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

[SPR1968]

I love the fish in your tank.

Thank you Michael, me to.

I just love to watch the movement. That’s primarily why I have a lot of SPS type corals as many move, but it’s like, or rather actually is, a living thriving coral reef. In my home.

 

[SPR1968]

So here are better quality pictures of the two new arrivals

Vampire Tang

And Blue Eyed Tang

 

[fabutahoun]

Interesting Fish List !! Too Many Tangs

 

[GoVols]

Interesting Fish List !! Too Many Tangs

(lol)

Shaun needs to add a Sohal...

 

[dantimdad]

Stunning tank!

Love the triggers and anthias!

 

[fabutahoun]

(lol)

Shaun needs to add a Sohal...

;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

 

[SPR1968]

Stunning tank!

Love the triggers and anthias!

Thank you @dantimdad !

The Triggers are great to watch and add a real presence to the tank.

And the Anthias, well like they say, are the jewels of the reef

 

[SPR1968]

Interesting Fish List !! Too Many Tangs

That’s just the Tang list Fadi ! Lol

(lol)

Shaun needs to add a Sohal...

I don’t need any encouragement thank you Freddie (having just searched Sohal Tang!) I need restraint! Lol

 

[SPR1968]

And the montipora coral continues to march all over the other corals......

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a picture of a birds nest coral I think with reflections from the water surface

 

[HolisticBear]

Here’s a picture of a birds nest coral I think with reflections from the water surface

Way cool

 

[fabutahoun]

Beautifully Done !!

 

[najer]

Here’s a picture of a birds nest coral I think with reflections from the water surface

Very nice, if you get bored with the polyps being out send it to me, my flame angel will soon put that pe nonsense out!

 

[Janci]

Here’s a picture of a birds nest coral I think with reflections from the water surface

Very cool photo.

 

[SPR1968]

It’s been a miserable weekend here in the UK (so no white ball hitting!) so yesterday I thought I might do some of those maintenance jobs that I don’t really like doing. Infact the ones I hate doing.

So after about 2 hours sitting there thinking shall I, well I can’t really be bothered, but I ought to really, no I’ll just leave it, I decided to take out and clean the rear circulation pumps. It’s been nearly a year to the day since they were last cleaned.

So I took out the first 2, shoved a couple of filter floss balls into the holes to stop fish swimming through, and left them to soak for an hour in a solution of citric acid. I prefer this to vinegar just because it doesn’t small as much.

While the pumps were soaking, I replaced the 4 rear circulation vent covers with my spare set, and I also took out the rear flow overflow combs and soaked them for an hour or so. These are something easy to forget and like the vent covers, will get encrusted with coralline if left to long which makes them much harder to remove.

After an hour most of the coralline algae had dissolved from the hose outlets and the pumps were as good as new. To be honest apart from the casings, the impeller and inside were not to bad so I might leave it 2 years before the next clean! Lol

So I set to work taking the final 2 pumps out to soak and putting the first 2 back into place.

The following picture shows the rear section with all pumps removed and you can see all the anemones, probably Aipstasia on the combs. Ignore the Apex sensor holder on its side it’s not normally in that position

You will note the 2 pieces of filter floss in the holes. Whilst clambering to put the 2 pumps back, I was looking down from the back of the tank thinking those are unusual sponges. It was only when I poked one of them I realised it was the back of the filter floss sticking through (what an idiot! Lol)

2 pumps back in, I stuffed the 2 pieces of sponge/filter floss into the other 2 holes for the other pumps and waited an hour for them to soak. When I went back to refit them, I looked into the rear chamber, and in the few minutes before I blocked the holes, a stupid Wrasse has gone through the hole into the rear chamber. And then decided to hide. It was pure luck I spotted him.

So a 2 minute job took me another 30 minutes whilst I tried to catch this stupid fish.......

So with the all pumps cleaned and up and running I also cleaned the Apex salinity probe as it had been 3 months and it usually freaks out after that period so while I had the back off, cleaned and then recalibrated.

So today (yes it’s raining!) I thought in for a penny...... I’ll make some beer and some wine... yes I’ll digress slightly but bear with me I’m going mad with boredom!

So I’ve made some English Old Suffolk strong ale, picture of finished version below after conditioning and ‘one I made earlier’ (8%!) and some Pino Grigio and white Zinfandel (winexpert selection kits if your interested - I also mainly make the winexpert Eclipse Reds which are excellent)

Anyway after replenishing my alcohol stock, I though I know Ill change the main pump, so I did and it took just 2 minutes to swap the pump back to the original and put the spare into soak and storage. It had been in for about 6 months and was pretty clean inside.

I’m sure the original is quieter than the spare but......

The picture below is of my excel spreadsheet up dated including a ‘clean rear overflow weirs’ section.

You can also see clearly under the nitrate test results were I changed the test kit to the NYOS and added 6 litres of Seachem Matrix. The drop is very noticeable.

So maintenance done, alcohol replenished..........

 

[najer]

Very productive of you!

 

[Janci]

So maintenance done, alcohol replenished..........

Well, if tank maintenance is so rewarding, I might do some myself next weekend.

Would you mind show a little more about the "under/inside cabinet" equipment?

 

[NY_Caveman]

The reflection looks like the Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. Very cool picture.

8%! Nice!

 

[SPR1968]

This seems to be a popular picture

Way cool

Beautifully Done !!

Very cool photo.

The reflection looks like the Emerald City in Wizard of Oz. Very cool picture.

8%! Nice!

Thanks Guys!

 

[SPR1968]

Here are a few pictures and explanatory notes on the life support and general equipment @Janci

This is the complete system including black cabinet to the side.

Well what’s inside said black cabinet I here you say......

All sorts! Lol

At the back of the cabinet, screwed to a wooden panel is the Apex system with various modules.

You can see what’s in the cabinet including dried foods, dosing containers, glass clothes and scrapers, refractometer etc. Did I mention nest of wires!

The following is a picture of the Kamoer doser, temperature controller and Tunze Osmolator ATO and a very good algae clip I purchased. You can also see the Apex and ‘wiring looms’ as well!

The following is the power centre with large ATO reservoir underneath which holds around 90 litres of RODI water and will last around 2 - 2 1/2 weeks. This is used by the Tunze and their is also around 5 days in the rear of the tank via the built in float ATO system which will cut in if the Tunze fails or runs out of water.

And now the sump

I’ve shown this picture before but basically
Bottom left - Seachem Matrix bags x 6 litres and a marine pure block. DD UV-C steriliser at the back and deltec FR509 rhowaphos reactor fed from the return pump.

Back middle is the NYOS Quantum 160 skimmer, with a large skimmate container (ex wine/grape juice container!) which will last easy 2 weeks provided the skimmer doesn’t ‘freak out’. This container is inside the sump so in the event of overflow it will just run back into the sump.

Around the container you can see the green hose which is the return flow of the UVC so I can see if the water has stopped for whatever reason.

Underneath are mesh bags of Red Sea activated carbon and Purigen, along with some more Martrix.

I have also added 2 lots of filter floss which has made a great deal of difference in terms of mechanical filtration, in particular keeping the deltec reactor clear of debris from the main pump. I just change it every week or so and it works a treat.

And then there is Apex

Those of you who have it will know the piece of mind it provides and what this system can do. I wouldn’t be without it now.

Anyway that’s a brief explanation of the system