Claire's Secondhand RSM 250

clairebear

Active Member
Hi there! :hallo:

So this is my first post on this awesome forum. I have been reading through the RSM threads for weeks now, and I should say it has been very helpful and has really inspired me. I decided a few months ago I really wanted a saltwater tank, and I have been researching and saving since then.

So I am picking up my first marine tank in a couple of days! It is a second-hand RSM 250, has been running for about 18 months. It has about 50kg of live rock, 9 fish! some inverts including a red line shrimp and a blue starfish and a couple of corals and an anemone. So you could say I'm jumping in the deep end! Time will tell if this was a good idea I guess. Tank also comes with a hailea chiller 250, red sea test kits, RO/DI filter. An extra powerhead, but I'm not sure what kind.

The fish are: 1 Yellow Tang; 1 Dwarf Flame Angel; 1 Bi Colour Blenny; 1 Fire Goby; 1 Dragon Goby (? not sure about this one); 1 Cardinal; 2 Clown Fish; 1 Royal Gamma

It also has some Green Hair Algae, phosphates are a bit high and I think the bulbs need replacing. Any tips for dealing with this? It will be a big water change when the tank is moved, would it be best to monitor the phosphates afterward and act after that? Would you remove the rocks with the algae on?
I am also wanting to replace the coral rubble with sand. I will wash this in RO/DI water first, should changing the substrate be ok? The coral rubble looks pretty dirty, I wasn't too keen on stirring that up and putting it back into the tank. Also, I just want sand.

Oh and the other thing is I am paying a aquarium removalist to pack it all up and move it for me, so hopefully everything survives the move, especially the tank!

Any thoughts/advice anyone has on any of this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Hi Claire :wave:
:welcomera to Reef Sanctuary...Glad you found your way here :)
This is an AWESOME hobby & I think You will L:heart:VE the RSM 250.
Best thing you've decided on so far is ditching the crushed coral & replacing it with SAND.
I hope your tank "mover" does a good job for you. YEP, you are certainly jumping in on the DEEP end.
Stay tuned in here, there's lots of friendly advice from "been there & done that" people.
Start a RSM Club Forum thread so we can follow along.
BEST WISHES for Your FISHES :biker

(Yay, this is your tread already started...awesome step ahead of my post LOL!! Good deal!)
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary and the RSM Club, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members
745.gif


Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:

Congrats on the new RSM 250 & best of luck on the move ! I think replacing the crushed coral with a good aragonite sand is a good idea, normally you want to do this over a period of time like 1/3 at a time, but if you are breaking down the tank to move it, I think I would go for changing it out. Just be ready to do some testing & frequent water changes as needed, maybe even 2 or 3 the 1st week if needed. I would also get some purigen & cpe (or similar depending on what you can get down under :) )

Love snails for cuc & they will get after the hair algae, let the tank stabilize after the move (hopefully you have plenty of cured LR) for a couple weeks & beef up your snails, to like one per gallon. Hope this helps !

Feel free to ask any questions you have, the great members of RS, will help you have sw success !
 

DaddyTLi

Active Member
Hi there! :hallo:

So this is my first post on this awesome forum. I have been reading through the RSM threads for weeks now, and I should say it has been very helpful and has really inspired me. I decided a few months ago I really wanted a saltwater tank, and I have been researching and saving since then.

So I am picking up my first marine tank in a couple of days! It is a second-hand RSM 250, has been running for about 18 months. It has about 50kg of live rock, 9 fish! some inverts including a red line shrimp and a blue starfish and a couple of corals and an anemone. So you could say I'm jumping in the deep end! Time will tell if this was a good idea I guess. Tank also comes with a hailea chiller 250, red sea test kits, RO/DI filter. An extra powerhead, but I'm not sure what kind.

The fish are: 1 Yellow Tang; 1 Dwarf Flame Angel; 1 Bi Colour Blenny; 1 Fire Goby; 1 Dragon Goby (? not sure about this one); 1 Cardinal; 2 Clown Fish; 1 Royal Gamma

It also has some Green Hair Algae, phosphates are a bit high and I think the bulbs need replacing. Any tips for dealing with this? It will be a big water change when the tank is moved, would it be best to monitor the phosphates afterward and act after that? Would you remove the rocks with the algae on?
I am also wanting to replace the coral rubble with sand. I will wash this in RO/DI water first, should changing the substrate be ok? The coral rubble looks pretty dirty, I wasn't too keen on stirring that up and putting it back into the tank. Also, I just want sand.

Oh and the other thing is I am paying a aquarium removalist to pack it all up and move it for me, so hopefully everything survives the move, especially the tank!

Any thoughts/advice anyone has on any of this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome!! and congratz on the "new" tank. Don't change too much water at one time. 10% at a time. Are there a lot of coral rubbles? I was wondering how you will remove them and add sand without disturbing the livestock too much. Is ok to change substrate, but you need room to move things around and it get's messy (cloud up) putting sand in. Do you have a refugium to move the livestock?

I have rubbles on top of my sand as decoration and acts as mini live rock. If it is "dirty", I would just let my pump blow the "dirt" off and let the filter take care of it.

As far as phosphates, is it local water that has high Phosphate level? You can invest in GFO media reactor to lower the phosphate. or a quick easy way to lower 1 or 2 notch is to use pad. I'm just switching over to media reactor today. That will help on some of the algae growth. Another is to not have the light on too long. I keep my light on for 8 hours.

Do you have CUC? I did not see that on your list.

I hope you can post some pictures soon.

Tom
 

clairebear

Active Member
Thanks for the warm welcome!

I think replacing the crushed coral with a good aragonite sand is a good idea, normally you want to do this over a period of time like 1/3 at a time, but if you are breaking down the tank to move it, I think I would go for changing it out. Just be ready to do some testing & frequent water changes as needed, maybe even 2 or 3 the 1st week if needed. I would also get some purigen & cpe (or similar depending on what you can get down under :) )

Will this be to watch out for and deal with an ammonia spike, or are there other things I should watch out for too? Phosphates from the new sand?
Thanks for the advice!
Welcome!! and congratz on the "new" tank. Don't change too much water at one time. 10% at a time. Are there a lot of coral rubbles? I was wondering how you will remove them and add sand without disturbing the livestock too much. Is ok to change substrate, but you need room to move things around and it get's messy (cloud up) putting sand in. Do you have a refugium to move the livestock?

I was going to put the sand in once the tank gets to my place, before the water and fish and rock go back in. Should that be ok?

As far as phosphates, is it local water that has high Phosphate level? You can invest in GFO media reactor to lower the phosphate. or a quick easy way to lower 1 or 2 notch is to use pad.

I think water changes up until now have been with sea water, so I'm not sure why the phosphate is high. I know there is carbon running in a filter sock, but (assuming everything goes according to plan) I want to get my hands on an inTank media rack, and maybe even get some chaeto in there too. What kind of pad would you recommend?

Do you have CUC? I did not see that on your list.
There is a CUC... There are some snails, not sure how many or what kinds. I will have to figure that out when it gets to my place I guess and top up the CUC as needed.

Thanks again for the replies, I'm sure to have lots more questions after the move.
 

DaddyTLi

Active Member
I was going to put the sand in once the tank gets to my place, before the water and fish and rock go back in. Should that be ok?
Yes, that should be ok. Are you keeping all most of the original tank water during the move? You don't want too much change for the fishes in the new tank.
What kind of pad would you recommend?
You can search for Prosphate Reducing Media Pad. I think only a few company makes them. I purchased my first pad from LFS.

Tom
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Hi Claire :wave: just checking in to see if your tank is moved yet. I use one 100ml bag of Purigen in my RSM 250.
I look forward to seeing your set up but you'll need to post your 5th post before you can share pictures. Let us know how it's going and ask more questions if you need to.
 

clairebear

Active Member
Just finished the move! The tank is pretty cloudy at the moment, so I can only see how a few fish are doing (the ones that have come to say hello). The flame angel was not going too well in the bag, but unfortunately can't see her at the moment. We kept most of the water in the end, replaced about 40 litres. Does anyone know how long I should before feeding? Also, one of the anemones is a bit bleached. Before the move it was under some shade to protect it, but now it has ended up on a low rock with no shade. Should I move it or let it sort itself out?

Off to read the RSM skimmer threads now :)

Thanks for checking in
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
I would let the nem sort it's self, he will get up & move to his happy place. I think you could lightly start feeding whenever, just keep watch on the ammonia & be prepared to deal with it should the need arise.
 

clairebear

Active Member
I would let the nem sort it's self, he will get up & move to his happy place. I think you could lightly start feeding whenever, just keep watch on the ammonia & be prepared to deal with it should the need arise.

Thanks for that Glen. I have just tested the ammonia for the second time (it is morning here now) and it is still zero, so that's good. All of the fish food defrosted in the move, so I am going to go buy some more, thinking i will just squirt in a little bit at a time and watch them eat. Also going to try and get some purigen and CPE although my hopes aren't high I haven't seen either in any shop, just carbon and phosguard. Still no sighting of the flame angel, but all other fish are accounted for. Strange that she reacted so badly to the move when the others didn't?

The bleached nem tried to eat the big toadstool last night (well it was sucking on it) so I shuffled the rock a bit. It inflated while it was doing that, would that just be because it thought it was going to get a meal? I will also go and get some prawns (shrimp) and see if maybe it wants a little bit. They usually get fed once a week.

One last thought. Coral feeding. In the tank there is one bubble coral, 2 toadstools, and a frogspawn and what might be a xenia. The get some reef roids every second day but that's all. Should I be adding some food specifically for these? The previous owner didn't, but he said that he never had much luck with corals. Could this be part of it?

Thanks for any input!
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Overfeeding is about the worst think you can do, the corals you listed above should be fine without specific target feeding. Don't worry about them not getting enough food, the nem will need food of course, the rest will eat what the rest of the fish get.

Read up here on this great site... about the nems special needs
karensroseanemones.net - Feeding your BTA

PS - Congrats to Adam Scott winning the Masters !
 

clairebear

Active Member
Thanks for those links Glenn, they are super helpful.

Unfortunately just found the flame angel dead, pulled her out :( at least I know it wasn't me. I would like to get another one, but I will wait and see for a while before I buy anything. I did a little feed and everyone else seemed hungry and ate, except the firefish.
 

JoeCanada11

Member
Hey Claire welcome. Have ya got any pics of the tank yet? Sorry about be flame angel. They are beautiful. But my lFS lost 2/2 on two separate occasions in shippig or shortly after.
 

clairebear

Active Member
Hey Claire welcome. Have ya got any pics of the tank yet? Sorry about be flame angel. They are beautiful. But my lFS lost 2/2 on two separate occasions in shippig or shortly after.

Thank you :) I do have pictures. And I just learned how to upload them. But they are just iPhone pics, I don't have a proper camera. And they are unedited. haha!

This one is from when we had just finished the move. Cloudy! Sorry about the reflections, I couldn't be bothered shutting the door for that picture haha.
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This is from the next day. I know the rocks are terrible, the fish moving man put them in. Will try to slowly shuffle them/remove some. Also, heaps of microbubbles. That's a problem for tomorrow though :)

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Bleached nem and OKish nem
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This is Gwen (Tang) and George Michael (Cardinal) and a lovely shot of some hair algae too
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Dragon Goby and Clowns (Ronald and It apparently - my friends have been naming them haha)
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Angus the Bi Colour Blenny in his house
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Firefish and Royal Gramma no names yets. Any suggestions on how to deal with that dirty back wall? I'm thinking algae eating fish and scraping little bits at a time?
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So that's it! Very much a work in progress, but I will be happy to get through the week without any casualties. I got my hands on Purigen today, so that is in the tank, and will order some CPE or ClearFX online soon.

Thanks everyone :D
 

Wrangy

Acropora Nut
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Looks good so far :eek:lsmile: a bit more patience and you'll have a wonderful tank up and running!

Also nice to see another Aussie around haha :wave:
 

Tokalosh

Well-Known Member
Be for you know it your tank will be looking amazing.

You have some good stuff in there, it just needs to put in the correct place.
Remember, although you have inherited a lot of your stock you should still take it SLOW.

Good Luck and looking forward to seeing how your tank progresses.

Tok
 
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