New Red Sea Max

[SecondBreath]

Sand isn't as clean as it looks in the pics but it's not bad.

I have alot of flow and no real dead spots and a small sand sifting star with 8 nassarius snails to clean up after my fish.

 

I need to post some new pics but I also just recently added a blue-spotted jawfish that digs new burrows every day. If you really want your sand sifted then I'd recomend getting one...=)

 

Dallas, sorry to hear about your issues... I haven't heard of overheating issues with the MAX so I have to assume either your fans aren't working or your ambient romm temps are higher than norm. What temps are you experiencing?

 

The tiny white specks could just be pods or bubbles? I'm not familiar with any bacteria that looks like that.

 

The skimmer will only collect junk if you have alot junk in the tank....

If you took rock and water from your freind's tank than I'm assuming your water is pretty clean right now so I wouldn't expect your skimmer to produce anything.

[MAXreefer]

This is completely off subject, but it appears you have had a Red Sea Max for awhile and have already gone though the whole process of getting your tank up and running. My Max has been running for 3 weeks now and I’ve run into multiple issues: over heating, micro bubbles, and so on. I’ve already replaced the skimmer pump inlet, per Rea Seas direction, to fix the micro bubbles and cycled the tank with 20 lbs of established live rock and water from a friend’s tank. Everything was going well for awhile but now I’ve got what appears to be some type of bacteria bloom, white specks everywhere. I did a 15 to 20 percent water change and tested all my levels (NH3, Nitrite, and Nitrate) and everything looks fine. The water in the skimmer chamber looks like it stagnant with a film and bubbles resting on top; perhaps the skimmer pump is not working properly? Did you run into this?

 

Hi Dallas,

I own a RSM for about 4 1/2 months now. Had some minor issues also with the bubbles but that is solved. Are you still having bubbles?

Overheating: The RSM (and many other Nano's) has because of his looks a closed cover and the heat caused by the pumps and lamps can't escape as much as it does with tanks which have the lights hanging over the tank. I don't think your tank is overheating unles the ventilators are not working properly. When I started in February I had no heat issues at all until now where it gets really warm outside and the room temperature gets higher here. But once again this is not just a RSM issue. To keep the water at a constant level I added last week a chiller and now everything is under control here no matter how hot it gets in the room. What might help also is to open the first part of the light cover so you get some more ventilation in there.

I had quite some white spots also on the glass. I posted a thread about that here and I got many responses. It appeared to be "pods" which are not bad at all. They appear a lot in tanks with good water quality. Since I added a couple fish they are almost gone as I guess some fish are eating them.

Skimmer: I agree completely with SecondBreath. If your water is clean and you don't feed a lot or nothing at the moment your skimmer has not much work to do and won't produce any junk at all. He will just produce nice white bubbles caused by the stream in your skimmer.

 

Michael

 

My RSM as of today

[aquamac]

The RSM shouldn't overheat unless the ambient temp is too high.

 

I'm curious how people are fixing the skimmer bubble issue...everyone says they had bubbles, and everyone says they are now gone...but no one says what they did to fix the problem.

[MAXreefer]

The RSM shouldn't overheat unless the ambient temp is too high.

 

I'm curious how people are fixing the skimmer bubble issue...everyone says they had bubbles, and everyone says they are now gone...but no one says what they did to fix the problem.

 

Hi Aquamac,

 

My RSM is now running for about 4 1/2 months and in the beginning I was freaking out a little also because of the airbubbles returning in the tank.

It drove me crazy actually.

I spent hours browsing through all the posts here and followed all the suggestions I found.

I found out that some solutions may work for one but not for the other. You will have to try them out and see what works.

What definetly will help is removing the white filter pad in the first chamber. Cut also the black foam in half and put it back in just under the intake grill from the first chamber. This will improve the water flow.

I came up with a solution that works for me and have no bubbles anymore at all:

I can't take a pic from my 'construction" at this moment but here is one with the parts I used.

I am not a handyman here at all so forgive me if it doesn't look very professional. Even if my instructions may sound weird or complicated it is very easy to do.

What I did:

I took the intake valve from the skimmer (part 1) with me to the hardware store. That is the one that is attached at the bottom of the skimmer pump and sticks under the skimmer. I looked for a piece of plastic tubing (about 3 inches long) that fits IN the outlet (part 1) . I guess using one that goes OVER the outlet (part 1) is fine also. The I got the valve (part 3) that fits into the tubing (part 2).

At home I closed the valve (3) about a quarter of the way and attached it to the tubing (2). Then sticked 2 in the pump intake (1).

Place the skimmer gently back into the water and turn ONE pwerhead on. Let it run for 30 minutes so the system can settle. Then turn on your skimmer. Adjust the air flow from your skimmer so that you get a nice stream of rising bubbles in the skimmer.

I had that running for a while and then turn the second powerhead on.

In the beginning you still might see some bubbles but they dissapeared after a short time.

As I mentioned before I opened the valve completely after a couple weeks and still no bubbles. Guess the skimmer needed time to "kick in"

 

 

It worked for me and I hope it will for you also

Michael

[aquamac]

OK so you are restricting the pump intake until the skimmer is 'broken in' so to speak. I'll have to give that a shot.

 

This will come in handy, as my second RSM arrived yesterday.

[MAXreefer]

OK so you are restricting the pump intake until the skimmer is 'broken in' so to speak. I'll have to give that a shot.

 

This will come in handy, as my second RSM arrived yesterday.

 

Now I am jealous. your SECOND RSM !!!!

 

Let me try to explain how I came to this idea:

I followed all the sugestions I found (cutting back the foam, removing the white sponge etc.) to improve the flow. Now I had a nice flow and even when the skimmer was running both powerheads were under the water level so they couldn't soak any air what might have caused the bubbles. Now I had a closed system and just couldn't figure out what could pull air in the system. I noticed some air bubbles in the first chamber also. My guess was that the bottom intake pump of the skimmer which pulls in the water was soaking also some air back out of the skimmer that came from the top intake which pushes water and air in the skimmer. By restricting the bottom intake a little I was avoiding this.

It works great for me as I have no bubbles at all anymore. Red Sea knows about my modification and somebody from RedSea told me that this sounds a good idea and they are looking into it.

Really hope this will work for you Aquamac.

btw... Any pics from your tank?

Michael

[aquamac]

I'll try your skimmer trick and post a report. Thanks for the tip!

 

Here is a link to my original RSM thread with a video of the tank:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=1129347

[bbleifus]

This is completely off subject, but it appears you have had a Red Sea Max for awhile and have already gone though the whole process of getting your tank up and running. My Max has been running for 3 weeks now and I’ve run into multiple issues: over heating, micro bubbles, and so on. I’ve already replaced the skimmer pump inlet, per Rea Seas direction, to fix the micro bubbles and cycled the tank with 20 lbs of established live rock and water from a friend’s tank. Everything was going well for awhile but now I’ve got what appears to be some type of bacteria bloom, white specks everywhere. I did a 15 to 20 percent water change and tested all my levels (NH3, Nitrite, and Nitrate) and everything looks fine. The water in the skimmer chamber looks like it stagnant with a film and bubbles resting on top; perhaps the skimmer pump is not working properly? Did you run into this?

I do not know, but it might not have been a good idea to use your friends water. If it was a new tank why not start fresh and do a complete fresh cycle. You might be a little short on LR also.

[shramj]

I too had issues with small bubbles, I still get them time to time but overall I got them tuned way down. I think the bag the carbon is in was being sucked up by the powerheads. I took two ziptie's and put them around the carbon bag. This seemed to have prevented the loose bag material from getting sucked into the powerhead. It seemed to have helped and was really easy to do. It's at least something else for you to try if you are getting the small bubbles.

[Irie Mon]

As for the bubble issue.... I still get them occasionally and I am over two months into it now.

 

What really shocked me is that I went out of town for three and a half weeks straight, just had someone feed the three fish I have in it, that's all nothing else. When I got home I was shocked. The tank had never looked so good (not counting the algae on the walls).

 

There were ZERO micro bubbles, nothing at all. I mean ZERO. I then cleaned the walls and did a water change, cleaned the sponges etc and the bubbles came right back.

 

From what I've seen the more you leave it alone the less bubbles and the happier the system is. Everytime I screw with a filtration sponge I get almost a day worth of noticeable bubbles. So keep in mind every change you make to the filtration MAY actually take a day or two to show if it really is beneficial.

 

Right now I have half the black filtration sponge in the first chamber and half the sponge just after the skimmer in the skimmer chamber to catch any microbubbles coming out of the skimmer housing.

 

May help, may not, just my experience.

[aquamac]

Well I've added an intake restriction to the skimmer pump. I presume that the skimmer must be coated with a decent amount of protein before the bubbles are reduced.

 

Although I really like the RSM and I'm not unhappy with my purchases (I own two now), I'm surprised the engineers didn't address this issue before releasing the tank for sale...one of the strong points of an all in one, is that you can just set it up and not have to mess with plumbing, sumps, etc. I got tired of messing with that stuff on other tanks which is why I went with the Max in the first place...

 

This bubble issue is a PITA.

[Irie Mon]

Well I've added an intake restriction to the skimmer pump. I presume that the skimmer must be coated with a decent amount of protein before the bubbles are reduced.

 

Although I really like the RSM and I'm not unhappy with my purchases (I own two now), I'm surprised the engineers didn't address this issue before releasing the tank for sale...one of the strong points of an all in one, is that you can just set it up and not have to mess with plumbing, sumps, etc. I got tired of messing with that stuff on other tanks which is why I went with the Max in the first place...

 

This bubble issue is a PITA.

An intake restriction to the skimmer pump? How would that reduce microbubbles to the display? I'm missing something...

[aquamac]

Scroll up to this post.

[robsrsm]

Hi all, I've had the rsm since mar.14th. I've had some troubles my self---2 hoods (1 for moon lights-1 for timer problems) also i had the micro bubbles-and fan problems-----u name it, but with the help of pinky(a tech at redsea) the tank works like a champ. Now with the bubbles (my tank came with the black ring, so u need 2 make sure u have the blue ring on the skimmer outlet). Now the heat problem(all i did was buy the extra fan, $7 for the fan $16 for the adjustable connector--the tank now runs at 78 degrees and i live in tex. with the a/c @75 degrees).Also after the tank cylcled i began to remove items-1st the carbon,then the bag of white crap, then the white filter, then i cut the black filter in forths---put 1 infront and 1 behind the skimmer(held on 2 the other 2 forths),now i run just 1 of the forths of the black filter infront of the skimmer(cleaning them and rotating them out every water change). K now i have 30lbs of indo/pac sand 24lbs of Lr. a cuc of (4- tubro, 6-marg. 6 nass, 4 cerith, 1 tourchid all snails--lol,5 scarlet,2 red, 3blue crabs, 1 fighting conch, 1 sun cup, 1 open brain, 1 zoo-polyp, 1 meat coral, 2 percs, and 2 purple fire fish------tanks been super clear for 3wks now, dumpping skimmer cup twice a week. Hope this helps y'all

[shramj]

Robsrsm, so you aren't using the Carbon and Bio filter at all then? I was thinking of dumping them also and get a bag of live rock pieces to use in place.

[aquamac]

I don't use any filter material either except for half of the black sponge and some polyester filter floss that is replaced about once a week.

[SecondBreath]

So where are everyone's photos? I had thought to see more by now?

 

Here's my new Jawfish and some type of red macro growing next to my elephant skin. Anyone know what it is?

 

 

Also, here's a new pic of the tank setup after my move to my new place. As you can see I moved the chiller outside of the stand becuase it was getting way to hot and I feared it'd burn itself out. I've heard that Red Sea is working on a cooling solution for the stand but to be honest I'd recomend just leaving it outside as it perfroms 100% better and faster.

 

[aquamac]

Nice tank, SB!

 

Here's a video of my new setup:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=1176261

[Mike Savage]

You both have nice tanks!

 

Mike

[Reefmack]

The skimmer mod is interesting, but I'm not sure if it's the answer to my problem, and a few other RSM owners I've been in contact with? I've had the microbubbles under control for a while now (into month 3 of my RSM), and I'm down to only 1 inch of black sponge in the first skimmer compartment. It seems like no matter what I do, I cannot get consistent performance from the skimmer. I'll fiddle with it and get some foam generation that goes over the neck, and then it just stops till I fiddle with it again. I get a lot of gunk that should be going up & over the neck, but instead gets deposited on the sides of the neck, or at the top of the main skimmer chamber below the cup attachment. I've seen several posts on various skimmers that state that the chemical nature of the deposit of gunk will itself break down the foam and impair foam output into the cup.

 

I've tried increasing the tank level to the rim, but that just negatively affects surface skimming. Decreasing the tank level obviusly shows no improvement. I've cut back air flow, and that seemed to help for a bit, but then later the same day had to open the air flow just about fully to see any stable bubbles at the top of the skimmer. There is certainly enough air going up through the skimmer - the water's almost white on the left side of the skimmer. I just rarely get enough of a stable foam generated so that it goes over the neck into the cup.

 

I've seen some mods on other prisms that involved wrapping some fishing line around the skimmer pump impeller blades, or stitching on a very thin piece of stiff scubber stuff like you find one side of those 2-sided kitchen sponges. The mods appear to create a much finer bubble than the stock impeller does, which results in a more stable foam & much better skimmer output.

 

I should have enough bio-load to be having more skimmate than I get - 50 lbs. cured LR, 2" sand bed, 2 small clowns, 2 small cardinals, a diadema dottyback, algae blenny & a Diamond goby (plus corals, snails, shrimp, hermits, sea hare). I rarely get more than 1/8 inch of skimmate over several days, and as I said what should be going out with skimmate is instead being deposited in the skimmer neck & top of the skimmer chamber. It would be a lot less hassle to be able to dump skimmate, instead of having to frequently scrape deposits off the neck and having to pull the whole skimmer out to clean deposits out of the top of the chamber.

 

You may have seen my other recent post about placing my Chemi-Pure in the chiller compartment, but while that might be affecting skimmer flow, I've had this poor skimmer performance long before that. I'm planning on pulling out my 2 month old carbon (probably pretty fouled up by now) and possibly replacing the RSM media witH LR rubble this weekend so maybe that will increase overall flow, but I've had the poor skimmer output from day one.

 

Any ideas?

[shramj]

SecondBreath, the tank looks awesome, I still am waiting for you to post a night picture with your new lights on so I can see how that light mod looks. I am a little disappointed that you had to pull your chiller from the stand. I too have a chiller in mine and it does get hot in there if the door is closed, I just put two little fans in there but it still runs warm. I will try getting a big fan to use in there to see if that helps. I really don't want to have to put my chiller on the outside of the stand. I will add some new pics of my tank this weekend, I am going to a frag party so hopefully I will have some corals to show everyone.

[SecondBreath]

SecondBreath, the tank looks awesome, I still am waiting for you to post a night picture with your new lights on so I can see how that light mod looks. I am a little disappointed that you had to pull your chiller from the stand. I too have a chiller in mine and it does get hot in there if the door is closed, I just put two little fans in there but it still runs warm. I will try getting a big fan to use in there to see if that helps. I really don't want to have to put my chiller on the outside of the stand. I will add some new pics of my tank this weekend, I am going to a frag party so hopefully I will have some corals to show everyone.

 

Didn't know you wanted a shot of my night lights but I'll take a few and see if they come out.

 

As for the chiller in the stand, Red Sea has noted that this is a concern and is working on something but I imagine it will be something like you've already done with the fans. Although I can't stress how much faster and how many fewer times the chiller needs to work when it's outside of the stand altogther.

[shramj]

Didn't know you wanted a shot of my night lights but I'll take a few and see if they come out.

 

I actually want to see your MH light mod, not the night lights. A shot of the tank with the lights on but no other light on in the room, so I can see how the MH lights look.

[mburgeles]

Hi Max Reefer:

Your tank looks great! I am just getting mine up and running and installed the same chiller today. What about the heat in the stand? Did you install an exhaust fan? what temperature are you running at? Again, your tank looks great!

Michael

[MAXreefer]

Hi Max Reefer:

Your tank looks great! I am just getting mine up and running and installed the same chiller today. What about the heat in the stand? Did you install an exhaust fan? what temperature are you running at? Again, your tank looks great!

Michael

 

HI Michael,

thanks for the compliment.

I have my chiller in the stand without an extra fan but if you look at the previous page you will see a picture posted by SecondBreath who has his nicely placed next to it.

So far I had no heat problems at all. I guess it all depends on your room temperature. We have also some A/C running in the house and the chiller so far seems only to run once an hour for about 5-7 minutes. I have to say I keep the door open for about an inch or so and a little more during the night.

If it gets really hot in the room your chiller will run more frequently I definitely would go for SecondBreath's solution.

Did you go for the internal or external pump solution?

I have set the chiller to 80 degrees which seems to give a water temperature in the tank between 79.5 and 79.8. Don't forget to use the nice extra feature of the chiller and plug in your heater (set him to the same temperature as the chiller) in the extra outlet. This way you will have a constant temp. level in your RSM.

 

Michael

 

Just replaced a couple days my Seio powerhead (no complaints at all about this one but was quite big) with a Koralia #2. This one takes up less space and gives a nicer wide spreaded flow. The corals and fishies love it.

Looks way better IMO: