Red Sea S-Max 650 - new set up of tank

Rob_1

New Member
Hi All

I am looking to purchase a 650 and have been doing research into what is required.

Seen as the 650 tanks are all in one, I have listed below what I plan on purchasing including additional equipment which I think will be required to setup and maintain the tank.
The tank will hold a small number of fish and include SPS coral.

Red Sea coral pro salt
Caribsea life rock (up to 150lb)
Red Sea Refractometer
Red Sea foundation pro test kit (ca, kh, mg)
Red Sea algae control pro (no, po)
Nyos torq phosphate reactor
Nyos phosphate absorber
Kamoer dose pump

What do you think?

Additional things I have thought of include;

Chiller (don’t think this will yet be needed)
Heater (not sure what would be best)

Additionally what do people do for alerts and battery backups in the event of parameters out of line or power failure whilst out)?

Anything else I have not thought about?

Thanks for your help

Rob
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
What you plan generally looks good. I do have a few suggestions though.

In this hobby you only want to spend money on what you actually need. I would skip the algae control items, the phosphate reactor, phosphate absorber, and dose pump until you are sure you really need them. You may not need them at all depending upon what you keep in the tank, the partial water changes you make, and general tank management.

Keep in mind that a new system often goes through phases the first year or so, and algae blooma ans such are common, and sometimes go away with no major changes on what your doing. Don't fall into the trap of getting an algae bloom, think it's got to go now, and spend a bundle on expensive equipment, only to fine that you don't really need it.

As for alerts, it depend upon the type your talking about. Something that indicated a wet floor might be worth it, do you know if your having a leak in the system. Others that monitor parameters in the tank are often less useful. For example there is an allert on my ATO that would go off beeping when the top off container ran out of water. Sometimes this would be in the middle of the night. Need less to say, that alert quickly got disabled.

Battey backups can help if you have a short power failure, such as something less than a day. To go longer than that requires a massive batter backup system, or you own backup generator for the home. Thus is going to be very expensive, but some people have done it if they live in areas that are often with out power for several days.

In my own case, I might get a power loss that runs more than a day only once every couple of years. In that case, I use some batter driven air pumps and air stones to circulate th water in the tank. The air pumps run on D cells and can run a day to 2 days on a new pair of cells. This it's ideal since over time the tank will loose temp and circulation is minimal, but it has saves my system a few times.
 

Rob_1

New Member
Thanks for your reply.

I quite like the idea of of the Apex purely for keeping tabs of basic parameters and importantly to alert me if there is a power cut.

I’m terms of battery backup a days running would be beneficial, do you know what is best suited to this tank for a days supply?

And just lastly what thermostat heater would be best suited for the tank?

thanks
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Here is my take on controllers. I've posted this before, but it's worth repeating. To be fair not everyone feels quite the same way about controllers, and there are some that consider a controller much more important than I do.

DaveK's Standard Lecture #5 - Controllers

Controllers are at best an optional item. They can do a lot of nice things, but you don't really need one to have a fantastic reef. There are many things you can do with a controller that can be done just as well with a timer or two or a float switch.

Before even considering a controller, make sure the rest of your system is up to par. There is no point investing in a controller if your lighting, or filtration is substandard. Many people would get much better results upgrading something else in their system compared to adding a controller.

Just like lighting and filtration, controllers have parts that need periodic replacement. Expect to replace pH and/or ORP probes about every 12 - 18 months, and you need the stuff to recalibrate them too.

Also, with a controller, a lot of your equipment is operated by the controller. This represents a single point of failure for everything connected to it. I recommend that you do not connect your main critical pump to a controller.

Lastly, when your dealing with any products that use software and/or firmware, don't compare any of the features that are "in the latest version" many of them will not work or work marginally at best. It almost always takes a company about 3 versions of a product, software, or firmware to get it right.

I've found the best feature of a controller is that it can monitor things like pH, ORP, O2, temp, and so on long term. This lets you see if your system is doing better or worse over a period of time. It also lets you spot some problems while they are minor and easy to fix.

...end of standare lecture...

As for battery backup for your system. What you want to do here is to run only the critical parts of the system. This means you don't run lighting, skimmers, circulation pumps and the like. Any system can do with out those for a few days. You want to run the main return pump, so you have some basic water movement and gas exchange and you want to run a heater if you need that on your system. Water does hold a lot of heat though, and heaters use a lot of power, so you might want to skip that, unless things will get really cold. Ideally for the pump you want to run one of those DC controllable pumps as they tend to use the least power.

For a heater I like the Eheim Jager heaters. It is important not to go too big on the heater. You only want about 2w per gallon of water in the system. So for your tank you want to use one that is about 200 - 250 watts. You usually are trying to maintain a stable temp, even if it's a little high.

If your not getting a controller like APEX, it is worth getting a digital controller for temp. I like the Inkbird controller. It's inexpensive, supports a heater and/or chiller and is "set it and forget it". Here is the one I use (offsite) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R195CQF/?tag=reefsanc-20
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Hi All

I am looking to purchase a 650 and have been doing research into what is required.

Seen as the 650 tanks are all in one, I have listed below what I plan on purchasing including additional equipment which I think will be required to setup and maintain the tank.
The tank will hold a small number of fish and include SPS coral.

Red Sea coral pro salt
Caribsea life rock (up to 150lb)
Red Sea Refractometer
Red Sea foundation pro test kit (ca, kh, mg)
Red Sea algae control pro (no, po)
Nyos torq phosphate reactor
Nyos phosphate absorber
Kamoer dose pump

What do you think?

Additional things I have thought of include;

Chiller (don’t think this will yet be needed)
Heater (not sure what would be best)

Additionally what do people do for alerts and battery backups in the event of parameters out of line or power failure whilst out)?

Anything else I have not thought about?

Thanks for your help

Rob
Can I just mention the NYOS Torq? It's a great idea but ultimately it fails on design issues. Mine now just sits in a box in the garage. The top of the unit has a tendency to 'blow off' if the media starts to clump inside the chamber.
When disengaging the chamber from the docking station to replace the media it has a tendency for the bottom of the chamber to fall off resulting in the media being dumped into your sump.
If you want to change one media then you have to change both at the same time. As I said it's a great idea but let down with some design issues.
 
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