Red Sea Max S 500 Build

[klisby]

Tank is doing pretty good now. I finally see some growth from my corals

Definitely an exciting period. See the growth and the development is such a thrill!!
Nice progress!

 

[Rctreece]

Got a question for the experts. I tried growing Cheato in my ref but it really never grew. I do have a ton of bright green slimily algae that I pull out ever so often and I have turned off my grow light as all it is doing is helping the green stuff grow. Is this normal? Something I should try to get rid of? Or just keep manually pulling it and throwing it away? It never ends up in the DT but covers my sump pretty good. Thanks for any advise.

 

[SPR1968]

Got a question for the experts. I tried growing Cheato in my ref but it really never grew. I do have a ton of bright green slimily algae that I pull out ever so often and I have turned off my grow light as all it is doing is helping the green stuff grow. Is this normal? Something I should try to get rid of? Or just keep manually pulling it and throwing it away? It never ends up in the DT but covers my sump pretty good. Thanks for any advise.

It’s probably only growing because you’ve had the lights on. I have zero algae in the sump as it’s dark so nothing grows down there

If you don’t want the green slime then just clean it all out and keep the lights off apart from when doing maintenance.

 

[PanchoG]

Tank is doing pretty good now. I finally see some growth from my corals

Those frags have really nice colors.

 

[Rctreece]

Those frags have really nice colors.

Thanks. Cant wait to see mine grow like yours did.

 

[Rctreece]

I took this long weekend off to go camping and when I came back I found my yellow tang hanging out in a corner and his fins were messed up. I watched for awhile and found my brown tang is the one messing with him. So I setup my QT (a 20 gal) and after much effort caught the brown tang and placed him in QT. Before I went to bed last night, I noticed the yellow tang eating and moving around more. I hope that keeping the brow tang away for awhile might help the situation and was wondering how long I should keep him out and if I need to do anything to help the yellow tang out? They have plenty of food so I don't think that was the issue. I believe the brown tang just doesn't like the yellow and it wasn't the case when I added both of them. And yes I know about tang aggression.

 

[Rctreece]

Haven’t posted in awhile. Tank is still doing good. Had a set back with some corals but I think that was do to my nitrate being low. Can’t seem to get it up very much even feeding what I think is a lot and only running the skimmer 12 hours. My fish are growing

 

[SPR1968]

Looking very closely at those pictures, and it’s difficult to see exactly, but you seem to have a lot of algae type stuff with bubbles come up out of it that could well be dinoflagellates? Maybe not, but maybe.

I would have a look at what you have and maybe do a bit of research. I had them and in my case a 3 day blackout and increased flow in the affected areas cleared it up.

On the Nitrate just get some more fish and feed them more

 

[Rctreece]

Yeah I have had that for awhile and yes there are a lot of bubbles. I was thinking it was part of this new tank deal and would go away. I do use vibrant but do u recommend the blackout?

 

[SPR1968]

Yeah I have had that for awhile and yes there are a lot of bubbles. I was thinking it was part of this new tank deal and would go away. I do use vibrant but do u recommend the blackout?

Well that’s what I did and also increase the flow around the affected areas by moving the circulation pump nozzles.

I just turned the lights out for 3 days and closed doors and curtains, no need to cover tank. The tank looked like new when the lights came back on. It’s just like a tropical storm in the ocean to the corals and fish.

When I had it I also thought ‘new tank’ but it wasn’t and it got worse going from sand and then starting onto rocks.

 

[SPR1968]

Yeah I have had that for awhile and yes there are a lot of bubbles. I was thinking it was part of this new tank deal and would go away. I do use vibrant but do u recommend the blackout?

Well that’s what I did and also increase the flow around the affected areas by moving the circulation pump nozzles.

I just turned the lights out for 3 days and closed doors and curtains, no need to cover tank. The tank looked like new when the lights came back on. It’s just like a tropical storm in the ocean to the corals and fish.

When I had it I also thought ‘new tank’ but it wasn’t and it got worse going from sand and then starting onto rocks.

 

[Rctreece]

Thanks will do. I have pretty good flow

Looking very closely at those pictures, and it’s difficult to see exactly, but you seem to have a lot of algae type stuff with bubbles come up out of it that could well be dinoflagellates? Maybe not, but maybe.

I would have a look at what you have and maybe do a bit of research. I had them and in my case a 3 day blackout and increased flow in the affected areas cleared it up.

On the Nitrate just get some more fish and feed them more

Well that’s what I did and also increase the flow around the affected areas by moving the circulation pump nozzles.

I just turned the lights out for 3 days and closed doors and curtains, no need to cover tank. The tank looked like new when the lights came back on. It’s just like a tropical storm in the ocean to the corals and fish.

When I had it I also thought ‘new tank’ but it wasn’t and it got worse going from sand and then starting onto rocks.

 

[Rctreece]

I started my 3 day blackout last night. Very interested in what the results will be. I also noticed that a month ago I removed all the bright green algae in my sump and a few weeks later my corals didn't look good. In fact I lost a few. Everything tested fine except for Nitrate which was low. So I started my grow light back and the green has returned and now all my corals have perked up but I still have low nitrate. Any ideas?

 

[SPR1968]

I started my 3 day blackout last night. Very interested in what the results will be. I also noticed that a month ago I removed all the bright green algae in my sump and a few weeks later my corals didn't look good. In fact I lost a few. Everything tested fine except for Nitrate which was low. So I started my grow light back and the green has returned and now all my corals have perked up but I still have low nitrate. Any ideas?

So am I, maybe a before and after shot. I found the most frustrating part was not being able to see the tank!

What we’re/are the phosphate levels ? Did they increase when the algae was removed do you know?

I find with my system that Nitrate isn’t the enemy and I’ve been around 5-18 with no issues, infact the corals ‘glow’ with life anywhere from around 10ppm. Phosphate is a different issue and I have it locked down barley detectable at around 0.03ppm

 

[Rctreece]

So am I, maybe a before and after shot. I found the most frustrating part was not being able to see the tank!

What we’re/are the phosphate levels ? Did they increase when the algae was removed do you know?

I find with my system that Nitrate isn’t the enemy and I’ve been around 5-18 with no issues, infact the corals ‘glow’ with life anywhere from around 10ppm. Phosphate is a different issue and I have it locked down barley detectable at around 0.03ppm

I agree. I have turned out the room lights at night and gone under the cover to look at my fish with a red light cause I had to check on them. Glad it’s over tonight but I will upload some pics. My po4 did go up a little when I removed the algae but not to a elevated level. When I check it prior to the blackout it was .08

 

[Rctreece]

Ok here it is right after the lights started coming back on. My fish are fine and the sand is white. I see lots of coralline

 

[SPR1968]

It seems to look a lot better and I can’t see any bubbles anywhere.

It might be worth moving some of your jet nozzles around. If you move the one on the right to point to the left side of the tank it will create a current around the front, that’s what I did anyway.

I would also maybe look into running GFO in a reactor, it’s the best single thing I ever did with my tank and I use rhowaphos. I have zero algae or any other issues. I found high phosphate is far worse that high nitrate and it needs to be locked down.

 

[Rctreece]

It seems to look a lot better and I can’t see any bubbles anywhere.

It might be worth moving some of your jet nozzles around. If you move the one on the right to point to the left side of the tank it will create a current around the front, that’s what I did anyway.

I would also maybe look into running GFO in a reactor, it’s the best single thing I ever did with my tank and I use rhowaphos. I have zero algae or any other issues. I found high phosphate is far worse that high nitrate and it needs to be locked down.

So my tank looks good but I noticed a little red forming and when I check my po4 it was high. I ordered a GFO reactor and will start running that and I also started running my skimmer 24/7 where before I only ran it half the time trying to raise my NO3 but it still hasn't. I run carbon in three bags but was reading about running carbon and GFO in the reactor and I think I will try that. I bought the BRS Deluxe reactor with a pump. Hope that will do the trick.

 

[SPR1968]

That’s good news

If you want to raise nitrate just maybe feed more or add some more fish, if you have zero nitrate just watch out for cyno bacteria forming which may be the red stuff you see as it can thrive in ultra low nutrient environments.

I would read up on mixing the GFO and carbon as I seem to recall it’s not advisable due to the different particle size and bashing together but it may depend on the brand etc.

I have the carbon bag (around 200grams) in the holder just before the return chamber, so you don’t need it in the reactor anyway, that’s how it was designed by Red Sea

 

[Rctreece]

That’s good news

If you want to raise nitrate just maybe feed more or add some more fish, if you have zero nitrate just watch out for cyno bacteria forming which may be the red stuff you see as it can thrive in ultra low nutrient environments.

I would read up on mixing the GFO and carbon as I seem to recall it’s not advisable due to the different particle size and bashing together but it may depend on the brand etc.

I have the carbon bag (around 200grams) in the holder just before the return chamber, so you don’t need it in the reactor anyway, that’s how it was designed by Red Sea

I do feed what I think is heavy but I still only measure about 1 on my Red Sea test kit. I have a few more fish coming Wednesday so maybe that will help after they get out of qt. BRS has a video of mixing the gfo and carbon using thier reactor and the one guy who does most says that he mixes them on his personal tank. That is why I was leaning toward it. I have been using the bags like my tank was designed for but figure since in need to add the gfo I might as well put the carbon in as it should be more effective