Blaxsun's Abyss: Red Sea 750XXL

[blaxsun]

August 30. Something Old, Something New...
Instead of working on the tank, I decided to dig out the camera as one of my more elusive fish has been making an appearance of late. Something old - say hello to "Midas", or "King Midas" - as we affectionately refer to him (he spends a lot of time in his barnacle throne, overseeing his aquatic domain). So it was a rare moment to capture him out and about...


"It's good to be the king!"

You may recall me mentioning that this is in fact a regular golden midas blenny of the yellow/orange variety. Yes, your eyes doth not deceive you. This one is a beautiful shade of blue/purple. Say what? Yes, this blenny is not stressed in the least. He came to us as a gorgeous yellow/orange as a juvenile and one day just decided that orange/yellow was too boring - and spontaneously changed color. He's remained this particular hue since.


Yes, believe it or not - this is the same blenny (before and after boredom).

And for something new, this is "Wash" - our new Christmas wrasse (at least we're pretty sure it's a Christmas wrasse - the markings are quite different than "Mal" the melanarus wrasse). No idea what sex, but both of these rather large (5-5.5") wrasses seem to be getting along for the most part. I threw up a mirror on the side of the tank to keep "Mal" and "Beaker" (the Quoy's parrotfish) occupied so that "Wash" could have some quality swim time to himself and get acquainted with the rest of the marine life (wrasses can be real jerks sometimes).

"Wash" has some really neat markings on him - the two bands down the side and the other two bands along the top of his body. In the tank under LED lighting they have a neon iridescent cyan glow. Very cool. "Wash" also had a brief adventure at the LFS - he somehow managed to get into the overflow (which is too narrow for him to fit through and the tank is covered by a full glass lid) and followed it down into the sump where he was found a few days later. No one is quite sure how he managed to pull it off. Hopefully this will be the last 'Houdini' act...


"Sand! You have... sand!"

When first introduced to the tank he immediately swam around the back of the rocks and disappeared - kicking up a large plume of oolite in the process. He'd been kept in an 80-gallon tank at the LFS that didn't have any substrate for the past few weeks - and was obviously feeling homesick. Every now and then someone winds down a tank or move and their fish invariably end up at my LFS on consignment. This is where we've picked up the female lamarck angelfish, flame hawkfish, the two evil clownfish and the new christmas wrasse.

The upside of this arrangement is that the fish come from an established system, are quarantined in a separate section at my LFS and are comfortable being around numerous other fish. So they swim, they eat and they're (generally) merry. And unlike wild-caught fish, these haven't had to endure being caught, cramped and shipped halfway across the world - so I've had a 100% success with all my consignment fish (no losses whatsoever).

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

wrasses can be real jerks sometimes

...which is why I often refer to them as wrasse-holes!

Great looking fish you have!!

 

[blaxsun]

August 31. Location, Location, Location
I've permanently switched over my heating to the Innovative Marine Helio system and removed the Inkbird/Schego-Hygger heating setup. This involved... a lot of re-wiring. The previous heating setup had gone in first - which seemed like a great idea at the time - except when it came time to un-bundle everything this afternoon. And to add injury to insult, it seems I'd taken the path of least resistance over the past year by simply bundling new cables to existing velcro cable ties instead of undoing and rewiring at the time. @#$%@#$...

On the plus side, I did un-bundle the UV power adapter so that it will be relatively painless to change the bulb out in a month (not looking forward to completely removing and cleaning the UV, but it is what it is). And I found a few controllers that had inadvertently come loose inside (they were just held in-place by command strips) the Adaptive Reef cabinet, so I took the opportunity to fix, dust and do a bit of re-organization.

The skimmer is just finishing its last soak before drying, reassembly and reinsertion into the sump (I'd wanted to remove the 3 heaters and Inkbird probes while I had some room to maneuver). So hopefully tomorrow it will be back operating 100% with the ozone flowing freely again. I haven't noticed anything off in the tank by having the skimmer and ozone offline for a few days.

In other news Neptune may have figured out the issue with my PAR probe - but I'll have to wait until the lights are on tomorrow to verify (my fish get spooked when the LEDs go on at night unexpectedly).

Other than a possible (future) upgrade to a ReefMat 1200 (just to get longer intervals between replacing rolls), I have nothing exciting planned for the tank (thank goodness!) In the course of the rewiring I did free up a spare Neptune EB832 slot - and I'm thinking a Red Sea ReefDose4 would be great for the Nyos Zero, Active Elements, Strontium and Iodine dosing (since a 350ml bottle will last months).

Addendum: The skimmer is still going nuts despite having the water valves opened all the way, so I've diverted the skim into the ReefMat through the slot in the side with the included Nyos silicone hose. If I turn the air valve closed it stops foaming - but then there's not really any bubbles. I'll leave it like this for a few days in the hopes that it calms down (this setup is the standard vacation configuration anyway).

 

[blaxsun]

 

[blaxsun]

September 4. Swamp Thing
Minor updates all around. Fleece usage on the ReefMat 500 seems to have stabilized at around 120" daily. I used about 20% more today with some heavy duty scraping on 3 sides of the tank. Even though there's less algae accumulation overall - it seems to get really thick quickly on the sides (so leaving it for more than a week probably isn't a great idea). The plan is still to upgrade to a ReefMat 1200 in the near future (this will hopefully give me 2-3 weeks between changing out rolls). I added a "burst" mode in my ReefWave 45 schedule to run 80% forward/40% reverse for 2 hours after feeding time to ensure everything in the tank gets stirred up really well.

The Poseidon 200 ozone system is still working great. The Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer has returned to normal and is no longer excessively foaming (so whatever was causing it to go overboard seems to have been skimmed out of the system). I've turned up both the air flow and ozone to "4" going forward.

That's pretty much it. I'll leave you with a gaze into the maw of a gorgeous Cat's Eye at my LFS.

 

[Susan Edwards]

I'm thinking a Red Sea ReefDose4 would be great for the Nyos Zero, Active Elements, Strontium and Iodine dosing (since a 350ml bottle will last months).

I have 2 of these and love them. The app makes it so easy to adjust

 

[blaxsun]

September 9. iAche
Recovering from a massive garage-cleaning session late yesterday that began once it finally started to cool off and lasted until well after midnight (although it's still been relatively mild compared to many of you down south, like my friend @Susan Edwards in CA (109°F - that's ungodly!)

In case anyone is not familiar with Saskatchewan home owning etiquette, you start off parking your vehicles in the garage. You then fill up your home with crap. Then you start shuffling said crap down to the basement, and when that's full you start filling up your garage. Then the vehicles get relegated to the driveway (usually just in time for winter - where the garage would actually come in handy).

For the past few years we've been working on the "less is more", "you shall not pass!" and "one thing enters - two leaves!" philosophies (with mixed results). Case in-point, I have a new ReefMat 1200 on order and the ReefMat 500 is tentatively pre-sold. In the fish room I'm constantly reorganizing things, tossing out gadgets or what not that never lived up to the hype and generally trying to keep it orderly (at least in this one room I've far exceeded my expectations!) I think one needs to do this regularly to avoid "fish gadget creep".

A couple of tips I've adopted many years ago that may serve you well in the fish spectrum.
..........

Blaxsun's Tips: Want Not, Waste Not
• If you haven't used something in 6 months - you need to review it's usefulness in the grand scheme of things, ie: is this taking up space that could otherwise be better utilized?
• At least once a year you need to go through your accessories, gadgets (etc.) and ask one simple question: "What's the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out/sell it?" If you can't come up with a good reason - you know what you need to do.

 

[blaxsun]

September 10. Helio Update
After making the Innovative Marine Helio system permanent roughly a week ago, I wanted to quickly touch base and share some data. Overall - I'm still very, very impressed. Temperatures are basically holding consistent within 0.5°F both in the sump and display (in the chart below you'll see one dip that skewed the results (which was when I turned the heaters off to rewire things).

Compared to the Inkbird this is night and day - as I was getting ±2.0°F (and sometimes more) temperature swings.

A couple of things that I really (really) like about the Helio system over the Inkbird that I had been using:
• Magnets vs. suction cups for the heaters and probes (easy to reposition and they don't come unstuck).
• Thin power cables with locking connectors vs. actual 3-pronged cords and extensions (this makes it far easier to thread stuff when doing any rewiring and they won't pull apart or separate inadvertently).

The Helio system is still running at the default temperature setting of 78.0°F with no temperature calibration (0.0°F), which is both impressive and great to see out-of-the-box.

 

[Susan Edwards]

For the past few years we've been working on the "less is more", "you shall not pass!" and "one thing enters - two leaves!" philosophies (with mixed results). Case in-point, I have a new ReefMat 1200 on order and the ReefMat 500 is tentatively pre-sold. In the fish room I'm constantly reorganizing things, tossing out gadgets or what not that never lived up to the hype and generally trying to keep it orderly (at least in this one room I've far exceeded my expectations!) I think one needs to do this regularly to avoid "fish gadget creep".

A couple of tips I've adopted many years ago that may serve you well in the fish spectrum.
..........

Blaxsun's Tips: Want Not, Waste Not
• If you haven't used something in 6 months - you need to review it's usefulness in the grand scheme of things, ie: is this taking up space that could otherwise be better utilized?
• At least once a year you need to go through your accessories, gadgets (etc.) and ask one simple question: "What's the worst thing that can happen if I throw this out/sell it?" If you can't come up with a good reason - you know what you need to do.

I've never been able to park in the garage. Hubby has a machine shop lol's. I'm constantly purging. Every year I try to go thru every cabinet, drawer and closet. Need to toss a bunch of power heads that weren't working, or try soaking them to see if I can revive. Have at least a couple in reserve.

 

[Susan Edwards]

September 10. Helio Update
After making the Innovative Marine Helio system permanent roughly a week ago, I wanted to quickly touch base and share some data. Overall - I'm still very, very impressed. Temperatures are basically holding consistent within 0.5°F both in the sump and display (in the chart below you'll see one dip that skewed the results (which was when I turned the heaters off to rewire things).

The Helio system is still running at the default temperature setting of 78.0°F with no temperature calibration (0.0°F), which is both impressive and great to see out-of-the-box.

Very cool. Right now I have no heaters running as the house keeps steady at 76ish and the tank 77-78. With the horrid heat wave, I had to set the temp down to 73 just to keep the house from not going above 78. 111 outside and 78 inside is pretty good. Not gonna like my next bill though. Last month was 1200!

I have to figure out my heaters when the weather changes. I have 2 plugged into the apex. 1 has its own controller. I have an unused inkbird I can also hook up. Got another month at least

 

[Projects with Sam]

Very cool. Right now I have no heaters running as the house keeps steady at 76ish and the tank 77-78. With the horrid heat wave, I had to set the temp down to 73 just to keep the house from not going above 78. 111 outside and 78 inside is pretty good. Not gonna like my next bill though. Last month was 1200!

I have to figure out my heaters when the weather changes. I have 2 plugged into the apex. 1 has its own controller. I have an unused inkbird I can also hook up. Got another month at least

get some solar! wow on ac bill.

 

[blaxsun]

Very cool. Right now I have no heaters running as the house keeps steady at 76ish and the tank 77-78. With the horrid heat wave, I had to set the temp down to 73 just to keep the house from not going above 78. 111 outside and 78 inside is pretty good. Not gonna like my next bill though. Last month was 1200!

$1200 USD? California dreamin'...!

 

[blaxsun]

September 11. Going to the Mat
The ReefMat 1200 arrived super early so I pulled the trigger and made the upgrade late yesterday. Overall I'm pleased with the upgrade. For those thinking about upgrading from the 500 to the 1200, a few notes:

• The drive unit, grey cover plate, sensor, plumbing parts, AC adapter and legs are the same between both models.
• The hose for the 1200 is the same diameter, longer and has a wider flange at one end (so hoses aren't swappable; a pipe cutter is handy here for reducing the length with a nice clean edge). The media basket, feed, waste and associated roller parts are also unique for each model.
• It's a *tight* fit getting the 1200 into the cabinet between the top panel and rim of the sump. I ended up having to remove the drive unit, sliding it in sideways, pushing it towards the back, rotating 90° and then pivoting it down in a 90° arc to it's final resting spot. Removing it for maintenance ain't gonna be fun...


If it doesn't fit, you must acquit! The 1200 takes up roughly have of the pre-modified media chamber. Although the perspective distorts the size, it is quite larger than the Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer in the rear left.

Changing fleece rolls out is effectively as easy as with the 500, and once installed there's ample room to life the red handle/tabs for both the feed/waste rollers. The 1200 does sit lower in the sump, so if you use the media basket (not recommended) there's very little clearance between the bottom of the ReefMat and the sump.

On the subject of maintenance, as the 500 will be finding its way to a new home in the next few months I completely disassembled it for a thorough cleaning. I was pleased to discover that the top portion is only held on by two tabs on either side - which allows removal of the lower portion and the grey fleece grates on the front and back. The top has remained relatively pristine and easily wiped clean; the lower portion and various plastic components are soaking in a bath of hot water and EzeClean and will require some followup scrubbing.

The water sensor had to be the worst - for whatever reason it seems to attract a ton of slime/grime. Toothpicks and q-tips are your friends here.
..........

Now for a quick look at some technical/cost data.

• ReefMat 500 Fleece Roll: $24.99 CAD / 4,857.6 sq in (33.73 sq ft) ..... $0.74 per sq ft
• ReefMat 1200 Fleece Roll: $39.99 CAD / 9246 sq in (64.21 sq ft) ..... $0.62 per sq ft (~16% savings)

With the ReefMat 500 I was using between 120"-140" average daily (lasting between 8-9 days).
With the ReefMat 1200 I've used 28.9" so far, which looks like it's going to work out to somewhere around 43"-48" daily (estimated to last between 28-30 days).

Initial indications are that my fleece roll cost should drop be about half every month (from $75 CAD to $40 CAD), so this is a fairly significant savings! I'll continue to update my usage over the next month to see if this usage holds, increases or decreases - but it looks promising so far.

Bear in mind that this usage is for a very heavily-stocked tank with some 100+ inverts and upwards of 40 fish at any given time (probably a quarter of which are over 4" in length). And they get fed a combination of 6x pellets/frozen daily. If you run a minimum or average-stocked tank you'll probably see 60+ days easily.

 

[Susan Edwards]

wow. What a lot of work. Glad you're happy with it!

 

[blaxsun]

wow. What a lot of work. Glad you're happy with it!

The numbers for the first day came in at just over 50" (so my estimate was pretty spot on). It looks like I'll get almost an entire month's use from a single roll of fleece - so there's definitely some efficiency gains with the 1200 model.

 

[Susan Edwards]

Nice!

 

[blaxsun]

Sept 18. No News is Good News
Nothing really exciting to report with the tank - everything seems to be doing great. I've been busy trying to clean out our garage/basement in preparation for winter (going to be spending a lot of time on Facebook Marketplace it seems...) Since I have exciting nothing to report - I'll share some ph/ORP eye candy. Overall I'm very pleased with the levels. pH is consistently hitting well over 8.2 - and this is without any kind of scrubber (the drop in ORP and pH occurs whenever I dose around 12.5ml of NOPOX on Saturdays). ORP is consistently above 310 now, so the Ozone system is definitely augmenting things (in addition to extending the time between emptying the skimmer collection cup).

 

[Susan Edwards]

Nice! Good when things stabilize. I too need to clean out my fish stuff and get it better organized. Maybe even write what is where lol's. Eventually we will be adding more shelves in garage which I'm claiming!

What is the Orp supposed to be at? Optimally. My ph is usually 8.1. Still on original media (since May or June--no change in color) and orp 215-229.

 

[blaxsun]

Nice! Good when things stabilize. I too need to clean out my fish stuff and get it better organized. Maybe even write what is where lol's. Eventually we will be adding more shelves in garage which I'm claiming!

What is the Orp supposed to be at? Optimally. My ph is usually 8.1. Still on original media (since May or June--no change in color) and orp 215-229.

That's hard to say. I know the ORP at my LFS is fairly high (well into the high 300's), and I know the value comprises several things - so you can't just look at the number and say it's good or bad. It's not like pH where if it's below 8 you know to bring it up and above 8.4 you need to bring it down.

 

[blaxsun]

Sept 22. My Name is Mr. Fish
After a lengthy period of no new fish (a grand total of just over a month - which has to be some sort of personal restraint record), I added four new denizens to the reef:

• A green wrasse (which we've named "Soylent")
• A green clown goby (which we've named "Jester")
• A starry blenny (which we've named "Cher")
• And a neon dottyback (which remains namless, although we're thinking about calling them "Ezra" because he seems to be a total flake; bonus points if you get the joke)

They're all fairly teeny (the green wrasse is probably the largest at around 1.5"), so hopefully they don't become dinner for something else (the marine betta is the only fish that has the maw to consume any of these fish whole, but he's somewhat of a pussycat). We have another dottyback called "Carl", but Carl is extremely laid-back and there's so much unclaimed rock real estate that there shouldn't be any conflicts.