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

SPR1968 · Jun 4, 2023

Oh how time flys…..

Its time for the quarterly clean of the skimmers….. it’s been 3 months….so yes, I am a LAR!

To be honest, I can’t notice any difference between cleaning weekly or whenever I can be bothered, and I’m not condoning this, and I’m sure performance is not as good but all I can say is it makes no difference in my case.

You can also see the difference in size between the NYOS 300 and the 160 clearly here. As you will appreciate, size is of course very important …..

SPR1968 · Jun 15, 2023

The weather here in England has been beautiful for the last week or so, and we went away for a few days in our caravan to the Lake District, around Ullswater to be precise.

We like to visit castles and English historic places, houses etc., while we’re away and this was Lowther castle. It was a stunning place with some great history, absolutely beautiful

So anyone reading this from outside the UK, come and visit but don’t just go to London. London is its own place, most of England is beautiful countryside hence the terms ’green and pleasant land’

And then we discovered some stones…..apparently from around 3000BC…..

Petcrazyson · Jun 15, 2023

SPR1968 said:
The weather here in England has been beautiful for the last week or so, and we went away for a few days in our caravan to the Lake District, around Ullswater to be precise.

We like to visit castles and English historic places, houses etc., while we’re away and this was Lowther castle. It was a stunning place with some great history, absolutely beautiful

So anyone reading this from outside the UK, come and visit but don’t just go to London. London is its own place, most of England is beautiful countryside hence the terms ’green and pleasant land’

And then we discovered some stones…..apparently from around 3000BC…..

I’ve always wanted to visit, just not London lol

Petcrazyson · Jun 16, 2023

@crusso1993 ! We miss you on here!

SPR1968 · Jun 17, 2023

Petcrazyson said:
@crusso1993 ! We miss you on here!

Oh yes, how we miss him so…….! Lol

SPR1968 · Jun 17, 2023

This corals’s grown just a bit. Originally it was in the S650 and I moved it a while ago and it seems to love its new home in the big house.

SPR1968 · Jun 27, 2023

A fishy picture…..

SPR1968 · Jul 15, 2023

Here’s a green coral, this came out as a tiny frag from the S650, like a cut off and it’s doing very well in the big house.

SPR1968 · Jul 27, 2023

SPR1968 · Aug 3, 2023

The S650 has a serious infestation of asterina starfish, and I’m talking 100’s, probably 1000’s!

Interestingly, they keep the back wall of the aquarium clean by eating the coralline algae, I hadn’t noticed it for some time, because I normally needed to scrape it every month or so to keep it clean. As the numbers increased I guess they needed a food source and that appears to be it, because I haven’t touched the back wall in months.

Anyway, I’ve noticed a few of the corals were receding, I’ve seen it before a few years ago with these starfish, so it’s time for action.

Added him yesterday, he’s still hiding in a rock, but this morning with lights still out, very few starfish are out……..

SPR1968 · Aug 6, 2023

Here’s a few more additions but to the big house.

I haven’t added anything for ages, like over 12 months, and when I was in the shop I felt the ‘rush’ of the addict again…! Lol

fishguy242 · Aug 6, 2023

Nice...

mated pair ?
Meet Harley Q,new addition to the fam here...

PS: How' youre weather over there lately avg ??...

SPR1968 · Aug 6, 2023

fishguy242 said:
Nice... mated pair ?
Meet Harley Q,new addition to the fam here...

PS: How' youre weather over there lately avg ??...

Very nice!

No they arnt a pair as such, but love may bloom who knows

Oh and the weather, its been rubbish so far this summer. Well for the last 2-3 weeks at least. Should improve hopefully but we certainly haven’t had the heatwaves you may have read about in europe

Only problem ive had, its rubbish here but to hot to go to my home in spain! Like 39c but feels like 48c a week or so ago. Thats like death hot!

But at least we have something to moan about!

GBRsouth · Aug 6, 2023

SPR1968 said:
Like 39c but feels like 48c a week or so ago. Thats like death hot!

Trust me when I tell you 39c cannot feel like 48c! A few years ago we had a day that was 47c. Hundreds of spiders (no exaggeration) fell off the eves of my house dead! (And they are Aussie spiders used to our heat!) I have experienced 39c many times over the last 55 years and it never felt like that 47c day, never mind about 48c!

SPR1968 · Aug 7, 2023

GBRsouth said:
Trust me when I tell you 39c cannot feel like 48c! A few years ago we had a day that was 47c. Hundreds of spiders (no exaggeration) fell off the eves of my house dead! (And they are Aussie spiders used to our heat!) I have experienced 39c many times over the last 55 years and it never felt like that 47c day, never mind about 48c!

I don’t think I would like it there! Lol

When they forecast here, they give the temperature, but also the ‘feels like’ which is supposed to take into account other factors like humidity, wind chill (or burn!) etc as well. It’s certainly good in winter as they say for example it’s 3c but feels like -2c because of the wind etc.

I know of this because of playing golf on a wind swept golf course in winter. Which I’ve sort of stopped doing as I prefer a little ‘comfort’ rather than misery!

SPR1968 · Aug 27, 2023

After a year (well just over) it’s time to change the main return pump in the S650. Just one of the jobs I don’t like doing, but only takes a few minutes, well unless you accidentally catch the built in ATO float valve and snap it!

About 7 years ago, I purchased a spare one, just in case, and today was the day it was needed!

This is a back up ATO, primarily in the system being the Apex ATO

Im going away for nearly 3 weeks for the first time, driving from UK, through France and to my home in Spain with the dog. Couldn’t get him in kennels because of late booking a flight, and I’ve always wanted to drive down since it was build 20 years ago, so I thought why not.

So this tank done, next similar in the big house which I will do in next few days.