THz's Build Thread - RedSea S 850 G2+

[SpikesReef]

We're still here! I've been super busy this month, so no updates - sorry to everyone waiting for an update, all 2? of you :P

So what's happened? Well, two main things.

1. Redbugs
QT only works if you do it right, I suppose. And I guess I didn't. So I have a couple of frags with redbugs on them. This one is the worst:

So I'm sourcing Interceptor. "We don't treat Fish", "We need to do a visit, and it's a $650 min fee", "We're not licensed in CT"... I ordered from Canada.

This will likely be a PITA, because I have 6 shrimp (one of them pistol) that will not be fun to catch, but we'll see. I just got a Melanurus Wrasse as well, but I doubt it will do anything for the red bugs, so I'll likely have to do the Interceptor course.


2. Dinos
Turns out the nitrate(0) phosphate(0.04) imbalance I've been reporting is fueling another nuisance. Not a super heavy infestation, but certainly on the sand and rocks. After a microscope inspection, I've identified them as Ostreopsis.


I don't have space for a UV sterilizer, so I'll start dosing NeoNitro to bring the Nitrates up a bit. I'm guessing the 0 is also what's discoloring the test frags I have in the tank. It's a good thing I'm so busy, otherwise, I'd be trying things every day to solve the problem, which usually ends up being worse :)

I've started blowing off the rocks and sand with a little power head every week to lift as many diatoms in the water column as I can, and get them filtered by the ReefMat.

I've also sent out a Oceamo ICP test to get a nice profile of the chemistry and see where I'm at (to sort of verify my tests and instruments).


Anyway, the usual stuff.

Bummer. I had Dino's in my frag tank and just beat them by bringing up N and P, plus running a UV. It's a temporary UV that's just sitting on the rim and is ugly as sin. Guessing with your tank size a small temporary UV isn't an option.

 

[TeraHz]

Yeah, I'd have to get a 90W UV probably. Those things are ~ 3ft long lol :) I'll try by increasing N, and maybe will do a couple of blackouts first. Will probably add some more pods. If it doesn't look like I'm making a dent, I'll start planning how to plumb a UV. There is a closet behind the tank... lol

 

[Bartanto]

Yeah, I'd have to get a 90W UV probably. Those things are ~ 3ft long lol :) I'll try by increasing N, and maybe will do a couple of blackouts first. Will probably add some more pods. If it doesn't look like I'm making a dent, I'll start planning how to plumb a UV. There is a closet behind the tank... lol

You could do that aqua ultra 57w

 

[Mickey]

Diatoms are good when battling dinos as they outcompete them. So encourage diatoms by dosing silica then when dinos are controlled it's fairly easy to control diatoms.

 

[TeraHz]

You could do that aqua ultra 57w

That's one option, yeah. Those are about 21" so I _might_ be able to find space for it :) The thing is I'm also planning to do a closed-loop CO2 scrubber on the skimmer so I can peg the pH at 8.3, and that's another container (Soda Lime) I have to figure out where to put...

Let me see if I can figure it out with Nitrates first :)

 

[TeraHz]

Diatoms are good when battling dinos as they outcompete them. So encourage diatoms by dosing silica then when dinos are controlled it's fairly easy to control diatoms.

Silica is on the list of remedies. I want to do 1 thing at a time so I can tell what's working :) But thanks for the advice!

 

[TeraHz]

So this is how every day started for the last month, and it was 3x the size by the end of the day. Sand was almost invisible from Dinos by the end of the day as well. It would get so bad that I had to clean the overflow every day, otherwise the water level would rise too much!

A month later, I'm happy to report that Dinos are defeated! This is what the tank looks like at the end of the day now. Just a bit of algae fuzz on the rocks for the tangs to finally enjoy, and clear sand:

I spent a month dosing NeoNitro and going through 5 filter rolls. Every time I added the NeoNitro in the evening, a big chunk of the Dinos would dislodge themselves from the rocks and sand and start floating. I'd hear the roller advance every few minutes, removing them. I also used a powerhead to blow off the rocks twice a week.

Last week, I noticed there were much fewer dinos accumulating by the end of the day.

In the meantime, I did get a LifeGuard 90W UV unit. I did all kinds of tetris under the tank to try and fit it there.
My plan was to turn the power backup units sideways and fit the UV diagonally next to them, but they have these pesky handles that didn't really free any room when turned:

Thankfully, they are removable:

:)

But when the unit showed up, I couldn't make it work. So I started working on a little box with 2020 aluminum that I'll put on the side of the stand and cover the entire UV unit to look nice, so that it's approved by the SO.

I'll wrap the frame with something black - still haven't decided if I'll use plexiglass or chalkboard, or wood and paint it... As you can see, the unit fits perfectly in a small Sterilite container. I plan to put a leak sensor there at some point. Probably should put a check valve as well to make sure I don't siphon half the tank to the floor if something breaks :)


It's been online for 4 days now! I put it inline with one of the two pumps and turned it on. A day later, basically all the Dinos were gone. Pretty amazing result. Left the skimmer on wet skim and pulled out some stinky stuff :)

Now I have a 90W heater in the middle of the summer. The next challenge is to figure out how long to run it for to maintain the benefits without boiling the system. I routinely hit 80F. I'll start experimenting with that next, but I know I don't want to spend money on a chiller.


While doing all this, I've chased two other stability factors:
PH Stability. I added a big container of CO2 absorbing media at the intake of the skimmer and set the skimmer to be pH Control in the Profilux controller. Works great so far. I'll post photos of that setup soon, but basically made myself a 3d printed hook that goes on the return pipes and allows me to mount the container of media in the airspace over the return chamber :)

Trace Elements. I sent an Oceamo ICP test out. Salinity came back at 30ppt :( So had to regroup on that. I've been topping off with SW since then and have stopped AWCs for now. Once I hit 35ppt I'll restart AWCs and try to figure out why my salinity drifted so much (I triple checked for leaks). Also, when I hit 35ppt salinity, I'll start dosing the custom trace elements solution I got from Captiv8 - you send them the ICP result, and they send you a premixed solution to dose daily to hit target values for all trace elements.

Unfortunately, half my frags didn't survive being covered in Dinos for a month (or in 30ppt salinity?). But that's also why I didn't go crazy buying coral when I setup the tank. I plan to see how things go for a month, and maybe I'll introduce some new coral again to see where we're at.

Oh, and I got myself Interceptor from Canada pretty easily. I still don't want to deal with removing all the shrimp I have, but we'll see once all the other things normalize. At least I have it on hand now.

 

[SpikesReef]

@TeraHz how's things man? I just restarted the captiv8 myself and notice a difference, everything looks happier now.

 

[TeraHz]

4 months! unacceptable :)

So what has happened?

Dinos are a PITA!
Remember how I announced I had won? Well, I did win the fight against Amphidinium with the UV. But 2 weeks later, Coolia showed up with a vengeance. Everything got covered again (UV never removed!). It took basically another 3 months of everything at the same time: Siphoning through a 5 micron filter (this did wonders), UV directly in the display, MB7 dosing, NeoNitro dosing, no white lights, H2O2 dosing... I think the biggest difference was when I moved the UV I/O to the display. They were already on a decline when I did it, and I was siphoning from the display to the sump through a 5 micron filter to help, but about 2 weeks after moving the hoses to take from near the bottom of the display, the difference was close to what it was when I introduced it with Amphidinium species.
I've now been stable at ~10 Nitrate and ~0.04 phosphate for a while (still dosing NeoNitro and MB7 daily). The dinos are still definitely around, because at the end of the day, I can see between the sand grains some brown shows up and is gone in the morning. So we'll either live together like that, or eventually they'll all go through the UV... As far as I'm concerned, it's an acceptable level that's invisible unless you look for it, and not enough to keep killing my snails so I'll take it. Lesson learned: Fighting Dinos is by far the most PITA thing I've done in this hobby. 6 months?

Red Bugs: The one coral that had them died. Actually, I only lost 4 frags through the dino ordeal. The rest looked dead (and were mostly dead), but my laziness didn't remove them, and now their bases are growing again and are colored up nicely. I have a couple of plates of SPS lol - I wonder when/if they'll ever start growing up.
And ever since that one coral died, I've not seen red bugs. To be fair, I've not inspected super carefully every coral, only spot checked with a UV flashlight at night (which was the best way to spot the red bugs with a naked eye), but they all have PE, are decently colored, and are growing... so I'll take it.

Livestock:
Happy to report, no loss in fish. Did lose the urchin :( At one point, I thought I lost my pistol shrimp, because the goby was outside swimming on his own and looked distressed. Even got stuck to the gyre once, so I put him in an acclimation box. But 2 days later, the shrimp showed up, and when I released the goby, it went right to it.
I think these are all new since my last update:
1 Yellow Tang
1 Bristletooth Tang
1 Lawnmower blenny
3 Lyretail Anthias (was 3 females, but one switched to male)
The rest:
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Lightning maroon (female/bigger)
1 Regular maroon (male/smaller)
1 Blue hippo tang
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Pistol shrimp
2 Skunk shrimp
1 Fire shrimp
2 Peppermint shrimp

I'm considering adding 2 bengaii and 2 pajama cardinals and maybe another wrasse at some point. Would prefer to add more food to the tank and have more fish, over having to dose NeoNitro :)

So that's about it, I guess. We're finally enjoying the tank! My wife recently said, "I never thought I'd see this tank looking nice" :)

I did another ICP test two months ago, and will be sending one more in a week to get my baseline diff for the next order of Captiv8.



The tank today, towards the end of the day (can you spot the dinos? :) ):

 

[SpikesReef]

4 months! unacceptable :)

So what has happened?

Dinos are a PITA!
Remember how I announced I had won? Well, I did win the fight against Amphidinium with the UV. But 2 weeks later, Coolia showed up with a vengeance. Everything got covered again (UV never removed!). It took basically another 3 months of everything at the same time: Siphoning through a 5 micron filter (this did wonders), UV directly in the display, MB7 dosing, NeoNitro dosing, no white lights, H2O2 dosing... I think the biggest difference was when I moved the UV I/O to the display. They were already on a decline when I did it, and I was siphoning from the display to the sump through a 5 micron filter to help, but about 2 weeks after moving the hoses to take from near the bottom of the display, the difference was close to what it was when I introduced it with Amphidinium species.
I've now been stable at ~10 Nitrate and ~0.04 phosphate for a while (still dosing NeoNitro and MB7 daily). The dinos are still definitely around, because at the end of the day, I can see between the sand grains some brown shows up and is gone in the morning. So we'll either live together like that, or eventually they'll all go through the UV... As far as I'm concerned, it's an acceptable level that's invisible unless you look for it, and not enough to keep killing my snails so I'll take it. Lesson learned: Fighting Dinos is by far the most PITA thing I've done in this hobby. 6 months?

Red Bugs: The one coral that had them died. Actually, I only lost 4 frags through the dino ordeal. The rest looked dead (and were mostly dead), but my laziness didn't remove them, and now their bases are growing again and are colored up nicely. I have a couple of plates of SPS lol - I wonder when/if they'll ever start growing up.
And ever since that one coral died, I've not seen red bugs. To be fair, I've not inspected super carefully every coral, only spot checked with a UV flashlight at night (which was the best way to spot the red bugs with a naked eye), but they all have PE, are decently colored, and are growing... so I'll take it.

Livestock:
Happy to report, no loss in fish. Did lose the urchin :( At one point, I thought I lost my pistol shrimp, because the goby was outside swimming on his own and looked distressed. Even got stuck to the gyre once, so I put him in an acclimation box. But 2 days later, the shrimp showed up, and when I released the goby, it went right to it.
I think these are all new since my last update:
1 Yellow Tang
1 Bristletooth Tang
1 Lawnmower blenny
3 Lyretail Anthias (was 3 females, but one switched to male)
The rest:
1 Melanurus Wrasse
1 Lightning maroon (female/bigger)
1 Regular maroon (male/smaller)
1 Blue hippo tang
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Pistol shrimp
2 Skunk shrimp
1 Fire shrimp
2 Peppermint shrimp

I'm considering adding 2 bengaii and 2 pajama cardinals and maybe another wrasse at some point. Would prefer to add more food to the tank and have more fish, over having to dose NeoNitro :)

So that's about it, I guess. We're finally enjoying the tank! My wife recently said, "I never thought I'd see this tank looking nice" :)

I did another ICP test two months ago, and will be sending one more in a week to get my baseline diff for the next order of Captiv8.



The tank today, towards the end of the day (can you spot the dinos? :) ):

Lookin good! Should be good in time for a nice frag farmers splurge. Dino's are no joke these days it seems.

 

[TeraHz]

Happy New Year!

We're approaching 1 year of this build!

Two more fish joined the party - a pair of Mandarins from Biota. They were eating TDO pellets on day 2 in the acclimation box. Released into the tank a week later. I dose pods every month, and the tank should now have a good amount for them to eat. I also add TDO b2 pellets to my feeder, so they hopefully get some of them as well. So far, so good.

During Black Friday I also got a few more corals from Tidal Gardens.

I've stopped dosing NeoNitro as my nitrates have stabilized around 10 without dosing now.
I've also recently disabled the UV light altogether to see if dinos return, and so far no sign of them over the last two weeks.

A few small patches of turn/green hair algae can be seen here and there. I guess the tangs, blenny, and hermits aren't interested in them with all the food I'm giving the tank. If the herbivores don't show interest soon, I'll start manual removal, but so far not too worried. Other than that, I really have no other issues to report. Just have to wait now for things to grow out.

ICP test is showing some trace elements are lower than suggested, so I'll be addressing that with the next batch of Captiv8 order.

Otherwise, here are the visuals:

I should get something to take close-up photos underwater...

 

[Mickey]

Looking good!

 

[mlburchjr]

Great build. I'm considering on getting a S850 to replace my 750 XXL and I'm looking at ideas for equipment organization. The shelf you made out of the aluminum intrigues me. Do you happen to have any close up pictures of it?

 

[TeraHz]

Great build. I'm considering on getting a S850 to replace my 750 XXL and I'm looking at ideas for equipment organization. The shelf you made out of the aluminum intrigues me. Do you happen to have any close up pictures of it?

Ok, let me try to explain it - it's a single rail in the middle of the wooden divider (vertically), and a rectangle of aluminum that goes from the floor to the top aluminum rail of the stand. This forms 3 rails for the "shelf" to slide up and down on. (it's easier to slide on 3 than on 4). You just need a few standard aluminum Ts and Ls to connect it all.

 

[MasterClassReefs]

Well, I guess it's time I started one of these.

Let's get the main gear list out of the way:

RedSea Reefer S 850 G2+ (Yeah, I know. We'll see...)
ReeFiUno 2.1 Pro x3
RedSea ReefMat 1200
RedSea Reefer DC 900 Skimmer
Versia Flow 9 x2 Return pumps
Maxspect XF350 x2 flow
IM Helio 700W (2x350) + 600W BRS backup
GHL ecosystem for monitoring, AWC, testing, control, and dosing
Marco Rock base (made into the trendy HNSA)
Live Tampa Bay sand (100lb)
Live Tampa Bay base rock for the sump (20lb)
CaribSea Arag-Alive Natural Reef grade sand to fill

A bunch of random other small things like Avast Marine Parrot level switches, Solenoids, US Water Systems DI canisters, Rubbermaid Tubs...

The floor is well supported where the tank will live, so I'm not worried. (It's right on top of a concrete foundation wall + a load-bearing beam)

I plan to do about 1% AWC daily, and when the time comes to start dosing BRS A, BRS B and TM C. Eventually I'll add trace minerals as well.

Just about everything was ordered on Thanksgiving. Tank and most of the big bits I ordered from a LFS so I have someone to yell at if... you know, RedSea :) A lot of the smaller bits are from BRS and I made sure to order something from them on each day of their givaway. It worked because I ended up winning one of their box-o-stuff and a signed Serious Reefs hat :p

So this was December 24th! Merry Christmas he said, right before he almost dropped it...

As he was pulling it out of the truck, the weight pushed the liftgate too far down and the entire thing started rolling away! The guy even jumped from the gate, but thankfully it caught on something and stopped after the first two wheels dropped from the lift gate.... "It's heavy!" he said... lol. (1204lb was the slip, if anyone is interested).

It survived, however:

I have more to write, but will break it up so it's not a giant opening post that I have to write for a few hours :)

To be continued...

 

[TeraHz]

Well, it's been just over a year! As it seems to be with this hobby, you get a few months of enjoyment, then a few months of challange :) Nothing major, just my chaeto decided to die and feed a forest of GHA in the display... Nothing that can't be fixed. It kind of happened over a couple of weeks while I was away (as things like this always happen), so now I'm catching up. I've done a couple of manual pulls of major clumps of algae, checked nutrients (though as usual they're normal because algae are eating it all), and I'm not seeing more algae growing at least, but now I still have a million nooks and crannies with small chunks of algae that are hard to reach. Should be enough for the snails and urchins.

The interesting part is, none of my tangs or the blenny eat it! I'm guessing there are some microorganisms on the algae that are not tasty for the fish ... who knows.

Anyway, coral are colorful and happy, and growing otherwise. No losses to speak of. Fish appear healthy. The TIINY mandarins I got from Biota have easily doubled in size without me target feeding them so that's a good sign?


Here are some photos (sorry they're not TOTM worthy with all the algae :) )

 

[TeraHz]

I suppose one more report:
The tank is holding up! It's sad I needs to say that, but I do go through the seams very carefully just about every weekend, to make sure I don't see any degradation...

 

[MasterClassReefs]

I suppose one more report:
The tank is holding up! It's sad I needs to say that, but I do go through the seams very carefully just about every weekend, to make sure I don't see any degradation...

I hope that tank stays sealed for you. I dont mess with glass tanks for this very reason.

 

[mlburchjr]

Ok, let me try to explain it - it's a single rail in the middle of the wooden divider (vertically), and a rectangle of aluminum that goes from the floor to the top aluminum rail of the stand. This forms 3 rails for the "shelf" to slide up and down on. (it's easier to slide on 3 than on 4). You just need a few standard aluminum Ts and Ls to connect it all.

Thanks