Build: Red Sea P500

[civics14]

A little late but I want to document my progress.

History: Moving end of July 2018 and thought I can move my live stock into a tank I haven’t put together was a terrible mistake. Lost all my livestock, some I had for almost 5 years.

Now the reboot from a SCA150g to my P500 (thanks to Atlanta Aquarium and Rit!!)

Tank: Red Sea Reefer P500
Skimmer: 1st Gen of Eshopps S200
Return: Jebao DCS5000
Flow: Pair of Maxspect Gyres XF250
Lights: 4xRapidLED Onyx w/ Bluefish controller + 2 T5’s
Heater: 2xTitanium 150w
Supplement: Vertex RX-6D Calcium Reactor, 2x BRS 1.1ml dosing pump

Parameters:
Alkalinity 8.2-8.5
Calcium: 420-430
PH: 7.8
Temp: 77.5-78
Lighting schedule: 2 hour ramp up and down from 12p to 10p; T5’s on for 5 hours

 

[dball711]

Wow, that's really looking good. I love that tank, Red Sea is one of my favorites, so clean looking.

 

[civics14]

Tank was set up the first week of August.

Hurdles along the way...

Was running GFO & dosing Vodka to help reduce phosphates & nitrates from the die off from the rocks absorbed. This cause my nutrients to go zero and it was that way for too long, so ran into dinoflagellates. Stopped the GFO and Vodka. Slowly increased my #'s and got my phosphates to .002ppm and nitrates at 2ppm. Local ARC member gave me two turbo twist UVs, ran super low flow into it and eliminated my dinos after about a month.

Put 3 tangs in the tank without quarantine. All 3 ended up with Black Ich (turbellarians). Did a bunch of research and dosed PraziPro twice (5 days apart). Eliminated this issue.

Put a Bellus & Swallowtail Angel without quarantine, got velvet and killed these two off. Finally learned my lesson and set up a quarantine tank and picked up a small tank for a hospital tank. Picked up a bunch of meds and copper testing supplies for future fish.

Somewhere in all of this I added a bunch of SPS. I dip all my corals in a 15 min Heavy Bayer Solution. Somewhere along the lines, I picked up some montis from a local online business and ended up with Monti Eating Nudis (survived the dip). So removed those and now have to go fallow from Montis for a while.

Red planaria flat worms started to show up, not sure from where... did a double dose of flatworm exit, killed a lot of the flatworms but didn't eliminate them. Added a target mandarin and it seems to be keeping them at bay now. Unfortunately, I didn't quarantine the mandarin, took the risk again, but needed to get these flatworms under control and didn't want to wait 4 weeks to quarantine. This was about 1.5 wks ago and so far everything looks good. Mandarin has gained a lot of weight since picking him up.

Picked up a beautiful Lightning Maroon Clown during Petco's 30% off sale and been in quarantine for over 2 weeks now. Eating healthy and no signs of sickness. At the same time I picked up a Royal Gamma and put in quarantine. He started to experience some fit rot (so I gave him 3 60 min. Ruby Reef Rally baths in 3 days). This helped him a lot and he's slowly recovering.

 

[civics14]

Wow, that's really looking good. I love that tank, Red Sea is one of my favorites, so clean looking.

Yeah, I was really impressed. Last tank was the SCA150 that I had a custom stand built from a local ARC member.

I really like the simplicity of the set up and the entire look. Also, thanks for the frags, they're all doing great! Everything is encrusting nicely.

 

[civics14]

Here’s my current Acro list:

1. Unknown green tip acro
2. Copps Red Dragon
3. $500 Efflo
4. Chameleon
5. Green Slimer
6. Walt Disney
7. Shades of Fall
8. Unknown Lime green base with purp tips
9. ORA Oregon Tort
10. RR Orange Passion
11. WWC Yellow Tip
12. Unknown Milli green polyps with orange tips
13. Pink Lemonade
14. Plum Crazy
15. ORA Purple Nana Acro
16. Wild A. Sarmentosa teal base with pink polyps
17. Glowstick
18. Red Planet
19. Mango
20. JF Fox Flame
21. Mr Pac Man
22. Ice Fire Enchinata
23. Wild Purple Acro
24. Wild pink acro
25. Strawberry Shortcake
26. Unknown white & green base, purple tips
27. Cornbred Flaming Unicorn
28. Corndbred Maleficent
29. ASD Rainbow Circus
30. Cornbred Pretty in Pink
31. Cornbred Cotton Candy Milli
32. Blue Stag
33. Bonsai
34. Palmer’s Blue Milli

 

[civics14]

Almost found a place for all my frags, only one left to go.

Also, here are some pics of the sump area. One day I’ll figure out some wire management.

Right now, I got a hold of an Apex Classic that I’m trying to decide if I want to move over to this controller from my current Reef Angel that I had for years.

 

[FutureInterest]

Very nice! Once t hat grows out it is going to be amazing.

 

[civics14]

Not sure how people are showing some of their colors in pics. But here is my WD about 2 months in the tank, finally encrusted the frag plug.

I think I need one of those filters for my iphone.

 

[civics14]

Picked up my first NPS coral. Thanks lizzyann

 

[civics14]

Some additional pics, 100% white, 25% blue, 10% red/green/uv. No filters, just iphone 7 camera. Cropped images. 2.6x zoom.

 

[civics14]

 

[civics14]

Just more pics. Not much going on but just keeping up with monthly water changes (15%). I check Alk weekly. All others monthly: phosphates, nitrates, calcium, & mag.

This was sold to me as a SSC (not really sure it is) but it is one of my favorites

 

[civics14]

Finally got a good pic of the mandarin.

 

[Onefallleaf]

Wow coming along very well. 4 months in and you have some great growth out of fantastic corals. I love to see these type of new tanks take off like this. Very nice mandarin

 

[civics14]

Wow coming along very well. 4 months in and you have some great growth out of fantastic corals. I love to see these type of new tanks take off like this. Very nice mandarin

I had my fair share of failures. Learned a lot from previous mistakes. Stability is key.... hence why I’m going to change my salt because reef crystals salt mixes too high in alk and when I’m trying to keep it in the low 8’s, it causes slight raises in my alk. Then I have to change my effluent rate of my calc reactor. Such a pain.

 

[Trizzino]

Looks awesome! Those just iPhone shots?

 

[civics14]

Looks awesome! Those just iPhone shots?

Yes and thanks.

Quick update:
My gold lightning maroon fished his 30 day QT and has been moved to the display tank. Royal gamma ended up with something and didn’t make it.

Picked up another gold lightning maroon and a regal tang. Both are in quarantine.

 

[civics14]

Late night shot with the sun coral fully open and extended for feeding

 

[nanjinho]

Question how are you holding up the
Lights: 4xRapidLED Onyx w/ Bluefish controller + 2 T5’s

I also want to use LEDs and T5 but i dont know what to do on my 125.
Its 72 in long...

Do i need to get 4 36in T5's or one 60 in T5??? And how do you use LED box with the T5???

Looking at your light setup its nice and clean so i wanted to ask.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

Wow, that tank is going to look awesome. Great job on the documentation!