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

[SPR1968]

Shaun,
That's a great update and thanks for sharing.

I have not ran a UV unit since the mid 1990's. Back then you replaced the UV bulb about every 90 days ;Oldman

How often are you supposed to change out a UV bulb now?

The UVC should be cleaned every 6 months and the bulb changed every 12 months so they are probably much better these days and kill any ‘nasties’ which are floating in the water column. Apparently after 12 months the bulb has lost 70% of its original power and hence the reason to change it.

I’ve run one pretty much since I started out as I just think anything that can help prevent potential diseases with the inhabitants must be a good thing and it also helps with the clarity of water.

I haven’t had any issues with temperature increasing or anything at all with it. Well as far as I know! Lol

 

[GoVols]

The UVC should be cleaned every 6 months and the bulb changed every 12 months so they are probably much better these days and kill any ‘nasties’ which are floating in the water column. Apparently after 12 months the bulb has lost 70% of its original power and hence the reason to change it.

I’ve run one pretty much since I started out as I just think anything that can help prevent potential diseases with the inhabitants must be a good thing and it also helps with the clarity of water.

I haven’t had any issues with temperature increasing or anything at all with it. Well as far as I know! Lol

Thank You!!!
I figured things have come along way since that time period. They had just came out and you just took a guess at the flow rate back then

How's your Spiny Pectinia doing?
I've never had one and Divers Den says "Difficult" care level for them.

 

[SPR1968]

The Spiny pectinia seems to be doing fine and it’s not been difficult to care for so far

Infact it’s been no trouble. I just put it in place and it’s just sits there !lol. Well at the moment anyway!

It’s looking healthy and i assume difficult means water parameters and mine are fairly stable anyway.

 

[SPR1968]

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.

 

[najer]

Looking great, nice work on the goni.

 

[SPR1968]

Thanks Simon

The Gonipora really was tiny when I got it and I just left it at the bottom of the tank for ages until I put it into its final place.

I really like growing from frags most of the time as I just think they get used to my water from near the start of their lives rather than getting established and then having to readjust.

 

[GoVols]

Thanks Simon

The Gonipora really was tiny when I got it and I just left it at the bottom of the tank for ages until I put it into its final place.

I really like growing from frags most of the time as I just think they get used to my water from near the start of their lives rather than getting established and then having to readjust.

Shaun,

Your 650 is always stunning!!!

 

[SPR1968]

I never really bothered to much about pH because whenever I tested it it was always around 8.2 with test kits.

Since installing Neptune’s Apex system, it’s very interesting to see the affects of various factors on pH including CO2 levels. Something like having a few extra people around ‘breathing’ can make the levels change or having a gas fire on in the room. I believe my current level is a little lower than my ideal 8.2 simply because it’s winter so the windows are closed, heating on etc., so there is less fresh air in the rooms and therefore more CO2 getting into/staying in the water through gas exchange.

The Apex graph below shows how it starts to rise and fall

The bottom of the graph and lowest reading is midnight and then it gradually increases throughout the day. The highest point then starts to drop at 6.00pm. This is the point were the white light starts to ramp down and then from 7pm we go blue and it’s here that the fish activity gradually slows down and you can see the pH slowly falls.

The ‘steepest’ part of the pH increase starts at the exact point the lights switch on for sunrise which for my tank is around 11.30am. You can see the pH rises fast and continues until 6-7pm when the fish activity slows.

 

[SPR1968]

So then, today it’s snowing here in the UK so I can’t go hitting my little white ball around.

I’ve been planning a bit of maintenance, mainly it’s time to the clean NYOS Quantum 160.

It’s been making a few odd noises occasionally, like a bubbling rattling noise since I last cleaned it.

Anyway for all the stupid NYOS owners out there, like me for example, take note of the following picture!

This was the last, and first time that I had cleaned out the skimmer and put it back together

And now take note of the following picture which is the correct way to put the skimmer back together. Note the top attachment is the correct way around and now fits snugly into its place rather than hanging on with a screw the wrong way around! I’m not surprised it was making strange noises lol!

I nearly but it back together wrong again and was looking at it thinking it must fit better than this. And it did!

Anyway a few more pictures. I still can’t find how to clean inside the long rear tube at the back of the skimmer. It’s sealed but not air tight hence the Skim residue that can still be seen.

 

[najer]

Nice lol, I have the same skimmer, I really should give it a proper clean!

 

[SPR1968]

It’s been a while since I did a short video of the system so here you go:

 

[jsker]

Spectacular!!

 

[SPR1968]

Spectacular!!

Thank you jsker!

 

[jsker]

All the fish look really nice with all the colors of the coral.

 

[GoVols]

Spectacular!!

+1...

 

[SPR1968]

The Feeding Frenzy!

It’s quiet amazing that the fish seem to just know when it’s 6.30pm and time to be fed from the Apex autofeeder. I don’t know if fish can hear underwater and can here the noise it makes but they start darting around ready for the food.

When they arrive in the video no food has yet dropped and they are there waiting

And yes the Apex autofeeder is a little noisy but it’s very effective at how it works and prevents food getting moist and sticking together.

 

[GoVols]

Shaun,
(lol)
That's like piranha going off ....

 

[SPR1968]

I’m currently a little distance from my tank:

Despite the pictures above I’m actually in Grenada but after a 8.15hr flight I’d lost the will to take another photo of the flight from St Lucia to Grenada!

We landed in St Lucia, dropped a load of passengers and then went island hopping for a 25 minute ride at low level in my jet (ok Virgin Atlantic’s!). It’s quiet cool flying low level in an Airbus A330 which is a big plane when you step of and take a look back! About the same size as a Boeing 777.

So I arrived at the hotel, sat down for a relaxing beer, chat with my wife and quick look at at the tank parameters via Apex.

Anyway, by the power of Neptunes Apex, imagine my joy and facial gurning, when I checked my parameters and the salinity was showing 48ppm!!!

Having pealed myself of the ceiling, I checked out the video feed and all was well, and my mother hasn’t called so all is well.

It must be a false reading and is currently reading 52ppm so I assume it’s time to clean and recalibrate the probe.

You see, modern technology gives you the piece of mind so you can just wind back, switch off and relax!!

 

[GoVols]

FWIW???

I'm on my 4th Apex temp... probe

 

[GoVols]

Shaun,
What day does your family get home from holiday?