OK, so i am starting this thread a little late, the tank is about 8 months old. I will try and go back and post pictures from day one and up to this point to give some history on the tank. I absolutely love this set up, with some small mods.... Thanks to StevieT!!!

I have been having some small issues with SPS - specifically Monties - and need some advice, but we can get into that later.

I wish I would have found this forum much earlier, wow would it have helped.

PICTURES!

Like most RSM owners I started trying all stock components and experienced the MICRO BUBBLES big time. Here are some pictures from the first 3 months, this is all that I have from the "early days".

Day 1
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Month 1
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Month 2
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Month 3
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Modifications to date include the Tunze 9002 and StevieT cup and media rack, a must for the RSM! I also had to add a chiller thanks to the warm summers of sunny california. I run the chiller in the stand - have two little girls who wouldnt leave it alone.

I installed the Red Sea cabinet cooling fan to keep the stand cool, man that thing is loud...

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I like your scape. Off set to the right pretty original. It will look very nice all covered in those plants I mean corals.

You may want to dump that marron clown as it gets larger. They are can be very aggressive and need larger tanks.

The Marron is gone!!!!! Man it was a nightmare getting that fish out, I ended up taking everything out of my tank to get him. The tank has changed alot from then. I am going to post many more current pictures. how do you post pictures straight in the post?

Current livestock include:

- Coral Beauty Angel
- Target Mandarin
- Leapord Wrasse Female
- Fire shrimp
- Bristle star fish
- Arrow Crab
- and ofcourse many other cuc

go to photobucket.com

upload your pictures there

then copy the [img] code

come here, paste and enjoy

have you had any trouble with micro bubbles?

leveil22,

I had the a big problem with the micro bubbles. The main culprit was the stock skimer, that thing is junk. Replace the skimmer and buy the tunze 9002 and stevieT skimmer cup and media rack. This will greatly improve your tank for the long run. Also ditch that white filter pad and buy the filter floss (blue and white) from stevieT. After I got the media rack from stevie I only run his filter floss, purigen and chemi pure, water is crystal clear.

StevieT products can be found here
http://shop.mediabaskets.com/

Here are some more pictures of the history of the tank.

Tank 6 months photo taken at night


Tank at 8 months

One healthy well fed sun coral...

Me hungry


NOM NOM NOM

Here is the tank to date



Lobo Brain, I bought this brain close to death and it has recovered great after lots and lots of feeding...

Latest addition, Green Tip Birdsnest

very nice, cool looking GSP

Thanks Steve,

I need to re-work my rock and probably add 5lbs more, my toadstool is growing out of control and is creating so much shadow probably need to move it off to the side and frag it back. I also need to start pruining down the purple mushrooms they are popping up everywhere.

What is the best way to get the mushrooms off the rock? Cut them? Pull them? or use a blow torch?

I really don't know, it is going to be tough. you probably will have to cut them off, they are weeds so make sure you remove it all.

I really wish the stock lighting in the RSM had better actinics... I think I am going to have to try the current USA PowerBrite LED strip with the four blue LED's.

Any one have any experience with this current USA LED strip?

I Probably will just mount it directly on the stock hood... I wonder if that is too close to the water???

i think most people are adding their extra light in the front that opens up... that is where i put my led light (not the power brite).... i have heard that they are nice but create a spotlight effect.

i actually just bought a led light setup at costco and had a tv repair company put blue lights in, and it only cost 10 bucks for them to put 8 in (plus the cost of the lights)

Badfinger,
Did you cut out your front hood piece? or did you just mount it directly on it? Do you have any pictures?

So, I decided this tank doesn’t have enough actinic's with the stock lighting. So I have explored the idea of adding some Royal Blue high power LEDs. I was going to completely DIY into the front hood door, however I got a smoking deal on two strips of the powerBrite current usa LED strips - 20 bucks for both on craigslist. I installed them right onto the hood, wow do they put out a lot of intense blue light. The only problem is the "spotlight" affect. I have tested the strips by removing the optics and it completely fixes the problem. I plan to soon cut open the hood and install the strips without the lenses.

Here are some pics of the attached LEDs.




My camera sucks or its just my camera skills... But here are some actinic only pics. Notice the horrible spotlight affect. Going to be gone soon after I mod the LED strips.

I think I am starting to get a little better at taking pictures. Here are some more pictures of my new additions.

Teal Green Millipora, growing quite nicely.


Orange Montipora Digitata

WOW. that millie has some Great PE. nice pix

Yea that Milli is probably the happiest piece in my tank. It is growing really fast, and has colored up good in my tank. When I purchased it it was all brown, it has a really nice teal green color to it, my picture doesnt do any justice.

Wow, it’s been awhile time to post some new pictures. The tank has changed again, I purchased about 20lbs more live rock and completely re-scaped my rock. I really like this look better. I have also added more coral.
I think I am going to dominate the top of the tank with different millipora and digitata!!!

Latest additions include:

ORA Jeremy’s Green Monitipora
ORA Rose Millipora
Yellow Millipora
Unknown pocillopora

Tank at 10 months

Time for a photo dump...

Blue Acro Tenius, growing quite fast and coloring up really nice. It was kinda brown when I got it, not its turning nice and blue.



ORA Jeremy's Green Montipora. Just put this in and its already showing some great PE.



ORA Rose Millipora. This guy is still sitting on the frag rack, I gotta figure out how to cut these darn ORA plugs!



Uknown Pocillopora, cant wait to see what this colors up to....



Yellow Millipora, I got this from a local shop and it was almost pure white. It is starting to show some cool yellowish collors.

Nice tank! I like your Green Monti!!

Thanks jof,

I just added it to the tank, hopefully it will stay nice and happy!

More photo dump...

Green Tip Birdsnest, this guy is growing quite nicely. Im not sure I like the placement but im running out of room.


This is a green with red polyps encrusting monty that i found in a LFS, it really isnt holding its color to well. It looked much better in the LFS, hopefully it will bounce back


This is one of my favorite milli's right now, it has nice teal green polyps. I added this as a small frag not on a plug, I glued it right to the rock about 3 months ago. It has grown out alot on the rock.

More photo's

Unknown purple chalice, man these things grow slow.....


My SPS garden...

I need some advise on what to feed my SPS coral. I currently feed the LPS the norm mysis and brine, as for the SPS what should I be feeding? I have and use phyto feast very sparengly but i'm not sure if that is the right thing for the SPS.

I have researched DT phytoplankton and cyclop-eeze...

Any suggestions?

oyster feast

Whats your opinion on cyclop-eeze?

Also what about opinions on roti-feast?

cyclops is a little too large IMO, oyster feast is smaller and easier to digest not to mention is the type of food SPS actually ingest. Never used nor heard about using Roti-feast for sps.

Thanks spanky,

I will research more into oyster feast. I am always cautious when adding anything to my tank, I am always affraid of adding to much "crap"...

Does anyone have any ideas on how to cut of the ORA plugs? I didnt realize they are solid plastic!

now for my current frustrations...

I have never had any real problems with parameters until I started caring for SPS. I try real hard to keep my ca above 420, my KH around 8 and my Mg above 1300.

The real battle is the Mg, the ca and kh are pretty well accomplished with AB dosing.

I am currently dosing Mg like mad - using IONS MG - I am dosing almost 4 tsp every other day. I started at 900ppm a month ago. I got it up to 1320 about a week ago, but I feel like I have to dose constantly to keep it above 1300, is this normal?

I got a real good deal on a 64 ounce bottle of Kent Tech M solution. I guess I will have to continue to dose like mad. I will try out the Kent M before I result to Epsom Salt. I hope once I get the Mg levels up to the 1350 range, I can go into maintenance mode and just supplement a small amount weekly.

Gorgeous tank!!!!

Thanks Paul,

Are you running the stock lighting?

I want to introduce some SPS in my tank but i don´t know if the stock lighting will be enough.

I am running the stock lighting. I am having great success so far with the stock lighting. I have the following SPS which is growing nicely and showing and keeping great colors. I do keep the SPS at the very top of my tank, so they are within 4 inches from the light.

Montipora Digitata
Green tip birdsnest
Blue acropora tenuis
Acropora Millepora
Pocillopora
ORA Jeremeys Green Montipora (no one really knows the actual species)

I would suggest starting out with a digitata or a millepora. But most importantly I found that your water has to be perfect and consistant. I think water parameters in some content are more important then strong lighting.

I am glad to say my battle with low magnesium is finally over!

I was able to replace my bad Elos test kit from MarineDepot (just love the customer service), after testing with the new kit my Mg read at 1450. This is a little higher then I wanted but thats no problem, it will go down as I do water changes. Now all param's are solid... for now.

Now I think I am ready to find another fish to add to my stock. I currently have a coral beauty, a female leapard wrasse and a target manderin. I want to add one more fish, I just have no idea what to get.

Any suggestions????

Tomorrow Reefapalooza in Orange county!!!!

Hopefully I will score on some good frags for cheap!

Pictures to come...

reefapalooza had an interesting collection of venders, lots of nice stuff to look at. Couldnt help myself ended up getting six different frags... Gonna run out of room in this tank faster than I thought.

New frags include:

• Red Cap
• Purple Polyped Cap
• Purple Millipora
• Red Acans
• (2) Zoas Frags

Acan Frag


Acan Frag under my actinics


I really gotta get a new camera!

I will have to try harder to get better picks of the rest...

Started playing around with the settings on my point and shoot, getting a little better at taking shots with only the actinics on...

Acan grubbing on some mysis shrimp


Candy Cane coral


FTS 10-25-09


Been trying to get some good shots of my new monti caps, but being that they are in the back of the tank the shots come in really blurry.... REALLY WANTING AN SLR!!! but sooo much mula...

New FTS shots...

All taken on 10/28/2009

Well I think I am going to finally pull the trigger and get a VORTECH!!!

Why do they have to be so damn expensive!!! I really have been tossing this idea back and forth and everyone who has one swears by its performance. I haven’t been able to find one person that regrets getting one.

The only question I have is… Should I get the MP10 or spend the extra $100 and get the MP20???

I need your help deciding!

Your tank is still looking great!!!

Thanks jof!