Terrys Red Sea Max E170 Build thread

Daniel@R2R · Nov 21, 2019

Lots of really cool innovation on the 3D printed accessories!

Dub_G · Jan 1, 2020

I've not been on R2R much lately. Trying to get back into catching up on the threads I was following. Do you have an update? I hope you and your tank are well.

Taxus812 · Jan 24, 2020

Same here. I have pretty much given up and have lost interest. i know now I Will not have a beautiful 1 year old tanks to show off to my friends. Not for a lack of trying but an unseen reason beyond my capability.

I still can’t get coral to grow and I now have a hair algae issue and I’m pretty sure it’s room sunlight. I have tried vibrant over 8 weeks (twice a week) and It actually gotten worse (stopped now). I have not had the lights on in for three weeks and the hair algae is still very happy with just room light. I even started feeding one cube every three days. I purchased an ICP water test and haven’t got around to taking a sample to send In. I also pretty much stopped any testing at this point. I have gotten back into building scale replica RC aircraft which is consuming my time as well.

The four frags of of coral I have are dying and I probably should pull them because they are getting choked out by the hair algae. I stopped testing and haven’t done a water change in three weeks. I may do one tomorrow. The salt is all mixed, heated and circulating and has been for a week.

however the plus side the fish are happy. My snails are most dead unfortunately but hey were huge and I had them for a year.
next steps is to clean the tank and honestly I should move it to my basement office where my 10g tanks is flourishing if I continue. If not, it is time to walk away and see if I can recover some money.

Taxus812 · Jan 24, 2020

Daniel@R2R said:
Lots of really cool innovation on the 3D printed accessories!

Thank you everything worked great as well. My daughters tank is loaded with coral and she was Very happy to use them to frag come corals we have.

Taxus812 · Feb 10, 2020

ahh resolved my algae issue. I threw the light in the trash

. Actually I decided I just wont use it and let the coral die off. My sand bed is clean, the fish are happy. I don't have to worry much about water changes. There is plenty of natural lighting in the room to see everything. Coral near ruined the hobby for me. I wanted my Cleaner shrimp and a couple of saltwater fish. I have that.

I just set the light to come on from on from 8:00pm to 9:00pm so I can enjoy it when I go in my bedroom for the night. I hesitate to do that.

Dub_G · Apr 23, 2020

I've been struggling with Cyano. It is driving me crazy. I turned the lights off for a week and then the next week only doing lights manually. Yesterday turned the lights back on full auto. I'll have to wait and see how it does now.

Good luck on the tank.

Kmartinez · Apr 25, 2020

I just read your whole story and holy cow you went through a lot! Amazing job sticking through. Sorry to hear that coral never made it. I have a 170 as well and a 10g coral tank. I went through simar issues with the 170, and now am in a battle with gha. I'm starting to turn to the skimmer... I never hear much problems with yours. How do you have your skimmer dialed? I've had the foam towards the top of the come, it blows over. I've had it starting at the base of the cone, it never makes the cup. Now ive been in the middle of the cone and it makes an ugly goo mark, but not as much as I'd expect and very little in the cup.

In the year I've had it, I've never seen a spec of corraline, so I wonder if I'm facing a bacteria problem too. My readings are always zero. I've just added phosguard to the picture and see the gha starting to die back. I do 25% once a week and remove manually as much as I can. I would love to try coral in the tank some day, but not till the gha is gone...

I plan to take some pointers from you and your journey, thank you for your insight!