Erics red sea xxl 750

[ESH]

The reagent comes in a concentrated mixture. The unit itself came with a 250ml bottle, which you add 1L of RODI water to. The first mixture got me through 13 days: To put this in perspective though, I was calibrating pumps trying to figure out how to set it up, and I had it going every hour for the first 3 days. Then I switched it to every 2 hours. I just made a second mixture this past weekend, so I'll see how far this batch gets me. Likely 15-20 days at every 2 hours.

1L concentrated reagent is currently $29.99, 4L is $110.00

So if Im testing every 2 hours, lets say I get at least 15 days, then realistically I could get 60 days out of a 1L. If I move to testing every 4 hours, then 120 days per 1L. I'm not sure what the best number for testing is. I like being able to see what the tank is doing through out the day. Testing every three hours could get me to about 90 days, and then the 4L bottle would get me through the year.

on another note, I got the shroom out of its cave and back out in the open. couple of better photos.

Hopefully it takes to the new location!

 

[SaracensRugby]

Hmm, interesting. Thanks, seems like it may be cheaper than Tridents reagents, if you believe the guesstimates. Although trident include 3 tests, so maybe the math works out equal.

 

[ESH]

It will be interesting to see how the trident operation costs come out to compare.

 

[ESH]

Not having much luck in the Q tank. 5 of my 6 dispair anthia's crooked on me, and now the Scopus tang either has velvet or ich.., more likely velvet based on photo comparison. Guess this is the whole point of the Q tank Time for copper, and I hope I'm not too late. I only started seeing things these past few days, but was out of the country most of last week.

Sailfin is doing fine in the frag tank at least and has pretty much eaten all but the bubble algae that was growing out of control in there. Couple more weeks and I'll move it up.

No tank goes without its challenges. I made the mistake of letting my Alkatronic's measurement fluid running dry between last night and today, and after mixing more, priming and recalibrating pumps, something seems off with it. First, priming pumps and calibration doesn't work well over wifi - this part seems to work best with bluetooth connection. Its easy to go from wifi, to bluetooth, but the other way around requires some manual removal and entry of wifi data in the app. My updated test results seem off. While I was measuring a solid 8 to 8.5 kH for the past month, today my first retest was at a 7.6, followed by a 7.08, followed by a 6.52, all within an hour. I cross checked using the hanna checker, which read 7.6 on two different tests. I tend to believe the hanna, and think this specific lower reading from the Hanna is accurate to what the Alkatronic has been reading, as usually around this time of day the system would do a small 50-80ml dose to correct the readings. Red dots = dosed

Something interesting here too, the lowest reading of 6.5 actually happened after the 3 to the right of it. So not sure whats going on. I was having an issue with the dashboard on wifi, as when Id click on a function nothing would happen. So I switched to blue tooth and it operated fine. Then when I switched back to wifi, the first thing it randomly did was a command I previously asked it to do, then it ran a test without my asking, screen re freshed and here were are. Lesson on technology, its a great tool, you cannot always trust it and need to cross check it to verify the results are accurate.
Anyways, I swear I mixed the test reagent correct. Calibration and fluid checks for the measurements are showing spot on. I could remix a batch and see if that changes anything, but otherwise I'm not sure if I was simply off previously, or currently off on my new readings. I'm not always concerned of the exact #, I'm sure there is some variance to it, I just want to keep a consistent reading level.

 

[ESH]

posted this in another thread, but definitely needs to get added to the build thread! Here's to hoping this gives me some time back in my life from testing! I plan to have this auto test Mag, Calcium, nitrate, alternate phosphate in it as well as there are only 8 solution bottles. All need to be liquid tests.


Pretty solid packaging. Everything came in nicely. Lots of dust like particles from the foam packaging. Im somewhat concerned about it being in the test chambers and will have to read how to clean them out.


Test Chamber dust that I mentioned. Should be easy to clean out.

All parts are placed securely inside.

Each bottle has its own stirrer. Bunch of extra needles and syringes. Tubing, connectors, extra stirrers and adhesive labels (no need for the word doc!)


Power Supply. Its beefy, initial observation on this one is that I'm not 100% sure its sealed on the bottom, Taiwanese electronics are usually pretty good but still, like all electronics, not meant for water. My recommendation would be to keep this off the floor and away from the splash zone.


Hopefully I'll find time to get this up and running soon!


Now where to put it? Its the size of a computer case. Weighs about the same, and has small gaps around the edges where the clear covers are, so any water splashing from the sump or any spills that I do about 1-2x a week could result in salt creep getting in. So It has to be close enough to the tank to meet the water feed requirements, yet not so close to get water on it. Hmmm... time to organize my chaos and get a new shelf built!


All said and done, once I get it up and running, if anyone out there in the Chicagoland area is interested in ordering one themselves but on the fence since this thing is so new to the market, I'd be happy to find a time so you can check it out. After I ordered it, I saw theres a $100 off code floating around for the first 100 people to order. Wish I saw that... Ordering was a challenge, as my bank kept flagging for fraud as the company's merchant processing is based out of Beirut lebanon. Transaction is in USD, but definitely looks like fraud to the bank. That is unless you commonly make purchases from there, but thats another story. Anyways, more to come on the new Reefbot!

 

[Behnken]

What are your thoughts on the reef bot so far?

 

[ESH]

What are your thoughts on the reef bot so far?

I really like it.

They’ve added more test kits already. My current setup is Red Sea Phosphate which I just added yesterday, Red Sea Alk , Red Sea Magnesium, and API still for nitrate.

Most of the time it works well. Alerts are great in both the App and via email. Customer support is top notch.

Testing software is cloud based, which means if there is any sort of server miss communication that test results might come back as no result returned. The first time I had this issue was yesterday, and so this morning I did what any tech support person will tell you and I reset the bot by powering it off and back on. This worked and it’s testing as planned.

Test times vary by the test, usually ranging 30min to 1hr. So if you need immediate results do a manual test and don’t use the bot. Otherwise I preschedule all my tests.

I’m very nit picky about some of the fine details of the bot. My only complaint is that in order for a test to run successfully, the regrant vials are supposed to be at least 55% full. So if you think about that, half of some regeants is not going to be used and you have to monitor and fill up every so often. I haven’t figured out the right setting to prefill through the App settings, and because consumption varies by test , you might get a weird result or no result returned if there isn’t enough in the vial.

All considering, this thing is pretty sweet!

O yeah, someone else figured out it’s easy enough to peel regeant labels off test kits and put right on the vials! Works pretty well!

 

[ESH]

Been a while since I've done any updates.

The reef bot is currently down. Ive been working with their technicians on trying to figure out why my mixing chamber keeps overflowing. Their team has been awesome, talking with me in the early mornings over the past week. We've determined a valve went bad and that a connector pin had a defect, so they sent me some new parts and will be sending a how to video. Luckily I like doing these types of things, otherwise I could see this being a bit of a technical challenge.

I also built a screen cover. I went with the redsea kit. I've used the BRS DIY kits for my other 2 tanks, made some mistakes but learned how to put these things together. The instructions for the red sea kit give pretty decent sizes. The front, sides, and ribs, once cut, fit perfectly. The back edge was a challenge as I had to carefully measure out where I had my lights placed and my auto feeder. To make cuts, I used a hack saw and a miter box.

Laid out

Test fit - had to do this a bunch of times to get the back side exact

Netting

Cut and pressed in

Side view

Front

Auto Feeder

Corner edge cut out for cord

So there you have it! I read lots of negative reviews about this kit on BRS, but to be honest if you take your time, measure twice cut once, or just recut using the extra parts like I had to , then it all works out. The fit is perfect, barely any gaps and it looks very clean. Not as nice as some of those acrylic ones out there, but for about 1/3 to 1/4 the price.

 

[Huff747]

Do you end up with much of the profile sections left over? Looking at the same top but wondering if I need to order extra profile sections to try and make a feed door.

 

[ESH]

The kit comes with quite a few 90 degree corners, and you only need 4. Not sure why they give you so many extra's. The corners can be cut at a 45' easily with a hacksaw to accommodate for 1 cable.

I ordered 4 additional profile kits that give the Z shaped corner - well its not really a Z, but if you look at the pictures previously posted it'll make sense. Each one comes with a small and large one. The small fits the RMS brackets, and the large one worked for the feed door I created for my Neptune Auto feeder. All in all, Im left with 3 additional sets of the large Z shaped corners.

Lots of extra netting, and lots of extra smaller sized aluminum edges.

 

[ESH]

Full tank Monday! That's a thing right? I finally got my ReefWeeds painting relocated from the other room. I'm hoping it inspires the other corals to start growing faster!

The reefbot repair is made, but I'm still waiting for their team to re calibrate and help me figure out why test results are coming back non responsive. Holiday weekend, I'm just impatient

I'm also battling some GHA - pretty certain it was related to an attempt to increase par, increased feedings from 1 to 2x per day, and an unexpected fish loss back in February which put the parameters out of whack. So I spent some time this past weekend manually removing as much as I could. 2 of the SPS didn't take to me being in the tank messing with things so much so it looks like they almost bleached out as they lost most of their color. One of them is a larger colony Ive had since 2 months into my 90gallon - the other was a frag I got from Battle corals last fall that only just started growing. My heart sank when I saw that, but looking close I still see polyps on them so it appears they are hanging on.

I also have 2 Sunburst Anthia's I picked up from a local LFS, Blue Line Coral. They are currently in the Q tank and Both are pretty tiny, <1" or so. Gotta fatten them up as I run through the Q process.

 

[ESH]

Reefbot update: The valve fix worked, but then something was off on the color sensor in the light chamber. We tried to do a few fixes and unfortunately were not able to resolve it. Tests executed, but wouldn't provide results. ReefKinetics has kindly agreed to send me a new Reefbot to replace mine so they can troubleshoot this unit further as its past my technical ability and patience of resolving. Way more than I'd ever expect them to do. Searching forums, this seems to be a one off issue. I'm pretty impressed with their customer service. It doesn't seem like a large team, but all said in done they have been very responsive and sent great instructions throughout the process. New one will be sent out this coming week so I'm excited to get up and running again!

Other tank challenges: GHA battle is ongoing. I cannot tell if I'm making progress or not.
Some SPS randomly bleached out on me since I started taking GHA out of the tank. Not sure why. Could be related to lots of factors though my best guess is its realted to having my hands in the tank scrubbing out GHA. Some recovered a few others are goners.
Water parameters are reading ok with some areas off. Alk is stable between 8.2-8.5. Ph is 8.1-8.4, Mag is high at 1600, Nitrate 0 - lower than expected. Phosphate .03, Ca is at 360 lower than expected so I've increased my CA reactor flow rate and will keep checking on things.

Meanwhile, picked up a few Scolys at the CMAS frag swap
Mini orange/green Scoly from Blue Line Coral in Naperville, IL.

And another from another vendor. Not sure what to call this one: Bleeding apple / bleeding rainbow / Rain Paint/ War-bow? Tons of colors - orange green red purple red.

Scoly Crew so far - Lots of flow in the tank so they don't open up as much as they did in my frag tank. The War paint used to be about double in size when fully open.

Got a couple of Croc Island scolys in a higher flow area that are doing well. Picked up the red one last fall, the Green from Cali Kid Corals during their March Live sale. If someone can confirm if they do well with other scolys let me know otherwise I'll continue to keep them in a separate area

and then the "OG Bounce Favia" - $15,000 if anyone wants it lol. Not sure why it's formed this bubble on itself.

 

[ESH]

Found a 20% off for live aquaria and picked up some more snails and hermits. 40 some scarlet hermits, 50 astreas, 20 cerith. The GHA battle is on! Side note, I swear about 1/4 of the Scarlets I order from Live Aquaria are empty shells. Its almost like the 20% off and free shipping balances the loss out.

 

[Blackice615]

Updated pics of that hairy beauty!

 

[ESH]

Tank updates:

• New reefbot is up and running. Life is good again. Really like being able to swap out for different tests and having the ability to reprogram in only a few minutes via my phone. Test efficiency appears to have gotten a heck of a lot better from when I got my first. Previously Id run a test, and it would take 5-10 min before the test command even made it to the bot. Now I click test, and less than a minute goes by and I see the bot turn from blue to green indicating its running a test.
• Oops I forgo to quarantine my CUC! I posted this in another thread, but I believe because I did not quarantine my clean up crew I brought in ich to the tank. While im pretty sure it was from the crew, I dont know from where as I got them from multiple sources. Ive also recently added additional Pods to the refugium, and some new corals in the same time frame with minimal quarantine, so it could of came from anywhere. Either way, the fish are doing alright. Ive increased feedings and they are all getting fat and happy.
• No time for catching all the fish and going fallow, so I added a 40 watt UV. I just got that in today and setup. Flow is slow through the UV.
  
  
  
• GHA battle continues. Ive been doing manual removal, and its hard to tell if Im just mowing it down or making progress.
• Believe the tank has diatoms. Im seeing air bubbles on the GHA and close to rock work. I'm not seeing any kind of micro bubbles coming from anywhere getting blown in the return line and when I manually blow off with a turkey baster they come back within the day. Im hoping that the new UV can help battle this. I haven't tried to identify what kind they are yet so if the UV works its just an added bonus. I also don't know if the slower flow rate settings covers down for both fish diseases and diatoms.
• I picked up a 3 stage DI add on to my RO system. Haven't set this up yet, but I got this because Im always burning through DI resin with the single stage. TDS always creeps up from 0 to 1 or 2 after the first 60-80 gallons and never made sense as the water going in to the DI was usually 7 to 12 TDS.
• Bounce Favia's continue to bubble up. Now different one is doing the same thing. The heck is going on?
  

 

[Jarvisffc]

Hi, great thread, how have you found your tank that close to the window please? I have a similar place to put mine and so just wanted to check this wasn't too close to direct sunlight as Ive been warned off that, thanks.

 

[ESH]

Hi, great thread, how have you found your tank that close to the window please? I have a similar place to put mine and so just wanted to check this wasn't too close to direct sunlight as Ive been warned off that, thanks.

Thanks! While it’s close to the window, the windows are south facing so the direct sunlight is minimal. the only time it gets any is in the AM and the trees outside block most of it. In the afternoon more light comes into the room from the west but none of it goes directly into the tank.

Glass is cleaned about every other day which I think is normal. Some of that might be coming from the sunlight.

GHA issue has pretty much gone away but now I’m dealing with red slime. I will be using some chemical treatments for that soon.

I’ve also been battling what I think is Dino’s as in the afternoon/ evenings I’m seeing a lot of bubbles on the rock work and some areas of the glass. This appears to be gone in the AM. I’m not seeing bubbles being pushed out of the return line, though I do think micro bubbles are coming out from the skimmer. So I’ll have to get a microscope to confirm Dino’s or not.

I’ve had the flow going real slow through the UV, due to the fact that my powder brown tang has ich. None of the other fish have showed any signs of it. If I confirm I have Dino’s, I’m wondering if I should increase the flow to kill off free floating Dino’s?

 

[Jarvisffc]

T

Thanks! While it’s close to the window, the windows are south facing so the direct sunlight is minimal. the only time it gets any is in the AM and the trees outside block most of it. In the afternoon more light comes into the room from the west but none of it goes directly into the tank.

Glass is cleaned about every other day which I think is normal. Some of that might be coming from the sunlight.

GHA issue has pretty much gone away but now I’m dealing with red slime. I will be using some chemical treatments for that soon.

I’ve also been battling what I think is Dino’s as in the afternoon/ evenings I’m seeing a lot of bubbles on the rock work and some areas of the glass. This appears to be gone in the AM. I’m not seeing bubbles being pushed out of the return line, though I do think micro bubbles are coming out from the skimmer. So I’ll have to get a microscope to confirm Dino’s or not.

I’ve had the flow going real slow through the UV, due to the fact that my powder brown tang has ich. None of the other fish have showed any signs of it. If I confirm I have Dino’s, I’m wondering if I should increase the flow to kill off free floating Dino’s?

Thanks for the reply

 

[ESH]

Moved these three out of quarantine. Cleaner shrimp and a couple of Sunburst Anthia's

 

[ESH]

Tank updates for the week

• Sunburst Anthia's hide all the time. I saw 1 this evening for the first time in a week. Hopefully both are still alive.
• Hair algae is pretty much gone! Huge victory!
• Brown tang still has Ich, no other fish are showing any signs. I don't get it. Going fallow isn't an option for me,
• Thought I had Dino's, but it might have just been a combo of cyano and my skimmer throwing micro bubbles into the tank. Or, maybe the UV killed it? I never did take a sample to scope... I dosed a cyano remover and it pretty much took care of it. Skimmer was off in the tank during this time and the bubbles went away. When I turned it back on, I started noticing some bubbles came back in the tank, and my frag tank had lots of bubbles.
• Skimmer is throwing tons of micro bubbles into the sump, and I'm not sure what the best way to stop this is. Before I dosed to clear out the cyano, the skimmer was pulling out a ton of foam gunk. So I'm going to have to take it apart, clean out, and see whats up. It was sending bubbles into the tank before, I just didn't notice it due to all the other issues I was having
  
• The red sea gate valve does ok, and Ill randomly have to adjust it throughout the week. Though, I came home to a loud gurgling sound one day this past week to find my roller mat turned into a skimmer
  
• Picked up a couple of new clams from Pacific East Aquaculture. They are tiny! My other two clams are not that big.
  
• Mimosa and a Gold Maxima
  
• 
  
  
• 
  
  
• Also, Pacific East Aquaculture's shipping boxes are the best! the handle is a game changer!