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

[SPR1968]

I’ve just added another 4 yellow tangs today so 7 in total now. I’ll get some pictures when I get chance but here’s one of them.

Also around 13 coral frags.

I’ve finally decided the tanks going to be a mixed reef as I prefer movement rather than just ‘sticks’

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a close up picture of a Duncan coral that’s doing quiet well

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s an up to date video taken today and including the Yellow Tang Gang who are generally best friends now. Infact I might get another 2 or 3

All of the corals are doing very well including the SPS which are growing. The Twin Tech Calcium reactor, well just works, and all water parameters are stable. Phosphate is locked down at just above zero with 1kg if rhowaphos.

Nitrates were around 3 but I tested last week and they had dropped to about 0.5 so I’ve been over feeding this week to raise them. I have 16 litres of Seachem Matrix and 4 litres of Seachem DeNitrate which is on standby as soon as nitrates reach around 5. I was going to add it, but when I saw the nitrates had reduced I held off. Bear in mind there’s already around 10 litres of Matrix in place.

Anyway here’s the video and you can also see the s650..... Tank is just under 4 months old

 

[SPR1968]

Here’s a full tank shot at just under 4 months old

 

[emvanburen]

Looking good Shaun! I took your lead and ordered the same CaRx. Looking forward to getting it online.

Going to be looking at our tanks a lot over the next few weeks....

 

[SPR1968]

Looking good Shaun! I took your lead and ordered the same CaRx. Looking forward to getting it online.

Going to be looking at our tanks a lot over the next few weeks....

Thank you!

The Twin Tech is very easy to set up, once you know how to set the CO2 You need a dual stage regulator with a pin dial for fine adjustment. Basically only allow a small amount of CO2 in at once otherwise it causes an air lock if the CO2 gets up the tube and into the main reaction chamber (yes I know it sounds like something off back to the future! Lol)

I’m here if you get stuck

 

[GoVols]

Shaun,

It looks great, your video is relaxing to watch.

 

[SPR1968]

Shaun,

It looks great, your video is relaxing to watch.

Thanks Freddie, you should see it in real life! Lol

I enter vodka induced sleep watching it most nights, and then wake up at 2am in the dark!

 

[GoVols]

Thanks Freddie, you should see it in real life! Lol

I enter vodka induced sleep watching it most nights, and then wake up at 2am in the dark!

Your welcome, Shaun

lol
How high is your Abyzz A200 running at?

 

[SPR1968]

Your welcome, Shaun

lol
How high is your Abyzz A200 running at?

The Abyzz is running at 86% power and it’s not worth turning it any higher as it makes hardly any difference. I wanted to turn it up, and tried it but above 86% the additional power output is minimal. You can see it if you check out the Abyzz power graphs.

Because I will be turning the Teco 2000e Chiller on shortly, and I could do with some extra sump turnover anyway, I have a second Abyzz A200 waiting to be installed when I feel like it. It will have a separate return pipe on the left rear side of the tank and this will then provide most of the water turnover with the initial one feeding other equipment as well.

This will provide for redundancy, and the 2 pumps will be interchangeable if needed, as the primary pump and manifold feed the UVC etc. So in the unlikely event of failure I can swop them around.

 

[emvanburen]

Shaun- did you have to extend the hose from the carx ? They sure provide a short return hose!

 

[SPR1968]

Shaun- did you have to extend the hose from the carx ? They sure provide a short return hose!

No but mine is immediately behind the tank so it was ok.

It might be worth contacting support or just buy some longer pieces of the same size, I think it’s just silicon hosing

 

[Crabby48]

Great color and moment. Started to doze off during the video. Came along way in a few months

 

[SPR1968]

Ok a bit of light humour for you all, and remember this is in England and we’ve been having some ‘panic buying issues’

It made me laugh anyway !

 

[PanchoG]

LOL !

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Bump

 

[SPR1968]

The new tank is around 3 1/2 months old at this stage, all parameters are stable and for those interested the last test results are as follows:

Nitrate 2ppm
Phosphate 0.05ppm (rowaphos will be changed this week as the target is just above zero)
Alkalinity 7.8 dKH (target Around 8-8.5 so turned up another 2 litres/day on the Twin Tech)
Calcium 465 ppm
Magnesium 1425

i haven’t started water changes yet, other than around 5 litres per day to maintain water movement through the Apex DOS unit. I’m aiming for a nitrate target of around 5 so I’m Just balancing everything out and still have an additional 16 litres of Seachem Matrix and 4 litres of De Nitrate to add when needed in addition to the 10 litres or so already in.

I haven’t installed the additional Abyzz a200 yet. I’m holding off, because I’m about to start testing the Teco 2000e chiller and the flow requirement is only around 600-800 lph. I think the main Abyzz a200 will be able to cope with that without affecting the flow through the sump to much. If I don’t need the additional flow, it means there is just one single pump to maintain in the whole system, which is also super reliable with a 10 year warranty. I will just keep the backup a200 ready in case of any issues and swap them around every year or so.

The X Filter 1.7 with 25 micron filter roll is absolutely brilliant and keeps the sump spotless, nutrients down, and of course the waters crystal clear. When I buy some more roll I might actually go back to the 32 micron as it lasts longer.

The Deltec Twin Tech calcium reactor is brilliant. It maintains all the foundation element levels in line and all you do is press a button to amend the flow through it. That’s it and it just, well, works. I just amend the flow according to alkalinity requirements.

All the corals including SPS are growing at an incredible rate (doubling in size) and this Just shows that if you can maintain the correct parameters you can keep SPS in a new system if anyone has any doubts. But you MUST maintain and monitor the parameters

Rowaphos. I can’t recommend the use of this stuff enough, especially in a new system. If you can keep phosphate below 0.03 you will avoid many unwanted issues and that was the plan from the very start. Ive been running around 1kg (yes that’s a lot) from the very start, but it means I can change it less. I’m probably going to reduce the amount to half that and just change it more often and then once I find the right spot I don’t need to test for phosphate as often.

In the S650 I use around 250g of rowaphos and just change it every 2 weeks and hardly ever test for phosphate in that system. I can tell by the look of the tank when it’s ready for a change.

So everything’s running to plan and here’s a short video. As usual, this doesn’t give the full beauty of the actual real system but I hope you’ll enjoy it....

 

[Janci]

Ok a bit of light humour for you all, and remember this is in England and we’ve been having some ‘panic buying issues’

It made me laugh anyway !

If you point that gun at me, I would also give you food, Shaun.
LOL

 

[emvanburen]

Very nice update. Are you getting much algae on the glass? What’s your Deltec running at?

 

[emvanburen]

And how is your pH trending? Is the Deltec lowering it significantly?