Shaun's 2000 Litre (530 USG) Living Reef & Red Sea Max S 650 LED Design & Build

SPR

SPR

Well-Known Member
Nobbygas said:
Sharks are beautiful, and not to be feared. Reef Sharks? Totally harmless. Hammerheads, the same. I've dived surrounded by Bull Sharks, and one memorable time with a huge Tiger Shark and her baby. Oceanic White Tips, Threasher, Copper, Nurse sharks.......all different kinds. They are more wary of you than you should be of them.
Imagine not just seeing a turtle from above, but actually swimming along next to it.

But yeah, avoid the Titan Trigger Fish.....nasty things.
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Yes I know what your saying is generally true, most of the time, but.... and it’s the but...

I was swimming along side and behind the turtles as I was in the water, but all the time having bad thoughts until eventually I snapped and clambered out quick sharpish!

When I was in the Maldives in 2016 there were small black tipped reef sharks swimming a few feet of the beach and bigger ones which were fed daily from the walkways. However it just reminded me of that James Bond Film Thunderball! Lol

In fact I actually went to the Bahamas about 10 years ago because of this film to see what it was like. And sitting on the coach to the BA flight opposite me was Sean Connery and his wife, directly opposite. At that time at the door to the plane he went ‘left’ and I went right! Lol

My only regret is that in Nassau when we landed I didn’t get his autograph as he was dressed in all the black clothes looking the part, but me and my son didn’t want to pester him so I left it. Always regretted this as he was very approachable.

I’ll stick to my 650 litre oceanic glass tank thank you very much!!! Lol
 
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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
SPR said:
Yes I know what your saying is generally true, most of the time, but.... and it’s the but...

I was swimming along side and behind the turtles as I was in the water, but all the time having bad thoughts until eventually I snapped and clambered out quick sharpish!

When I was in the Maldives in 2016 there were small black tipped reef sharks swimming a few feet of the beach and bigger ones which were fed daily from the walkways. However it just reminded me of that James Bond Film Thunderball! Lol

In fact I actually went to the Bahamas about 10 years ago because of this film to see what it was like. And sitting on the coach to the BA flight opposite me was Sean Connery and his wife, directly opposite. At that time at the door to the plane he went ‘left’ and I went right! Lol

My only regret is that in Nassau when we landed I didn’t get his autograph as he was dressed in all the black clothes looking the part, but me and my son didn’t want to pester him so I left it. Always regretted this as he was very approachable.

I’ll stick to my 650 litre oceanic glass tank thank you very much!!! Lol
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Big girls blouse eh!
 
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Nobbygas

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C'mon, where is the holiday report? Did you have an arm/leg bitten off by a demented Reef Shark? Were you threatened by a nasty Clown Fish? More importantly, did the tank survive?
 
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SPR

SPR

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emvanburen said:
Please be mindful...


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Well that about sums it up and I couldn’t have said it better myself, and no I’m not blonde and I have all my limbs still were they should be thank you very much ! I’m just glad I’m not a Chicken!! Lol

I spent a whole week in the safety of the beach with an occasional ‘paddle’ and a slow journey to ‘a relaxed state of mind’’ with the aid of constant/frequent glasses of double Smirnoff Vodka and soda water (for dehydration!!) with a piece of lime. Sophisticated us Brits you know!

Anyway back to reality after a week in sunny Barbados.....

The tank is all fine and I’ve just tested the parameters and all good. The only issue I have is that whenever I go away the nitrates are always up (currently 16ppm from around 5ppm) when I get back, and despite the fact my mother swears she doesn’t over feed them I’m not so sure. To the unwary eye they are always starving and begging for food like they have never been fed!

I also had an email today from Red Sea which some of you may also have seen and I’ve ordered one of these at £59.99 for the large version for the S 650. I’ve been looking around for a while but only wanted to get one if they fit in with the tank so you can hardly notice and this seems to be ok. I’ve only lost 1 jumper a royal gamma so far but this will prevent further incident.

https://www.redseafish.com/customizable-diy-aquarium-net-cover/

A few weeks ago my Foxface disappeared never to be seen again. This is the second I’ve lost and both seemed to be doing ok for several weeks and then started to thin out. I noticed this on my last one just before he vanished. I was reading an article on possible bullying from other fish, in particular Tangs, and I’m beginning to wonder if some of the other fishes took a dislike for the second time and stressed him out to the point of death. If I get another one I might get a larger specimen as the 2 previous were fairly small.
 
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Nobbygas

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I am interested to see what you make of the Red Sea Mesh cover. I am not that impressed with the DIY bit, plus it doesn't appear to have a feeding door, so you have to either lift up the whole thing on one side to feed, or drop the food through the mesh, which doesn't appeal to me.
The price of 59.99 is very attractive though.

Glad to hear you still have all your limbs attached. You must be well up on your Limbo dancing by now.

Foxface are one of those fish that I just cannot come to love. I don't know why, but I'll never have one.
 
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emvanburen

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That looks like fun. Being able to design on site would be nice. Suggest you add a feeding cutout. I use mine all the time. It is a pain to lift the lid and hold food simultaneously. And if I had it to do over I would have a feeding door on each side.


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SPR

SPR

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I think the idea with it is that it is designed to fit perfectly on whatever tank you have, so in our case the 650, but then you can cut out bits, for example a hole for feeding under my autofeeder.

I also tend to drop frozen cubes in front of the return nozzle so as it breaks up all the fish get a chance at some so maybe a small hole around there as well.

The main point for me is that it is seamless and blends in with the tank as I love the open top and the water movement and I’m just hoping that as it’s being sold by Red Sea, it’s a quality product to match their systems.
 
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Nobbygas

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I've just remembered........you also have a Star Fish. I recently had to buy one as Mini Me MkII wanted one, and as he has shown a lot of interest in the tank recently I thought I'd buy him one.
My question is do you target feed it, or just let it do it's thing?

Our's started off with the normal five arms, but two have already had the ends chomped off.......I suspect it's the crabs.
 
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SPR

SPR

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Nobbygas said:
I've just remembered........you also have a Star Fish. I recently had to buy one as Mini Me MkII wanted one, and as he has shown a lot of interest in the tank recently I thought I'd buy him one.
My question is do you target feed it, or just let it do it's thing?

Our's started off with the normal five arms, but two have already had the ends chomped off.......I suspect it's the crabs.
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I’ve got 2 star fishes, a sand sifting star fish and an orange/red one.

The orange/red one climbs around the rocks and eats algea I assume, whereas the sandsifting star fish, well sifts through the sand. You need to make sure the system contains enough detritus in the sand/enough sand, otherwise he will starve.

So no I don’t target feed my starfish they just do their thing. And I have better things to do than feeding a star fish which I suspect would become very tedious really quickly!! Lol

You have to acclimatise them very slowly otherwise they tend to slowly disintegrate if yours is loosing arms etc.
 
SPR

SPR

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I happened to call at one of my LFS’s yesterday and they have had a major upgrade including many more marine tanks and I’ve seen a few rather nice potential new friends currently being held under quarantine that may well find themselves shortly enjoying themselves in my little piece of ocean!

Anyway here you go....... it should be in HD

 
SPR

SPR

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emvanburen said:
Looks happy and healthy. Are those massive green Star polyp and Xenia colonies?


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Yes I believe they are. The green star polyp started as a small piece and it’s just grown and grown, and keeps growing. I tend to put a rock near it until it grows onto it and then I get frags as I quiet like it and there are a few other pieces around the tank.

Same with the Xenia although that has attached itself onto bits of rocks which I’ve then just placed. The one middle right is quiet big and I have to trim it occasionally to stop it over shadowing some of the lower corals.
 
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emvanburen

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Awesome wrasse! I got a picture of my new guy as well. My bartlett anthias are pinkish. Could they be Purple Queen Anthias - Mirolabrichthys tuka?


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SPR

SPR

Well-Known Member
emvanburen said:
Awesome wrasse! I got a picture of my new guy as well. My bartlett anthias are pinkish. Could they be Purple Queen Anthias - Mirolabrichthys tuka?


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Click to expand...
They could well be Purple Queen Anthias. They had 6 more in quarantine which had just arrived so I might just have to go back and check the names!! Lol

They had a stunning little Queen Angel fish and I had to really restrain myself from buying it. He was tiny but of course they grow and would then probably eat my entire reef! So a definite no no.
 
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Nobbygas

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Shaun - Don't buy any more of the Purple Queen Anthias for now. Looking around, they appear to be quite difficult to keep. Feeding seems to be the problem. See how you get on with the two, and if there are no problems, then get some more.
 
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