Colin's RSM C-250 build

Toyotacolin

New Member
Hi everyone, my name is Colin and I just picked up a lightly used RSM C-250 last week and it's cycling now. I put in about 45 lbs live rock and about the same amount of live sand. It's been about 8 yrs since I moved out of Florida and have had a tank, a lot has changed in the hobby! I was going to keep this one stock, but decided I didn't like the heat and cost of keeping the T5s so I ordered some custom LEDs to fit in the factory hood. They came in quickly and I installed them yesterday. So far the temps dropped from 83 to 78 very quickly! Plus the control and the spectrum are awesome. Got the water tested today and so far everything looks good. I also have a little fluval spec5 which I got a few months ago, but I found out it was way too small to hold anything fun. So here are a few cell phone pix. Eventually I will take real pix with my Dslr as I am also a photographer.



My little 5g, with too much stuff in it.


 

Toyotacolin

New Member
So some massive changes happened the last week. One of my LFS was closing I got some killer good deals that couldn't be passed up. My tank had cycled and I picked up a ton of stuff from them. So here are some pix.








A picture before I moved some stuff around. It's so hard to showork off the colors! My real camera is even worse. What do you guys use to photograph your tank? I have a 6d canon.
 

Rini

Well-Known Member
Very nice! And like antics your water looks crystal clear. I have never seen it that clear in my tank.
Mine is because of the fine red sea pink sand. It is floating around. Especially when my Gobi is building mountains. I have accepted it to be honest.

Pictures we take are with iPhones 6s.

I love the crab on the picure above. He is reefsave?
 

Toyotacolin

New Member
Very nice! And like antics your water looks crystal clear. I have never seen it that clear in my tank.
Mine is because of the fine red sea pink sand. It is floating around. Especially when my Gobi is building mountains. I have accepted it to be honest.

Pictures we take are with iPhones 6s.

I love the crab on the picure above. He is reefsave?


Yes he is, its a pom-pom or a boxer crab. He is awesome, when he actually comes out and you can see him. lol
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
A few from just now, what is this odd snail trail and is this small starfish bad?


You my friend have some happy snails. The little white dots on the left are nerite snail eggs and the patterned zig zag on the right are cerith snail eggs.

The sea star looks like a Asterina. Some people keep them and other people pull them out. They are excellent detritivores. The main reason that these stars seem to get accused of as much ill as they do, is because they do reproduce like weeds. If your tank is nutrient rich enough, they can grow to plague proportions, although it is typically easy to keep in check with manual extraction.
 

rougemind666

New Member
So some massive changes happened the last week. One of my LFS was closing I got some killer good deals that couldn't be passed up. My tank had cycled and I picked up a ton of stuff from them. So here are some pix.








A picture before I moved some stuff around. It's so hard to showork off the colors! My real camera is even worse. What do you guys use to photograph your tank? I have a 6d canon.
Canon 6d is a fine camera. I would suggest buying a lens that is 1.8f stop so you can take better low light shots. You can pick up a 50mm 1.8 for less than $100 and it will let u take brilliant shots with that lens

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk
 

Adrienne

Well-Known Member
I was interested to see what feedback you received on the asterina. I have two in my C-250 tank, 18 months ago there was one :) I'm leaving them there as I like my tank to replicate nature as much as possible and if they get to plague proportions I will deal with them then.
 

Toyotacolin

New Member
I was interested to see what feedback you received on the asterina. I have two in my C-250 tank, 18 months ago there was one :) I'm leaving them there as I like my tank to replicate nature as much as possible and if they get to plague proportions I will deal with them then.

So it started with one.. now we are up to about 5 that we have found so far. We also have some barnicles growing now! Its pretty crazy, cause this tank has only been up for a month or so! Our shrimp has molted a few times and is growing nicely. I think I might need a bit more of a clean up crew, but I'm not sure. I have also found a few of those ugly worms as well.
 

Adrienne

Well-Known Member
Bristleworms? My CBB deals to any that poke their noses out so I have been fairly lucky in that respect.
 

Adrienne

Well-Known Member
I really wish I could get a CBB! I've heard they a super pain trying to get them to eat though.
Yes they can be hard to get to eat - best not to take the word from a shop that they are eating but insist on seeing them doing so.
My one was 'eating' frozen mysis supposedly when I got it but the first thing it fed on - after 5 days - was all my aptasia, then moved on to bristleworms, fan worms and frozen foods.

One huge step in NZ in the last few months is that we have a marine importer/retailer who will not release their shipments for sale until the fish are eating frozen or dried foods. This is massive to us marine keepers over here :)
 

Antics

Active Member
That sounds awesome Adrienne. I work at a LFS but everyone here is telling me they will pick and eat corals, specifically Acans lol. I'm not sure what to believe. The internet tells me they are usually fine with reefs but personal encounters suggest the opposite.
 

GregT

Active Member
Tanks looking good Colin. From your pics I couldn't tell if you retained the light cover? I've just finished my second LED mod in my 250. Only way to go IMO.

Adrienne, which retailer are you takin about please? I'm in Welly.
 
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