look perfectly natural and will resist the urge to cut frags from it. I wanted two coral bommies, one with a shelf extending over the other which I think will create a nice dynamic once corals fill in. It will also let me keep a few select LPS in the shaded areas. My inspiration for the form of the aquascape was “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”. The rock is from the sump of my 700 gallon system. So it is already cured, and filled with pods and sponges.

 

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Last weekend I finished building the floating canopy. The lighting decision was the one I struggled with the most. My older tanks are lit by 250w radium metal halides with blue reefbrite xho strips. The tanks on the newer system are lit by T5 and blue reefbrite xho strips. My 300DD is lit by radium 250/400w radium metal halides, T5s and blue reefbrite xho strips. So I really wanted to try a build lit predominately by LEDs. Partly to evaluate them as I am considering swapping some of the halides out for LEDs in the future. Too much heat, humidity and electricity usage currently. I am a bit leery of going full LED due to shadowing, and have heard T5s supplement LEDs nicely for SPS tanks. I originally looked at some LED/T5 hybrid fixtures, but they all have their shortcomings in my opinion. I decided I wanted Gen 4 Radion Pros with the new optics for the LED portion, so I concluded I would need to build my own canopy to add the T5s.

 

I wanted to pack four T5s and two XR30w Pros into a very low profile modern looking floating canopy. To accomplish this I spent quite a bit of time designing the canopy in CAD at night after work. It is mounted to three studs in the wall with a 4.5” square aluminum tube that I painted white. The inner acrylic frame is supported by an 80/20 frame that is bolted to the aluminum tube. The inner acrylic frame mounts the two Radions and the rear set of T5s. It has two vertical partitions. These prevent the heat coming off the T5s from effecting the Radions as well as prevents line of sight to the LEDs so those sitting in the living room aren’t blinded. The outer acrylic frame or cover is on hinges for accessibility and mounts the front set of T5s and a variable speed fan. When the cover is lowered there is ducting that forces the air from this fan over the length of the front and rear set of T5s.

 

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For stocking the tank I decided to go with mostly smaller fish with a focus on male / female pairs. There were a few considerations when putting together the stock list. First, it’s plumbed into a system that is 800 gallons with a light bio-load. So the bio-load of the fish in this tank is not a concern, just territorial behavior and feeding needs.

 

Also, I really enjoy male fairy wrasses. So I am planning on adding females to encourage the males to maintain coloration. The risk I run is the females turning into males and fighting occurring. If this happens I will remove one of the males and put him my 300DD. So the risk of ending up with two terminal males is really a win-win situation in my opinion.

 

The other concern is providing enough food for the Dragonets and Pipefish. Attempting this in a tank this size would normally be foolish. The first thought here is the ~500 lbs of live rock I have in the sump of the system will provide a constant supply of pods. I also plan to use the sump that came with the tank as a culture tank for pods that I will add directly to feed these fish. I’ll add the Dragonets and Pipefish iteratively to make sure the demand doesn’t outweigh the supply.  These will be the last fish I add.  Even though the live rock is already cured and has microfauna growing, it is not yet established in this new aquascape.  So I will make sure I have an established pod population as well as a supplementary population before I start on those fish.

 

- - - - - - - - - -

Watanabei Angelfish Male/Female (Genicanthus watanabei) (Vanuatu)

 

Purple Tang (Zebrasoma xanthurum) (Red Sea)

 

Lineatus Fairy Wrasse Male (Cirrhilabrus lineatus) (Australia)

Flame Fairy Wrasse Male/Female (Cirrhilabrus jordani) (Hawaii)

Golden Rhomboid Fairy Wrasse Male/Female (Cirrhilabrus rhomboidalis) (Marshall Island)

Pintail Fairy Wrasse Male/Female (Cirrhilabrus isosceles) (Philippines?)

 

Davinci Ocellaris Clownfish Male/Female (Amphiprion ocellaris) (Sustainable Aquatics Captive Bred)

 

Lyretail Anthia Male/4X Female (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) (Fiji)

 

Royal Gramma Basslet (Gramma loreto) (Caribbean)

 

Ruby Red Scooter Dragonet Male/Female (Synchiropus sycorax) (Indonesia?)

Mandarin Dragonet Male/Female (Synchiropus splendidus) (Indonesia?)

3X Dragonface Pipefish (Corythoichthys haematopterus) (Indonesia?)

- - - - - - - - - -

 

So here is the tank currently. There are a few extra pieces of live rock in there to help reestablish the pods as I believe some were killed off when the rock was out of water for the day aquascaping. The current residents include the Watanabei female and the female flame, rhomboid and pintail fairy wrasses. I plan to introduce the Watanabei male this week in an acclimation box as well as the Royal Gramma. They are currently wrapping up their stint in QT. The female flame wrasses in my 300DD all appear to have turned male, so one of those males will be transferred eventually. I also have a male Lineatus in the 300DD I may transfer. Unfortunately I lost a few male wrasses in QT recently as they did not ship well. The females or juveniles seem to bounce back after shipping much more readily than the males. 

 

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Following along, impressed with the hood and the cleanliness of it all. Bravo. 

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Very nice. But we do need at least one pic of the 300. Please...

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Very nice. But we do need at least one pic of the 300. Please...

 

That's fair.  The 300 just turned 3 years old.  It took about a year longer than I expected to get to where it is now.  I attribute this to starting with 100% dry rock.  It took about 1.5 years until it was truly stable enough for more demanding SPS.  This was a bit frustrating for me. 

 

I dug up a pic from last October for this reply.  I am glad I did because I wasn't aware how much progress it's made in the last year.  It took a long time to keep SPS happy but I am very pleased with the overall progress in the last year. 

 

First pic is October 2016

Second pic is September 2017

 

So 11 months of growth:

 

gKWNu48.jpg

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Thanks for the positive feedback on the 300.

 

A few more pics of the new tank and canopy below with the T5s on this time. The male watanabei, royal gramma and a female lyretail anthia made it through QT.  the male watanabei only had to spend one night in the acclimation box, he exhibited zero aggression towards the smaller female.  I didn't anticipate any aggression, as this is a peaceful species, but played it safe just in case.

 

VdZDohz.jpg

 

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Nice graham, very clean I think my wife might even allow that in the living room....one day I'll get my system back to respectable.

 

Care to share you filtration, water change schedule (auto or no) and target params....

 

Been dealing with algae issues and plan to do a revamp over winter, figured you would have some good insight as you've been thru alot of trials and tribulations

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(edited)

Thanks Evan.  Currently I have three different systems running, they're all a bit different.  The system that the 425XL is plumbed into is the newest and has very few corals in it so far.  I think it is ready to try some more, just haven't had a chance to trim and mount more test pieces. I haven't been doing water changes on that system, as it's now about 800 gallons with a very light bioload and no corals, so I don't think there is much point.

 

For my other two systems my targets are:

 

5% weekly water changes (manual)

35 ppt salinity

Alk 7.5-8

Ca 420-430

Mg 1300-1350

K 400 (i test and dose occasionally, maybe every 2 months to bring it from about 360-370 up to 400, not sure it matters)

Sr 8 (i add it to the two part, triton tests indicate it does down to about 2 ppm if I don't supplement, not sure it matters)

I .06 (i add it to the two part, triton tests indicate it goes down to close to 0 if I don't supplement, I think it impacts z/p's when it gets low, not sure it matters otherwise)

 

As far as nutrient levels I could probably talk for hours.  For a couple years I struggled with low nutrients in my oldest system and lost many SPS gradually over time. This was when po4=0 and no3=0 was all the rage.  I find deeper colors and more robust SPS with higher nutrient levels.  With next to zero or zero levels once alk hits 9+ dkh I would lose tissue. Also as part of the diurnal cycle corals absorb and release phosphates so testing and understanding very low levels is tricky.  I read this somewhere and was able to confirm it with testing. Currently my levels are potentially higher than I would like, but I'd much prefer this than too low of nutrients.  I guess I'd shoot for .06-.1 ppm PO4 and 5-10 ppm NO3.  But finding husbandry that results in stable long term detectable levels is probably more important than achieving perfect values.

 

Surprisingly the biggest impact to get my no3 and po4 up on the oldest system was ditching filter socks.  I also does Seachem aqua vitro fuel on that system to keep nutrients up.  On the 300 it's more of a struggle to keep the nutrients from climbing higher.  I try to avoid running GFO, if I do I use very small amounts.  I think it caused a lot of issues when I had low nutrients.  I also run old school lignite carbon if I feel I need to run some carbon.  I know ROX works for some people, for my system it seems way too aggressive and I suspect it strips things I don't want it to.

 

Old system:

0.3 ppm PO4

~25 ppm NO3

 

300DD:

0.4 ppm PO4

~25 ppm NO3

 

 

Algae is always a struggle when keeping higher nutrients.  I use a lot of tangs, snails and hermits.  I also use turf scrubbers, but you have to keep them clean, once there's too much growth on them they yellow the water and I believe it irritates corals as well.  Once you get ahead of algae, coralline is well established, and your clean up reaches "equilibrium" you won't even think about it. 

 

However, there are a few nasty things the cleanup crew won't touch:

 

Bryopsis.  Fortunately someone discovered fluconazole.  No more screwing with secret ingredients in Mg supplements.  Just dose fluco.  It is reef safe.

 

Dinos.  A real pain.  I have only had them become a real problem once.  But were awful when they did.  I tried a few things until Dino X.  Dino X worked great for me, but close to the end of treatment (day 15 I believe) corals were suffering. I completed treatment, and the dinos never came back, but I killed a few SPS colonies and a bunch of frags as a result.

 

Cyano.  Patches come and go.  Usually a bit of GFO knocks it back well enough or sometimes it just goes away on it's own. I actually had a lot of cyano as a result of red turf algae.

 

Red Turf Algae.  At one point it covered most of my rockwork in the 300.  I didn't care that much because it didn't bother anything.  Then it started to accumulate detritus.  Which resulted in a problematic coating of red cyano.  So in this case the underlying cause of the cyano was in essence the red turf algae.  Very few animals eat it.  Fortunately in my experience mexican turbo snails do.  I typically avoid them since they are bull dozers, but a couple dozen really helped knock the red turf back to the point where it's no longer an issue.

 

If you're talking about normal old green algae types, just buy lots of astrea snails and tangs.  Pressure wash live rock if really bad. 

Edited by gws3
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Wow, not even a week old and this has already become an incredibly informative thread. You've certainly put a good amount of time into your posts and it's very much appreciated!

 

Priceless info and experience being shared here ... and pics of a stunning new display to look at to boot.  New build looks great so far, can't wait to see how it progresses.

Edited by malacoda
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Transferred male lineatus and male flame wrasse from 300. It already seems like a good amount of fish for this size tank. May have to knock a few off my list.

 

Also threw in about two dozen large frags. It's nice having mature sps tanks to select frags from for the new build. A bit risky this early but the 300 needed a number of things trimmed anyway.

 

XpVdGE5.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Graham,

 

Looks fantastic!  How did you get that flat rock from the left column to overhang that much?  

 

I need to grab some frags from you once my new system stabilizes. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks! I used pieces of shelf rock and mortar. Stacks of plastic cups to support the rock while the mortar cured. It cures fast so once I had the pieces picked out and the design visualized it went together in a couple hours.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 6 months later...

This month is the one year anniversary for this tank, so I’ve cleaned it and taken some pics for the thread.

 

Equipment wise the only update is that I swapped out two of the T5s for two blue Reefbrite XHOs. I like the Radions, but their blue channels don’t have as much pop as the Reefbrites. I also added the diffusers to the Radions, which greatly improves the disco ball effect. The blending is much better. So now the lighting is two gen 4 Radion pros, two 36” blue plus T5s, and two 30” blue Reefbrite XHOs.

 

With the livestock I have given up on dragonets and pipefish. I had been using an automated brine shrimp hatchery I designed that would feed baby brine shrimp via a peristaltic pump every few hours. This sustained the pipefish for a number of months but eventually they declined. I suspect they need a more varied diet that my minimalistic rockwork cannot supply. I also kept receiving a bunch of unhealthy mandarins that looked like they hadn’t been fed in weeks. I may add a mandarin if I come across an established one. I feel bad for all the pipefish and mandarins that perished and don’t want to pursue this if it means more mortalities.

 

1U8zvL5.jpg

 

 

I also had challenges with bacterial infections on the lyretails I received. I received a very impressive looking male, but he did not make it through QT. One Anthia remains which is doing well.

 

I’ve also decided to make this a mixed reef tank. The top of the rockwork will be dominated by SPS that will table out into the water column. The left most base of the left rock structure I have dedicated to a zoanthid garden. The left most base of the right rock structure I have dedicated to Rock Flower Anemones. The selection of RFAs in the hobby now is really amazing, and these have become a recent interest of mine. I hope to get them to reproduce.

 

I intend to populate the shaded area under the left rock structure with LPS and such.

 

 

 

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  • 1 year later...

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