Frizzles7 Red Sea Max S-500

[Frizzles7]

I haven't pulled the trigger yet on a new skimmer. Honestly, I think I would have if BRS carried the Nyos skimmer. But they don't (at least not yet), so I was looking around the internet at options to buy the Nyos or alternatives to the Nyos, and I can't decide if I "need" to replace this right now. I think I'm paralyzed by all the options.

Besides the C-Skim, I really like everything else about this tank. My corals that I moved from my other tank have really taken off in the S-500. I think the better lights and better flow really contribute to that. And I have so much more space than I did before!! I'm getting to the point that I'm starting to do more cleaning of the parts, so we'll see how easy this is. (The skimmer was the first major one on my list.) Next up, probably next week, is to clean the circulation pumps and grates. I'm hoping that's as easy to clean as it looks. However, I'm also beginning to wonder if I need to get a chiller, as my heater hasn't run since the beginning of April.

But I don't want to change too many things at once. With my newest set of frags, I really upped my dosing, but it wasn't enough, so my Alk and Calcium are still a little lower than I want, and I can't keep my nutrients in the water as high as I'd like. I'd like to find equilibrium again before touching another piece of equipment, if at all possible.

 

[Frizzles7]

Quick update. Fighting a little bit of cyano on the sand bed but otherwise looking good. And my blenny who is just always so happy. And hungry!

 

[najer]

Quick update. Fighting a little bit of cyano on the sand bed but otherwise looking good. And my blenny who is just always so happy. And hungry!

View attachment 761216 View attachment 761218

That looks great, can you aim something to get more flow on the sandbed, I put a new sandbed in a month ago, looks like yours!
What cuc do you have for the sandbed?

 

[Frizzles7]

That looks great, can you aim something to get more flow on the sandbed, I put a new sandbed in a month ago, looks like yours!
What cuc do you have for the sandbed?

In the sand, I have a sea cucumber, a tiger conch, a few pistol shrimp who love to dig, about 10 nassarius snails, and a yellow wrasse that kicks up sand everywhere when he goes to sleep or gets spooked by his own shadow.

I’ve also got some astreas, margaritas, trocus, turbos, ceriths, hermits, a serpent star, a bristle star, a black urchin, porcelain crabs, and two fire shrimp.

When I type this all out, that seems like a really large cuc!

 

[Frizzles7]

Well I finally figured out what was going on. I’ve been really struggling to keep my alk and calcium high enough lately. Turns out, my dosers kept sucking in air, which wasn’t dosing as much as I thought.

So I reran the tubing last night to stop this and now things are moving in the right direction. At least I finally figured it out! Now to slowly get everything back on track.

 

[klisby]

Looking good. I'm about restarting my S-500. Did you decide on Skimmer?

 

[Frizzles7]

Looking good. I'm about restarting my S-500. Did you decide on Skimmer?

I think I will get the Nyos but I haven’t bought it yet.

 

[Frizzles7]

Quick update. Everything is really growing. Here’s my space invader. I think it has about doubled in size. It seems really happy.

And my frog is growing new heads! Yay!

 

[Frizzles7]

Here’s a current full tank pic:

Got some Battlecorals on the frag rack. It’s really coming along!

 

[Frizzles7]

Another update! Battlecorals mounted.

 

[Frizzles7]

After a week and a half of being down one light, I’m back up again. This was the second of these to stop working for no apparent reason. And of course it breaks on a weekend. But customer service was great and easy to work with.

In other news, my black line blenny died on Sunday. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it happen, but my royal gramma bit him in the belly and took a chunk out. I tried to nurse him back, but the damage was too extensive. I thought I got peaceful, community fish...

Hopefully things get back to normal now. This has been stressful!

 

[NY_Caveman]

View attachment 831437

After a week and a half of being down one light, I’m back up again. This was the second of these to stop working for no apparent reason. And of course it breaks on a weekend. But customer service was great and easy to work with.

In other news, my black line blenny died on Sunday. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it happen, but my royal gramma bit him in the belly and took a chunk out. I tried to nurse him back, but the damage was too extensive. I thought I got peaceful, community fish...

Hopefully things get back to normal now. This has been stressful!

That is crazy about the gramma. Sorry to hear.

 

[SPR1968]

View attachment 831437

After a week and a half of being down one light, I’m back up again. This was the second of these to stop working for no apparent reason. And of course it breaks on a weekend. But customer service was great and easy to work with.

In other news, my black line blenny died on Sunday. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it happen, but my royal gramma bit him in the belly and took a chunk out. I tried to nurse him back, but the damage was too extensive. I thought I got peaceful, community fish...

Hopefully things get back to normal now. This has been stressful!

Great tank shot, and I’m sorry to hear about the Blenny!

 

[Frizzles7]

Thanks guys!!

 

[klisby]

View attachment 831437

After a week and a half of being down one light, I’m back up again. This was the second of these to stop working for no apparent reason. And of course it breaks on a weekend. But customer service was great and easy to work with.

In other news, my black line blenny died on Sunday. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it happen, but my royal gramma bit him in the belly and took a chunk out. I tried to nurse him back, but the damage was too extensive. I thought I got peaceful, community fish...

Hopefully things get back to normal now. This has been stressful!

Sorry about your blenny. Newer funny to loose a fish!
What did they do about your lamp? Mine has been going on for 1.5 years, and after 4 months break they started up like a charm. Did they just replace the whole lamp, or?

 

[Frizzles7]

Sorry about your blenny. Newer funny to loose a fish!
What did they do about your lamp? Mine has been going on for 1.5 years, and after 4 months break they started up like a charm. Did they just replace the whole lamp, or?

I contacted AI and it was still under warranty. They shipped me out a whole new light and cable and I ship the bad one back. They will check the old one to ensure I didn’t drop it in the tank.

This is actually the second light I had a problem with. I did this just a couple months ago too. I asked AI if there was a bad batch or could something have happened when my setup was shipped. They didn’t know. But they told me that each light should last for years.

Their customer service has been great.

 

[Frizzles7]

You're not going to believe this. My third Hydra just went out!!!

Calling AI again...

 

[Frizzles7]

So, I have to say, AI has the easiest and nicest people to work with. New light is on its way. Hooray!!

The only thing I can think of is that something must have happened in the shipping or packing of my tank. I haven't heard of anyone else having these problems. It's just so weird!!

 

[Frizzles7]

So I think I'm ready to pull the trigger on the Nyos skimmer. Tonight I went downstairs and something sounded funny. The glass piece that the skimmer shelf sits on had come off, so my skimmer is sitting at about a 45 degree angle because the right side has fallen down. I'm frustrated enough with the C-skim that I'm switching.

I'm not sure why things are breaking all of a sudden. I feel like I need to go buy a backup return pump now too, just in case. Anyone have any suggestions for that. I just didn't expect that after less than 9 months of being wet, I'd have had so many problems already.

The only bright spot at the moment is that my strombus snails laid a ton of eggs, and they've just started to hatch. It's really cute! I'll see if I can get a good pic of that. My thread needs some happier news of late.

 

[Frizzles7]

Snail babies. Yes, they laid them on my algae scraper, but I love watching them!!