Jenyphur's Red Sea REEFER MAX 300 G2+ Build

[Lavey29]

Tank Update...The good and the bad (sad).

Well...things have been progressing slowly. I am a bit frustrated with the usual stuff...some uglies still with some longer hair algae. Just ordered some more clean up crew to help this out.

The sad news is that about a week ago Henrietta (pygmy hawkfish) stopped eating and within a few days she was really struggling with what I think was an internal parasite or infection. She was upside down for days, I set up a qt tank to try and treat her and she really did try and fight it but refused to eat and eventually succumbed. Ughghghgh ...breaks my heart. There were moments when I just wanted to end her suffering but every morning she would still be alive so I just kept trying for her. I know this sounds weird but I buried her in my backyard by a pretty little red flowering bush. I miss her.

The positive...

I have 3 new occupants. I am in love with all 3 of them. I ordered them about a month ago from Dr. Reefs Quarantined (because I didn't have a qt tank back then) and they are all doing great. Such great adidtions to my tank. They are:
- Flame Angel (Phoebe)
- Bi-color blenny (we just call him Paint)
- Midas blenny...soooooo cute. He is just awesome. Haven't named him yet. When I first added him he went directly to Dusty's cave (diamond goby) and went straight in kicking Dusty out. About an hour later, Dusty went in and kicked him out. Then the next morning I found him in a cute little hole in the rocks at the top of my rock structure. He just sits up there and watches everything...he's so fricken cute.

Everyone is eating well and crusing around the tank...so nice to see some more action in the tank. I definitely want to get the algae under control a bit more as some of my corals (zoas) are struggling. .

There are times when this tank puts me close to tears or into a fetal position but the last few days have been really nice and peaceful.

I want more beautiful coral....and a few more fish.

Any suggestions?

I'm thinking a wrasse (6 line) and possibly a tomini tang?

Check yellow coris wrasse to. They are stunning and good for pests.

 

[Jenyphur]

It's sad when we lose a fishy friend but you did your best for him. I tried small bristletooth tang early on and the tank was just to small for him. He swam around stressed in panic mode the whole time. I really think 4' tank is minimum size for a tomini to be ok but some have had success with smaller tanks.

Yes I think you are right. Definitely don’t want a stressed out fish. Good advice. Thank you.

 

[Jenyphur]

Check yellow coris wrasse to. They are stunning and good for pests.

I definitely will …thank you !!

 

[fishface NJ]

Sorry about Henrietta passing away. I have a Midas blenny...they are so cute aren't they

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Plectranthias inermis. Great fish. Sry about the loss. Welcome to the odd ball xl300 club. lol.

 

[Jenyphur]

Sorry about Henrietta passing away. I have a Midas blenny...they are so cute aren't they

. They sure are.

 

[Jenyphur]

Plectranthias inermis. Great fish. Sry about the loss. Welcome to the odd ball xl300 club. lol.

Yes ..so fun to watch. She was super cute.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

What kind of corals do you want to have? Mixed? LPS? SPS?

 

[Jenyphur]

What kind of corals do you want to have? Mixed? LPS? SPS?

I want a mixed reef...I have never had any sps and I know I'm not ready to have them yet but eventually.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I want a mixed reef...I have never had any sps and I know I'm not ready to have them yet but eventually.

There are a good selection of easy SPS for first year tanks. Once you get past the uglies. The secret is adding diversified bacteria and biome. That will also help a lot with establishing your tank and the uglies… A bonus with easy SPS is they can keep down your nutrients.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Any updates?

 

[flfrosty]

Can you elaborate on your SPS comments:

Which SPS are good for 1st year tanks?
What diversified bacteria and biome recommendations do you have?

I am about 6 months into my tank, experiencing some uglies at the moment...

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Can you elaborate on your SPS comments:

Which SPS are good for 1st year tanks?
What diversified bacteria and biome recommendations do you have?

I am about 6 months into my tank, experiencing some uglies at the moment...

Green birds nest, stylos, pocilloporas are great starters. The best diversified biome comes from the ocean in forms of sand or rock. Sand or rock that has come from established aquaria tend to not have a lot of diversity because of competition in a small environment.
If you are going thru uglies right now, just stay on it. Regular water changes, Have enough nutrients, good CUC and manual removal. One day it will just start to disappear.

 

[Jenyphur]

Wow...it has been way too long for an update. I'll be honest, there was a time I was beginning to think this hobby wasn't for me. I'll try and give a breakdown of what's happened over the last 5 or 6 months below. It's been so long I hope the timeline in order.

Fish livestock at this point:

• 2 wide bar gladiator clowns
• Flame angel
• Midas Blenny
• Bicolor dottyback
• Diamond Goby
• 2 cleaner shrimp
• 1 pom pom crab
• various corals

June
Lost my first fish. . Still battling algae and trying to get my parameters in check...I was experiencing 0 nitrates and phosphates. Annoying!

Woke up one day to my sweet diamond goby at the top of the tank trying to get out. He was REALLY beat up. I honestly thought he was going to die within hours. I immediately captured him and separated him from the rest. I bought a fish acclimation/breeder box and put him in there. I called it the condo in the sky. I put some and and a pvc pipe in there for him and crossed my fingers. It was CLEAR who the bully was...it was the dottyback. I had been noticing that Dusty (the diamond goby) wasn't cleaning the tank and would stay in his little corner. When he would come out, Little Richard (the little jerk) would try and attack him. It was a crazy few weeks with lots of ups and downs. Dusty (the diamond goby) got out of the box (I hadn't secured the top correctly) and LR immediately went in for the kill. I spent 2 hours trying to recapture Dusty. I finally did and put him back in the condo again where he was recovering and seemed to really like it in there.

A few months earlier, I had a guy start coming by about once a month. He installed a UV sterilizer and media reactor for me. He was great to have as a resource if I had questions. I called him and told him the issues with LR and he said he would take him and rehome him for me (yeah!) as I really loved having Dusty. So much personality in that guy...always working and would always come to me when I put my finger on the glass.

Anyways, once LR was gone Dusty thrived. It took him a bit to trust things again but he eventually got back to his normal routine. LR was in a customer's tank as the only fish. I get pics of him from time to time.

Here's a pic of the condo in the sky:

July - went to Africa for 10 days on a safari (my sister and I took out 85 year old Dad), was super worried about my tank. Had my best friend stay at my house and care for the tank. Returned home to find the algae had GONE NUTS while I was gone. It was clearly from overfeeding. As much as I tried to teach my friend, she overfed them and didn't turkey baste anything. It was a big green disaster.

Here are a few pics. Yikes. But look how cute Squiggy is. lol

I called Adam (my fish friend) and he suggested we take everything out, scrub it and essentially start over. He also suggested redoing the rockscape. I was hesitant but figured he was the 'pro'. We took EVERYTHING out and put all in a brute can...scrubbed what we could off and then put everything back in with fresh water, etc. I am happy to report the only thing I lost was 1 cleaner shrimp and 1 elegance coral. I LOVED the new rockscape and everyone looked so happy...especially Dusty.

 

[Jenyphur]

Ok...continuing on with the update.

Things were definitely starting to look up. At least things were stable and everyone seemed happy. I had some emerald crabs and blue legged hermit crabs taking care of whatever was left of the algae.

August

I decided to order a few more fish from Dr Reefs...I really wanted more active fish and really wanted a wrasse of some type.... went with:

• Royal Gramma (I missed the bright colors of Little Richard)
• Leopard Wrasse Blue Star
• Longnose hawkfish

I knew it would be about a month before I got the fish.

September
Dr. Reefs was so great to order from once again. The only crazy part was that it takes weeks to get the fish from the time you order and the timing of this one was REALLY bad. I had a work trip scheduled to Singapore for the middle of September. I figured the fish would be here before I left. They weren't.

My husband was watching and feeding the fish for me. As you know we decided at the beginning that this was MY hobby and as long as he wasn't responsible for anything he was good with it. There have been many times he witnessed me so frustrated with this tank and sometimes it brought me to tears. Here are a few lol:
Squiggy, the Midas blenny jumped out of the tank while I was cleaning it. It caught me off guard and I screamed so loud he came running. I was able to scoop him back up and get him in the tank and he was totally fine. I then broke out into tears (it was the adrenaline).

The whole Dusty debacle...there were a few times (when he got out of the condo and was being attacked) that it brought me to a point of so much frustration I was crying.

I'm really not a cryer but I am female and well ...I'm passionate.

During a water change the hose came out and water was literally EVERYWHERE. I was trying to unplug the pump and by the time I did it was just a huge butt mess.

The skimmer overflowed while we were out (the sensor had been turned off) and water was all over my office floor.

There are plenty more times but my husband said he really felt bad for me as he said this hobby wasn't brining me any joy only headaches. I actually agreed with him. It was around this time that I thought I was going to throw in the towel.

Anyways...I was away in Singapore and things were going well. And then I got an email saying my fish were shipped. Oh ****.

I called my husband and told him the news. He is not a fish guy but he IS great at following instructions and staying calm.

I walked him through the process and we texted back and forth a lot (we were 15 hours difference). He did amazing and the fish all survived!

I was excited to get home.

Things have been soooooooooo much better. Everyone is happy, got a few more corals, things are REALLY looking up.

I changed to Red Sea 4 part system and it seems to be doing great. My corals are even starting to grow.

The leopard wrasse is just so beautiful...her name is Scarlett.

Dusty is a working machine all over the tank.

Spike the long nose is adorable and comes to me when he sees me.

I'm so happy I didn't give up on this hobby.

October-November.

We went away for 35 days to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain and then took a transatlantic cruise home from Barcelona to Miami.

My gf stayed at the house and this time she did AMAZING! I put her on a 1x a day feeding, went into more details with her and showed her how to turkey baste every other day. I have to say the tank looked pretty darn good for being away a month!

I'll take some pics today of what it looks like and/or post a video but I'm just so thankful that things have settled in!

 

[Jenyphur]

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Looking good! The more experiences you have the better things will be.

 

[Jenyphur]

Looking good! The more experiences you have the better things will be.

Yes, I feel as though the more dumb mistakes I make the better as then I won't make them again. .

Every day I learn something new in this hobby.

What do you think of my livestock list? Do you feel I could do 1 or 2 more fish ? I would love to add 2 more just not sure which at this point. I do really like the helfrichi firefish. And I would love to get a pistol shrimp/ but not sure if that would upset Dusty. Would they pair up? I don't think so but then would I be able to also get a yellow watchman? I don't want to do anything to rock the boat with Dusty....he seems very happy.

Thanks for reading and any advice you have.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

You defiantly can put a few more fish in there. The key thing is that they have their own area to hide, sleep or hang. Who gets along with who can be a hit or miss thing, but having an acclimation box is important and key to successful additions.
The best advice I can give you is monitor and test. Don't chase numbers but watch trends. As your tank grows, so will it's needs. What worked for you six months ago may not be enough now. Remember, having a mixed reef with a small tank volume is hard. For instance, I can grow Acros all day, but I struggle with leathers and torches, but not with hammers. I know why, but sticks is what I enjoy so they are my priority.
There is only one way to have a successful reef, but a million ways to approach that goal. Get in tune with your tank and learn how to problem solve and research solutions.

 

[Jenyphur]

Thank you for the advice! I have been really enjoying the tank recently! I love how everything has settled in and for the most part it's just self governing. The dosing is keeping all the numbers pretty consistent and everything seems happy. This is the enjoyable part of the hobby. <3