Blaxsun's Abyss: Red Sea 750XXL

[Susan Edwards]

Nice corals and photos. I'm off 3 days this week and may get my camera out. Guess I should google to refresh what settings if I do manual lol's. Bought it for a trip in 2019 and haven't really used since. Did get yellow and orange filters for it

 

[blaxsun]

Nice corals and photos. I'm off 3 days this week and may get my camera out. Guess I should google to refresh what settings if I do manual lol's. Bought it for a trip in 2019 and haven't really used since. Did get yellow and orange filters for it

Thanks! I've dispensed with the filters and just adjust the white point in Lightroom when importing all the images.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Thanks! I've dispensed with the filters and just adjust the white point in Lightroom when importing all the images.

I'll have to try that as I have lightroom too I think.

 

[blaxsun]

July 19. Pest Control
Can anyone spot the Lubbock's fairy wrasse? Apologies in-advance for the "purple" tint - R2R is still stripping out the Photoshop color profiles when uploading images, and despite about 20 attempts it was no-go this time around (imagine it more of a pale blue). Maybe something @revhtree can look into as this is super frustrating. Addendum: fixed.

The pulsing xenia (blue) colony you see before you spawned from a single polyp just over a month ago. Yes, all this from a single stem. I'm fully convinced these things could quite literally grow in a toilet.

Anyway, back to the wrasse. So the last Lubbock's fairy wrasse sadly perished while attempting to set a new long jump record, so we replaced him with v2.0. This one has decided that, well - he likes xenias. I don't know if there's a ton of copepods hiding amongst these, but he only comes out twice a day like clockwork to be fed - then it's back to his lair. It's too bad - because he's an absolutely gorgeous fish - but at least I got the "wet side" variant this time.

Yes, there is a wrasse in there somewhere hiding... waiting...

 

[Susan Edwards]

I will take your word for it lol's!

 

[blaxsun]

I will take your word for it lol's!

Absolutely gorgeous fish that I got for a steal @ $50 and he hides in the corals all day, lol. Figures.

 

[blaxsun]

July 20. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
So it's been just over a month now that I've been using the new Red Sea ReefMat. Here are the pros, cons and various observations that I've made during this timeframe.
..........

The Good. If you hate (and I mean absolutely, abhorrently despise) cleaning filter socks - this is definitely the way to go. Reconfiguring the sump is not too terribly difficult (albeit time consuming), and once running it performs flawlessly. Changing fleece rolls is effortless and there is a noticeable noise/splash reduction in your sump.

The Bad. If you have a heavily stocked tank like mine, you're going to use more fleece. Potentially a lot more. Right now I'm averaging 8-10 days per roll which works out to $75 CAD/month. So arguably I've blown my budget right out of the water here, but in fairness I haven't worked out the time/laundering costs for my stash of filter socks, either. It was probably running me at least $25 in water, electricity and OxiClean - plus the time mercilessly scrubbing everything. And I haven't factored in the cost of replacement filter socks, which was probably in the very near future.

The initial spike in Week 1 was where I was using the integrated filter basket with the active carbon Red Sea so generously included. This actually ended up inhibiting water flow and causing premature fleece consumption. Around Day 5 I'd figured out the culprit and use has been fairly consistent since.

The small "spikes" you see are when I replaced a fleece roll and had to slightly advance the unit (I've since refined my procedure so this has been reduced somewhat since.


The Ugly. Well, by the title you know there was going to be be some, so like with a bandaid - best to just rip it off. The fleece rolls Red Sea provides are 200-microns and I'd previously been using 100-micron filter socks. So despite using more fleece and doing a better overall job - anything smaller than 200-microns is getting through. And this has led to higher nitrates and more of the general algae that accumulates on the glass. So I'm also cleaning the glass more often.

As you can see, nitrates have jumped up by about 15ppm and remained somewhere between 35-45ppm. None of my inverts, fish or corals seem to have been affected - but it's obviously starting to get outside my comfort zone. I haven't added lot of fish (the few have all been really small), feeding hasn't changed and I've actually cut back on coral feedings from 2x to 1x per week. Fish do grow, though. On the nitrate chart, the nitrate level from Feb to mid-April was actually off due to a faulty test kit (so nitrates were in reality probably in the 15-25ppm range).

I'm not running the same amount of MarinePure spheres, though (maybe a third of what I had, just because I didn't have any additional baskets for them), and with the reconfiguration of the sump the water no longer passes from the overflow past all the media blocks - so it's entirely possible that I may need to rethink this. Relocating the Sicce pump for the UV is logistically problematic, so the best option may be to just obtain a larger Tunze powerhead and replace the smaller Sicce Voyager Nano.

On the plus side, phosphates haven't really changed. If anything they've actually gone down slightly which is fine by me. The drop at the end of April was where I was trying to get nitrates/phosphates under control and dosed too much NOPOX - bottoming it out.

I've resumed NOPOX dosing, but my phosphates are already fairly low so I'll have to monitor this closely to avoid them bottoming out again. I'm on the fence with the Polyp Lab Genesis rocks I added. It should be enough to keep nitrates in check for a tank twice my size, but with the reduction in filtration from 100 to 200-microns it's also possible they are working - and that nitrates would've been even higher.

So the plan to tackle my nitrates is going to be three-fold:
1. Add-in the remainder of the MarinePure spheres (these will take some time to seed, though).
2. Look at upgrading the Sicce wavemaker.
3. Resume daily/semi-daily NOPOX dosing.

 

[Susan Edwards]

From what I've read, nopox doesn't do a lot for po4, more for no3. What do you use to log your no3? Apex? I just imput into a spreadsheet but I like the graph. Are you still dosing your nyos?

 

[blaxsun]

From what I've read, nopox doesn't do a lot for po4, more for no3. What do you use to log your no3? Apex? I just imput into a spreadsheet but I like the graph. Are you still dosing your nyos?

It did bottom out my phosphates the last time I went heavy with it. I’m just entering and logging it in Fusion at present.

Still dosing Zero but have run out if Bio Booster (very hard to source here).

 

[Susan Edwards]

Here as well. I got my zero and bio from saltwater aquarium I believe

 

[blaxsun]

July 21. Return to the Abyss
Just an update on the current tank specs and parameters. I've lost a few anemones (1 rockflower, 1 condy and 3 bubbletips) over the past few months because they basically planted themselves on the "dark side" and effectively starved. The rockflower death was weird, because it looks like it got 'kicked off' its roost and then chewed up. Aside from the odd fish death here and there (one jumped, one suspected to have been eaten by a condy anemone) - the current population has remained fairly consistent. Same for invertebrates.

Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL v3 | System: 200 gallons | Display: 160 gallons | Sump: 40 gallons | ATO: 15+7 gallons
Mixed Reef: Anemone, Soft, LPS, SPS | Anemones: 12 | Corals: 50+ | Fish: 42 (current) | Cleanup Crew: 100+

Return Pump: Sicce SDC 9.0 (»45%) | UV Sterilizer: AquaUltraviolet 57-watt | UV Pump: Sicce SDC 6.0 (»60%)
Controller: Neptune Apex, Trident, DOS, DDR, PMK, FMM, ATK, 2x AFS, 2x EB832 energy bar, 2x Temperature, Salinity, pH, ORP
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160 | Reactors: Nyos Torq 1.0 G2 (Carbon/Phosi-Ex) / Torq 2.0 G2 (Zeo) | BioMedia: MarinePure Blocks/Spheres, Polyp Lab Genesis | Filtration: Reef Mat 500 (~100-110" consumed daily)
Wavemakers: 2x Red Sea ReefWave45 (20-60% random; »8min/«2min) | 2x Maxspect XF330 x2 (20% »fixed, IceCap battery backup)
Heating: Inkbird 306A | 2x Schego 300-watt Titanium (primary/secdonary) | Hygger 500-watt Titanium (tertiary)
Lighting: EcoTech Radion 2x XR30 G5 Blue, 2x XR15 G5 Blue (all w/diffusers) | Schedule: Custom 'Radiance'
Remote Monitoring: Neptune Apex Fusion, Little Elf 1080p WiFi Infrared Camera
ATO: Innovative Marine Hydrofill (15 gallons, external), Red Sea (7 gallons, internal) | Neptune ATK

Primary Testing: Neptune Trident | Temperature, Salinity, pH, ORP, KH, Ca, Mg | Seachem Ammonia Alert
Secondary Testing: Hanna, Nyos, Red Sea | Salinity, pH, KH, Ca, Mg, NO3, PO4, I, Fe, K

Target Parameters: 8.25-8.5 dKH, 450ppm Ca, 1450ppm Mg, 0.10-0.15ppm PO4, 15-20ppm NO3
77.8-78.2°F, 35.2-35.5ppt Salinity, 7.95-8.2 pH, 275-325 ORP, 150-275 PAR (sand bed to middle)

Dosing (daily): Nyos Alkalinity (90-110ml) | Nyos Calcium (6-10ml) | Nyos Magnesium (2-4ml)
Trace Elements (weekly): Nyos Active Elements (25ml), Nyos Strontium (12.5ml) | Trace Elements (bi-monthly): Nyos Iodine (12.5ml)

Supplements (daily): Nyos Zero (2ml), Nyos Bio Booster (2.5ml), Red Sea ReefEnergy AB+ (12.5ml)
Treatments (daily): Red Sea NOPOX (12.5ml)

Automated (daily): 4x Pellet (~1g/per) | New Life Spectrum Marine Fish/AlgaeMax and Nyos Goji Berries | Nyos GoldPods (2.5ml)
Manual (daily): 2x PE Mysis, 1x PE Calanus, 2x LRS Reef Frenzy, 1x Hikari Brine (cubes) | Vitamins: Brightwell GarlicPower, AminOmega
Coral Supplements (bi-weekly): Polyp Lab Reef Roids (1/2 tbsp), Nyos Instant Plankton (0.25ml), Nyos LPS Power (0.5ml), Aquaforest Vitality (8 drops), Build (8 drops)

Medications: Polyp Lab Medic (emergency) | Dipping: Coral RX (primary), Polyp Lab Reef-Primer (as needed for emergencies)​

 

[Susan Edwards]

Looking great. Awesome set up Sorry about your anemone losses!

 

[blaxsun]

Looking great. Awesome set up Sorry about your anemone losses!

Thanks - it happens. The condy kept moving around wearing itself out and then planted itself in a cave. Same for the really nice colorado sunburst (this one wasn't cheap so it really sucked) and two smaller rose bubbletips. At this point I still have a large rose bubbletip, large condy, 2 neon tube and 8 rockflower anemones - and the rockflowers generally hold their ground against coral incursions.

I'll probably get some more neon tube anemones as these are quite resilient and a joy to watch (and they've yet to harm any fish or inverts).

 

[Susan Edwards]

I don't have any anemones. I think about the rock ones as they are pretty but I don't want them floating around! I do want some coco/feather duster worms

 

[blaxsun]

I don't have any anemones. I think about the rock ones as they are pretty but I don't want them floating around! I do want some coco/feather duster worms

I’ve had both feathers and coco worms, but I think either an invert or fish took a liking to them as they didn’t survive more than 4-6 months.

So right now the most exotic creatures in my humble reef are a sea hare called Roz and an abalone we named Slick.

 

[blaxsun]

July 24. More Mouths to Feed?
So we dropped into our LFS on Friday and they had some absolutely beautiful fish. They had a gorgeous majestic (blue girdled) angelfish that was special ordered in for a customer that decided to forego taking it home, but I'm on the fence of another reef-iffy fish. They also had a very nice radiata lionfish which would look great in the tank - but may make a meal of some of the smaller chromis and wrasses. They also had a possum wrasse which I've determined is a yellow banded possum wrasse. Very cool looking fish, albeit on the more expensive size (and a potential jumper, which might be an issue). And finally they had a stunning powder brown tang, but I'm 0 for 2 with the last two tangs I purchased (both got eaten by the elements).

Any thoughts from the group?

 

[Projects with Sam]

July 24. More Mouths to Feed?
So we dropped into our LFS on Friday and they had some absolutely beautiful fish. They had a gorgeous majestic (blue girdled) angelfish that was special ordered in for a customer that decided to forego taking it home, but I'm on the fence of another reef-iffy fish. They also had a very nice radiata lionfish which would look great in the tank - but may make a meal of some of the smaller chromis and wrasses. They also had a possum wrasse which I've determined is a yellow banded possum wrasse. Very cool looking fish, albeit on the more expensive size (and a potential jumper, which might be an issue). And finally they had a stunning powder brown tang, but I'm 0 for 2 with the last two tangs I purchased (both got eaten by the elements).

Any thoughts from the group?

I've found I regret fish I am not absolutely in love with or that will upset the status quo in the tank.

 

[blaxsun]

July 27. Nuking the Ozone
After humming and hawing (and a special thanks to @Sean Clark for all his assistance) - I've pulled the trigger on a Ozotech Poseidon 200 ozone generator that I'm going to integrate with my Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer.

Ozotech has been specializing on Ozone products for over 30 years, so I'm very confident in this purchase. I'll be connecting it directly to my Apex powerbar and configuring it to initially run at the lowest setting. I most likely won't need an air pump as there's enough draw from the skimmer alone. The Nyos Quantum has a specific port for connecting an ozone line, so I basically plug it in, connect it to the skimmer and voila! I'll be configuring it in Apex to turn on when ORP is below a certain threshold and off above a certain threshold as well.

I did replace the nylon air adjustment screw with a titanium one as apparently prolonged exposure to ozone will deteriorate the stock one. Other than that it should be "plug and play".

Hat's off to BRS for not only having this in-stock but shipping it out to me ASAP the same day. I wish I could say something nice about the Canadian distributor, but even though they quoted me a price - when I phoned to place an order for it they wouldn't take my credit card information (something about not being an accredited business, despite me stating it was for personal use weeks back already). A callback yesterday and today never transpired, and after finally calling them again today I was told "they're a week behind in emails" and basically if they have time they'll call me back. Basically, I could go F* myself.

 

[blaxsun]

July 28. Hello Helio!
Some time back Innovative Marine was kind enough to send me a 700-watt Helio heating system to test in my tank. The kid got COVID, then the wife - then me - so this kind of derailed my spring (plus I was still limping around from a broken ankle over the winter).

I'll be doing a comprehensive review over the summer/fall along the lines of what I've done for the Red Sea ReefMat, including some benchmarks and comparisons to my existing Inkbird/Schego heating setup so we can see how they perform side by side. Supposedly the Helio is deadly accurate and I'm looking forward to spooling up some data.

So stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for continued updates! Until then, a bit of eye candy to wet your whistle (IM really packs these nicely!)

 

[Speaker]

July 28. Hello Helio!
Some time back Innovative Marine was kind enough to send me a 700-watt Helio heating system to test in my tank. The kid got COVID, then the wife - then me - so this kind of derailed my spring (plus I was still limping around from a broken ankle over the winter).

I'll be doing a comprehensive review over the summer/fall along the lines of what I've done for the Red Sea ReefMat, including some benchmarks and comparisons to my existing Inkbird/Schego heating setup so we can see how they perform side by side. Supposedly the Helio is deadly accurate and I'm looking forward to spooling up some data.

So stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for continued updates! Until then, a bit of eye candy to wet your whistle (IM really packs these nicely!)

Looking forward to knowing if its worth the money.