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

[SPR1968]

This is a great idea and you should make a thread in the DIY forum about it so more people see it Shaun!

Only readers of my build thread can possibly benefit from my expertise and design prowess!!

Im just hoping someone from Rolls Royce has a reef tank! Lol

 

[GBRsouth]

Only readers of my build thread can possibly benefit from my expertise and design prowess!!

Im just hoping someone from Rolls Royce has a reef tank! Lol

Shaun ROLLS Royce! ;Hilarious

 

[JayPnoy12]

I purchased a new large coral a few weeks ago, as I wanted something for the middle back of the tank, which I think is some form of ultra green neon torch coral, well I think anyway.... I know it stings as I remember being told that!

Below are a few up to date photos. The corals are really growing. There is a red Gonipora coral in the centre which I’ve grown from a 1 inch frag, which looked like it had nothing on it, and look at it now.

Shaun,

I like how your Reef Tank coming together. I like how you have many different kind of Tangs mix together since I'm huge fan of Tangs. I also like the fact you have mix reef different variety of Soft, LPS, and SPS coral that are easy to care for. I'm in planning stage of building one Mix Reef tank just like your. I would like to have any suggestion and advice on how to keep stable and how your keeping up with the water parameter. I appreciate your input, suggestion and advice.

As always thanks,

Jay

 

[SPR1968]

Shaun ROLLS Royce! ;Hilarious

If only you knew! Lol

 

[SPR1968]

Shaun,

I like how your Reef Tank coming together. I like how you have many different kind of Tangs mix together since I'm huge fan of Tangs. I also like the fact you have mix reef different variety of Soft, LPS, and SPS coral that are easy to care for. I'm in planning stage of building one Mix Reef tank just like your. I would like to have any suggestion and advice on how to keep stable and how your keeping up with the water parameter. I appreciate your input, suggestion and advice.

As always thanks,

Jay

Hi Jay

In the big tank it’s relativy simple to keep the parameters stable with the use of a Deltec Twin Tech 1500 calcium reactor and also the large water volume.

I check alkalinity in the system weekly and just adjust the flow out of the reactor (press an up or down button). I also check calcium and magnesium but randomly as they don’t change much because of the rowalith media being used in the reactor

In the S650, that uses a standard dosing method with a Kamoer dosing pump and I check all 3 main foundation parameters weekly and just make minor adjustments

I don’t really have much to do other than occasional media changes every few months and just monitoring everything

 

[JayPnoy12]

Hi Jay

In the big tank it’s relativy simple to keep the parameters stable with the use of a Deltec Twin Tech 1500 calcium reactor and also the large water volume.

I check alkalinity in the system weekly and just adjust the flow out of the reactor (press an up or down button). I also check calcium and magnesium but randomly as they don’t change much because of the rowalith media being used in the reactor

In the S650, that uses a standard dosing method with a Kamoer dosing pump and I check all 3 main foundation parameters weekly and just make minor adjustments

I don’t really have much to do other than occasional media changes every few months and just monitoring everything

Shaun,

Thanks! I notice that you mention about Kamoer dosing pump which I was leaning toward that Kamoer. My question is it's hard to set-up? and which type of Kamoer did use?

Always,

Jay

 

[SPR1968]

Shaun,

Thanks! I notice that you mention about Kamoer dosing pump which I was leaning toward that Kamoer. My question is it's hard to set-up? and which type of Kamoer did use?

Always,

Jay

Mines not Wi-fi with 4 channels and about 4 1/2 years old and yes it’s very simple to use and program

If it ever failed I would buy another no hesitation (or a calcium reactor!)

 

[GoVols]

lol
..... ;Writing

 

[SPR1968]

Today I’ve added 8 Banggai Cardinalfish, Ive never had any before and there quiet sweet actually

Here they are getting ready for their new home in the big house

 

[najer]

Hope you didn't get eight boys!

 

[SPR1968]

When adding the cardinals and anything else, these are my completely honest acclimatisation procedures, and this assumes you trust your suppliers and are confident of the health and treatment of livestock etc

For fish, they go out of the shipping bag into a 5 litre jug, that I also use to mix foundation elements and all sorts of things, but it’s clean.

I drain most of the bag water out of it so theres just enough for them to swim around and then I add a cup of my tank water

I leave it about 5 minutes and then add another cup and just repeat every 5 minutes until I get overwhelmed with excitement or mainly bored of waiting. I guess the average time in the jug is 15-20 minutes as I’m not very patient.

Now with a newish tank, with few fish, I would add the fish straight into the tank.

But in an established reef system, and both of mine are, there are many fish already in, and dropping new house mates in unannounced often doesn’t end well. Imagine a couple of blokes turning up at your door and sitting down to watch your TV and eat your dinner unannounced..... now ladies maybe, infact that might even involve a Terry Thomas “well hello’, or for the younger ones like me a Richie Rich “well hello little baby’, best we don’t go there! Lol

So from the jug, they go into a fish trap (acclimatisation box) inside the reef and they remain there for 4-6 hours normally with some pellet food available in the box so the exisitng fish and the new fish can get used to each other in complete safety. After this period assuming all looks well, I open the door and off they go.

The cardinals didn’t arrive until late in the day, so I’m going to leave them in the box overnight until around midday tomorrow

With crabs etc, they get a few more smaller cups of water, corals get put in a smaller jug with 50% of the bag water, 50% of my water, with some coral RX and left for about 10 minutes and then they go straight into the tank on the bottom to acclimatise for a few days/weeks until I decide which level there going to live at.

Now I know you can use drip acclimatisation, and yes it’s possibly good for crabs etc., but to be honest, something that’s been in a dark bag for up to 10-12 hours, or any bag from the LFS, especially fish, seems to appreciate my way, and I’ve never had any issues so....

Much of this also assumes your water quality is good, which mine is so....

 

[najer]

Now I know you can use drip acclimatisation, and yes it’s possibly good for crabs etc., but to be honest, something that’s been in a dark bag for up to 10-12 hours, or any bag from the LFS, especially fish, seems to appreciate my way, and I’ve never had any issues so....

This exactly except I only temperature acclimate coral and pop them in, I do fish and motile inverts a cup at a time also.

 

[SPR1968]

 

[SPR1968]

19th December 2019

19th December 2020 exactly 1 year old......

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Fabulous progression shaun!

Im curious... out of all the original chromis, anthias etc, are there still schools left or how did they manage?

 

[SPR1968]

Fabulous progression shaun!

Im curious... out of all the original chromis, anthias etc, are there still schools left or how did they manage?

Thanks Rich

There are a total of 13-14 Anthias (difficult to count!) left but I added 7 more I think, and there are 5 Chromis left and many of the other tank fillers I added from the start.

Anyway, you can try to count them below! Lol

 

[SPR1968]

A short video of the new tank at exactly 1 year old 19th December 2020 which I hope gives you an idea of what it looks like. Make sure you watch in HD quality

You might notice the clowns now host a torch coral

 

[SPR1968]

I’ve posted a similar picture of this before, but it’s grown considerably since then, infact I’ve now got several frags of this at different parts of the tank

 

[PanchoG]

Everything looks awesome as always Shaun.

 

[SPR1968]

Everything looks awesome as always Shaun.

Welcome back Pancho, and thank you!