Red Sea Max Nano new set p

[rocksanchez]

Hey Nano Reefers,

 

After many many months of lurking and admiring I finally decided to jump on the SW boat and get myself a nano aio, went with the Red Sea Max Nano with the new ReefLED 50 they now ship with and I couldn't be happier with it. I have kept FW successfully in the past so I have a few things knocking around that I can reuse, most importantly my RO system. 

 

Whats the best way to set this bad boy up. I bought a bunch of dry rock from my LFS, they told my just rinse and dump in the tank since its a new setup but after doing some research I have seen lots of people struggle with high PO4 levels leaching from the rock. The advice to avoid this from another LFS was to give it a good rinse in RODI water then dump into heated salt water with a powerhead or pump for flow. I spent my time aquascaping 

 

Since I'm not in a huge rush to start adding livestock and would much prefer to get the fundamentals of the tank correct than fight things further down the line. I decided to dump the rock into RODI to give it a good clean, lots of it crumbled away and left the water looking like milk, glad I didn't dump it straight into the tank! It did leave me with some very nice porous rock though 🙂. I gave it a few more rinses until the water was clear then put it all into a new bucket with saltwater, heater and pump as recommended by the LFS. Seeing as there is nothing dead on this rock I don't expect to see any die off doing this but potentially some PO4 leaching, I only have API test kits at the moment and have read the PO4 test's may as well be thrown in the bin.

 

What do I do with my rock right now? Should I leave it in the salt water until I can guarantee there is no PO4 leaching. I did test PO4 with the API kit but the colours are hard to match it seemed to read either 0 or 0.25. Whats the best test kit to use?

 

I'd like to at least get the tank wet as quickly as possible, I know the cycle with dry rock can take a very long time so want to at least get it started if I can. Because of the lack of a large container to mix my SW in for the initial fill I want to mix the salt in the tank to begin with, water change mix will be done in a 5 gallon bucket. 

 

So here is my plan:

 

1. Fill tank empty tank with RODI and salt and mix to the correct salinity turn on pump and heater and leave it to mix (How long can I leave this before I adding my rock?) 

2. Since my rock was dry I know the scape I want so getting the rock into the tank will be a breeze (I have thought about displacement)

3. Add my sand (Ocean Direct live sand)

4. Dose with Dr Tims one and only and ammonia chloride until cycle is complete. (I have not ordered this yet, waiting to see if there are any other methods first. If I did fill the tank with just SW rock and sand today for example, am I OK to leave it until the Dr Tims or alternative arrives, it'll take about 3 days to get to me)

5. Profit....

 

Am I missing anything? Or are there any other suggestions you pros can give me?

 

Thank you all in advance, once I have my plan of action confirmed I'll be starting a build thread for sure!

 

[WV Reefer]

8 minutes ago, rocksanchez said:

Hey Nano Reefers,

 

After many many months of lurking and admiring I finally decided to jump on the SW boat and get myself a nano aio, went with the Red Sea Max Nano with the new ReefLED 50 they now ship with and I couldn't be happier with it. I have kept FW successfully in the past so I have a few things knocking around that I can reuse, most importantly my RO system. 

 

Whats the best way to set this bad boy up. I bought a bunch of dry rock from my LFS, they told my just rinse and dump in the tank since its a new setup but after doing some research I have seen lots of people struggle with high PO4 levels leaching from the rock. The advice to avoid this from another LFS was to give it a good rinse in RODI water then dump into heated salt water with a powerhead or pump for flow. I spent my time aquascaping 

 

Since I'm not in a huge rush to start adding livestock and would much prefer to get the fundamentals of the tank correct than fight things further down the line. I decided to dump the rock into RODI to give it a good clean, lots of it crumbled away and left the water looking like milk, glad I didn't dump it straight into the tank! It did leave me with some very nice porous rock though 🙂. I gave it a few more rinses until the water was clear then put it all into a new bucket with saltwater, heater and pump as recommended by the LFS. Seeing as there is nothing dead on this rock I don't expect to see any die off doing this but potentially some PO4 leaching, I only have API test kits at the moment and have read the PO4 test's may as well be thrown in the bin.

 

What do I do with my rock right now? Should I leave it in the salt water until I can guarantee there is no PO4 leaching. I did test PO4 with the API kit but the colours are hard to match it seemed to read either 0 or 0.25. Whats the best test kit to use?

 

I'd like to at least get the tank wet as quickly as possible, I know the cycle with dry rock can take a very long time so want to at least get it started if I can. Because of the lack of a large container to mix my SW in for the initial fill I want to mix the salt in the tank to begin with, water change mix will be done in a 5 gallon bucket. 

 

So here is my plan:

 

1. Fill tank empty tank with RODI and salt and mix to the correct salinity turn on pump and heater and leave it to mix (How long can I leave this before I adding my rock?) 

2. Since my rock was dry I know the scape I want so getting the rock into the tank will be a breeze (I have thought about displacement)

3. Add my sand (Ocean Direct live sand)

4. Dose with Dr Tims one and only and ammonia chloride until cycle is complete. (I have not ordered this yet, waiting to see if there are any other methods first. If I did fill the tank with just SW rock and sand today for example, am I OK to leave it until the Dr Tims or alternative arrives, it'll take about 3 days to get to me)

5. Profit....

 

Am I missing anything? Or are there any other suggestions you pros can give me?

 

Thank you all in advance, once I have my plan of action confirmed I'll be starting a build thread for sure!

 

Welcome to NR! 😀

 

seems like you have a solid plan so far. How long you cure the rocks is up to you really. I used dry rocks in both my tanks and have had no algae issues. Just go slow. 😊

[thedon986]

Do you know what kind of rock it is? Dry rock that was once live? Dry rock sources inland from quarries like Marco Rocks/BRS Reef Saver?

 

The steps look okay to me and while you wait for ammonia just feed some fish food to help get ammonia going. You can also order some Dr Tim’s One and Only to help get some nitrifying bacteria established. In the future definitely don’t mix SW in the tank, but I started my first tank the same way you are, water first, then sand and rocks. All turned out okay. 

[krisjoseph]

1 hour ago, rocksanchez said:

 

So here is my plan:

 

1. Fill tank empty tank with RODI and salt and mix to the correct salinity turn on pump and heater and leave it to mix (How long can I leave this before I adding my rock?) 

2. Since my rock was dry I know the scape I want so getting the rock into the tank will be a breeze (I have thought about displacement)

3. Add my sand (Ocean Direct live sand)

4. Dose with Dr Tims one and only and ammonia chloride until cycle is complete. (I have not ordered this yet, waiting to see if there are any other methods first. If I did fill the tank with just SW rock and sand today for example, am I OK to leave it until the Dr Tims or alternative arrives, it'll take about 3 days to get to me)

5. Profit....

 

Am I missing anything? Or are there any other suggestions you pros can give me?

 

My RSM is almost two months old, and it's got two clowns and a CUC; I've just started with a few zoa frags to see how they fare (and they're already wide open and proud and showing signs of growth).

 

Make sure you check your salinity after the water is at temperature. Without livestock in it, the volume of water in the RSM makes it easy to make salt adjustments... if it's too high, dump 3-4 cups of water and top with RO; if it's too low, you can add a bit of said and see the change very soon afterwards.

 

I'm really glad you got your rock rinsed well. I THOUGHT mine (I used CaribSea LifeRock) was clean but the water was still cloudy for a bit when I added it. SO You MAY still see a wee bit but it'll clear up.

 

The Dr Tim's will help. Make sure you allow for the stock skimmer to break in once you turn it on (mine was wild an unpredictable for the better part of a week), and I bet you'll learn to hate the auto top off that comes with it in VERY short order (is it really an auto top off if you have to top off the auto top off every day?)

 

Compared to my other tanks, I did notice that the cycle on the RSM was longer. I added Biomax rings to the rear chamber (wedged in under the filter sock, in a small media bag so I can get it out again if needed) to host bacteria, but I'm also trying a bare bottom on this tank and you've got sand.

 

Have fun with the RSM! I'm not much further along than you, and It's the smallest tank I've owned so far. I'm giddy at how easy it is to take care of and am very happy with how well it's been stabilizing!

[Clown79]

Cycling doesn't always take very long, it just depends on the method you choose.

 

The best way to cycle dry rock is with dosing Dr Tim's ammonia and bacteria. This is the cleanest method with dry rock cycling.

 

The other 2 methods are either using a deli shrimp or ghost feeding but both aren't as accurate and can lead to high nutrient levels. 

 

 

A good p04 test is the hanna ULR, it's worth the price.