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

SPR

Well-Known Member
Today I added a Golden Wrasse, Naso Tang and a Fire Red Shrimp to the system.

The fish started off in the acclimatisation box for about 7 hours and they weren’t being harassed so I opened the door and they just swam out.

In the past, when I’ve just dropped them in, theyve always disappeared into the rockwork, but this method seems to work much better. The shrimps in the rockwork but the other 2 are happily swimming around.

I guess it’s like your first day at school, but as the only newbie, so it much be very intimidating for them.

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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Quite often, one of the first thing a Shrimp will do when added to a tank is to shed it's skin, so it is normal for it to hide away until the new soft skin hardens up a bit. I have never ever bought a Fire Shrimp. What do they do? The Golden Wrasse is similar to my Banana Wrasse. I love the stripes they get down their faces as they get older. I've never had a Naso Tang either. They get quite big don't they?
I always use the box to acclimatize the fish. I also stick an old mirror to the opposite end of the tank to that which I release the newbies. In fact I use one of the wife's old make-up mirrors, you know, the ones they carry around with them. They are small and are held on easily with some cellotape. Any fish that has aggressive tendencies will usually attack 'one of their own kind' in the mirror than worry about any other fish. I think it's an ego thing. In the past I have also added some weighed down plastic pipes in the tank, just to change the scape and therefore change the territories. They are easy to put in and take out after a couple of days and it doesn't involve moving any rocks/corals etc. At times I also find myself shouting at any fish that are looking for trouble, but I don't think that actually works :)
 
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SPR

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Quite often, one of the first thing a Shrimp will do when added to a tank is to shed it's skin, so it is normal for it to hide away until the new soft skin hardens up a bit. I have never ever bought a Fire Shrimp. What do they do? The Golden Wrasse is similar to my Banana Wrasse. I love the stripes they get down their faces as they get older. I've never had a Naso Tang either. They get quite big don't they?
I always use the box to acclimatize the fish. I also stick an old mirror to the opposite end of the tank to that which I release the newbies. In fact I use one of the wife's old make-up mirrors, you know, the ones they carry around with them. They are small and are held on easily with some cellotape. Any fish that has aggressive tendencies will usually attack 'one of their own kind' in the mirror than worry about any other fish. I think it's an ego thing. In the past I have also added some weighed down plastic pipes in the tank, just to change the scape and therefore change the territories. They are easy to put in and take out after a couple of days and it doesn't involve moving any rocks/corals etc. At times I also find myself shouting at any fish that are looking for trouble, but I don't think that actually works :)
The fire shrimp will also clean the fish like a cleaner shrimp and sets up a cleaning station. Oh and looks cool! Lol

I had a Naso in the S650 and they can get big, but there’s plenty of room in his home now.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
The golden “coris” wrasse is one of my favorites. It destroys all of the bad worms you don’t want with extreme prejudice.
Their beautiful fish, and as you say do a great job in the tank. I’ve got a larger one in the S650 as well.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
So all of you who have been paying attention will know I’m a keen golfer. I play badly 4 times a week off 15.5 handicap so 16.

Well yesterday I played at one of the courses of which Im a member, and I was about 5 under par gross (golfers will understand but it means I was playing very well!) and playing the best round for years.

Then I got hit in the forehead by a tee shot from another hole..... Fortunately for me it bounced on the ground first before it hit me, and even more fortunately by a few inches, it hit my forehead rather than an eye or something

Funny thing is, it didnt actually hurt that much, it swelled up but a cold compress helped immensely, but no real pain. I must have a hard head or something!

The young chap involved was devastated, to the point I actually felt sorry for him and won’t be setting ‘my wolves’ on him. He was speaking to my father and the guys playing with me and was mortified, and left the course with us.

It sometimes takes something like this to make you think of what might have happened but for the ‘grace of god‘ if you like. This is what’s so shocking. An inch or so either way and both our lives could have changed very differently, especially mine..........

After the incident I was waiting to be picked up in a buggy, stood behind a big oak tree, and the group behind us hit another shot, and it landed between my feet. No shout. You know when it’s not your day!!!

So any golfers reading this, if you hit a wayward shot, shout Four very loudly......
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
So all of you who have been paying attention will know I’m a keen golfer. I play badly 4 times a week off 15.5 handicap so 16.

Well yesterday I played at one of the courses of which Im a member, and I was about 5 under par gross (golfers will understand but it means I was playing very well!) and playing the best round for years.

Then I got hit in the forehead by a tee shot from another hole..... Fortunately for me it bounced on the ground first before it hit me, and even more fortunately by a few inches, it hit my forehead rather than an eye or something

Funny thing is, it didnt actually hurt that much, it swelled up but a cold compress helped immensely, but no real pain. I must have a hard head or something!

The young chap involved was devastated, to the point I actually felt sorry for him and won’t be setting ‘my wolves’ on him. He was speaking to my father and the guys playing with me and was mortified, and left the course with us.

It sometimes takes something like this to make you think of what might have happened but for the ‘grace of god‘ if you like. This is what’s so shocking. An inch or so either way and both our lives could have changed very differently, especially mine..........

After the incident I was waiting to be picked up in a buggy, stood behind a big oak tree, and the group behind us hit another shot, and it landed between my feet. No shout. You know when it’s not your day!!!

So any golfers reading this, if you hit a wayward shot, shout Four very loudly......
Ouch. I bet that hurt. Someday's you're the fly, and other day's you're the windowscreen ! Glad to hear you're ok though.
I'm well known for sending the odd drive onto another fairway. It's just my natural slice in action. It's probably best if you wear a crash helmet to play golf in the future.
 
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SPR

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Ouch. I bet that hurt. Someday's you're the fly, and other day's you're the windowscreen ! Glad to hear you're ok though.
I'm well known for sending the odd drive onto another fairway. It's just my natural slice in action. It's probably best if you wear a crash helmet to play golf in the future.
Lol!

Yes I think I’m fine luckily. I did go to casualty to be on the safe side.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
I had 7 coral frags arrive a few days ago, mainly SPS apart from a green alveopora coral

Forgive the picture, it’s just a quick iPhone shot but you get the idea.

The LFS’s just don’t stock the things I want, they just have the same old stuff, green, pink and that’s about it. I’m looking now for blues, purple, yellow, reds, vivid colours, so I’ve had to go online unfortunately to get exactly what I want.

I say unfortunately, but to be honest the suppliers I use have been excellent I can’t fault them, and I don’t have to queue in the rain wearing a stupid face covering. I sit in my chair, (well usually ‘slumped in my chair’ ! Lol) order exactly what I want, and a nice man delivers it to my door.

Times are changing so either adapt or don’t...

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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Alveopora, Gonipora are pretty much the same. It seems to me that the advice for these is usually to have them on the sand, as in your picture (I'm not criticizing by the way). With my Gonipora I placed it in a gap on what was basically a little 'wall' on the rockface. It has since encrusted onto the rock and has grown really well.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
Alveopora, Gonipora are pretty much the same. It seems to me that the advice for these is usually to have them on the sand, as in your picture (I'm not criticizing by the way). With my Gonipora I placed it in a gap on what was basically a little 'wall' on the rockface. It has since encrusted onto the rock and has grown really well.
Yes that’s basically what I do, well I put them on rocks at the bottom area of the tank and same in the S650

In the big tank it’s all SPS from middle upwards, so the bottom 1/3 is for other things
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
I ordered 3 additional Yellow Tangs and 2 Yellow Clown Gobbies a few days ago from Masterfisch, who I’ve started using quiet a lot for fish and corals and I haven’t been disappointed so far.

They ship in a very substantial and insulated box, and the bags contain carbon pellets to absorb any toxins during transit.

One of the original 7 of the Yellow Tang Gang disappeared so with the additional 3 were up to 9 which is enough for me, and they look stunning.

I ordered mid size tangs as I was worried about adding small ones amongst the existing fish and the new ones are quiet big and look very healthy.

I added them to the acclimatisation box with some pellet food and they scoffed the lot straight away!

You can follow their journey by UPS below from France, through Germany and to my door in less than about 16 hours

The acclimatisation box was a bit small for these 3 fish and the gobies, so they were in it for only about 4 hours and the other fish weren’t bothering them so I released them all

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SPR

Well-Known Member
Today I installed one of the final systems to monitor the tank, the Apex breakout box.

I originally returned it because I didnt want to allow Apex to much control, but there are certain things it’s very good at so I reordered the breakout box.

I had an old Tunze Osmolator which wouldn’t be used again and needed 2 float switches so I had one ready anyway and then used the old one from the Osmolator and better still the 2 magnet float mounts I had for it.

The parameter that needs monitoring is the water level in the sump. To low and it means the ATO has failed, to high means the NYOS 300 skimmer would basically freak out and over skim and if I’m away, or even home, that would be an issue because it’s a big old beast.

Ive installed the 2 additional float switches so if the main pump fails (remember it’s an Abyzz a200) the water level will rise and the skimmer will be turned off automatically. If the Tunze ATO fails it will raise an alarm. Now with the Tunze, provided the pump hasn’t failed ( I have an outlet socket with an eheim compacton 2000 pump so not the standard pump) then switching the Tunze on and off, makes it automatically pump water as part of the self test, which could be handy if I’m away or an emergency because I can do it either manually or program Apex to do it every few hours or so.

So from bottom left to right:

On the side left is the primary Tunze Osmolator ATO

Top left are the Apex sensors

Then we have the sump high float switch and then sump low

Then there is the backup gravity fed ATO system float valve and system.

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SPR

Well-Known Member
I’ve just added another 10 litres of Seachem Matrix, so that makes 48 litres in total, and you can see from the picture below what it looks like. It might sound like its enough for a small ocean, but experience tells me you need a lot more than you think for it to work when involving heavy bioloads.

Theres still some room in the 2 sump compartments for some more if needed, and to be honest I might just top them up anyway over the next few months. You can’t have to much filtration!

Nitrate levels have been stable at around 7-8 for many months, which is all fine, but I’m going to add a few more fish, because, well, I’m addicted! lol

I want to make sure there is a rock solid ‘biological filtration plant’ in place to handle the heavy bioload that’s being built up.

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SPR

Well-Known Member
RIP foxy guy......

He was one of my bestist fishy friends, he’s been looking a little lethargic for about 4-5 days, hanging around in the rocks at the back of the tank were he sleeps. No signs of any illness, and out with the cleaner wrasse for his daily manicure several times each day.

He hasn’t been eating much for a few days so I guess I’ll never know the cause......

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Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
It's sad isn't it, the way they go. They become listless, hide away, stop eating but it can take weeks for them to pass.
 
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Nobbygas

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I have just lost my male Lyretail Anthia in the same way. He started off just resting on the sand, in the exact same spot, for short periods. Those periods gradually became longer and longer. His eating became more and more sporadic. Then one night, he just disappeared. This happened over a period of about three or four weeks. During this timeframe he also seemed to have lost a bit of his colour, and when resting on the sand he appeared to be having problems breathing. His little mouth was open and his Gills seemed to be working overtime. Was it an internal parasite/infection? I don't know.
 
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