(happy upbeat music)
- Hello folks, Robert from Marine Depot here,
and welcome to the second episode
of our Red Sea Reefer 525 tank build.
In the last episode I went through all the features
of this Red Sea Reefer 525 deluxe aquarium,
and in this video I'm gonna take you guys
through the complete livestock transfer,
from our previous SR80 tank,
and talk about some of the challenges
that I faced during this move.
We're also gonna go through all of the equipment
that we're using on the tank.
After getting the new aquarium built,
it was time to start planning the breakdown of our old tank.
The first step in planning the move
was to ensure I had plenty of biological filter media
that could easily be moved into the new aquarium.
Bacteria that grows in your biological filter media
will ensure that harmful ammonia
is never present in the aquarium water.
About two months prior to the move,
I simply added a couple of media bags
full of seachem matrix, along with a couple
of Brightwell Aquatics export bio blocks,
into the filtration compartments of the SR80.
I also took about 100 pounds of dry rock
and placed it into a large trash can,
along with a heater and powerhead to start cycling.
I added some Brightwell Aquatics Microbacter 7
to the container for the first couple of weeks
to help to jump start the bacteria.
Now that I was confident that the biological foundation
would be stable in the new tank,
I went ahead and started building the holding bins
that would house the coral and live rock,
while I installed the new aquarium.
For the holding tanks,
I purchased a couple of 20 gallon Rubbermaid totes
from our local home improvement store.
I used a heater, powerhead,
and Aquamaxx HOB 1.5 Protein Skimmer,
on each of the bins.
I found a couple of used LED strip lights
to place over the bins,
and attached them to a simple wall timer,
to come on for eight hours per day
and provide an actual day/night cycle
for the fish and corals.
I proceeded to tear down the SR80, piece by piece,
carefully trimming out corals and isolating colonies
to be safely housed in the bins.
I'm going to be honest here,
because this day was a bit
of an emotional roller coaster for me.
All of the fish and corals in the SR80
had been under my care for years,
and I was in a big rush to get them
out of the tank and into the holding bins
where they'd be safe and sound
while I built the new aquarium.
Once I got most of the water
and all of the rock out of the tank,
I began to catch the fish.
The next morning I checked on the fish,
which all seemed to be doing well.
We moved the Red Sea tank into place,
and I began aquascaping and filling the tank.
I introduced the larger pieces of rock
that were encrusted with various coral colonies
to finish out the aquascape.
I added some filter floss into the filtration compartment
along with some chemi-pure media,
to help clear up the water as quickly as possible,
before adding the fish.
The following day the new tank was clear
and everything inside looked healthy.
I went to check on the holding bins
and this is where the trouble began.
I noticed that some of the frags
and coral colonies in one of the bins
were really stressed out.
Upon touching the water,
I immediately knew
that I had a temperature problem on my hands.
So rather than finding a heater
and waiting for everything to get back up to temperature,
I immediately just started planting
the corals into the new Red Sea tank.
Combined all of the fish into a single holding bin
and started a slow drip acclimation.
After about an hour,
all of the fish were introduced into the new tank.
All in all, the move went off without too much of a hitch
and I did not run into ammonia spikes
thanks to the planning ahead
with plenty of biological filter media and cycled rock.
All of my fish survived the transfer,
and only one species of coral was completely lost
during the heater fiasco.
Mission success.
So now I wanna give you guys a quick rundown
of all the equipment that we're using on the tank.
So far I've kept it pretty simple because
I'm building this tank with you guys
and I want to document the entire process.
We're using the Stock Filter Sock,
along with a Filter Media Cup.
An Aquamaxx Q3 Protein Skimmer,
an Eheim Jager Heater and Return Pump.
Inside the tank we have a couple of Tunze stream pumps,
to achieve the strong flow patterns that our corals need.
Some of you may have noticed
that I've also modified the lighting,
using one of the Aquaticlife Hybrid T-5 systems.
Using our handy Seneye Par Meter,
we are achieving par values
around 1300 at the surface of the tank,
and then around 300 at the bottom
of the tank on the sandbed.
For supplementation,
I have the ATI Six Channel Dosing Pump,
delivering the Red Sea Reef Foundation A, B and C,
into the aquarium
which is covering all of the major elements
that the corals need.
As of today, all of the animals are thriving
and settling in nicely.
It's nice to finally give these corals
some more room for growth,
and watch our larger, more active fish,
enjoy the freedoms of a larger tank.
Be sure to stick around for the next episode
because I'll be adding some really cool
livestock into the tank,
and also be sure to hit that subscribe button
so you can follow along with us through this tank build,
as well as check out all of the other awesome videos
we have here on the channel.
Until next time, take care and happy reef keeping.
(happy upbeat music)