Ive done a bit of a summary of were I am with the system and all of the details, controls and what I use etc for anyone interested.
The System is as follows and was set up in June 2016
2016 Red Sea Max S 650 LED Black
650 litres of water
4 x Hydra 26 lights (as standard) run on ‘Reef Spec’ (no green/red) settings from 11.30am to 10pm with ramp down to ‘blue’ in evenings
Red Sea Sicce 7000 lph return pump (standard) and I also have a spare which I swap over every so often for cleaning (4-5 months ish)
Red Sea Sicce 2150 lph rear circulation pumps x 4 (as standard)
NYOS Quantum 160 protein skimmer which I swapped from the original C Skim 1800 after about 12 months
JBL Pro Cristal UV-C 36w steriliser fed from an Eheim 1000 pump
Tunze Osmolator hooked up to 100litres RO reservoir in chiller cabinet with build in ATO used as backup. Will last around 2 1/2 weeks.
Deltec FR509 fluidised reactor with around 500g of Rhowaphos fed from the main return pump with a separate flow control valve
Kamoer 4 channel auto doser dosing NoPox, Ca, Alk and Mg in the form of Red Sea Foundation Elements A B and C
2 x Eheim jagger 200w heaters controlled by Simply Aquaria temperature control with triple redundancy into Neptune Apex
6 x LED sump light strips to light up the sump after a year of using a torch!
2 x Brightwell Xport NO3 Bricks in the sump
1 x Seachem ‘The Bag’ containing around 250g of Purigen
2017 Neptune Apex Fusion with:
Advanced leak detection module
Leak detectors
breakout box to add float switch detection
Apex auto feeder
Standard salinity, temperature, ORP and PH probes
The Apex is currently hooked up to control / backup the heaters, skimmer, ATO, sump light as well as the leak detectors and auto feeder. I haven’t as yet plugged in the main return or rear circulation pumps on the basis these should always be on other than for water changes. And also the Hydra 26 lights are still on the original power centre as no point/need to have these under Apex control as they have their own independent system.
The parameters, which I try to keep stable, are as follows and these are the target numbers:
Salinity 35ppm
Phosphate 0.03ppm or less
Nitrate 5-10ppm
Calcium 430ppm
Alkalinity 8.2dKH
Magnesium 1310-1360ppm
PH 8.2
I control nutrients and foundation elements as follows some of which is listed above as well:
Red Sea Salt (I originally used Red Sea Coral Pro for 12 months and then dropped to the lower parameters of the standard with additional dosing foundation elements)
Red Sea Foundation A B and C via Kamoer auto doser
Red Sea NoPox via Kamoer auto doser
Rhowaphos in reactor for phosphate control
Red Sea Activated Carbon at around 200g
Purigen in The Bag to help with Nitrate control (removes nutrient before they turn into Nitrate)
Brightwell Xport NO3 Bricks for extra surface area for Nitrate reduction x 2
Red Sea Coral Colours A B C D which I dose manually around every 4 days using calcium uptake as a guide to ensure no accidental over dose
Red Sea Reef Energy at between 20-40ml total per day depending on nutrient levels
Liquid phytoplankton are around 40ml once a week as an alternative to Reef Energy
Test Kits
Red Sea Refractometer (primary but very sensitive)
D D Refractometer (backup for cross checks)
Hanna Checker for Alkalinity & ULR Phosphate
Red Sea Nitrate Pro & occasional Phosphate Pro
Red Sea Calcium, Magnesium & PH
Neptune Apex for continues monitoring and alarm functions
The food I use is:
Gamma frozen cubes of mysis, garlic, bloodworm, krill and several others x 3 cubes per day around 1-2pm
I feed dry pellet food of many mixed varieties once a day by auto feeder at 6.30pm and then also add plenty of ‘greens’ for the vegetarians in the form of seaweed and algae pellets several times a week or day.
Red Sea Reef Energy for corals and occasional phytoplankton.
Fish & Corals
I have a lot of fish and corals and the fish are probably a bit over stocked but everyone seems happy with little, if any aggression. The corals are a mix of mainly LPS, soft and over the last 6 months I’ve started with SPS so a mixed reef. I can’t begin to name all the corals.
Regal Angel
Flame Angel
Coral Beauty
Yellow Tang
Regal Tang
Purple Tang
Chevron Tang
Freckle Face Tang
Kole Tang
Blonde Naso Tang
Pair of Blue Throat Triggers that have spawned on at least 2 occasions
Pair of clown fish
Magnificent Foxface
Laboute Wrasse
Lineatus Fairy Wrasse
Yellow Wrasse
2 Yellow Goby
Royal Gamma
Starry Blenny
5 Green Chromis
5 Azure Damsels
7 Lyretail Anthias
2 Purple Anthias
I also have full clean up crews including urchins, hermit crabs, snails, starfish, sea cucumber, etc etc. I haven’t added snails in a long time as I found the Sea Urchins did a much better job on any algae control.
Anyway if you have any questions or interest in anything, Just ask.