Lexinverts' Reefer XXL 750

lexinverts · Dec 21, 2019

Hello, All:

I've been on Reef2Reef since 2015, and I'm finally getting around to posting a tank thread.

Here's my previous tank. This was a Red Sea Max 250 that I had running for 4 years.

We remodeled our house, which meant that we had to live in the garage and bedrooms for 6 weeks! That's a lot of microwaved meals...
The happy end of this trying experience came when my wife said that the old tank would look too small in reference to our now over-sized contemporary kitchen decor.
Woo-hoo! A few weeks later and I was unwrapping this bad boy.

Here are my system specs:

Aquarium
- Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 with white cabinet and Red Sea center support brace.
- Set up in March 2019
- I've also got two 60 gallon coral frag systems, a Reefer 170 seahorse system, a 40 gallon fish quarantine system, and 4 freshwater shrimp breeding systems.
Flow
- Simplicity 2100 return pump
- Two Ecotech Mp40W powerheads with two Ecotech battery backups
Filtration
- Stock Red Sea filter socks
- Red Sea RSK-900 Skimmer
- A variety of live rock in the sump. Some coming from other reef tanks and some coming directly from Tonga
Lighting
- Three ReeFi Duo Extreme LED. Love these lights! See Dana Riddle's thread on them here.
- Santa Monica Filtration GEM5 LED for chaeto in the sump
Heating
- Two 300W Jaeger, controlled by GHL Profilux 4
Controller
- GHL Profilux 4
- Two GHL Doser 2.1 units
- GHL KH Director
- MindStream monitor (with MS now being up for sale, the current disk is past due to be replaced, so I am not relying on it :mad

.
Dosing
- ATI Essentials Pro
AquaBiomics Analysis
- I think this will someday become as common as ICP tests. See the first three pages of analysis of my tank microbiome below. My data tell me that my tank has relatively high microbial diversity, which does not surprise me because I started it out with live rock from my previous system and some branching live rock from Tonga. The high diversity score also makes sense because I have not had any nuisance algae problems at all during the establishment of this system. The tank struggles appear to be nutrient related:

Fish
- Three Pyramid Butterflies
- Blonde Naso Tang
- Katherine's Fairy Wrasse
- Niger Triggerfish
(Others waiting in quarantine)

PNWMAS
- Much of what I know about reefkeeping I learned from the Pacific Northwest Marine Aquarium Society in Portland OR. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, it's worth checking the club out!

I believe the tank is currently struggling because I had to run it fallow (fishless) for 4 months. I had to run it fallow for so long because I had two separate marine velvet outbreaks that wiped out my fish collection. During the fallow period, the nutrients in the tank dropped to undetectable. I have been dosing Sodium Nitrate and Trisodium Phosphate to bring them up, however, I have found that dosing pure nutrients like this, at least in this system, is not as effective as providing them to the corals in the form of fish poop. Anyway, I lost most of my SPS frags during the fallow period. I just reintroduced fish, so I am hopeful the SPS will start to thrive again! I just added some test frags, so we will see...

NeedMoreReef · Dec 21, 2019

Your Max 250 was beautiful.
I'll check out AquaBiomics Analysis and ReeFi Duo Exreme LEDs. Hope your XXL 750 turns out even better than your 250!

Blitheran · Dec 21, 2019

Tank is gonna look stunning! SPS dominate again?!

lexinverts · Dec 21, 2019

NeedMoreReef said:
Your Max 250 was beautiful.
I'll check out AquaBiomics Analysis and ReeFi Duo Exreme LEDs. Hope your XXL 750 turns out even better than your 250!

Thank you! It has been hard to be patient while I have been waiting for my marine velvet problems to subside.

Blitheran said:
Tank is gonna look stunning! SPS dominate again?!

Thank you! It will be mixed SPS, LPS, and softies. I love chalices, goniopora, leathers, and gorgonians so I always find room for them in tanks, in addition to SPS.

lexinverts · Dec 22, 2019

I'm away from my tank for two weeks for the holidays, but, thankfully, I am able to monitor it remotely with my GHL Profilux 4 and KH Director. I set up the KH Director a few days before I left, so I am still getting used to the functionality of this device.
Yesterday, the KHD showed a drop in alkalinity, and I was able to adjust the dosage remotely with my GHL Doser to get it back on track.

In the past, when I've been gone for 2-3 weeks, I have had a friend test the alk every week and adjust it as needed. It's so much simpler and more satisfying to be able to monitor and control it myself.

Makki_73 · Dec 24, 2019

lexinverts said:
I'm away from my tank for two weeks for the holidays, but, thankfully, I am able to monitor it remotely with my GHL Profilux 4 and KH Director. I set up the KH Director a few days before I left, so I am still getting used to the functionality of this device.
Yesterday, the KHD showed a drop in alkalinity, and I was able to adjust the dosage remotely with my GHL Doser to get it back on track.

In the past, when I've been gone for 2-3 weeks, I have had a friend test the alk every week and adjust it as needed. It's so much simpler and more satisfying to be able to monitor and control it myself.

Can you control a calcium reactor with the Kh director ? Do u recommend the Director ?

lexinverts · Dec 24, 2019

Makki_73 said:
Can you control a calcium reactor with the Kh director ? Do u recommend the Director ?

Yes, I would recommend this device with a few caveats. First, I have only been running it for about a week and a half, so I don't know about longer term reliability. It has been working great for me since I set it up. It has done everything it is supposed to do, and has been very precise, with repeated tests always reporting the same KH value within .1 dKH. However, it is not simple to set up. I spent about three hours setting it up, which makes it significantly more work to get going than the Alkatronic, KH Guardian, or the Trident, at least according to what I have read. Part of the complexity of the device is because it can be configured in a number of ways, controlled by either a doser or a P4 controller, and can be purchased separately from the required dosing pumps. I had an existing GHL doser 2.1 that I repurposed for the KHD, so I had to cut my dosing tubes to the correct lengths, estimate volumes, etc... The Alkatronic and the KH Guardian (not sure about the Trident) come with pre-integrated dosing pumps, which makes them more "plug and play."

I use ATI Essentials Pro with a GHL doser, but according to the GHL information you can control a calcium reactor with the KHD and the Profilux 4. See the quoted information below:

"Calcium reactor control mode
In this mode, a calcium reactor can be down-regulated depending on the KH value.
A calcium reactor is usually operated by CO2 addition and control of the pH value; the actual pH value in the calcium reactor is measured by a pH electrode. If you select this pH electrode in the KH Director Options, the KHD can switch off CO2 if necessary (KH target value reached), otherwise the normal CO2 control is activated. This mode is only possible with a ProfiLux aquarium computer."