New Red Sea Max

[SecondBreath]

Congrats and good luck with the new tank!

 

I only have about 30 pounds of sand in my tank so 40 lbs should be plenty.

Also, remember that the extra Tunze will had some heat to the tank as well as alot of flow.

[robsrsm]

Hi all, i got a rsm about 2 weeks ago and im not sure about if it has cylced.

[Irie Mon]

Hi all, i got a rsm about 2 weeks ago and im not sure about if it has cylced.

need some info... what LR and substrate did you use? Cured or uncured LR? Where are your water params? Have you seen an increase in ammonia or nitrite yet?

[robsrsm]

need some info... what LR and substrate did you use? Cured or uncured LR? Where are your water params? Have you seen an increase in ammonia or nitrite yet?

Hi, ive got 26lbs of tonga lr-30lbs of indo/pac live sand-as far as i can tell amm&rites are just showing a trace/ not zero. Ive seen my rites&rates go as far up as the color cards show/totally spiked but my amm. never moved .25 for 2 weeks now. as of 4-2-07 ph-8.3 hydrometer-1.022 rates-50/10 rites-.1 alk-1.7 amm-.25.also when i bought my rock the chick at the store told me they have had the rocks 4 about 3 weeks- should i just wait the 4 weeks 2 make sure the tank has cylced?

[SecondBreath]

Sounds like a semi-soft cycle becuase of well-cured rock, with amonia still present in your tank. Amonia should be at zero as well as your nitrites before it's over.

 

Personally I had a soft spike in amonia becuase I also had well-cured rock over two weeks before it dissapeared. I wasn't happy with a soft spike and the subsequently little work my nitrifying bacteria had to deal with and decided to kick start this with real waste in the form of an uncooked shrimp.

 

I dropped this shrimp (obtained from my grocery store who couldn't understand why I only wanted one shrimp) in my tank and happily watched my amonia spike pretty high over three days. After the third day I took what was left out of the tank and let my bacteria go to work which happened rather quick over the following week. I watched my amonia drop and then dissapear, then watched my nitrites spike and than drop while my nitrates finnaly climbed up to 40 ppm before I did a 50% water change. This dropped my nitrates down to 20 ppm. I than waited a 4-5 days before I introduced my first clown who is still swimming around happily in my tank today.

 

Just my expereince, but I like to know that my cycle and subsequent bacteria in my tank can handle a real spike in amonia if it ever came down to it vs just a little spike as you are experiencing so far. =)

 

Good luck.

[mark blevins]

Were's the new pic's?

[Irie Mon]

Is this temp fluctuation normal? My RSM at night is at about 78.4. By 2pm with lights on for several hours I reach a max of 80.2.

 

Does this mean I should set my heater higher for the night hours? Or would you look into more efficient cooling of the surface with an added fan?

 

Thanks......

[mark blevins]

That's about the same as mine, I think it's a good range. Fan would help but the only way to keep temp same would be with a chiller. I will need a chiller no matter what because temps in my house are in the 90's during summer when we are not home.

[SecondBreath]

I"ll post picks later tonight.

 

And yes, a two degree swing in temp is normal. Even with my chiller I may experince a one degree swing either way from time to time.

 

The cooling fan would be a good and cheap way to cool the tank down over the summer. I had one runnning in mine prior to getting the chiller and it dropped my tank down two whole degrees but it also dramatically increased my evap as well.

[aquamac]

I'm going to add a fan at the back, and an auto top off, in an attempt to keep temps below 80. Not sure where the house temp will have to be during the summer for that to be achieved...

[SecondBreath]

Red Sea's Development team had this to say about temp control in the stock Max...

 

"When the Max is run in an environment with a steady ambient temperature of 72 - 73 degrees F, no cooling is necessary.

 

From 74 - 77 degrees F, a cooling fan at the back will keep the aquarium below 80.

 

Above an ambient of 78 you will definitely need a chiller."

[cmoses]

Red Sea's Development team had this to say about temp control in the stock Max...

 

"When the Max is run in an environment with a steady ambient temperature of 72 - 73 degrees F, no cooling is necessary.

 

From 74 - 77 degrees F, a cooling fan at the back will keep the aquarium below 80.

 

Above an ambient of 78 you will definitely need a chiller."

 

 

What chiller is recommended for this size tank? I want to get one, but Texas summers are HOT, so I think I will need a chiller for sure if with the AC on all summer.

 

Clayton

[aquamac]

I think I'll be ok with a fan on the back of the tank. If the temp is 75 in the house, my g/f complains she's burning up.

 

Did you get your tank yet Clayton?

[Irie Mon]

Do you guys vaccum the surface of your sandbed? I have green algae growing on my sand.... Let it go or remove it?

 

Thanks....

[mark blevins]

SB, Do you think a mj1200 would work for chiller pump?

Specifications:

 

V/Hz: 120V/60Hz

Wattage: 20W

Max Flow: 295gph

Max Pumping Height: 69"

Dimensions: 3.5" L x 2" W x 3.25" H

 

Thanks!

[SecondBreath]

Irie Mon, if your tank is still cycling you will go through a few different algae blooms before things settly down. Personally, I"m a neat freak and wanted to keep these outbreaks to a minumum so I threw in a CUC of a dozen zebra hermits and a few trochus snails during my cycle. They all survived but then again hermits are pretty hardy to begin with... juts my experince so far.

 

Mark, every chiller needs a different pump and I happened to get a chiller that needed some serious flow (300 to 600 gph). I went with the Current Prime 1/15 chiller rated for 50g tanks. It was one of the nicer and surpisingly cheaper chillers on the market and to this day I'm extremely glad I went with it as it works great and is pretty quiet.

 

http://www.marineandreef.com/shoppro/chillers_current.html

 

With that said, the biggest challenge for me was finding a pump that a) meets this high flow requirement and fits in the space recomended by red sea for it.

 

the only pump I was able to find was Rio's 1400.

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=TA3144

 

This pump was still a pain to fit but I just ended up removing the intake guard which cut it's size down nearly in half and relocated the heater from the back wall to the back of the false wall. The heater is still in the same section/compartment but the plumbing for the chiller blocked my access to the heater orginally. I now have access to ithe heater becuase I moved it so that it is suctioned to the back of the false wall instead. Setting up the chiller was a bit of a pain and Red Sea could have made the back cutout a bit bigger for the piping. Better yet, they should have made this more of a groove than a cutout with the top portion of the cutout just open to the top of the tank... fiiting U shaped plastic pipes through this small cutout with only a 3-4 inches between the tank and the wall behind it was difficult.

 

My word's of wisdom would be position your tank as far away from the wall as possible if you're considering getting a chiller so that you have plenty of air flow behind the cabinet to cool the chiller itself and at the same time have plenty of room to play with the piping...

 

In the end, all of this really does pay off with a very stable temp for your tank. =)

[Irie Mon]

SecondBreath- Thanks for that... How's that nudibranch coming along? Hard to keep?

[SecondBreath]

Dissapeared afer that and never saw it again. =(

I also saw a serpent star a week ago that has also since dissapeared....

 

It's amazing what hitchhikes and survives within the rock..=)

[mark blevins]

SB, Thanks for the reply! The mj1200 is a little smaller in size but is close to min flow. I was thinking I could use my my1200 on chiller and get a different power head for the right side of my RSM? After my day lights went off last night I saw these tiny looking shrimp come out of my rock they were about 1/8" clear to white with kind of red backs???????? Any idea what they could be?

 

SB, I am looking at the same chiller as yours.

 

Thanks

[SecondBreath]

So long as the Maxi fits in that back compartment ...

 

I have a ton of these little guys in my tank and I'm pretty sure they're just different pods...good food for fish like the mandarins.

 

If they have red on thier backs I"d be a bit worried that you have mantis shrimps! I'm not an expert but if they are than you should try to kill or get these out of your tank before you put any livstock in.

[robsrsm]

So long as the Maxi fits in that back compartment ...

 

I have a ton of these little guys in my tank and I'm pretty sure they're just different pods...good food for fish like the mandarins.

 

If they have red on thier backs I"d be a bit worried that you have mantis shrimps! I'm not an expert but if they are than you should try to kill or get these out of your tank before you put any livstock in.

IS S B A REDSEAMAX rep?

[Irie Mon]

Well Just over two weeks in and with a small clean up crew / load on the skimmer the micro-bubbles have finally started to go away. Not all the way there yet, but close.

 

How often do you guys clean the black filter media in the first chamber?? Last week I removed the white sponge which would turn green after only a few days... Since then I haven't cleaned the black sponge..... Thanks..

[SecondBreath]

haha... no not a red sea rep, although I am in PR. =)

Just happen to really like the max and have received quite a bit of info from Red Sea's team as my tank has matured.

 

I clean my black filter once a week when I do a water change and it seems to be doing the trick.

 

Again, everyone has their own routine.

[Tworoads]

Hello everyone!

 

I have been reading your posts (and reefsuk) for some time. I have recently started up my rsm and im very excited. i do have a few questions though.

 

i am running into the bubble problem but i will do what i have read and report back.

 

I started my tank on sunday with about 11lbs of LR and I added about 11lbs more yesterday. should i have my skimmer on right now?

 

also, when should i start testing the water?

 

lastly, my moon lights wont come on. any suggestions?

 

thanks everyone and i have enjoyed reading your posts!

 

here goes first pic, although i changed things around last night when i added rock.

 

KE

[TrollMan]

Congrats with new RSM Tworoads!

 

Looks like you have a good start. I would turn on the skimmer at this point although you may be able to start cycling sooner without the skimmer. But it also depends on the rock you got. Is it very much 'live'? Or was it cured?

 

You can start testing the water anytime after you see the skimmer start producing gunk in the cup. I do it in Excel. That way I can it's possible to make a graph that lets you easily see when the tank has cycled. Maybe a bit anal but this is the way I like to do it.

 

I don't know about your moonlight. All you need to do is make sure a) the light master switch on the power bar is on the main lights are off and c) the little switch by the timer is set to "I".

 

Looks like you got some nice rocks by the way.

 

Good luck!

 

My RSM is now just 8 days old. Everything is going well and I don't seem to have a bubble problem. I do have a heat problem though... currently temp is at 29.9 celcius and this is a Norwegian spring which is very cool.

 

I just ordered a fan today for the back wall of the tank. That should help somewhat.

 

The heater is controlled by an Aquatronica computer. The fan will also be controlled by the Aquatronica is as soon as I get it. The built-in timer is no good on my RSM. They offered me a new hood which I will take but the lights will from now on also be controlled by the computer.

 

Here are a couple of pics of the tank that I took at 6 days old. I have not finished aquascaping yet and have just laid the Live Rock out flat so I can study it before piling. That way I can pile smarter - or at least so I hope!