Mixed Reef - Red Sea Max S-650

[McFly]

Red Sea Max S-650 (150g) Setup in 2018.

FTS - 23MAY2026

July 2018 - New build, 30 days after the move/upgrade.

Lights:

Dosing:
Two part dosing Calcium chloride and Sodium carbonate from Captiv8 Aquaculture
I stopped any mag dosing as it was more trouble than what it was worth. The reef crystals have plenty of mag for me.

Target Parameters:
1.026
CA 450
KH 10
Mg 1350

Water Changes:
20g per week.
Reef Crystals

Sump:

8" Reef Octopus skimmer
8x8x4 block of MarinePure
Red Sea micro-mesh filter socks (removed in 2023)

(2) SICCE XSTREAM 8000
4 small pumps on the back wall have been off for years.

Stocking:

Pale Damselfish x1
Azure Damselfish x4
Scopas Tang 1x
Tomato Clownfish 1x
Six Line Wrasse 1x


Food:

Seachem Chlorella Fish Flakes - morning
Omega One Marine Flakes - evening

 

[Aqua 59]

I love your tank- very pretty fish and beautiful, healthy-looking corals.

 

[SPR1968]

The tank looks great and welcome to R2R!

I’ve got the S650 as well, great tanks

 

[PanchoG]

Welcome to R2R!!!

The S-Max are nice tanks.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks and sounds great!

 

[McFly]

Thanks everyone.

Here are the progression shots from my last tanks, 20g to 56Tall. Everything is now in the new tank.

Cheers!

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Great looking tank... Nice rock work.

 

[McFly]

Here are a few shots I took today.

15DEC18

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

Here is a pic of the sump.

I am keeping it simple underneath, just filter socks, 8" Reef Octopus skimmer,a 8x8x4 block of MarinePure and a 100g bag of carbon changed weekly.

The filter socks are the Red Sea micro-mesh type and they clog every 3-4 days.

This is the collection cup after about 5 days:

The cup is huge!

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

New Year updates!

I added two XF280 Gyres to each side of the tank. I am running them at 10%, alternating between the two pumps every 6 hours to simulate tides.

Here is a quick FTS from this morning, during feeding, with the new pumps:

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

Update - I did my weekly water change of 20g yesterday and moved some of the coral around for better flow. Also I moved one of the XF280s vertically for better aesthetics when viewing from the side.

I also created a more advanced flow that syncs up with my light schedule, using the auto-mode (24 hour cycle), here is the current setup:

FTS 1/5:

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

Here is a before/after shot, 6 months apart. Tank is still settling in to the new lights which I have been slowly cranking up.

Top picture is the tank 30 days after the move from my 56 tall (July 2018).

Bottom picture is from today 1/26/19.

Side shot 1/26/19

FTS 1/26/19

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

2 Week Update: Trimmed some corals, having a bit of a GHA outbreak at the moment, going to try Vibrant to push through the algae phase a little quicker.

FTS from this morning with whites pretty high:

Cheers!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Love that. Tank cruising with a ton of growth.

 

[PanchoG]

Nice tank @McFly.

 

[McFly]

(2) Week Update - Still working on the algae phase, dosing Vibrant 15ml every 2-3 days now, seems to be helping along with manual removal during WC. Corals are growing well, I am going to have to trim the red Montis soon.

24FEB19

Caught this snail the other day, Xenia and blue mushroom somehow attached to his shell.

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

Mid Week Update - Algae phase going well. All the rock in the tank that was new or never exposed to the light is growing massive amounts of algae. It looks like GHA but is likely some kind of Bryopsis based on my forum searching. Manual removal helps, but this stuff must run its course.

Shots from the top.

26FEB19

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

2 Week Update!

I turned white lights back down to 30% after a month at 60%. Aside from the branching SPS, most of the coral did not appreciate the increase. It was the first month I did not need to increase my 2-part dosing, also did not need to dose any Mg.

I also stopped dosing Vibrant due to poor polyp extension. Still working through the algae, a few areas have cleared.

Shot of the bleaching, it's only happening on this colony, the same coral in others areas is fine. Not really sure what is going wrong; too much light was my best guess, since its the highest one; also I'm sure the Vibrant did not help.

 

[McFly]

Quick two week update, steady as she goes. Still working through the algae, its dying off and red cyno is eating it, also it is collecting in my overflow grates by the end of the week.

FTS 30MAR19

The bleaching in the one monti colony got worse, so I changed the return pump flow a bit today and fragged off 2 of the worst spots.

The red planet is taking off in this spot, however not really growing in the other two areas I have it. I am surprised the nem has not irritated it.

This is one of the only (2) new coral I have added since the upgrade/move last year; progress picture of the purple digi.

Cheers!

 

[McFly]

Played around with my phone camera's 'Pro' mode again last night.

Cheers!