JimDantin's RSM

[JimDantin]

There's been no adverse effect from the painted magnet in my RSM.

 

I really have fun finding simple solutions. We live in an incredibly complex world and the simple little "ah-ha's" can't help but bring a smile and a little gratification.

 

Thanks for the neat comments.

[clownfish1124]

Great idea with the magfloat! and great corals...

[JimDantin]

Slideshow of My Corals

 

Here is a slideshow of the current state of the corals. This was shot using the RSM's lights. I used a Nikon D100 with a Nikkor 60mm macro lens at f16. I simply rested the front of the lens against the tank's glass.

 

Post processing was with Google's Picasa. I applied Picasa's "I'm feeling lucky" automatic tuning, followed by sharpening and a some manual tweaks of the contrast. When everything was finished, I used Picasa's Web Album feature to create the slideshow. I have a wide range of professional-level photo editing programs, but the free Picasa application is hard to beat.

 

Enjoy the show,

[Moolsfishh]

Awesome photos in the slideshow!!

[JimDantin]

Thanks -- I hope it helps others get nice shots of their tank. Any camera with closeup capabilities should be able to give similar results.

[StevieT]

great slideshow! come take pictures of my corals

[JimDantin]

I'm fighting a red slime algae outbreak right now. It's mainly growing on some of the tallest rocks near the pump outlet. Water tests are great except for a 0.4 ppm phos reading. I've put in a fresh Purigen bag and will increase water changes.

 

I haven't seen much coraline algae yet. I keep seeding with scrapings from established live rock and I'm adding Purple Up.

 

I added a couple new fish, but they disappeared after a few days. I also lost one of my clowns. Bummer. $$ down the drain.

 

The corals are doing wonderfully. I've been taking frags off of the fastest growing softies and also tried my hand at fragging one of the Florida rics. My Biocube 14 is being used as a frag tank and is working out well.

 

I'll post a new FTS shot as soon as the corals recover from the fragging I did yesterday.

[JimDantin]

Full Tank Shot 8/4/2008

 

Here's an updated FTS after I removed the red slime algae. What a chore! 30 minutes with a toothbrush and turkey baster.

 

[Reefmack]

Wow - the tank is looking excellent!

[JimDantin]

Issues, problems, and near-disasters

 

My clove polyp rock has an area of die-off that is spreading.

Any ideas about what might be happening? It's not near other corals, and a frag of the clove is growing well in another location in the tank.I'm going to do some more fragging so I don't lose the entire colony.

 

I sold my extra rock to a friend and am continuing to rework my old Biocube 14 into a frag tank. After removing the extra rock from a 10g curing tank, I succeeded in cracking the bottom of that tank and dumped around 4 gallons of water onto the hardwood floor. Major scrambling with lots of towels! I knew this would eventually happen to me - I just didn't realize how fragile 10g tanks are!

 

I'm using my magnetic eggcrate racks for the frags in the 14g, and also have a clear soap dish to hold rubble and frags that don't want to stay glued down. I'm going to fabricate some more eggcrate racks - they are so easy to reposition. The tank bottom will have a thin layer of live rock rubble on top of the sand bed. This rubble will be used for frags and filtration. I'm also going to increase water flow with a power head or two.

 

I'm finally seeing some coraline algae colonies on the rock and plastic items. Right now, they are only around 1/16-1/8" in diameter, but they are all over the rock. You can see some in the above picture. I also have a large number of pods crawling around the rocks and munching on algae. I'm certain that my efforts to collect live sand from established tanks really paid off.

 

I'm still struggling with the filter floss -- I can't figure out what is the proper amount. Too much and I have water level issues, too little and I start seeing an accumulation of white particles in the water. Would you please post a picture that shows the size of the piece of floss that you are putting in your StevieT media rack? Here's what I'm using.

 

That's all for now. Also, update YOUR tank thread to let us all know what YOU're doing with your RSM!

[buccaneerreef]

Nice pics. what is the name of the coral you have "blowin in the wind" titled?

[JimDantin]

"Blowin in the wind" is a closeup of a Sarcophyton (mushroom leather or toadstool). You can see the entire coral in one of the FTS images -- on the far left, about halfway up the rock.

[Reefmack]

Interesting on the clove polyps receeding. I can see a difference between this picture & the last FTS you posted. The polyps on the edges of the enlarging hole in the colony don't seem to be losing color from what I can see. Is that section of the colony rock typically shaded more the rest? Maybe it's just a natural ocurrence? I know Xenia can for unexplained reasons can just die off in a tank. Any symptoms of anything eating their way around the colony? Pretty polyps - I can't recall seeing any that look that blue. Hopefully the receeding will stop soon. Bummer on the 10g tank cracking.

 

On the floss, I went back to pieces of pad on top of my media basket - the stuff that's blue on one side, white on the other. But I still have to rinse it or replace it every 2-3 days to keep the water level up - PITA! At least I got a deal on the pad on Ebay - a 12 foot x 1 foot roll and just cut pieces out to last for a while. I still want to get the overflow & sump hooked up soon, so I can forget about dealing with anything at all in the back.

[JimDantin]

Does this look like the pad you bought?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BLUE-BONDED-FILTER-PAD...86.c0.m14.l1318

[StevieT]

I am using the pad kind also at this time, mainly becuase I am out of the fiber floss. That blue stuff is actually air filter matieral, I used to work with it back in High School. I am using something very similar, just not blue, even though I have some around, just don't think it is very cleen since it has been in a garage for some time. I cut three squares to fit the rack. That will last 3-5 days, all depending. Any longer and it gets too clogged up messing with the ATO sensor.

 

Newer tanks seem to have a lot more free floating detritus so this may be the reason for more floss changes. Other "experts" would say floss is completely unnecessary, but I can't see wanting all that junk floating around in the tank.

 

I assume you have done this already, but tying the bottom bag to the middle shelve works wonders for flow.

[Reefmack]

that may be the pad, but Ebay is blocked here at work, so I can't tell till I get home. I have an Ebay confirmation email that describes it as a wet/dry filter media pond pad. The stuff I got was an inch thick - I think there's a 2 inch thickness also but I figured thicker would just cut the flow more. Based on your link having "Blue-bonded-filter-pad" in it I would say that's it. Here's a link to the same stuff (at a higher price) from F&S:

 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...cfm?pcatid=4231

 

It's easier & a bit less messy pulling the pad out than floss, IMO.

[Reefmack]

Good point by StevieT in tying up any media bags to the shelf above. I went a step further and got rid of half the material in my large size Chemi-Pure Elite bag, so it would further increase flow. Next time I'll get the smaller bag. I have a bag of Purigen above the CP, and a small bag of SeaGel below the pad. The bags will also plug up with debris and should be pulled and rinsed once in a while. I just pulled the SeaGel out last weekend and the bag was pretty covered in crud. Dumped the SeaGel, washed the crud off the bag, refilled it with fresh SeaGel, cable-tied it, and the water level is a lot higher than it was by just replacing the pad. It should increase the times between pad replacements.

[JimDantin]

Lighting upgrade!

 

There is a great posting on RC that shows how to mount a 65w PC bulb into the front lid. I just happen to have the same unused Coaralife fixture that I can use to scavenge parts. I would like to add an actinic 03 bulb in the front to accentuate the colors of the corals and allow it to be used as a dawn/dusk feature. Check it out!

 

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...06#post13143806

 

More to come!

[Reefmack]

Jim - FYI - I found that I could get 4 days on a filter pad, instead of 2, after rinsing the crud off the media bags in the chambers below it. I'm not sure how long that will last but it's at least helped this week .

[JimDantin]

I'll give it a try -- thanks

[JimDantin]

65 Watt Lighting Upgrade! V2.0

 

Thanks to the innovative thinking of trapper125 on Reef Central we now have the opportunity to add a 55 or 65 watt CF light into the front lid of our RSM hoods.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.p...ax+lighting+mod

You will lose the use of the little slots and holes that Red Sea provided for your water testing tools -- since I never use those features, it seemed like a minimal cost.

 

The original mod uses parts scavenged from a Coralife 2x65w 30" fixture. Other components could work, but since I had exactly the same fixture in my junk pile I decided to follow his lead. I couldn't bear to copy his design exactly, so I developed a different parts layout that allowed a more attractive fan location and a larger light aperture.

 

Please take the time to read the thread on Reef Central. That will give you some background and better understanding of what I did. My version of the mod reverses the location of the bulb and the other components. I also located the fans on the sides, rather than the top, of the lid. This layout allowed the opening for the bulb to be much larger and throw light deep into the tank. I will install an actinic 03 bulb into the fixture to give dawn/dusk lighting.

 

Opening the lid takes a bit of effort. First remove the three screwhole covers and screws. You will have to use a sharp awl or small screwdriver to pry out the covers. Seperating the lid at the hinge took quite a lot of effort on my lid -- I had to insert a screwdriver and slowly pry apart the halves. The connector is a simple friction fit, but mine was very tight.

 

Here is a slideshow that details the mod.

 

The hardest part of the mod (after you finally get the hinge area opened!) is getting the fans to fit. I tried many modifications to the grills, but ended up discarding the interior mounting piece from both grills. One fan is mounted to blow in and the second blows out, creating an effective crossflow. For the fan that blows in, I completely removed the fan's frame and used silicone to glue the label side of the fan to the grill. The exhaust fan received a similar treatment, but I had to reverse the wiring so it blew out. CORRECTION! My fan won't run reversed; for now they both blow out. I'll either rework the mounting of one of the fans or figure out how to add an exhaust grill. I just saved you 2 hours of effort!

 

I'll post a shot with the Actinic bulb when it arrives.

[StevieT]

wow, that is about all I can say on this one! Nice work, I hope it is worth the effort, it looks very promising.

[Trapper125]

Jim- Thanks for taking V.10 of the mod and putting it out there for more to see and take advantage of! I am really looking forward to how others can improve on my crazy idea and rush job.

 

I really like the placement of your cooling fans. I also had the same problem with properly fitting each fan with grill. Very cool that you were able to use the same exact parts as myself and improve on the overall idea.

 

ReefMack & StevieT- I have really liked all that you have been able to contribute on other places, glad to be able to share stuff with you in a different place.

 

Looking forward to seeing V.30 , lets see what you have up your sleeve.

 

-Trapper

[Reefmack]

Trapper125 - the light mod that you and Jim did is terrific! I just may have to go back to using the hood again! You won't see me on Reef Central anymore. The mod gods gave me the boot yesterday after I blasted them in the RSM Club thread for treating me unfairly several times in the past, and on a recent issue that I brought up in the information section. I'd had enough of their unfair treatment, unwritten rules, blocking posts to Nano-Reef and other forums, etc. Then when Brent F posted a goodbye message on my behalf they booted him out too, and erased my farewell (which was harmless with no references to the mods). They may have booted Kent too, but I'm not sure yet. The idiots seem to be on a witch hunt now for anyone that shows any sympathy for me. What a great staff they have at RC - NOT!

[JimDantin]

Here is a diagram of the support ribs that are cut out for the mod. Note that nothing is done to the top half of the lid other than the holes for the fans. Until you cut the fan and bulb openings, there is no visible change to the lid.

 

 

Hope this helps.