think2100's first 7 months

[think2100]

I bought a 2 year old Red Sea 300 G2+ about 8 months ago. No major problems with the tank yet, though the plywood stand is not great (some bubbling on a door and a something that concerns me more, a collapsed leveler that I've had to shore up). One problem I'm having is that I would like to upgrade to a larger tank (100-150), but the one piece of equipment I would very much like to keep is the Reefmat 500.

I had a recent hair algae leading into cyano bloom in the tank (see photo from a few weeks ago). Fortunately, I ran across Ryan's lecture on the 15 tank BRS experiment and how to prevent this kind of thing. I took several of the steps recommended in that series, namely, boosting the biome with Gulf Live Rock rubble and a couple of products (I used Grunge and AF Life Source) and seriously increasing my pod population. But I also physically exported a lot of stuff. The algae and cyano collect detritus as they thicken, fueling further growth in a vicious cycle. I siphoned off the stuff regularly to get as much of the detritus and cyano out. The Reefmat was a huge help in that I could just push the bad stuff down the drain and the Reefmat with gobble it up for me. Would have been much more difficult otherwise. So in a few weeks I was able to nearly completely clear the cyano, with just some remaining on the back wall (see photo).

The point is that I like my Reefmat. I just wish there were plug and play systems out there other than Red Sea that could accommodate it. Everybody seems to still build for filter socks. I really don't get it. I'm not much of a Do-it-yourselfer and am not crazy about the idea of cutting up my sump or rearranging plumbing, but none of the filter sock chambers or plumbing configurations out there seem to be geared toward accommodating a fleece filter of this size. I can't even find a stand-alone sump that will do that. Let me know if I'm missing something here.

I like the rest of my setup. Finally got the cord management issue under control by getting just about everything out of the aquarium cabinet and in an adjacent cabinet from Ikea, which also hides a few things on the wall behind it. I'm also running some things from the storage room behind the room where the aquarium is located. I'm using two Neptune Dos units, one for AWC and one for dosing AFR and NeoNitro as needed. I also have an Ecotech Vectra pump to dose NeoPhos as needed. Running Radion G6's. The skimmer is an OctoReef classic 150 with a standard BRS CO2 scrubber feeding it air. With the cyano, I needed lots of flow, which I'm getting from MP60's turned way down as well as Red Sea wavemakers.

Numbers are looking good now and the corals seems to be recovering nicely now that the cyano has receded and it has been easier to restore balance to the system.

 

[Tahoe61]

Interesting observation regarding the mat and cyanobacteria.
I know hobbyist that claim extreme water clarity using the mat.
You're absolutely right there's got to be a better way to build, or install a roller mat.
You're inclined to think adding Grunge and AF life source were beneficial in reducing the amount of cyanobacteria.