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

SPR

Well-Known Member
The Feeding Frenzy!

It’s quiet amazing that the fish seem to just know when it’s 6.30pm and time to be fed from the Apex autofeeder. I don’t know if fish can hear underwater and can here the noise it makes but they start darting around ready for the food.

When they arrive in the video no food has yet dropped and they are there waiting

And yes the Apex autofeeder is a little noisy but it’s very effective at how it works and prevents food getting moist and sticking together.





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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
I love feeding flake to my tank. I use a pair of smallish plastic tongs that I liberated from the kitchen, and I 'pinch' the food in them and release it about 6" underwater. I don't like to just sprinkle it on the top. Anyway, as I approach the tank, I tap the side of the food container with the tongs, and all the fish instantly know what is coming and they all congregate in a mass in front of me like a load of excited puppies.........or fish I suppose.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
I’m currently a little distance from my tank:

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Despite the pictures above I’m actually in Grenada but after a 8.15hr flight I’d lost the will to take another photo of the flight from St Lucia to Grenada!

We landed in St Lucia, dropped a load of passengers and then went island hopping for a 25 minute ride at low level in my jet (ok Virgin Atlantic’s!). It’s quiet cool flying low level in an Airbus A330 which is a big plane when you step of and take a look back!

Anyway, by the power of Neptunes Apex, imagine my joy and facial gurning, when I checked my parameters and the salinity was showing 48ppm!!!

Having pealed myself of the ceiling, I checked out the video feed and all was well, and my mother hasn’t called so all is well.

It must be a false reading and is currently reading 52ppm so I assume it’s time to clean and recalibrate the probe.

You see, modern technology gives you the piece of mind so you can just wind back, switch off and relax!!
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
You're a trolley dolly? Gin & Tonic please.
No I’m not a trolly dolly and no your not getting a drink!! Lol. I might be a pilot ?

Unfortunately I am not although I have done around 20 hours in real simulators just in case I get the call from the front! Lol. Apart from that it was a 737NG not airbus, but hey a pilots a pilot!!

I can see why they want the jobs though. My crew, sorry Virgin Atlantic’s crew, were staying in St Lucia for 2 days (crew 1) while crew 2 boarded and flew us to Grenada, were they stay over, and then crew 3 board following a 3-4 day break in the Caribbean, to fly those returning from Grenada back to St Lucia and back to UK.

And before you ask no i am also not going diving! snorkelling with the ladies, paddling with the ladies, but definitely no diving!
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Planes have played a huge part of my life. From my house we could see the Brabazon Hanger at Filton where Concorde was built. My Father, my uncles and all my friends Fathers worked at either Aerospace or Rolls Royce. aero engines. I saw every Concorde built at Filton take off on their maiden flight. I first worked at RR on blade and vane inspection before moving to Aerospace.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
I’ve just got back from a little break in Grenada, and all is well with the tank. Infact after cleaning the glass it looked better then when I left it! Lol

Brightwell replaced the two Xport NO3 Bricks which have been turning to sand, so I’ve just installed the two new ones in addition to the existing two, and also a new Marine Pure Block to see how good it is in comparison to the Brightwells. The old ones are at the front and you can see how they have crumbled.

I’ve seeded them all with Microbacter 7 (although I probably didn’t need to in an established tank) and I may remove the two old bricks if they continue to drop sand as it makes a mess in the sump

So currently I’m running 4 Brightwell Xport NO3 Bricks and 1 Marine Pure Block. You can’t have to much filtration right.

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I’ve also just changed over to the Red Sea Felt filter socks a few days ago instead of Mesh. I can honestly say the difference is astonishing. The water has always been relatively clear but the Felt is far superior to mesh and the water is like gin clear.

I’ve never used the washing machine before for filter socks, but I did a rinse to get rid of any soap, then just added about 8 of the mesh socks, started a long 1.45hr wash and they all were very clean with no effort. I then did a 20 minute rinse of the washer with water to get rid of any fish stuff, before handing back to my wife!

I’ve got to wash the new Felt ones for the first time, but I assume the washer will do the trick on these and I’ve ordered some more so will shortly have 10 Felt socks.


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SPR

Well-Known Member
Wow, your tank looks amazing!

Great aquascape and so many fish.
Thanks @Kindred !

I actually did quiet a lot of research on aquascaping whilst waiting for the tank to arrive. I especially liked some of the modern designs by Andre Silvestre. So this was my take on that type of design. Would he approve, who knows ! lol.

I wanted to be able to see some form of depth when looking into the system, and hence the gap in the middle so when you look into the centre you can see through the tank. I also tried to taper the rock edges on the sides.

Oh and the fish. I just love the marine fish and whenever I see one, and he swims up to me smiling in the LFS, I can’t resist! Hence I have a lot of fish.

More importantly I have a system that can handle the high bioload which is the key, and I monitor this carefully. I have just added some additional Brightwell Xport NO3 blocks and a Marine Pure Block. When I tested Nitrate a few days ago it had gone from around 16ppm to 6ppm. I want it ideally around 5-10ppm but more importantly I am in control of it rather than letting it run away.

@Pancho75 thanks for comments!

And anyone reading this thread if you have any ideas, comments etc., please post and say hello.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
I’d like to do a little review and give my thoughts on the difference between Mesh and Felt filter socks.

I’ve always used mesh since I started out, so thought I would try the felt ones to see how they fare up.

I’ve spent about £90 on 8 sets of 2 and have used them for the last 2 weeks or so.

I think the felt are better in terms of filtration than the mesh, but they only last about 2-3 days (compared to 3-4 for mesh) and are an absolute pain in the bottom to clean compared to mesh!

I have to wrestle with them to turn them inside out, as this is the only way they will come out of the washing machine clean. Then when clean I have to put them back the right way round again.

I’ve got them in the washing machine now to clean them and think I’ll go back to mesh as although felt seems to be better for filtration, it’s not that much better to make me go through the constant changing and cleaning routine. Mesh are just so much easier.

Anyway pictures.....

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SPR

Well-Known Member
All my Felt filter socks have been cleaned and put in a plastic bag were they can stay! Lol.

Yes they are far better than mesh for filtration but the washing is just a nightmare. So I’m currently running the mesh ones along with floating pieces of filter wool in the sump to carry out additional filtration as required and I just throw this away once a week.

Nitrates are currently running at around 6ppm despite the huge bio load (phosphate around 0-0.03ppm with Rhowaphos) and this is due to a combination of NoPox along with my Marine Pure and 4 Brightwell Xport NO3 Bricks. Problem is I don’t know which! Lol

What I’m going to do is wait a little while longer and if the Brightwell Bricks continue to break down I’m going to swap the 2 bad ones of them for a single Marine Pure.

I’ve actually reduced the NoPox dose from 18ml per day (was 24ml at one point) to 16ml to get it all balanced and may drop a little lower as I don’t want Nitrate any lower.

On a fish note, one of my 2 original tiny little yellow gobies has vanished and the other sits in its own looking lonely so when I see another I will have to get it a new friend.

My 7 Lyretail Anthias have reduced to a single male and 3 females which is a shame as they are so beautiful but I think although they look very sweet, they are not, certainly the big male! So I think I’ll pick up another 5-6 of these when I get half a chance.

Basically the above gives my an excuse to go back to the shop!! Lol
 

Pancho75

Well-Known Member
We are all the same just looking on ways to sneak ourselves back to the LFS to shop more coral/fish/chemicals/food/whatever hahaha. In my case my wife has noted that pattern but she plays along and let me be.


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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
I had this conversation with She Who Casts No Shadow on Saturday when I said I was popping down to the LFS to 'get some chemicals for the tank'. She said why don't I just order online. My argument was that yes, I could do that, but wouldn't it be boring if all we did was shop online. Sometimes it's nice to go to a shop (not just the LFS) to have a browse around. Also, by going on Saturday I was given a flyer offering 20% off of everything on a certain day, something I wouldn't have seen online. Now I can save a few purchases for that day, and get 20% off!
 
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