BSDaemon's Red Sea Max 250

[IPv6Freely]

So, back into the hobby!

 

I was looking for a Red Sea Max 130D, and Google brought me here, where one of your members, uxdesigner, had his RSM 250 up for sale. Included the tank, stand, and LED retrofit lighting. I snatched that up as soon as I could.

 

We got the tank in the house, got it cleaned up, rinsed through twice and was ready to go.

 

My wife and I hit Aquatica, since it's right near us. Dave helped us get set up. We got 65lbs of his fantastic cured liverock, 40lbs of substrate, and approx 50 gallons of pre-mixed saltwater. (Turns out, that was the EXACT amount of water we needed. Once the pumps went on, 10x 5g jugs of water filled the tank right up to the rim!) We had to make two trips for the water, and our second trip was right before they closed up for the night. We're very grateful he was so helpful, despite how late it was!

 

We haven't decided on livestock yet, but we have some cycle time to mull it over. So I guess without further adieu... PICS!

 

Tank once filled up, still too cloudy to aquascape:

 

FTS once aquascaped. We have a couple nice caves for livestock to hide

[Pippin]

Very cool! Have any stocking plans this early in the game?

[IPv6Freely]

A better shot now that the water has cleared and the lights are on:

 

I've been testing the water daily, and not surprising (since I bought fully cured liverock and pre-mixed saltwater from Aquatica), the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are all 0. The only concerning thing is the pH appears to be a bit low. Since everything else seems good, perhaps just some buffer and I'll be good to go.

 

I've been thinking hard about the cleanup crew. I've never had a tank this big so I'm a bit unsure of what to put in. This is my idea so far:

 

10x Blue Leg Hermits

10x Red Leg Hermits

1x Electric Blue Knuckle Hermit (for the heck of it)

15x Astrea Snails

3x Ninja Star Snails

5x Nassarius Snails

5x Tonga Nassarius Snail

 

I want a blood shrimp, but will probably wait until the cleanup crew has had time to settle.

 

Thoughts?

 

EDIT: lights just came on. Looks like theres a nice coating of brown algae covering pretty much all the rock and some of the substrate.. time for the CUC?

[mpsti05]

Looks great! And nice pick up! How long has the tank been runnin for? I waited about a month before I added a clean up crew once all tests came back good after that added a pair of clowns.

[IPv6Freely]

Looks great! And nice pick up! How long has the tank been runnin for? I waited about a month before I added a clean up crew once all tests came back good after that added a pair of clowns.

 

It's been a few days. Normally I'd let it go for a few weeks at minimum, but in this case I actually bought fully cured rock as well as pre-mixed saltwater both from Aquatica (in San Marcos, CA). My tank levels all look pretty good, zero ammonia. He said I probably won't see much of a cycle, if at all, because of it.

[Spirofucci]

That was a nice score on that 250! Nice scape as well!