HighEndOfTheLow's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

highendofthelow · Jul 12, 2019

Not really much to report the overall hair algae is slowly being beaten back, but cruely ironic cyano is making a return.

Went to my LFS today and picked up some more snails to rebuild the stock level

Picked up another 10x black foot troncus, 10x ceriths and 5 x chestnut snails (a type of turbo snail)

highendofthelow · Jul 23, 2019

Hello world!

So I feel like we've been reefer hermits the last few weeks, I'm glad to report that the tank I'd slowly turning a corner, we added a further 10 Spiny Asteria snails and 2 sand sifting conches and these seem by far the most effective in handling the reddish hair algae that came as a consequence of the tank crash/cycle. Most frags/bits look a touch rough but are surprisingly resilient.

Alk consumption is back to near what it was pre tank crash.

We continue to manually strip algae out where we can, and generally keep on top of the nitrates and phosphates.

Nitrates are reading 0.2 ppm
Phosphates read 0.076 ppm (believe me this is better then the 0.3 ppm they were a few weeks back)

Hopefully we'll be in a happier place in a few weeks. I've asked my LFS to grab me some more snails to booster the numbers up

najer · Jul 27, 2019

highendofthelow said:
Hello world!

So I feel like we've been reefer hermits the last few weeks, I'm glad to report that the tank I'd slowly turning a corner, we added a further 10 Spiny Asteria snails and 2 sand sifting conches and these seem by far the most effective in handling the reddish hair algae that came as a consequence of the tank crash/cycle. Most frags/bits look a touch rough but are surprisingly resilient.

Alk consumption is back to near what it was pre tank crash.

We continue to manually strip algae out where we can, and generally keep on top of the nitrates and phosphates.

Nitrates are reading 0.2 ppm
Phosphates read 0.076 ppm (believe me this is better then the 0.3 ppm they were a few weeks back)

Hopefully we'll be in a happier place in a few weeks. I've asked my LFS to grab me some more snails to booster the numbers up

Are your nitrates really at that, very low?

highendofthelow · Jul 28, 2019

najer said:
Are your nitrates really at that, very low?

Yup, I've NEVER had a tank routinely measure more then 2ppm, generally under 0.2ppm, but I've always had phosphates around the 0.1 mark

This tank maybe masking the true value at the moment since its crash I had phosphates shoot through the roof to 0.3ppm nitrates upto 20ppm, this caused a nasty case of hair algae. The nitrates are now back to 0.2ppm and phosphates were 0.05ppm thanks to daily dosing of lanthium chloride (probably less I havent tested today), the hair algae is also on the turn and I'm hoping within the next few weeks itll be back to near showable standard.

highendofthelow · Sep 21, 2019

We're still here, still slowly beating back the hair algae, its pretty soul destroying,
As of yesterday my phosphates were 0.015 my main issue is just sourcing and introducing sufficient cleanup crew to go through the algae, its a big ol tank.

i've not been able to source any real turbos or similar, there's a few spiny astraea snails which seem to do a reasonable job but simply not enough, I also had a few bills this month + needed my first Alkatronic reagent top up (so 4ltrs lasted me approx 18 months, and I wasted quite a bit over the months whilst waiting for my Ca reactor) meaning spare cash is a bit tighter then usual but I'll hopefully chuck some more in soon.

We actually have made a new introduction what is almost certainly the final tang to the tank (I cant believe i've got 3 now..) a small bristletooth Ctenochaetus Striatus or orange stripe tang, but its the super blue orange phenotype vs the brown / orange type. More so to just help graze at the alage/ keep the rock clean once its clean etc. The regal didn't take to it initially but has now settled, this means we now have a large regal, yellow and a small orange stripe. my tanks have always been missing a bristletooth or so but I've never found one I've really been interested in.

Unfortunately we also lost both Helfrichi's literally one day there were there the next we didn't, They can be known for disappearing for a day or two (especially with us working) so thought little of it, however its now been a few weeks so they're presumed gone, which is a bit gutting.

I have no idea what got them and wonder if there was rockslide / similar, we've checked all around and under the tank and there is no evidence of jumping (especially 2) . Unfortunately where they used to bed down is inaccessible and un-viewable from the front or side. I'd like to replace them but for the moment that's certainly going on the back burner until the tank is sorted.

I'll get there but until i have this algae under control I cant/wont introduce new coral which unfortunately makes for a boring read!

So please appolgies and bare with us.

Luke and Liz

Brew12 · Sep 21, 2019

highendofthelow said:
We're still here, still slowly beating back the hair algae, its pretty soul destroying,
As of yesterday my phosphates were 0.015 my main issue is just sourcing and introducing sufficient cleanup crew to go through the algae, its a big ol tank.

i've not been able to source any real turbos or similar, there's a few spiny astraea snails which seem to do a reasonable job but simply not enough, I also had a few bills this month + needed my first Alkatronic reagent top up (so 4ltrs lasted me approx 18 months, and I wasted quite a bit over the months whilst waiting for my Ca reactor) meaning spare cash is a bit tighter then usual but I'll hopefully chuck some more in soon.

We actually have made a new introduction what is almost certainly the final tang to the tank (I cant believe i've got 3 now..) a small bristletooth Ctenochaetus Striatus or orange stripe tang, but its the super blue orange phenotype vs the brown / orange type. More so to just help graze at the alage/ keep the rock clean once its clean etc. The regal didn't take to it initially but has now settled, this means we now have a large regal, yellow and a small orange stripe. my tanks have always been missing a bristletooth or so but I've never found one I've really been interested in.

Unfortunately we also lost both Helfrichi's literally one day there were there the next we didn't, They can be known for disappearing for a day or two (especially with us working) so thought little of it, however its now been a few weeks so they're presumed gone, which is a bit gutting.

I have no idea what got them and wonder if there was rockslide / similar, we've checked all around and under the tank and there is no evidence of jumping (especially 2) . Unfortunately where they used to bed down is inaccessible and un-viewable from the front or side. I'd like to replace them but for the moment that's certainly going on the back burner until the tank is sorted.

I'll get there but until i have this algae under control I cant/wont introduce new coral which unfortunately makes for a boring read!

So please appolgies and bare with us.

Luke and Liz

Congrats on the new fish! I've never seen one of those Bristletooth's in person. Yellow and Blue Eyed are about the only ones I ever see in stores. Do you think he will hold his blue coloring as he gets older?

My tank is on a holding pattern because of algae, also. I am winning the war but I am taking it as slow as possible. My coral is growing well and is finally coloring up the way it should. I don't want to risk that color by causing a nutrient spike from dying algae. Slow and steady is winning the race. For me, a CuC isn't an issue, I just can't find anything that will eat it. I've tried 5 types of snails and 2 types of urchin with no luck. I'm just glad mine doesn't grow enough to negatively impact anything other than the smallest of coral frags and I only have a couple of those. I will admit that changing filter socks every 2 to 3 days as they clog gets old, but it is a sign of progress.

highendofthelow · Sep 22, 2019

This is the photo taken by the LFS. Our LFS had 2 in and said the wholesaler had a tank full. On reading a bit about them I believe they should keep the blue into adulthood. We will wait and see

najer · Sep 22, 2019

Very pretty fish.

highendofthelow · Nov 2, 2019

Well that was a painfully slow month but I'm happy to say were now back on track, theres still a small amount of algae but we're now at the stage where we can add new corals and fish again.

Over the past month we've upgraded the firmware on the Alkatronic to the v2 firmware (numerous improvements + pH readings now)

That has helped give further insight to the tank but more on this in a moment.

We've also added a small (legal) fox coral frag and a small chalice frag that was going cheap.

The colours in the tank in the remaining sps are great at the moment and I'll freely admit I have a new found appreciation for the relationship of phosphates and sps colour its certainly something I'll pay closer attention to from now on,

We're actually using lanthium chloride to manage the phosphates.

We made a new contact for potential SPS frags which is good as my local contacts had dried up. We've yet to go but it sounds promising.

Parameters wise

We're currently running

Salinity 1.025 - 1.026
Alkalinity 7.97
Calcium 355
Magnesium 1350

Nitrates around 0 - 0.2
Phosphates 0.03

PH 7.77 - 7.81 (average daily min max)

So as mentioned earlier the new firmware on the Alkatronic captures tank pH values prior to testing, and as visible in my results; we are on the low side (but not insanely low for a tank running purely on a Calcium reactor).

Now I understand the science behind pH and coral growth especially with sps and do intend on working to improve this, but before making any significant changes I figured I'd check my Alk Ca and Mag, only to discover that it was significantly lower then expected. Therefore before we look into other options I want to get my Alk Ca and Mag back into balance first.

But for now; the tanks looking the best it has in months finally.

highendofthelow · Nov 4, 2019

We continue to raise the tanks Calcium levels, as of this morning we're at 350 BUT something very interesting happened yesterday, we saw a HUGE increase (figuratively speaking) of Alk consumption (nearly 0.5 dKH more then "typical" in 6 hours).

Now admittedly we did a few things yesterday but it was interesting observation, one we wouldnt have seen without the Alkatronic.

Yesterday we razored the back glass of algae for the first time in for ever (So lots of algae particulate in the water column)
We also fed a small amount of food (nothing out of the ordinary)
and added some Ca trace.

We also saw the PH peak to 7.94 during this time frame,

I've just added a further 75 ml of our stock solution so it will be interesting to see if the tank sucks a load of Alk again today.

highendofthelow · Nov 4, 2019

7 Day Results including yesterdays alk consumption (we ran a few tests back to back to ensure it was legitamate)

And as I was at it, Look how stable my Alk is in the past 30 days even I'm impressed at how straight it is generally
The upper limit is 8.3 dKH
The lower limit is 7.6 dkH

( the slight increase towards the end of the graph was me increasing the Cx reactor output to meet demand).

highendofthelow · Nov 9, 2019

So the tank calcium levels was raised up 420 at the beginng of the week and interestingly there has been a slight shift in PH

We're now pushing 7.93 pH during the day and 7.80 at night previously this was 7.83 - 7.77 just goes to show the affect of Calcium + Alkalinity has an affect on pH.

We haven't seen another huge drop in Alk consumption (in a single day) but were seeing an overall increase in alk requirements.

we've therefore had to bump up the Ca reactor a few times over the past week; so we're putting that spike down as ether me razoring the back glass causing large amounts of particulate in the water column or more I suspect now that the levels are better balanced the SPS have "woken up" again which explains the overall increase trend in daily alk consumption.

Finally as a bit of fun; Liz spent a few days away in Edinburgh this week on a work course and she brought me back a gift.

A fossilized pea crab to add to my small but respectable fossil collection (not sure if I've already mentioned it on the forum but I also have a mantis shrimp, a fish plate, a pipe fish/eel, a bug eaten leaf and a fossilized wood disk) the idea is to mount them as a piece of artwork at some point.

highendofthelow · Nov 28, 2019

So its about due we placed an update as theres been a few relatively minor things to say.

Firstly our retrofit for the 750XXL has arrived, thankfully our tank shows no sign of compromise but admittedly we haven't had time to fit it yet (if you dont know what we're on about click here for an R2R thread).

We had my first power supply blow on my AI hydra, pretty much bang on the 2 year mark. it stings a little but is not significantly better or worse then my experience with Xr15's.

The official replacement i got yesterday was £65, yes I could have brought an off brand power supply (36 watt 2.5A FYI) but figured for the sake of not much more money i can get one that should in theory last + have the longer cable then most.
So after calling a nearish LFS we picked that up last night and replaced it (our tank wiring is even worse now......but atleast there is light)

Onto the good news, i cant remember if a said previously but after the tank crash and what not we went down to 2 lyretail anthias.

I had every intention of upping the numbers but noted that 1 of the remaining has shifted to male; although not the first time I've seen it; its always interesting to watch.

At the moment he's changing virtually daily, getting extra extensions to his fins, red colouration, plus blood red spots formed on its pectoral fins, So i took the opportunity to boost the numbers a bit ( we now have 5 in total 4 F 1 M ) and to be fair I've missed having the shoal around.

I also took the opportunity to pick up a couple of frags whilst picking up the replacement power supply, a royal blue tenius like acropora and a yellow / brown acropora, nothing amazingly special but nice none the less, I'll try and find time to upload some photos once i've razored the glass.

but for now we're getting there.

highendofthelow · Dec 1, 2019

Right so that was 40 minutes of hard work but glad it's done.

Liz and I have just fitted the retro fix for the red sea reefer 750 XXL

The retrofit is actually pretty well thought out considering it's an aftermarket fit; it braces the left and right side and offers a reinforced bar in the middle of the sump section (as visible on the new reefer xxl/xxxl series).

It was a bit of a pain to fit it however purely due to access, a cordless drill to get the screws to bite through the cabinet skin made the job alot easier and then finished with a screwdriver.

It's also kicked us into action to finally look at sorting out our electronics section.

highendofthelow · Dec 1, 2019

And 6 hours later

Before

After

not as clean as some but I'm happy with it its alot cleaner then it was before.

the only issue I had was all the disruption and messing with resetting the calcium reactor back up caused my Alk to shoot up to 9.5 dkH (thank you Alkatronic for the heads up)

So we've got to give that a day or two to settle down and then I'll need to monitor the Calcium reactor (I was getting some back siphoning that I was trying to sort out which caused a reasonably large amount of effluent to fill the tank)