Shaun's 2000 Litre (530 USG) Living Reef & Red Sea Max S 650 LED Design & Build

[fabutahoun]

Nice Video and photos, the Triggers are amazing !!!

 

[SPR1968]

Nice shots old man!!

Thanks @jsker !

 

[SPR1968]

Nice Video and photos, the Triggers are amazing !!!

They are a pair of characters and are very active Fadi, infact yesterday during a mad few minutes they were chasing each other like they were going to murder each other. Clearly having a domestic!! Lol

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a couple more ‘up closer’

 

[Janci]

Here’s a picture I think of a Lobophyllia coral, a green version which has grown really well

Great coral.
Love the picture.

 

[PanchoG]

They are a pair of characters and are very active Fadi, infact yesterday during a mad few minutes they were chasing each other like they were going to murder each other. Clearly having a domestic!! Lol

lol... no need to say the male was the one running away!

 

[fabutahoun]

lol... no need to say the male was the one running away!

lol

 

[SPR1968]

I’ve been keeping an eye on my nitrate levels over the last few weeks which I ‘think’ are around 16ppm.

I’ve always used the Red Sea Nitrate Pro but i seem to be struggling to match the colour on the high range test as it just seems very vague as to which it is. I wonder if I’m going partially colour blind to pink colours! The kit is still in date until 2019

I’ve tried the Salifert one which again is pink (and the maths is hard!lol) so I’ve read lots of reviews and have just ordered the NYOS nitrate test kit which has a yellow colour chart so I’ll see how I get on with that.

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a picture from the deep of a ‘green’ coral......

 

[jsker]

I’ve been keeping an eye on my nitrate levels over the last few weeks which I ‘think’ are around 16ppm.

I’ve always used the Red Sea Nitrate Pro but i seem to be struggling to match the colour on the high range test as it just seems very vague as to which it is. I wonder if I’m going partially colour blind to pink colours! The kit is still in date until 2019

I’ve tried the Salifert one which again is pink (and the maths is hard!lol) so I’ve read lots of reviews and have just ordered the NYOS nitrate test kit which has a yellow colour chart so I’ll see how I get on with that.

Totally agree, there all hard to read. I am now using the ELOS nitrate test and one the barley tell the difference between 5 and 10 ppm. It would be so cool if @Hanna Instruments could come up with a nitrate tester. I have used both the Salifert and Red Sea and I would say out of those two I preferred the Red Sea nitrate test.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I use Red Sea for the most part. Hanna Nitrate would be great!

One thing I have found with the API and Red Sea type of tests is if higher value colors are harder to read, try using twice the water sample volume (such as 10ml instead of 5ml), run the test normal, then double the resulting value. The dilution puts the results at colors that are easier to read (for me anyway).

 

[SPR1968]

Totally agree, there all hard to read. I am now using the ELOS nitrate test and one the barley tell the difference between 5 and 10 ppm. It would be so cool if @Hanna Instruments could come up with a nitrate tester. I have used both the Salifert and Red Sea and I would say out of those two I preferred the Red Sea nitrate test.

Yes I agree as well, I prefer the Red Sea from these two, I’ve just ordered the NYOS because it’s a yellow colour chart for a change.

The problem with many of the kits is when you get over around 10, they seem to have large gaps, so 10-25 for example, what use it that. Is it 12 or 24? I suppose it’s just an estimate in between.

And great idea with the doubling the water and maths @NY_Caveman , it’s not my strong point! Lol

 

[Janci]

Yes I agree as well, I prefer the Red Sea from these two, I’ve just ordered the NYOS because it’s a yellow colour chart for a change.

The problem with many of the kits is when you get over around 10, they seem to have large gaps, so 10-25 for example, what use it that. Is it 12 or 24? I suppose it’s just an estimate in between.

And great idea with the doubling the water and maths @NY_Caveman , it’s not my strong point! Lol

Asking to make smaller scales once NO3 is over 10ppm is asking for more colours-vision-trouble and I guess it will be bad for our credit cards.
I stick with Salifert. I like the smaller plastic tubes instead of the glass bottles of Red Sea... easier to replace as they seem to like to fall out of my hands.

 

[jsker]

@NY_Caveman I am going to have to try that with the ELOS

@Janci try a magnetic stirrer, that is what I use with all of my tests now that require stirring. The only one I do not use the stirrer with is the Hanna Ca, Alk.

 

[fabutahoun]

Totally agree, there all hard to read. I am now using the ELOS nitrate test and one the barley tell the difference between 5 and 10 ppm. It would be so cool if @Hanna Instruments could come up with a nitrate tester. I have used both the Salifert and Red Sea and I would say out of those two I preferred the Red Sea nitrate test.

+1 I prefer Red Sea for Nitrate and Phosphate , also I want to give NYOS a try.

 

[SPR1968]

This is a picture of one of several frags taken from the colony being overwhelmed by the montipora coral in the second picture

I think it looks a little more healthy!

 

[Janci]

The birdsnest frag looks good.
The monti also!

 

[SPR1968]

The NYOS nitrate test kit arrived today so I’ve done my first test with it and I have to say it’s very easy to do the test, and also and more importantly, for me the yellow results are far more clear than the Red Sea, or Sailfert pink colours. The wait time is just 5 minutes and the result very clear, to my eyes anyway.

Over the last 6 months I can only say that I’ve been testing with the Red Sea Nitrate Pro, and the readings have been based on an intensity rather than actual colour as the colours simply don’t match the results card. The kit is in date until 2019.

I have been using increased Nopox dosing and also added some Seachem Matrix and you can see from the pictures below that the result is somewhat in between 5-12ppm so let’s say around 9ish as middle ground and inline with my targets.

So at the moment I will stick using the NYOS nitrate and when ready for new kits I also try out the Calcium and maybe Magnesium kits

I’m very impressed with NYOS is general and especially the NYOS Quantum 160 skimmer I use.

 

[SPR1968]

So today I’ve taken out 2 of the original Brightwell NO3 bricks which have basically started to disintegrate. They were replaced free of charge but I just left the originals in place which is why i had 4

I’ve added another 4 litres of Seachem Matrix so now have 6 litres in total which I’ve put into the Seachem zip bags to keep it together. According to the write up this is enough for a very large water volume at around 4800 litres, but you can’t have to much filtration!

You can see the mess the Brightwell bricks have made in the sump with all the brown ‘sand’ and I’ll get that cleaned out when I do a water change, but I wanted to get the Matrix in to start bacteriaifying! Yes this is a new word for you non technical people!lol

The remaining Brightwell bricks seem to be reasonably ok at the moment, as is the Marine Pure block which seems very solid.

I’ve tried Matrix as it doesn’t need to be replaced and is basically a type of porous rock with holes for the bacteria to do its stuff.

Anyway a picture showing the changes and forgive the sandy mess.....

 

[Janci]

How long were the bricks inside before they started to disintegrate?
I did not know they were so brittle.