Blaxsun's Abyss: Red Sea 750XXL

[blaxsun]

August 22. Clownfish Are Dumb
Early last week my condy anemone decided to go on a walkabout. Specifically, he went from a nice perch on top of a rock ledge to under the lip of the main cave and then pulled himself into a tiny cave/crevice. This was naturally quite disconcerting to our remaining clownfish "Clyde", who diligently followed the condy anemone until he could progress no further into the rock work.

A few days ago I found that the condy anemone had emerged on the far side of the rock at the back of the tank and seemed to be quite content with its new haunt. Clyde (still clued out), decided to take up residence in a good softball-sized clump of green hairy mushroom at the front of the tank. Win-win?

Well, that lasted all of 24-48 hours and now poor Clyde is completely and totally lost and beside himself (apparently exploration doesn't extend to the back of the tank). So I'm watching him alternate between "wiggling" with the hairy mushroom and roaming around the tank. I just watched him swim right through the condy anemone but apparently it's "different" now ("I've moved on nem!")

Clyde used to be an easy fish to always spot but it now appears I'll have my work cut out to locate him...


"Are you my anemone?"

 

[blaxsun]

August 26. The Blair Fleece Project: Part III
Time for the final test! With the end of the last (new) roll in sight, I placed the new fleece roll into the roller. It fits! Now to see how well the laundered fleece roll performs and stacks up against fresh new rolls (see my previous use below).


Yes, it even fits (with room to spare!) if you do a craptastic job re-rolling like mine. In theory you could potentially run more (maybe 25%+?) than the 114.8ft of new rolls.


I always use a strip of green painter's tape on the waste spool to ensure alignment. The fleece is actually pure white - this is just shadows from the flash on the camera.


Fleece usage for the past week. The spike on the 26th is me advancing the remaining fleece (about 60") so that I could get an extra set of hands helping me recycling this roll today. Fleece use has been averaging ~60" daily with new rolls.

We're trying a new technique with the next fleece roll. We rinsed it out thoroughly in a tub - the water was just black! (eeewwww - sorry, no pics) And we're soaking it for a few hours in hot water and bleach before rinsing, letting air dry for a bit and transferring to the washing machine. We ran 3 cycles (2 with vinegar, 1 with bleach) last time - so we're hoping that this step maybe reduces it to a single wash cycle and comes out even cleaner. Fingers crossed...!

Addendum: The tub rinse/wash trick seems to have worked better as we only needed a single wash cycle with bleach in the washing machine. I think the fleece came out even cleaner than our previous attempt. It's now air drying on a drying rack in preparation for re-rolling.

 

[blaxsun]

August 26. The Blair Fleece Project: Part IV
TLDR: There may be something in this recycling fleece...

Well, isn't that a ****..... Using the recycled fleece roll, my fleece usage is actually down considerably over a brand new fresh roll. Tank is still crystal clear, the fleece is catching everything it normally does and no jams or misfeeds.

With the new fleece roll, daily usage averaged between 75-85 inches/daily. With the recycled fleece roll, daily usage has dropped to 40-45 inches/daily. That's a 53% reduction!

Here you can see the usage since August 21 (including the past 2 days).

 

[Woodyman]

August 26. The Blair Fleece Project: Part IV
TLDR: There may be something in this recycling fleece...

Well, isn't that a ****..... Using the recycled fleece roll, my fleece usage is actually down considerably over a brand new fresh roll. Tank is still crystal clear, the fleece is catching everything it normally does and no jams or misfeeds.

With the new fleece roll, daily usage averaged between 75-85 inches/daily. With the recycled fleece roll, daily usage has dropped to 40-45 inches/daily. That's a 53% reduction!

Here you can see the usage since August 21 (including the past 2 days).

Thanks for noting all this. The roll cost is something I was not looking forward to when I eventually make the switch to a roller.

 

[blaxsun]

Thanks for noting all this. The roll cost is something I was not looking forward to when I eventually make the switch to a roller.

No problem at all! I'm going to keep "recycling" until they're not effective. Right now it looks like one recycle at a minimum, but I'll have to so more phosphate and nitrate testing with anything beyond that to see how effective they still are with filtering.

It looks like I'm consistently seeing ~40" of daily fleece usage, which is anywhere from 20-45" less with new rolls.

The only downside is it's fairly gatastic unwinding and rinsing the fleece.

 

[blaxsun]

October 3. The Blair Fleece Project: Part V
TLDR: Long time no fleece witch update! "Recycling" my Red Sea ReefMat fleece roll is saving me $$...

So it took just over a month (August 26 to October 1), but I finally exhausted the recycled ReefMat fleece roll. The last "surge" on October 1 was from the previous night of massive algae scraping (something I'd let lapse the past few weeks). Otherwise fleece usage has remained fairly consistent at about 50-60% less than a brand new roll.

No ill-effects were observed: massive nitrate and phosphate spikes, unexpected or mysterious fish deaths, etc. And not a single jam or malfunction with the ReefMat.

I have the ReefMat currently offline for it's semi-annual cleaning/sponge removal, but it will be going back online in the next day or so with a newly recycled roll (we did this one a bit differently - it took far less time, less laundry cycles and we think turned out better).

The current roll that we removed (which has now been used twice) will be marked and recycled using the new method again for a third (and possible final?) time. Since this has turned out way better than we could've possible imagined, the test is to now see how many times we can recycle the fleece before we start seeing any adverse results or excessive use. My money is on 3-4 cycles total.
..........

Materialistic Weasel Component
For those interested, I was spending $120 every 2 months on 3 brand new rolls of fleece ($60/month). With the recent Red Sea price hike this was going to potentially jump to $150 every 2 months ($75/month). Yikes! With this new method, I'm looking at:

• 60 days ... 3x new ReefMat 1200 fleece roll | $150 ($75/month)
• 60 days ... 1x new/1x recycled ReefMat 1200 fleece roll | $50 ($25/month)
• 90 days ... 1x new/2x recycled ReefMat 1200 fleece rolls | $50 ($17/month)
• 120 days ... 1x new/3x recycled ReefMat 1200 fleece rolls | $50 ($13/month)

A new roll lasts me ~20 days and a recycled one ~40 days. If I can stretch this to 2 recycled uses per fleece roll that works out to approximately $150 per year. If I can stretch this to 3 recycled uses per fleece roll this will drop me cost to $100 per year.

 

[blaxsun]

October 5. Intelligent Life?
This week I embarked on a long overdue sump cleaning to try and rid myself (at least for the interim) of a massive spirorbid worm infestation. They completely inhabit both the emergency and main overflow pipes (as well as the overflow itself), but I'm hoping that I might be able to "dry out" at least the emergency overflow pipe to kill them off.

As a result, spirorbid worms, sponges and a lot of other "crap" completely coated my sump. Right now I'm three quarters of the way through cleaning all the pumps and equipment - just have the skimmer chamber, skimmer, UV and the UV pump to finish up (including replacing the UV bulb, which might explain why I've been struggling with lots of glass on the algae).

Unfortunately no (few) pictures as it's been an "all hands on deck" kind of thing cleaning everything (which has been about 2-3x the normal effort as I have to alternate between EzeClean and vinegar dips to dissolve the bulk of the worms). I'll leave you with my project for today - my Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer which may be evolving into an intelligent life form...


"Take me to your leader"...

 

[blaxsun]

October 6. A Fish Room To Die For
In my next life my aquarium is going to have a fish room like this... Credits to @Rcs_12 and his new massive 375+ gallon reef tank.

That sink... the perfect size, height...

 

[blaxsun]

October 7. A Clean Sump - Part I
I will take some images of my sparkling clean sump and post them in the next day or so. I removed the internal 7-gallon RO reservoir, repositioned the ReefMat and moved the Neptune sensors and Trident sample line into the return chamber.

I still have to finish cleaning the Nyos skimmer and getting it back online, re-add my two Nyos reactors (converted the second to Zeo as well) then clean the UV, hosing and replace the bulb. After that I have to do some rewiring from some spare outlets on the EB832 so I can put each reactor on a separate plug and for a planned second skimmer.

Then I have to recalibrate my salinity probe (although I think there was an air bubble in it, as after I moved it it's now reading within ±0.5ppt of where it should be (vs. the ±5.0ppt previously). Then I have to un-f**k my Trident which means running running some tests and recalibrating it. Again (it's been offline because the alkalinity is off and it's been returning "bad range" for both calcium and magnesium). Hopefully I don't have to send the bleeping thing back to Neptune...

 

[blaxsun]

October 8. A Very Clean Sump - Part II
I really should've taken some before pictures, but imagine every possible square inch of glass below the waterline covered in spirorbid worms, sponges and baby trochus snails. This goes the same for any hoses, cables and every device in the tank (skimmer, reactors, pumps, wavemakers and ReefMat). Bleech!
..........

This is the semi "put back together sump", which is waiting on the AquaUltraviolet UV, Sicce 6.0 UV pump, Nyos Quantum 160 Skimmer w/Stink Sink and pair of Nyos Torq Reactors. I either lost or the AquaUV UV came without a pair of O-rings, so a quick trip to Home Depot should hopefully remedy that (I had 1 spare, but of course I need 2...)

I'm always leery about running wiring anywhere near water, so I've done my best to bundle any cords such that there's no way anything can potentially fall into the tank. I picked up a bunch of 1' and 3' extension cables on Amazon that I use to connect from the Neptune EB832 power bars to a breakout point above the piping (see third image). This way, I can completely remove most devices for a complete maintenance overhaul. The only exception is the pair of Sicce SDC pumps - but I've allowed enough extra cable such that they can be pulled out and placed in a bucket in front of the cabinet for any cleaning.


On the left is a Sicce Zero Utility pump. I use this to suck up all the crap in the sump while I'm scraping (etc.) it all off and run the output through a short length of Python hose/hook into a 100-micron Red Sea filter sock. This traps all the sand, spirorbid worm remnants, etc. On this journey I went through five (5) filter socks... I still have a bit of detritus floating around here and there, so I have it going while I'm catching up on the maintenance of the main display.

I moved the Red Sea ReefMat 1200 about 18" to the right with a shorter (12-14") hose length. There's less bending/flexing which should improve flow and reduce a lot of crap accumulating in it. I'm trying the media tray on the ReefMat 1200 again since it's quite a bit larger than the one on the 500 model, and I'm only filling it about half full and with Nyos carbon (far superior). So far it's not spiking my fleece usage (fingers crossed). I'll wait and see where my nitrate/phosphate levels are in a week or so before making any determination on GFO.

On the lower right is a Sicce XStream powerhead which I moved down to keep a continuous blast of water flowing along the bottom of the tank. Underneath the ReefMat you can see a row of Polyp Lab Genesis rocks (8 total in 4 stacks of 2). This is more than sufficient to absorb stray ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. I've ditched all my MarinePure media because it gets really dirty and is constantly crumbling (one of the reason the sump was so dirty).


These are the left chambers of the sump where the skimmer typically goes. I've temporarily placed the Neptune probes here (I may or may not leave them there permanently). On the upper left are the intake/outtake hoses for the Poseidon 200 Ozone system. In the lower left is where the Sicce SDC 6.0 pump for the AquaUV 57-watt will feed from.

The pair of Nyos reactors I previously ran in the rear chamber are going to be moved up to the front for easier access (and I opted to run Zeo in both). The Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer I'm running is probably a bit undersized for my current bio load, so rather than get a larger Nyos skimmer I just opted for a second Nyos Quantum 160. This way all the parts (and collection containers) are all swappable. I'll only be running ozone on one skimmer as I just have the single Stink Sink (which works great for absorbing stray ozone).


Part of the mess of wires I've somewhat "organized" along the back. Green is power, yellow is probes and red is for heating. I moved the Trident sample line into the return chamber where it will (hopefully) experience less clogs. I still have to "un-f**k" my Trident.

On the right (hiding behind the grey overflow pipes) you can see the dosing tubes that dose alkalinity and calcium/magnesium from the Neptune DOS. And right along the bottom (also hiding) is where I relocated the Neptune ATK sensors. The Neptune ATK features a pair of low/high optical sensors and float for triple redundancy. I previously had the internal Red Sea RO 7-gallon reservoir here, but it really limited access to the pump, etc. Less RO water overall but much better access for future maintenance.

Under the Sicce SDC 9.0 pump I've stacked two food-safe silicon pads so there's no gap. It helps a bit with noise/vibration, but the main issue is that the Red Sea plumbing seems perfectly harmonized at just the right frequencies. I've since gotten used to it, but while quiet - the system is by no means silent. I saw someone that added sound baffling to the inside of their cabinet doors so this is something I might try down the road.


On the subject of UVs, this time I did a complete disassembly (including quartz tube), took all the hoses and adapters apart and ran a hose brush down everything. Yuck! Suffice to say, the last maintenance I did a year ago wasn't thorough enough in my book (there was a lot of particles, grit and spirorbid worms on everything). I found soaking the housing in hot water and EzeClean followed by a light scrub got everything out of the tubing. I soaked the quartz tube in some hot water and white vinegar and I think it's better - but I should probably replace the UV with a new quartz housing next year.

The UV bulb was burned out at both ends again, so it's a good thing I opted to check it at a 12-month interval (even though the manufacturer indicates the bulb should be good for 14 months). Every time I replace the bulb I order a new one.

Side note: one great thing with the Neptune Apex is all the calendar events you can set for maintenance (etc) reminders. I'd definitely be forgetting/neglecting stuff if I wasn't being prompted.

 

[blaxsun]

October 9. A Crystal Clean Sump - Part III
Here's the finished sump with everything back up and running again. The wiring for the reactors is temporary until I have a chance to run some new cables to the EB832. And there's a new vibration coming from somewhere in the cabinet, so hopefully I can track that down (maybe I cleaned the pumps a little too good and they need to "gum up" a bit to quieten down; since writing this it's already started diminishing).

I don't think it's one device specifically - I think a combination of devices is sending a nice vibration through the plumbing and then the cabinet is amplifying it more.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the pair of Zeo reactors will work in conjunction with the ReefMat and Genesis rocks to lower nutrients to "clean up" as much of the water prior to the Sicce UV pump (so it works more effectively), and then in theory the pair of skimmers/ozone should add the final touch.

I haven't finished cleaning the glass on the display but the water is a 100% improvement just in the past 30 minutes or so.


With the pair of reactors now in the front there's room for the second Nyos Quantum 160 that should be showing up later this week in the rear. And I can still reach in/around to pull out the collection cups as needed (the collection cups are far easier to maneuver than the tall reactor bodies).

 

[Projects with Sam]

October 9. A Crystal Clean Sump - Part III
Here's the finished sump with everything back up and running again. The wiring for the reactors is temporary until I have a chance to run some new cables to the EB832. And there's a new vibration coming from somewhere in the cabinet, so hopefully I can track that down (maybe I cleaned the pumps a little too good and they need to "gum up" a bit to quieten down; since writing this it's already started diminishing).

I don't think it's one device specifically - I think a combination of devices is sending a nice vibration through the plumbing and then the cabinet is amplifying it more.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the pair of Zeo reactors will work in conjunction with the ReefMat and Genesis rocks to lower nutrients to "clean up" as much of the water prior to the Sicce UV pump (so it works more effectively), and then in theory the pair of skimmers/ozone should add the final touch.

I haven't finished cleaning the glass on the display but the water is a 100% improvement just in the past 30 minutes or so.


With the pair of reactors now in the front there's room for the second Nyos Quantum 160 that should be showing up later this week in the rear. And I can still reach in/around to pull out the collection cups as needed (the collection cups are far easier to maneuver than the tall reactor bodies).

that looks pretty

 

[blaxsun]

that looks pretty

Now if I can only keep it that way going forward... (planning to be more vigilant!)

 

[nuxx]

October 6. A Fish Room To Die For
In my next life my aquarium is going to have a fish room like this... Credits to @Rcs_12 and his new massive 375+ gallon reef tank.


That sink... the perfect size, height...

Yeah that is pretty sweet!

Our laundry room was behind our tank, so was able to have 3 50 gallon drums and a coral / invert QT tank in there and could drain water from automated water changes... not as nice, but useful.

 

[blaxsun]

October 9. A Happy Post-Turkey Day
I was in a "turkey coma" yesterday and didn't get around to updating.

The skimmer seems to have "caught up" for the past week it was offline and not producing an excessive amount of foam. It's nice to be able to see into the neck of the skimmer for once, lol. There's still a bit of buzzing/vibration that I'm trying to track down, although it's better than it was yesterday.

All the parameters seem to have mysteriously "bounced back", although I'll need to double-check my salinity with a refractometer later as I think it may have dropped ~0.5ppt in the course of maintenance. Temperature has been even more consistent with a 0.25° variance. What's interesting is that my pH is quite a bit higher - it's never remained about 8.0 off-peak the (low was 8.05 early this morning), so I wonder if I haven't had the Neptune probes in the wrong place all this time? (they were moved to the rear chamber with the skimmer, so there's a lot more flow from various sources)

 

[blaxsun]

October 10. Roger-Roger
I'm dosing a low dose of Polyp Lab Medic because the white dots (not ich) on my Foxface seem to have resurfaced along with another small injury, so I'm going to run the full 7-10 day treatment this time in the hopes that it helps eliminate whatever this is. "Roger" is perfectly fine otherwise (grazing like there's no tomorrow). It's weird as the dots disappear within a few hours of treatment.

The general consensus seems to be that either the condy anemone or torch is stinging him, so I've been trying to track his movements to verify.


This is Roger just prior to the last treatment...


...And just an hour or so later (seemingly all gone).

 

[dangles]

What an amazingly well put-together build thread. Bravo, sir.

/salute

 

[blaxsun]

October 13. Friday the 13th

So I'm trying one last time to home a valentini pufferfish. We think we're going to call this little guy "Jason" (as in Jason Voorhees). Poor little guy was being picked on by a porcupine pufferfish and suffered some damage to the pupil on his right side. Stupid quick and eats like a pig - so he'll probably fit in well with everyone else.


"I has ricordea!" (a few local friends and I swap coral frags, so I got these two lovely ricordeas for a half dozen zoa frags and a grenadine ricordea). Thanks Al!

 

[Susan Edwards]

Hope all is well!!

 

[blaxsun]

Hope all is well!!

Fish population is holding steady in the mid 40's, and the sump is the cleanest it's been since I setup the tank. Now I just need to tackle the outstanding algae buildup on the glass...