Red Sea Max 650 led

P4inter

Member
Hi all,

I thought i would start a thread since I have been looking at everyone else’s and it seems only fair to share my experience with RSM 650. So to date I have had the tank set up 13 weeks and I have the following:

3 tangs
2 Clarki’s
2 chalk Gobys
2 wrasses
2 triggers (thanks to the recommendations on this forum)
3 Bangali’s
2 blenny’s
Loads of crabs/snails
72 frags (mixture SPS and LPS)
1 Anemone

Probably forget a couple but its there about. I know I have probably stocked to quickly (no patience like most reefkeepers) however to date fish have been fine. The corals have also done well with very few losses (none till the last 2 weeks - Dino).

My story regarding reef/marines gos back to the early 90’s when my 1st tank was under gravel filter with tufa rock. On and off since then I have kept some type of marine tank with my last about 6 years ago when I had a disaster moving house when an anemone decided to get himself stuck in a powerhead and then poisoned most of the livestock. The tank was never the same so I got rid of it and done without till this year when I decided to get the best tank going - RSM MAX 650 LED. A few quid later (receipts all shredded as my partner still thinks tanks/fish/corals/kit cost a couple of pounds!) I am now looking at a tank with nice livestock and plenty of brown rocks and sand (Dino).

I cleaned the rock as much as possible today with a toothbrush (sounds ridiculous but seemed to have helped?). I have also added a gfo reactor yesterday and UV sterliser 3 days ago - is this doesn’t work a gallon of bleach should do the trick. Barring that and a couple of heaters everything else is the stock equipment.

Any questions please ask.

Ps. Thanks to all who have posted their story with RSM - It has helped me loads
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
Great to see you starting a tank thread. I do see a few possible problem areas you should be aware of.

Even in a tank that size, having 3 tangs and 2 triggers is asking a lot of the system. These are all potentially big fish that produce a lot of waste products. Your likely OK now, but as they grow and mature some of these may need to come out. Which species of tangs and triggers did you get? some get really nasty as they get mature.

The triggers will devour the snails and crabs. Not much you can do about that, Your not going to have much of a clean up crew with the triggers in there. This is not necessarily bad, but it's not worth replacing the crabs and snails.

Having some outbreaks of algae in a new system is very common. Don't panic. Left alone, with careful water monitoring, they will likely go away on their own. Of course, GFO an UV will help.

You did stock the tank very quickly. Give this a chance to become stable. I wouldn't add anything else for at least several months. SW systems need time to ramp up and become stable.
 

P4inter

Member
Thanks for the response all.

DaveK the triggers are blue throat (seemingly reef safe with caution?). These are about 3 inch and so far been as good as gold and never looked at any snails or crabs or my boxer shrimp. I got these as a pair with the blue throat and yellow trim obvious on the male - since then the female has colored up and now has obvious yellow on the fins (no blue on the throat). I am hoping this is a pair and not 2 males. Need to read up in case I have a potential problem in the making? Anyone have these and does the female have some yellow on the fins? The only aggression comes from the female when the cleaner wrasse is anoying her.

The tangs are Yellow, Regal and Sailfin. They seem to get on fine and again no problems with behavior. I agree I have stocked this tank quickly but barring algae have been pretty lucky with very little losses. No more fish planned in the near future although I plan on additional corals when the algae disappears.

Parameters are as follows:
PH 8.2
SG 1.026
Temp 25.7
Calcium 430 - currently dosing. Just trying to stabilise then may look at dosing pump - any suggestions?
Magnesium 1350 - always been higher. I have never needed to dose to date?
KH 10.5. I need to dose this daily and am hoping to get to 11. As with Ca when stable may look at dosing pump
Nitrate 0. Never managed to get a reading for nitrate even when feeding corals reefroid - is this related to algae problems (lack of nitrate not the reefroids)?
Phosphate 0. Tested this for 1st time a couple of days ago sure this would be the cause of algae. Not a jot showing in either the tank water or RO water. Tap water showing the max on the card so the test is fine. Is the algae consuming this or does Dino’s survive (and flourish) with just lights.

I will get some pics up when i discover how too? I am currently getting the massage file size too big?
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
The blue throat triggers and the tangs you got should be ok. A problem might come up as they mature. Sometimes things seem to be going good, and one of them gets nasty and beats up on the others.

Personally I'd rather keep a male and female trigger, even though the females are not as colorful.

Save your money on a dosing pump for now. Wait till you see what is happening long term. In larger tanks like you have, often a calcium reactor and/or kalk reactor is a much better, and less expensive long term.

Adding corals should not be a problem. Just make sure there is plenty of room for growth. Some corals can grow really fast, especially under good conditions. You don't want them touching and fighting for space. Sometimes we call this "chemical warfare" between the corals.
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
To upload pictures i use tapatalk which downscales the file size if you use high quality pictures/camera and its very easy

It sounds like you potentially have two male triggers and you might be asking for problems at any point with them.
I have a mated pair as below and these have their moments!

IMG_1655.jpg

If you’re having algae issues and getting 0 readings for phosphate and nitrate it’s probably being used as a nutrient source for the algae so always showing 0 as its used up. Check your RODI water is clean and maybe tell us what methods of nutrient export your using etc
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Zero nitrates and Phos could lead to lack of growth with the corals. In my experience, Phos can be anywhere between 0.02 and 0.04, and Nitrates can be anywhere really, but best if kept below 20.
Personally, I love my doser. I dose Calc, Alk, Mag and NOPOX, all from Red Sea. Keep your eye out for the new Red Sea dosers which should hit the market in the next couple of months.

As always, any advice given can be shot down by somebody else who run a different regime in their tank, but that is just the nature of this hobby. What works for one may not work for another.

.....and the Cleaner Wrasse will annoy all the fish. Now and again I think they nip just a bit too hard!
 

P4inter

Member
Thanks for the comments, all advice is welcome.

Looking at the fantastic quality photo (SPR - looks like a pro shot) of a pair of triggers I am still not sure. Although both mine have some yellow to the fins one is definitely a lot brighter than the other. This one also has the blue cheeks so here’s hoping it is male and female. I will get a photo up as soon as I can get something to show what I mean.

Regarding the nitrates and phosphates I am unsure why no readings on either. I am using Red Sea for nitrate test and Salifert for phosphates. It’s only the last couple of days I have added a reactor for Rowaphos and UV steriliser. The only other filter is the standard Red Sea skimmer (working really well for me)and the filter socks with filter floss in each as well as under the carbon.

I generally feed 2 frozen cubes and a pinch or two of pellets daily. Add to this some nori 3 times a week and reefroids every 3 days or so. Plenty nutrient going in but no nitrates? I have stopped the reef roads for the time being as the algae is my biggest concern.

Algae is a major problem for me at the moment. That’s 2 nights in row in with a toothbrush. Last night was looking good, lights on today looking good and after 4 hours looking like a burst cushion? I scrub the rocks (knocking off my frags in the process!), disturb the sand and leave the filter socks/floss in place for an hour to catch the debris. I also over skim for a while to remove as much as possible. I then change the socks/floss, adjust the skimmer and all looks good. Any idea what else I should be doing?

Cleaner wrasse only annoys my ‘female’ trigger. Seems to nip it, get seriously chased between the rocks and then swim in front of it seconds later? Hope ‘she’ never catches it (still hoping it is a she).

Here’s an up to date photo (hope it works with this app?) with algae. Any advice appreciated

857ba8b5969a234db73d8e48cb4724dd.jpg









Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

SPR

Well-Known Member
Sorry I missed this your last post for some reason!

I think your possibly getting 0 readings on nitrate and phosphate because it’s being taken up by the algae and used to fuel their growth and effectively giving false readings

You have added the rhowaphos and reactor so get that running and that will deal with the phosphate issue. Just remember, the rhowaphos should ‘simmer’ in the reactor so set the water in flow accordingly. You may also need to change the rhowaphos frequently to start of (weekly for example) as it will become spent quickly. Maybe start with 250g or so.

You don’t want 0 Nitrate, so you could possibly add a few more fish and start feeding them and that should start to have an effect on nitrate levels. Target 5-10 as a good guide.

If you want to try a quick fix on the algae do a 3 day blackout and see if that’s give you a head start on killing it off

Also that’s not a very clear picture, but if any of that brown algae starts to get ‘bubbles’ appearing then let us know.
 

P4inter

Member
Yes i am pretty sure something is taking the nitrates before they get a chance to register. I got a Nyos test kit for nitrates to double check and still zero. That’s both nitrate and phosphate registering zero and loads of algae? Looking at the internet the algae looks like Dinoflagellate. I have 2 bottles of Dino x getting delivered tomorrow so will give this a go and post the results. It would be good to hear from anyone who has tried it? Guy at lfs used it in his display tank and gave it positive reviews although its not something he sells (gives me a bit of confidence).

The algae itself is generally powdery looking but as the lights start to dim the strands become apparent with small air bubbles at the top (almost as if it is trying to get more light). It seems to regenerate in a day. If i clean rocks/sand the night before by the end of the next night it is as bad as ever. General advice online is to encourage good algae so i am dosing microbe-lift Coraline however with no nutrients i may be wasting my time? I have also resumed feeding the corals as well as increasing the feed to the fish in the hope of starting some nitrates (wonder if i will still be wanting nitrates to increase in a couple of months?). On top of this i have started using Pure Reef Balance and Aquavitro Remediation to encourage beneficial bacteria (if the UV kills this then it should increase the nitrates?). Will coralline grow with UV lights - doubt it out of a bottle however i need to try.

There is a bit of info on some web sites about dosing nitrate increasing products to get coral to grow and colour up. Does anyone know of a product for this? Seemingly for some SPS tanks with ultra low nutrients Dino can be a problem as there is no competition.

I haven’t tried a blackout yet but did decrease lights to just 5 hours and only blues,
71cbf3129fc9e7bbbf9bf1093dc4a640.jpg
violets but this made no real difference. If Dino x doesn’t work that will be my next move.

I have attached a hopefully better picture that shows the algae clearer.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Nobbygas

Well-Known Member
Looks like Cyano to me. If it is, use Chemiclean from Boyd.......of course, I may be wrong

Personally I would lay off putting so many additives into the tank. Coraline will grow. There is no rush.
 

P4inter

Member
Thanks Nobbygas. I thought of Cyano 1st but as there is no nutrients to speak of either these are being taken up immediately or i am not adding enough food. As far as i know Cyano needs nutrients hence i think more likely Dino. It also doesn’t have a slimy appearance and is generally brown and not really any sign of red. I don’t think i have ever underfed and have a decent amount and size of fish so the lack of nutrients is, in my opinion, the main culprit. How I don’t have any measurable nitrates i do not know.

I agree with the additives however till i see some nitrates I don’t think i will have anything to combat the nuisance algae. If I’m honest i would prefer to add only a nitrate additive (if something like this exists?) as i am in no hurry to have coraline. Other options i can think of to raise nitrates is turn off the skimmer or intentialy overfeed. Either of these would probably be worse in the long run for the tank?

I spent a good day on Wednesday visiting 3 different LFS for advice and took something from each hence the coraline, remediation and reef balance (none stocked Dino x). The 1st is a ‘good’ algae and the other 2 are additives of ‘good’ bacteria so hopefully not too much harm - here’s hoping. I will be keeping an eye on the parameters to ensure not too many changes.

Whatever type of algae it is neither snails, tangs or lawnmower goby touch it. The other thing i never mentioned is i have lots of Copepods visible. I added these weekly for about 6 weeks hoping to eventually add a Manderin fish. These are now visible on the algae covered rocks (more so in direct flow areas). This is not a bad thing (i hope?) as i still want a manderin however i never expected to actually see these? Not sure if any way related or simply these are visible due to the algae?

Thought this hobby was easy!!!
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
here my guess... if it helps... I never seen a new tank that has finished cycling, without nitrates... it's normal progression, of a cycled tank, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates... see if this post helps

brown & green algae in new tanks

could be dino... but I would not think so... having seen soooo many similar...

+1 your nitrates... are not showing up on the test, because the algae is eating it

again hope this help... this is different than your current thinking... but actually GREAT news

PS - can you take a turkey baster & blow it off ? My guess... is you can... the bubbles and strings are all part of the cycle... my guess...
 
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