Red Sea Reefmat 500 large consumption

Haroldwagner · Jul 3, 2023

I have a redsea 425xl g2. 100 gallons. I change 1.5 gallons of water every day.
I am going through mats (91 feet) in a week. I have removed the media basket from under the Reefmat.

When I turn down the flow, I go through less of the mat. I do not think I am cleaning the water as much as when I raise the flow. My mat is coffee color on the dirty side. I have 7 fish, 4 clowns, blennies, hawkfish, and Sleeper golden head goby. I feed frozen food 1 time a day, and some pellets 2-3 times a week. I have a saltwater mixing station. The water is 0.00 RODI. The saltwater has brown algae inside the container. I have now blocked 95% of the light with towels and it has seemed to go down. Could the algae in the mixing station be creating this problem, or do you have any other suggestions?

Woodyman · Jul 3, 2023

@blaxsun I remember you having some heavy consumption when you setup yours.

Haroldwagner · Jul 3, 2023

Woodyman said:
@blaxsun I remember you having some heavy consumption when you setup yours.

That was true when I had the media basket installed.

blaxsun · Jul 3, 2023

Woodyman said:
@blaxsun I remember you having some heavy consumption when you setup yours.

Yes I did. If you run the media basket with any bio media it tends to clog easily and prematurely raise the water level - leading to 2-3x fleece usage. It will also use a bit more for the first week just "breaking things in".

Haroldwagner · Jul 3, 2023

blaxsun said:
Yes I did. If you run the media basket with any bio media it tends to clog easily and prematurely raise the water level - leading to 2-3x fleece usage. It will also use a bit more for the first week just "breaking things in".

I just started this within the last month. (using a lot of mat) I installed this back in March of 2023