Smiddy's Reef 360 Peninsula

rds85 · Jul 18, 2022

Did some serious CaRx deep cleaning. I removed 0.25lbs of “sludge” which is pretty much sand. This is about one year over due. Had to rush to the store to get about 1 gallon of media just to account of the lose of volume. Also replaced the pump.

McPuff · Jul 18, 2022

It's amazing how much volume is lost when you clean the media. Been there a few times!

rds85 · Jul 19, 2022

McPuff said:
It's amazing how much volume is lost when you clean the media. Been there a few times!

Agreed! I needed to clean it as there was so much if circulating through the pumps and based on this experience I will clean in more regularly.

rds85 · Aug 25, 2022

Noticed I haven’t posted in a while. Here are some I phone photos just to pass the time till I do real photos.
Side comment, auto frozen fish feeder seems to be successful so far. Ran about 12 feedings through it. Photos of setup below. New MRC CaRx reactor installed to handle the load

Got the final parts in to truly finish the install of the auto fish feeder. Here is the V1 product. Food is chilled at 37F to prolong its life. Aiming for 10-14days worth at maximum.

This what you see from just viewing the tank… nothing if the panel is on.

Janci · Aug 29, 2022

rds85 said:
Noticed I haven’t posted in a while. Here are some I phone photos just to pass the time till I do real photos.
Side comment, auto frozen fish feeder seems to be successful so far. Ran about 12 feedings through it. Photos of setup below. New MRC CaRx reactor installed to handle the load

Got the final parts in to truly finish the install of the auto fish feeder. Here is the V1 product. Food is chilled at 37F to prolong its life. Aiming for 10-14days worth at maximum.

This what you see from just viewing the tank… nothing if the panel is on.

Good to hear things are ok with the tank.
Concerning the auto frozen food feeder, do I understand correct that you feed this directly inside the display tank and not in the sump?

rds85 · Aug 30, 2022

Janci said:
Good to hear things are ok with the tank.
Concerning the auto frozen food feeder, do I understand correct that you feed this directly inside the display tank and not in the sump?

This feeds directly into the display you are correct.

t5Nitro · Aug 30, 2022

That's a pretty awesome setup. Can't tell from the images--do you have a line from the cooler to the tank and another line from the tank upstream near the cooler outlet to flush the tubing constantly?

rds85 · Aug 30, 2022

t5Nitro said:
That's a pretty awesome setup. Can't tell from the images--do you have a line from the cooler to the tank and another line from the tank upstream near the cooler outlet to flush the tubing constantly?

Thank you. Yes that is correct! It now has successfully done about 25 feedings. The next time I am going to set the fridge to 35f instead of 37f to see if that makes any difference on performance

Kodski · Aug 31, 2022

In regards to your feeding idea, I mentioned this back a few months ago in a thread I made asking how long frozen food can generally stay unthawed in the fridge. @ReefFrenzy kindly took the time to write me this message and I thought I'd relay it. I no longer keep thawed food in the fridge and instead unthaw fresh food every feeding.

"Saw your post from April and wanted to say please do not thaw LRS and keep in the fridge for more than 12-24 hours. It will begin rotting and be drastically degraded by days 3-5. Our fresh ingredients have no preservatives so the fresh caught shrimp and scallop have already been out of the ocean for a few days before being delivered to us. Once processed and frozen they are designed to be used immediately. We add PE Mysis to our blends and they are a high lipid food which also breaks down faster than some other ingredients.

A much safer and faster option is to simply chop a flay of LRS into tiny squares sized for your tank and keep them in a Tupperware container until ready to feed. I don't even thaw it before dropping it into the tank and letting the fish pick at it as it thaws. Hope this helps and thanks for using LRS!"

A follow up response to our conversation by ReefFrenzy.

"Basically in a nutshell you have to realize that when fresh shrimp/scallop get harvested out at sea they can sometimes spend two or three days in the hull of the boat before they get back to port. Then they can be on ice for up to 3-4 more days during transport to their final destination. So even in the best scenario with a small batch, local company like LRS at best the fresh "dead" seafood can already be out of water for several days packed on ice. After processing and freezing you don't want that same food to be sitting in the fridge for another week. I hope that helps clarify. Of course you will find a dozen people who say "I've been keeping food in the fridge like this for years with no issues." They very well may be lucky but it is not a best practice. We strive to provide the best, freshest food possible and some of our clients are very, very picky. You can't get great eggs and larvae with inferior, degraded lipids and aminos.

http://www.larrysreefservices.com/testimonials.html

There are some neat articles there if you have not seen them. Thanks again!"

rds85 · Sep 1, 2022

Kodski said:
In regards to your feeding idea, I mentioned this back a few months ago in a thread I made asking how long frozen food can generally stay unthawed in the fridge. @ReefFrenzy kindly took the time to write me this message and I thought I'd relay it. I no longer keep thawed food in the fridge and instead unthaw fresh food every feeding.

"Saw your post from April and wanted to say please do not thaw LRS and keep in the fridge for more than 12-24 hours. It will begin rotting and be drastically degraded by days 3-5. Our fresh ingredients have no preservatives so the fresh caught shrimp and scallop have already been out of the ocean for a few days before being delivered to us. Once processed and frozen they are designed to be used immediately. We add PE Mysis to our blends and they are a high lipid food which also breaks down faster than some other ingredients.

A much safer and faster option is to simply chop a flay of LRS into tiny squares sized for your tank and keep them in a Tupperware container until ready to feed. I don't even thaw it before dropping it into the tank and letting the fish pick at it as it thaws. Hope this helps and thanks for using LRS!"

A follow up response to our conversation by ReefFrenzy.

"Basically in a nutshell you have to realize that when fresh shrimp/scallop get harvested out at sea they can sometimes spend two or three days in the hull of the boat before they get back to port. Then they can be on ice for up to 3-4 more days during transport to their final destination. So even in the best scenario with a small batch, local company like LRS at best the fresh "dead" seafood can already be out of water for several days packed on ice. After processing and freezing you don't want that same food to be sitting in the fridge for another week. I hope that helps clarify. Of course you will find a dozen people who say "I've been keeping food in the fridge like this for years with no issues." They very well may be lucky but it is not a best practice. We strive to provide the best, freshest food possible and some of our clients are very, very picky. You can't get great eggs and larvae with inferior, degraded lipids and aminos.

http://www.larrysreefservices.com/testimonials.html

There are some neat articles there if you have not seen them. Thanks again!"

I appreciate your response and I am not disagreeing that there isn't risk of used mutli day thawed fish food, but I also would need some answers to LRS's response. Currently I am using 35 degrees F to store the food which is slightly colder than fridge temp
These would include:

Define "drastically degraded"
Where is the "level" at which thawed food is harmful? Is is due to bacteria growth or loss of all nutrients?
Did they execute a study to show degradation over time at (40 degrees F = normal fridge temp), if so I would love to see: the data, variables that where tested, what control did they use,
Is this specific to only the LRS branded foods

rds85 · Sep 4, 2022

Holding steady, got the dinos, but everything seems happy.

VanDalsenReef · Sep 4, 2022

rds85 said:
Holding steady, got the dinos, but everything seems happy.

If everything looks great. Wouldn't even care about dinos.

rds85 · Sep 4, 2022

VanDalsenReef said:
If everything looks great. Wouldn't even care about dinos.

Agreed!

panic · Sep 5, 2022

Looks incredible!!

t5Nitro · Sep 5, 2022

The parrotfish is awesome. Does he bother your coral?

rds85 · Sep 5, 2022

panic said:
Looks incredible!!

Thanks Doug! Your pinky bear (forgot the actual name) is just taking off uncontrollably.

t5Nitro said:
The parrotfish is awesome. Does he bother your coral?

Thank you. He only bothers one coral that has based out where he used to be able to scrap the rock at will for algae. Nothing negative has come of it. I sometimes wish he would trim some stuff for me.

t5Nitro · Sep 5, 2022

So cool. What type of parrotfish is he? Considering adding one to my next tank. Really a fun fish to watch in the wild. Always wanted one.

GBRsouth · Sep 5, 2022

t5Nitro said:
So cool. What type of parrotfish is he? Considering adding one to my next tank. Really a fun fish to watch in the wild. Always wanted one.

Quoyi parrotfish. Research their feeding issues thoroughly before you get one. Many have wasted away over time, but if their feeding needs are properly met, they can work out.