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

Seffner

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Well I just read (ok, I admit I skimmed through a number of the pages) the entire thread. I clicked on your build because I did a search for Black Bar Chromis and yours was one of the first links listed. Then I saw the quality of the tank you had and then I saw that you have two tanks of such high quality, I just got sucked into the whole thing. I saved a couple of pages to look over when I start a build myself one day, pages concerning both aquascaping and equipment comments. I love how detailed and thorough you have been this whole time! Of course the pictures are fantastic. I'll keep following the thread.

I know it's a simple thing, but I wanted to ask since I hardly ever get any feedback on the Chromis. I've got one of the Black Bar in my 30 gal FOWLR and really like it. I've seen them offered in my area a few times over the years, but they don't seem to be common (I'm in the Tampa, Florida area). Are they offered more regularly in the UK?

Last thing for now, if you don't mind spending the time when you take the next photos of some of your fish, including one or two of some of the Black Bar Chromis?

It took a while, but the entire dialog on your two tanks was fascinating!
 
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SPR1968

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Nice haul ! ! !
I know, and there are 7 more SPS on route to my door as well!

Just got to figure out were to place them all!
 
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SPR1968

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Well I just read (ok, I admit I skimmed through a number of the pages) the entire thread. I clicked on your build because I did a search for Black Bar Chromis and yours was one of the first links listed. Then I saw the quality of the tank you had and then I saw that you have two tanks of such high quality, I just got sucked into the whole thing. I saved a couple of pages to look over when I start a build myself one day, pages concerning both aquascaping and equipment comments. I love how detailed and thorough you have been this whole time! Of course the pictures are fantastic. I'll keep following the thread.

I know it's a simple thing, but I wanted to ask since I hardly ever get any feedback on the Chromis. I've got one of the Black Bar in my 30 gal FOWLR and really like it. I've seen them offered in my area a few times over the years, but they don't seem to be common (I'm in the Tampa, Florida area). Are they offered more regularly in the UK?

Last thing for now, if you don't mind spending the time when you take the next photos of some of your fish, including one or two of some of the Black Bar Chromis?

It took a while, but the entire dialog on your two tanks was fascinating!
Thank you, and thanks for stopping buy as well.

On the new system I tried to be as detailed with the set up, design and equipment as I could as I thought it might help others out how I did it. Especially the way I skipped the ugly stages pretty much, and my heavy use of rowaphos from the very start. If you can keep phosphate locked down you will avoid many of the issues you read about.

The Black Bar chromis are available here in the UK, to be honest they were Just amongst around 30 fish I needed to get some nitrates and life into the system quickly when I started the new tank. When I do my next pictures I’ll get a few for you. As with all the fish, they’ve grown and are a nice size now.
 

vetteguy53081

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Looking great !
 
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RichtheReefer21

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I’ve been getting a bit fed up with the same old corals, in particular lack of some of the nicer SPS corals in the LFS’s, so I found Masterfisch, who are based in France with a UK office. I was a little nervous but ordered 4 SPS as a test order, and they arrived today.

It was actually interesting following their journey with UPS from France, to Germany then to Castle Donnington UK and then to me all within less than 24 hours. Very impressive.

I have to say the packaging was superb, all tightly packed in a custom made box and inside that an insulated box, which is nice enough to use to carry cold drinks in! Lol

The corals bags were thick and even had what looked like pieces of carbon inside to presumably absorb and toxins during the journey.

These corals are a descent size for frags, infact large, and we’re half the price you would pay in a shop. I do buy corals from the LFS’s but the vast majority of frags come from online in particular Mail Order Corals who I also use and are very good.

Anyway, I had a email yesterday from them about a 20% sale so I’ve just ordered another 7 SPS corals. What I really like is most of the corals are wysiwyg so you get that exact peace.

The first 3 pictures below, just taken quickly with an iPhone, show the corals from Masterfisch and the bottom picture are the ones delivered last week from Mail Order Corals all acclimatising whilst I decide we’re they will live

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Chunchy guys! Well fed. Jackpot
 
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My nitrates are stable at around 8 in the new tank, and I already have around 26 litres of Seachem Matrix in place along with some DeNitrate.

i have big plans for more fish, and am trying to avoid using Nopox if at all possible, just because it’s something else to dose, new doser etc.

So yesterday I added another 10 litres of Matrix and 2 litres of DeNitrate. So we have 38 litres in total of media. I added the DeNitrate because they were out of stock of Matrix so I’ve just mixed this in as well.

This time I also used Seachem stability to ‘seed’ the Matrix before adding it to the system. I soaked it in a bucket of water for 2 days in stability

B0A3CDDD-B9CE-4704-910B-437422B0370C.jpeg
 

RichtheReefer21

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My nitrates are stable at around 8 in the new tank, and I already have around 26 litres of Seachem Matrix in place along with some DeNitrate.

i have big plans for more fish, and am trying to avoid using Nopox if at all possible, just because it’s something else to dose, new doser etc.

So yesterday I added another 10 litres of Matrix and 2 litres of DeNitrate. So we have 38 litres in total of media. I added the DeNitrate because they were out of stock of Matrix so I’ve just mixed this in as well.

This time I also used Seachem stability to ‘seed’ the Matrix before adding it to the system. I soaked it in a bucket of water for 2 days in stability

B0A3CDDD-B9CE-4704-910B-437422B0370C.jpeg
Ive used seachem media and stability for my entire reefing life (a whopping 2 years) Stuff is great. Does what it says it does, and thats all we can ask for in this hobby.
 
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Generally every Sunday, I turn the Abyzz a200 down to allow the water level to drop In the main tank so that water stops going down the down pipes

I then make up a mix of Red Sea Reef Energy and also a Reef Roids along with some fish food, and then add it to the system and let it just flow around for about 30-45 minutes (or until I get bored! Lol).

I also purchased some Polyp Booster but to be honest I can’t see it makes any difference so won’t be replacing it when it runs out.

Anyway, while the water isnt flowing here’s a few pictures of the engine room. The plastic container in front of the skimmer is my ‘skim mate locker’ which has just been emptied and would normally sit inside the sump with the drain hose into it.

You can also see what 38 litres of Seachem Matrix/DeNitrate looks like in place, but just remember this is a big sump compartment

The main ATO remains a modified Tunze Osmolator, and the red/white float and bracket you can see is the back up ATO which is basically a gravity fed system that at the moment will last about 3 days and so far has never been called upon. I can make it last longer with a few modifications.

The scissors and stapler, is for when I replace the filter roll on the X Filter, and the small cup is for mixing up the coral food, before anyone asks! Lol

170F870C-D4A1-4B40-997D-6A18B04B2BDB.jpeg
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RichtheReefer21

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Generally every Sunday, I turn the Abyzz a200 down to allow the water level to drop In the main tank so that water stops going down the down pipes

I then make up a mix of Red Sea Reef Energy and also a Reef Roids along with some fish food, and then add it to the system and let it just flow around for about 30-45 minutes (or until I get bored! Lol).

I also purchased some Polyp Booster but to be honest I can’t see it makes any difference so won’t be replacing it when it runs out.

Anyway, while the water isnt flowing here’s a few pictures of the engine room. The plastic container in front of the skimmer is my ‘skim mate locker’ which has just been emptied and would normally sit inside the sump with the drain hose into it.

You can also see what 38 litres of Seachem Matrix/DeNitrate looks like in place, but just remember this is a big sump compartment

The main ATO remains a modified Tunze Osmolator, and the red/white float and bracket you can see is the back up ATO which is basically a gravity fed system that at the moment will last about 3 days and so far has never been called upon. I can make it last longer with a few modifications.

The scissors and stapler, is for when I replace the filter roll on the X Filter, and the small cup is for mixing up the coral food, before anyone asks! Lol

170F870C-D4A1-4B40-997D-6A18B04B2BDB.jpeg
174DC8AD-E11E-418A-9647-72D07EC0C13E.jpeg
B50F7D45-7CF0-4F9D-97E9-9FFC26D33624.jpeg
710C2B2A-E7B2-41BE-85E0-46C72D308E01.jpeg
636ECCB0-0C4A-4B61-9767-EAEDC3BEE230.jpeg
Thats more media in one sump chamber than i have utilized in 2+ years reefing. Sweet baby jesus thats a sack!
 

RichtheReefer21

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Shaun, can u breakdown how the Union - to - valve - to - soft hose for the return was done? I wanted to do this but went hard plumbed to the return instead. Id like the same design on the next sump i plumb.

Cheers
 
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SPR1968

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Here you go Rich

So the return pump which in my case is the Abyzz a200 was connected as shown here

8BCB6F04-0248-44A5-A1F9-A1A0A3F2641F.jpeg


The outlet pipe of the Abyzz is 40mm, so first I connected a 40mm coupler to the outlet.

I then got a very short piece of 40mm PVC pipe which went into the coupler and into one end of a 40mm union connector

There is then again a very short piece of 40mm PVC pipe into the top of the union connector and that goes into a 40mm-32mm reducing socket because I’m using 32mm pipes mainly.

A small piece of 32mm pipe then goes into that reducing socket and then the flexible hose fits over that

The clamps are all marine grade 316 stainless steel, but also there not submerged so there should never be any rust issues anyway.

I designed the return with the flexible length of hose, because it eliminates any vibration issues which can sometimes happen with hard plumbed systems.

The Abyzz also has a 50mm coupler on the input because it’s helps with the water flow through it, and I can honestly say you cannot hear the pump. It is completely silent, and I mean you can’t hear anything, and it’s being run at 86% power because above that it makes little difference to output flow(this is shown on the power graphs). So anyone wanting a silent pump get one.

For those ‘keeping up’ I have a second Abyzz a200 made up exactly the same but just up to the union connector so I can do a straight swap out in 10 years when the original is out of warranty and I need to change it or clean it!! Lol
 
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SPR1968

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Thats more media in one sump chamber than i have utilized in 2+ years reefing. Sweet baby jesus thats a sack!
lol!

I know and I’ve got room in that chamber for about another 30 litres if need be! You can’t have to much filtration!
 
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SPR1968

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That 316 grade stainless hose clamp will still rust given time. It just takes longer to do it than 304 grade.

As an alternative, you can get very heavy duty zip ties about 10mm wide from hardware stores that will work without corrosion issues.
I think by the time it corrodes, it will be time! lol

Plastic hose clamps ;)
I wanted to make sure they cant come off from the main return pump and the steel worm drives arnt going anywhere.

Worst case if they start looking a bit 'iffy' I'll change them, sorry ignore them!
 
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I’ve noticed something very strange in both my tanks with regards to the green/blue chromis

Their in both systems, one batch added to the S650 about 4 years ago, and another batch of about 9 I think added to the new system In December 2019 when it was set up.

There are exactly 5 left in each tank, all of a slightly different size from large to small.

It’s clearly their hierarchy and maybe 5 is the magic number......

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