Manny's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

leepink23 · Jun 28, 2023

Manny’s Reef said:
I'm getting more and more paranoid about the seam failures. With a local Idaho reefer tearing down his tank recently based on the seam failure, it just hits close to home. This 750 is a replacement for a seam failure on a 300 I owned. I feel like I need to act before something happens. Do you all think that eurobracing the tank now would actually provide structural integrity? Or would it had to have been designed with the eurobrace in mind?

Isn’t the issue the bottom seam? Could putting it on a different stand that supports the entire tank be a better option?

Manny’s Reef · Jun 28, 2023

leepink23 said:
Isn’t the issue the bottom seam? Could putting it on a different stand that supports the entire tank be a better option?

I’ve seen the issues reported on bottom seams as well as side seams.

MW319 · Jun 29, 2023

Maybe reach out to a tank builder and get their input.

69cam · Jan 3, 2024

Any updates?

Manny’s Reef · Jan 3, 2024

69cam said:
Any updates?

I was just thinking about an update. It’s been quite the boring year. For context I went bare bottom with this build after my move. It was brutally slow and I couldn’t take it any longer. I have since then added sand. I’ve started seeing positive change and even some growth.

I can’t say if the addition of sand is what triggered growth and color change, or if it simply was time since the tank had been setup for about a year when I added sand. Either way, the sand is in and I’m happier.

I shot these next pictures about 2 months ago. There has definitely been visible growth since I shot the pictures. ALL coral are growing now. Most are changing colors. Everything is stable and on cruise control. I really believe the next few months will see this tank transform.

I’ve got a large gathering at my house this Saturday. That means I’ll do significant maintenance on Friday. I’ll make sure to get some new pics and maybe a new video. I’m super excited to see this thing starting to take off.

Manny’s Reef · May 21, 2024

I know it's been a while. Man it is so hard to stay up to speed here on R2R while being a grown up. Anyone else here want to go on strike with me until they allow us to go back to childhood?

Well, there is not much to say. The first year was slow and boring. I tried to jump on the bare bottom bandwagon but that didn't do much for me. I didn't like the look and I genuinely believe it stalled the entire maturation process. I genuinely believe the Carib sea life rock was largely to blame for the stall. I’ve never experienced a tank take so long to start stabilizing and show corraline growth. I don’t think I’ll use this rock again. Anyhow, I added sand and things started changing. From the very first week I added sand, I could see noticeably better PE.

Guess what!!! I started with 11 green chromis 1.5 years ago. I still have all 11. Don't ask me how. Maybe I got lucky. I have an auto feeder go off 3x a day. When I get bored, I will go feed the tank either frozen mysis or nori. They devour it all. Ironically, I had one chromis visually showing uronema. I dosed 16 ml of h202 for about a month. It disappeared and never returned. Can't confirm it was the h202 but I think it played a role.

My coral are finally taking off. Back when I added sand, I started dosing aminos. They are loving it. I've got great growth on some sps and explosive on others. My forest fire digi is bigger than my fist. The green spongodes and sonic galaxia, and derasa clam are all bigger than softballs. My Bill Murray and Hugo Rainbow stag are growing at exceptional rates while coloring up beautifully. Most of my other acros are super fluffy and just looking super happy.

I had my green slimer go purple right before experiencing RTN. I fragged about half of it and it survived. It looks recovered and is actively growing. Imagine the size of it had I not needed to frag it.

A few downers: Since moving my tank, a few of my Neptune products have failed me. My trident was about 10 months when it took a dump on me. We tried trouble shooting but Neptune finally said it needed to be replaced under warranty. The replacement has been with me for about 9 months and it too has failed. I might reach out to Neptune but this point, I'm considering pulling it all together and not using it any longer. It's been a hassle for something that is supposed to be hands off. I went to fill the Neptune AFS for a third time. I popped the lid off and it broke. I had to pay about $30 for a new lid. If it breaks again I will not replace. Paying 1/3 its value for a replacement cover is not worth it. My Neptune salinity probe is not useable. Also, my DDR just stopped working one day. Tried to do some maintenance to no avail. Lasted me about a year and an half. Alas, a positive from Neptune. My WAVs are awesome. They just keep chugging (knock on wood).

My only complaint with my reef tank is that at times it goes weeks neglected by me. I come home and wipe the glass but walk away without having a chance to enjoy it. Despite the neglect, my tank gets its 30-40% water changes monthly religiously. Not all at once but cumulatively. The longer it's been without a WC, the larger the WC. This neglect may be the very reason for its success. I bet the following months you'll be seeing rapid growth and coloration pictures of my tank.

Finally, here it is. Disregard all the floating algae. I had just cleaned the glass. Enjoy.

ariellemermaid · May 26, 2024

Manny’s Reef said:
I know it's been a while. Man it is so hard to stay up to speed here on R2R while being a grown up. Anyone else here want to go on strike with me until they allow us to go back to childhood?

Well, there is not much to say. The first year was slow and boring. I tried to jump on the bare bottom bandwagon but that didn't do much for me. I didn't like the look and I genuinely believe it stalled the entire maturation process. From the very first week I added sand, I could see noticeably better PE.

Guess what!!! I started with 11 green chromis 1.5 years ago. I still have all 11. Don't ask me how. Maybe I got lucky. I have an auto feeder go off 3x a day. When I get bored, I will go feed the tank either frozen mysis or nori. They devour it all. Ironically, I had one chromis visually showing uronema. I dosed 16 ml of h202 for about a month. It disappeared and never returned. Can't confirm it was the h202 but I think it played a role.

My coral are finally taking off. Back when I added sand, I started dosing aminos. They are loving it. I've got great growth on some sps and explosive on others. My forest fire digi is bigger than my fist. The green spongodes and sonic galaxia, and derasa clam are all bigger than softballs. My Bill Murray and Hugo Rainbow stag are growing at exceptional rates while coloring up beautifully. Most of my other acros are super fluffy and just looking super happy.

I had my green slimer go purple right before experiencing RTN. I fragged about half of it and it survived. It looks recovered and is actively growing. Imagine the size of it had I not needed to frag it.

A few downers: Since moving my tank, a few of my Neptune products have failed me. My trident was about 10 months when it took a dump on me. We tried trouble shooting but Neptune finally said it needed to be replaced under warranty. The replacement has been with me for about 9 months and it too has failed. I might reach out to Neptune but this point, I'm considering pulling it all together and not using it any longer. It's been a hassle for something that is supposed to be hands off. I went to fill the Neptune AFS for a third time. I popped the lid off and it broke. I had to pay about $30 for a new lid. If it breaks again I will not replace. Paying 1/3 its value for a replacement cover is not worth it. My Neptune salinity probe is not useable. Alas, a positive from Neptune. My WAVs are awesome. They just keep chugging (knock on wood).

My only complaint with my reef tank is that at times it goes weeks neglected by me. I come home and wipe the glass but walk away without having a chance to enjoy it. Despite the neglect, my tank gets its 30-40% water changes monthly religiously. Not all at once but cumulatively. The longer it's been without a WC, the larger the WC. This neglect may be the very reason for its success. I bet the following months you'll be seeing rapid growth and coloration pictures of my tank.

Finally, here it is. Disregard all the floating algae. I had just cleaned the glass. Enjoy.

I hear you on this. My attention and love for the tank ebbs and flows. It hasn’t been the big beautiful reef from the YouTube videos, in fact it feels like more failures than successes we’ve killed thousands of dollars of coral, and several hundreds of fish (one lesson learned the hard way- don’t get any kind of jawfish. They will find a hole, and they will jump. No amount of engineering or 3D printing can prevent this).

We have 2 tridents going strong on like 3 years now. Not sure what your issue is of course, but I will say they require not infrequent maintenance. So much so, that I haven’t even bothered putting the foot screws back in one of them. That said, when I vinegar flushed the black hub that was
the turning point in our Trident issues. The water pathways are so small it just makes sense they would get clogged with salt crystals and debris. We’ve also had issues with the tubing breaking down and disconnecting but thankfully on the outflow side (vs. an inflow siphon). But, salt water is corrosive and nothing lasts forever. The Red Sea alk/ca/mg syringe test tips make flushing the lines easy! In the end though, the Trident is definitely not a set and forget it kind of device.

Manny’s Reef · May 26, 2024

ariellemermaid said:
I hear you on this. My attention and love for the tank ebbs and flows. It hasn’t been the big beautiful reef from the YouTube videos, in fact it feels like more failures than successes we’ve killed thousands of dollars of coral, and several hundreds of fish (one lesson learned the hard way- don’t get any kind of jawfish. They will find a hole, and they will jump. No amount of engineering or 3D printing can prevent this).

We have 2 tridents going strong on like 3 years now. Not sure what your issue is of course, but I will say they require not infrequent maintenance. So much so, that I haven’t even bothered putting the foot screws back in one of them. That said, when I vinegar flushed the black hub that was
the turning point in our Trident issues. The water pathways are so small it just makes sense they would get clogged with salt crystals and debris. We’ve also had issues with the tubing breaking down and disconnecting but thankfully on the outflow side (vs. an inflow siphon). But, salt water is corrosive and nothing lasts forever. The Red Sea alk/ca/mg syringe test tips make flushing the lines easy! In the end though, the Trident is definitely not a set and forget it kind of device.

Thanks for the comment. I think my attention ebbs and flows based on the current case load at the office. My reef tanks is always cleaner when I’m working 40 hour weeks instead of 60 hour weeks. Actually, who am I kidding. I don’t think I’ve ever worked a 40 hour week. But you get the point.

I’ll pull the trident and do some maintenance. I know I’m past due on it.

I may just be past the point of spending money if the tank. I think for now we’ll just let things grow and see where they land.