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

[SPR1968]

I have been away in Spain for a week (hitting a white ball as far as I can, and then searching for it!) and came back and the tank was looking like I’d never been away, apart from the glass needing a clean.

I’ve tried to automate as much as I can, with a large ATO reservoir, Apex autofeeder and general monitoring from Apex and a HD Camera. Apart from my mother changing the filter socks once, the tank wasn’t touched for 7 days.

I’ve decided to remove the last 2 Brightwell NO3 bricks as they are still breaking down and have made a right mess in the sump and I’m not convinced there actually doing anything.

I added 6 litres of Seachem Matrix a few weeks/month ago and I can say this is very good stuff. I’ve reduced the Nopox dosage down slowly to 18ml per day and the Nitrate is currently at 7ppm (from around 18).

The system and water just looks so much clearer since I added the Matrix and because of its make up, it’s stone, apart from maybe a quick wash it should never need replacing.

I have enough Matrix in the system for 1000’s of litres of water volume so this should keep Nitrate under control and I can feed a bit more which I enjoy.

I’ve taken a few different pictures of the sump, and there is still some residue from the Brightwell bricks as you can see, and this will get removed during water changes which I’m tending to do around 18% each month. Mainly to keep the sump reasonably clean

I also cleaned the NYOS Quantum protein skimmer today. To be honest the pump and impeller weren’t that dirty to say the last clean was around 8 months ago and I only cleaned it because on a few ‘restarts’ the pump seemed to be struggling and hence the clean.

Anyway pictures.......

Full sump, clean NYOS and down shot.

 

[fabutahoun]

Welcome Back Shaun.
Matrix is great. I was using it last year, but when my Nitrate was always at 0 I had to remove it. I added it again this time inside a reactor when I noticed my Nitrate got up to 10. it went down during a week to 2.

 

[SPR1968]

Welcome Back Shaun.
Matrix is great. I was using it last year, but when my Nitrate was always at 0 I had to remove it. I added it again this time inside a reactor when I noticed my Nitrate got up to 10. it went down during a week to 2.

It’s very good indeed Fadi. I’m surprised it’s not more widely advertised and certainly here in the UK I didn’t know about it until I had read up on Purigen. Maybe in the US and elsewhere it’s beter known, or maybe its me!

6 litres is enough for about 4800 litres of water so I’m going to keep an eye on nitrate, and hopefully I can make my fish happy fat fish! Lol

 

[PanchoG]

Good to have you back Shaun, Spain weather in September is nice! Seachem Matrix is really good in my case it keeps the water clear, I have no issues on my NO3 nor PO4. It is one of the best things I have tried.

 

[GoVols]

You've been missed, Shaun

Hope you had a nice trip, but it's good to see you back.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Welcome back! I went with Matrix myself after much research. Still have yet to add it in the system though. Nitrates have been too low.

 

[SPR1968]

Thanks Guys, I would say it’s good to be back but it’s about 20’C less here now!!

I’m going back in about 4 weeks golfing again and for some heat! I have a home there which is handy at this time of year.

 

[SPR1968]

Here is a picture of a coral just before I fragged it, and basically chopped it in half due to its location. It was being over shadowed by another.

 

[PanchoG]

I like the way it looks there, too bad you had to frag it, good pic my friend.

 

[Janci]

Here is a picture of a coral just before I fragged it, and basically chopped it in half due to its location. It was being over shadowed by another.

Nice size coral. A pitty it needed to be fragged.
It would have been a beautiful colony in a little more time.

 

[SPR1968]

Here are a couple of ‘end shots’ showing a different angle on the tank

 

[fabutahoun]

Looking Nice Shaun !!

 

[PanchoG]

Looking great Shaun. [emoji41]

 

[Janci]

Looking great.
Love the variety of fish

 

[SPR1968]

Here are a few more pictures of the Regal Angelfish, he is a hansom fellow.

 

[najer]

Very pretty fish.

 

[Janci]

Here are a few more pictures of the Regal Angelfish, he is a hansom fellow.

Wow. Great pictures.
Looks like he was asking to get photographed.

 

[SPR1968]

Wow. Great pictures.
Looks like he was asking to get photographed.

Thanks Janci, Simon.

I know he’s like look at me! Lol

 

[SPR1968]

Well it’s been raining here today so I’ve been unable to hit my little white balls around and go and find them in the trees, so I thought I’ll go off to the LFS. I’ve not been for ages so off I went.

They order me a discounted 22kg bucket of Red Sea standard salt to stop me going to one of their competitors (or try! Lol) when I need one, so resolve intact off I went with good intentions.

Well that all collapsed when I found the selection of sweet little tangs they had in stock!!!

So my coral reef now includes:

Blue Eyed Tang
Vampire Tang

And at that point bags on the counter I made a swift exit before getting to carried away! Lol

So the current ‘Tang list’ (ok I can hear the Tang police sirens!! lol) consists of:

Yellow Tang
Regal Tang
Purple Tang
Chevron Tang
Freckle Face Tang
Kole Tang
Blonde Naso Tang
Blue Eyed Tang
Vampire Tang
Tomini Tang

The only bad point of going to the LFS is that it brought back the strong addictive urge to purchase as much as I could carry, maybe like some form of ‘reef junkie’!

The pictures below are just quick ones with the new iPhone XS max so not to ‘normal’ standard

 

[HolisticBear]

I love the fish in your tank.