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

[GBRsouth]

Wow! It’s been way too long since I been around. The tank filled in and is looking amazing

It's been way too long since Shaun's been around too!!!

 

[SPR1968]

It's been way too long since Shaun's been around too!!!

I’m still here, just been busy (and lazy! lol) and been doing other things to be honest.

Yesterday I actually removed some old overgrown corals from the large tank. As the corals at the top get bigger the ones underneath start to get starved of light, which affects them adversely. This is a common problem and other than ‘pruning’ the ones at the top, which I don’t always want to do, I can’t think of any solution.

About a month ago there was a major incident with the Neptune Apex in the large system. It basically seemed to loose control of one of the energy bars. The control panel (on iphone) had battery low lights against outlets which aren’t controlled by batteries.

The result of this failure was it turned many of the pumps off, main return etc which are set to ‘always on’. What it also did however, was it turned ‘on’ the RO water refill pump to the S650 RO water reservoir and started to fill it. Luckily I was in the room when all this chaos happened, the gurgling noises etc., but then I saw water coming out of the cabinet of the S650 and new exactly what was happening. If I hadn’t been there potentially 425 litres would have been on the floor because that’s the volume of the main storage reservoir outside which feeds both tanks.

I’m not exactly sure what happened here, other than a major Apex failure. Eventually I managed to uninstall the energy bar from Apex (and I can’t remember how!) and then Apex found it again and it seems ok. What I have done however, is unplug the RO pump for safety just in case of a future failure. This is only an issue when away because I can auto fill the S650 reservoir with it.

 

[SPR1968]

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Amazing photo!

 

[SPR1968]

On my quest for some home made Agent Green, I’ve purchased some pure lanthanum chloride from the auction site with 100% feedback from reefers, and am going to make some using the following formula from a very reputable reefing scientist in the USA (our own Randy HF)

I’m fed up of paying £26 for 236ml when I can make about 4500ml from the 50g I’ve ordered for £34. I had the same situation with the RS foundation elements and have used my own for years now costing pennies.

“Lanthanum precipitates phosphate as LaPO4. Thus, each one lanthanum ion will remove one phosphate ion (ignoring lanthanum that ends up in other compounds, such as lanthanum carbonate, bound to organics, or remains dissolved in the water).

One phosphate weighs 95 grams per mole
One lanthanum weighs 139 g/mole

Thus, one mg of lanthanum ion removes 0.68 mg of phosphate.

I was asked to use lanthanum chloride heptahydrate ( Lacl3 7H2o; mw 371.5 g/mole) ) to make the dosing solution.

That material is 37% lanthanum by weight.

Dissolve 9 grams (~2 level teaspoons) of lanthanum chloride heptahydrate in water to make 500 mL total.

That solution contains 6.7 grams/L (3.33 g/500 mL)of lanthanum, or 6.7 mg/mL.

Let's pick a dosing volume of 1 mL, so we are dosing 6.7 mg of lanthanum, which will remove 6.7 x 0.68 = 4.6 mg of phosphate.

If that is added to an aquarium that has a total volume of 100 L, then we will be expecting to remove about 4.6 mg/100 L = 0.046 mg/L (~0.047 ppm) of phosphate.”

So fingers crossed and I will update once I’ve been using it for a while.

 

[Reefer Tom ATX]

Red Sea S 650 August 2018

Red Sea S 650 June 2019

The deep ocean, Red Sea Max S650 in the evenings........

And now for the arrival of the new custom made 2000 litre system. The new and the old. You can see the reflection of the S650 in the glass. September 2019 the big build begins..... Page 70+

19th December 2020, exactly 1 years old...

Sunrise…… December 2021 at 2 years old

December 2022 - 3 years old

December 2023 - 4 years old…….

Here’s a few closer pictures

My view in the evenings as the lights dim and the systems go blue, it’s simply magical......

Here’s a video of the new system at exactly 1 years old, 19th December 2020. I hope you enjoy it.




Exactly 2 years old to the day, 19th December 2021




Feeding Time




Sunrise in the Red Sea S650 around 4 years old, 28th April 2020




January 2019 side shot of the S650

Absolutely stunning!

 

[SPR1968]

Absolutely stunning!

Thank you so much!