THz's Build Thread - RedSea S 850 G2+

[TeraHz]

What a fun weekend at the New England's FFM. I spent too much money :p More on that in later updates :) But also won a Small-In-One 1G AIO at the raffle! That one will be fun to play with.
Changelog:
- Lights are at 10% intensity as of March 1st.
- Added 4 jars of galaxy pods on Feb 26th.
- Introduced the first fish on March 1st.
- Enabled auto-feeding March 1st.
- Had an issue with one of the versia flow pumps (too loud), which was promptly replaced by GHL under warranty and is now back online as of March 2nd.


As mentioned fish were introduced on Saturday. A lightning and regular maroons that just came out of 4 weeks of QT. We had to have a "Nemo" and the lightning didn't pass the test :). They spent 4 weeks in a 10g QT with eggcrate separator (the regular maroon can pass through it, but the lightning is too big) and have been in this tank for a couple of days now with no biting that I can tell. I know the odds are against them forming a pair, but hopefully, the 4 weeks together in the QT made it possible :)


The feeder is now regularly introducing organics and I can see the skimmer is finally starting to do something. The ReefMat has been a champ. I keep having to speed up the advance because it gets clogged too fast, but it's such an upgrade from filter socks.

The Avast Plank feeder is awesome so far. I like how well you can control the amount of food it drops.

As for the current ugly stage, it's almost gone. As you can see in the video above, there is almost none of whatever that was. I should probably take a peek under the microscope to see what it is before it's gone.

Since we've added the two fish, the kids have been glued to the tank and it's great!

 

[TeraHz]

Sneak Peek

 

[TeraHz]

10 days after I reported uglies showing up, they are almost gone. I took a blob of brown from one of the rocks that was about to float away and give you A Drop Of Water:


Lots of life - can't say I know what most of it is lol, but I see diatoms, amoebas, and a couple of types of algae, among other things.

 

[TeraHz]

Weekend update: I've been working on data logging and graphing. I managed to get some of the basic data into grafana. I also finally measured my salinity and it was lower than I wanted it, so I started to ATO with NSW instead of RODI. You can see the salinity graph is slowly starting to move up since yesterday. It will take several days to get to my target, but that's perfect.

I also adjusted the lights to now be at 25% final power. I'll probably kick in the acclimation program on the ReeFi's next week.

I've not been posting any FTSses because, well, the thing is a mirror and I'm still figuring out how to take a nice picture that doesn't involve putting a black background behind me to kill reflections... But here is one:

 

[TeraHz]

It's time for a weekly update.
The first/baseline ICP test result is in and we're in the green!
https://www.triton-lab.de/en/showroom/icp-oes/217904
I also did the tank's very first water parameters test the day I sent the ICP test:
KH: 7.9 dKH
Nitrate: 0.00ppm (I guess I ordered the high range tester... need to get the low range one)
Phosphate: 0.04ppm on the Checker (0.034 on the ICP test)
Salinity: 1.027 on the Milwaukee (35.206 on the ICP test)

I've had the lights at 50% for 6 days now - got a little bump in diatoms on the rocks, but they are again almost gone now.

Switched the ATO to RODI water as I've reached 35ppm.

I've also added some livestock.

Shoutout to Ken at High Tide Aquatics for the QTed Hippo Tang, Yellow Watchman Goby, and Fire shrimp. As well as Tim and Heather Kirn from Inverted Reef for some more QTed shrimp (including a tiger pistol), and the first Cleanup Crew! Got the usual suspects of snails and hermits, but the real star of the crew is the fighting conch which has been polishing anything in its path - I had started to see some macro algae start to appear from the sand here and there, and just 5 days in, there is almost none left!

The QTed fish all arrived super healthy and eating right away.

The Goby and Pistol shrimp found each other within 15min and have been trying to settle on a hole since then - they must have moved 10 times already lol. I'll post some pictures soon.

So things are moving slowly, but that's good. I'm itching to get more inhabitants :) But I have to go slow.

I also had an interesting issue with a Maxi Doser 2.1 that was not starting up after power failure, but a firmware update fixed it. I have to say the "One PAB device connected" restriction on GHL is sub-optimal...

Coming up next for me is to setup the AWC logic (everything is physically in place) and then see if I need to start the dosing regimen.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

did you get the DC Buddy? I was following that but lost sight of it, I didn’t realize they are now a real thing. Between orange and black I have about 12 EBs and would love to streamline some things.

I love the TBS sand I added about 240 pounds and a couple hundred pounds of their rock. The sand really makes a difference. My wife can easily tell when I change the flow in the display though, lol.

 

[SpikesReef]

Nice setup and appreciate the super thorough build thread. Excited to see this come along

 

[TeraHz]

did you get the DC Buddy? I was following that but lost sight of it, I didn’t realize they are now a real thing. Between orange and black I have about 12 EBs and would love to streamline some things.

I love the TBS sand I added about 240 pounds and a couple hundred pounds of their rock. The sand really makes a difference. My wife can easily tell when I change the flow in the display though, lol.

Yeah, I got the DC Buddy. It's does help with bricks, but becomes a single point of many failures, so gotta be careful with that. Also it has limits on max current per channel of 3A (and total of 10A) so keep that in mind when buying it. Overall I'm a fan.

The TBS sand is amazing. I basically got an instant tank with it. All new tanks should start with some portion of that sand (if they can't afford 100%) and some rubble for the sump. Too bad they had the two hurricanes and had to double the price, but I don't blame them - I'd rather them be profitable and keep doing it than have to shut down.

 

[TeraHz]

Nice setup and appreciate the super thorough build thread. Excited to see this come along

Thanks!

 

[TeraHz]

I setup the KH Director. Man that was a long setup :) I'm getting slightly higher readings than Hanna checker, but that's fine - I'll be validating it against a calibration solution in the near future (when it arrives). Now if only I can figure out how to get that data out of the controller... I really like the GHL hardware, but it's pretty disappointing how they're not prioritizing opening it up at all...

Anyway, I had the Inspector checkout the area before I put the gallon jugs in place (one is for KH waste which I'll be using a dosing head to pump in the drain periodically - that's why 3 holes on top) and the two standard additives for now. I have room for one more 1g jug but for now this is all I'm going to do.

I also programmed the automatic water changes. I used the two sensor method (drain to the bottom sensor, fill to the top sensor) and while roughly measuring how much I was draining, on 2 of the 6 water changes I performed, the system decided to compensate from *somewhere* and the sump level never dropped! I still can't explain where the water was coming from. I _think_ it was from the overflow box - somehow it was dropping level and not the sump return compartment... anyway it's no big deal.

This is the salinity graph for the display tank. Pretty clear the new SW is lower salinity:

This opened another can of worms - Between my refractometer, my Milwaukee, and the GHL probe, all three were reading different salinity... It was time for calibration fluids again and sure enough, it was needed.

On the tank itself, I've entered the stringy ugly phase now that the lights are blasting at 75%. Some pretty cool algae showed up from the sand:

I'm not sure what this is, but I kind of like it - is super easy to remove and I have 2 in the tank for now. If more start showing up I'll remove them, but for now I like it.

You'll also notice GHA showing up, some pink stuff (cyano?) some other stuff... again, all kind of expected for a 2 month old tank

I did get a Blue Hippo Tang and it is loving all this algae. I'm waiting for my yellow tang to join the fun.

If things start getting out of control, I might do a blackout session to help the tangs out followed by a bigger water change, but for now, I'm not panicking.

And finally, I got my lid from Walter Lids. Three pieces of 1/4" acrylic. Just put it on tonight so you get to enjoy a Blue photo :)

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

FYI. I ordered some reference solution to set a baseline for No3 in my MT. Before doing that I decided to spot check the reported dkh against their ICP #s. I ran 3 tests with my Hanna. It was > 1.0 lower than the Hanna. I opted not to use the reference solution. I used FM but YMMV.

 

[TeraHz]

Thanks @WhatCouldGoWrong71. I just realized Triton's ICP doesn't do dkh to verify... I also ordered a Salifert test so I can do best 2 out of 3 lol

But the GHL 7.5 reference solution came today, and the KH Director read 7.5dKH on the spot. My hanna checker is consistently 0.7dKH lower than the KHD, so I guess I'll just keep an eye on shifts of values more than the actual value.
KHD: 8.2
Hanna: 7.5

I might end up targeting 9dKH on the KHD scale, and 8.3dKH on the Hanna scale :)

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I’m struggling trying to get my No3 accurate on my Mastertronic. I put the big pill in, no change. My PO4 drifted, realized I was 200 tests past needle and tube replacement, redid everything and calibrated everything. PO4 is nearly dead on my Hanna, which I have mixed feelings on, lol. But my No3 was literally the same 5.5. My last ICP I was at 30 and .33 tank looks fine. I’m waiting on my current ICP results any day now to compare my No3 values again. I’m going to try Randy’s No3 reference solution recipe and just force feed my MT. I’m starting to reach for straws, lol.

 

[TeraHz]

I feel like if all these vendors of automatic testers just included some reference/calibration fluids with their product, they'll have a much happier customer base. I was considering getting a reefbot lab, but I don't think that tech is where it needs to be yet. Even the KH Directory, I was on the fence about.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

FWIW, my Alkatronic is spot on. 90% of the time my Trident, Alkatronic and Hanna are within 0.10 of each other. PO4 is pretty dialed too. But No3, per my ICP results today is 2.5x’s under actual.

 

[TeraHz]

White Hair Algae is the name of the game right now. The back wall is covered with hair algae, same with the rock and sand. But it's all white. (it's very pale green under white light). I'm letting it grow a few more days and will do a major cleaning followed by a slightly bigger water change (10%).

Nothing unusual - part of the ugly stage - so I'm not panicking to start killing it. The blue hippo tang is having a blast with it. So much so that the big Maroon is also copying and biting off of the HA lol.

I have a wave of CUC coming, along with a yellow tang from Dr Reefs next week. And this week I'm expecting two small tuxedo urchins from Inverted Reef. I suspect in a couple of weeks the hair algae to be in much better state.

I did transfer most coral out of the QT into the DT on the sand for light acclimation. I'll give them at least a week on the sand before I start relocating them and gluing them.

If anyone cares, I did remove the frag plus and remounted them on macro rubble.

The auto water changes so far are working as expected. No concerns there.

I got a Salifert KH test and it seems to agree with the KHD, so Hanna Checker is the outlier. That being said, my ALK has gone up over the last couple of days - not sure I buy that but it's minor so I'm ignoring it.

I have not started to dose anything yet - just the ~1% daily water change.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I just had 5 fish from Dr Reef show up. So far so good. Did you see with any biodiversity or are you going bareback?

 

[TeraHz]

I just had 5 fish from Dr Reef show up. So far so good. Did you see with any biodiversity or are you going bareback?

The back is bare for now. However the sand came with all the biodiversity I can want... I plan to leave it like that, unless a better suggestion comes along - perhaps I can get some monti to encrust it :)

In my first tank I did GSP - not goinna do that here lol

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

When I did my consolidation I added 200 pounds of tbs sand. Along with rock, lots of additional rock. It’s like being born a non-virgin.

But when I went to Hawaii in December I overnighted myself on my way off the island 40 pounds of sand I pulled from the bottom of the ocean. It resides in my sump. No clue if that helps. I’ve got about 50-80 pounds too much in my tank.

 

[TeraHz]

I only put about 30lbs of rubble from TBS in the sump. I didn't really want all the algae that comes with live rock in the main display. The sand, I assumed, brought most/enough life to seed the tank. I think it worked.

It if twas for the frag farmers market in CT, I wouldn't have ramped up the lights for the frags. The algae didn't really show up until I put the lights above 50% of my planned intensity.

Again, I'm not worried - it's pale white, so I doubt it will be around for long. Especially after the urchins show up on Wednesday :)