2.0 - Another RSM C130 Build Thread

[Excelsior856]

Hello all,

10 years ago I jumped into saltwater aquariums (FOWLR), first with a 29g and then quickly transitioning into a 55. After a couple years I sold everything as I was graduating from college, preparing to start my professional life and moving away from my college apartment...

Recently I started looking into the hobby again, mostly curious what advances had occurred. After a lot of reading and browsing over the last few weeks I've made the decision to get back into the 'business' while harnessing my lessons learned the first time around and trying to enjoy the process a little more...

My goals/needs are as follows:
- small enough to be as simple to maintain as possible yet still fully functional
- visually appealing both inside and out (the tank will be sitting in my den)
- reef tank with fish, inverts and a robust CUC
- quality equipment (within reason)
- automation (to an extent - I like gadgets but I won't go overboard)
- streamline maintenance (water changes) as much as possible

I've looked at a lot of tanks (Biocube, Nuvo, Fluval, RSM) and decided on the RSM c130 for a couple reasons:
1. Solid construction with pretty descent AIO components overall
2. It comes in white, I think it's elegant
3. Enclosed tank with cool enclosed electronics, moonlights

I plan on ordering the tank after the Thanksgiving holiday. It will be located here, between the windows:

The vent will be covered and I'll have to run an extension cord over but overall I think it will fit well. No direct sunlight as the windows face West (the boat will be moved).

I've got a pretty thorough plan of attack already assembled that I'll share as I go along. Step one was to decide on initial components and build the plan.

Step 2 was to develop a water change strategy/system. Because the tank is in a room that's very visible through the house, I wanted to have as clean a maintenance process as possible. Last time around I started with tap water that I treated. Then I progressed to buying RO/DI water from the store and lugging it home. Not this time...

I just placed an order for this and added the 150 GPD accessory (it's actually cheaper to buy them separately right now with the Black Friday sale.

I also bought 6 of these. The plan is to setup a water station in the basement with 4 tanks premixed at all times. Another will be used for ATO, another for waste water removal. More to come on that...

So, the process has begun. Please feel free to chime in with any suggestions or comments. I live in coastal Massachusetts so if anyone has any local recommendations those would be great too!

Thanks for viewing

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Cheers for starting a tank thread, look forward to seeing your new c130 tank, I really like white too

 

[Joeys Tank]

Welcome to RS!! I look forward to following along on your journey.

 

[Excelsior856]

Ok, a few weeks have passed but they've been busy...

I ordered the tank on the Wednesday before thanksgiving along with a ton of other stuff including:
- Tunze 3155
- WP10
- Salt, nets, test kits, filter media, etc

On Friday, this arrived:

A few unpacking shots:

I found everything to be well packaged and relatively easy to assemble in a couple hours. The stand was well packaged and very straight-forward to put together.

Sat morning I made a trip to the LFS to pickup 31lb of live rock and 40lb of LS. I went with the CaribSea Oolite. I didn't realize how fine that stuff was until I put all the water in. After about 18 hours it was much better but still not clear. I put the live rock in this morning and stirred up the sand all over again. Here's a shot from just a few minutes ago.

From what I've read online I'm hoping once the sand settles (over the course of the next few weeks) it will solidify a little more and not completely milk the water ever time something touches it... (if anyone here has other advice, I'd appreciate it).

I'm not in a hurry with the tank so we'll see how it goes! So far so good, the circulation pump and heater are running fine, I'm sure I'll need to adjust the rock once the water clears again (which I'm sure will stir it up again!)

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Beautiful white !

might put a square of the white/blue fine filter in the media rack if you want it to clear a bit faster & just pull it & take it to the sink every few hours, rinse, shake dry & replace a few times...

look forward to watching it come to life

 

[Excelsior856]

Day 3 and we're looking much better!

I played with the aquascape a few times, which stirred up the sand all over again, but I think I'm finally happy. I wanted to create an arch design and have multiple levels to put corals of various light requirements.

Amonia levels are current 1.5 ppm and rising, hopefully I'll see the Nitrites rise by the weekend. The goal will be to install the CUC shortly after the first of the year.

So far the MP-10 and Tunze ATO are working great. I'm currently holding strong, 1.026 @ 79 degrees.

Also, my water station is setup and working nicely.

The BRS RO/DI unit is awesome, but with a water pressure of around 45psi I was only producing around 3 gallons an hour with the 150GPD upgrade installed so I decided to spring for the pump - what a difference! Now pressure is a steady 90psi and the water is pouring out twice as fast.

I developed a system to fill these 7G jugs, add salt and mix, then move over to store. Each water change I will be doing will be 5-6 gallons so this is perfect and easy to handle. The black plastic tub is designed to hold the jugs while filling in case of an accidental overfill. It fits 2 jugs perfectly.

All for now - busy time of year makes it easy to sit back and wait!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Nice setup ! and pretty scape

 

[Excelsior856]

Day 6, ammonia still around 1-2ppm and Nitrites are rising. I thought the ammonia would have gotten higher but it seems I'm now into the Nitrite phase? I threw in 2 shrimp - one has completely disintegrated, the other is close.

Here is a good shot of the moonlights. I've read that some people think the RSM C-130 stock moonlights are two dim, I disagree - they are perfect for me!

 

[Excelsior856]

Also, you can see where I currently have my wp-10. I've seen the videos with people moving these closer to the surface and adjusting the frequency to get a wave moving on the surface. Is that ideal? I have my return pump point at the top center to disrupt and oxygenate the surface. Is that the best move?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I run my MP-10 similar to how you have it & my circulation pumps create my surface ripple too

see what others think...

 

[Excelsior856]

15 days in and we're cruising along perfectly!

All my levels are perfect, 0 ammonia, 0 NO2, 0 NO3. Looks like with all the live matter in the tank the cycle flew by in only about 9 days. I have been 'ghost feeding' for the last 2 weeks and continuing to check parameters - all is perfect.

I did a 5 gallon water change yesterday to remove a lot of the sand from the sump. Everything looking great now. I've also been running the skimmer with the break-in attachment for the last 4 days to get it all ready to roll.

CUC ordered from reefcleaners.com should be here Tues or Wed:

10 Dwarf Cerith
3 Florida Cerith
5 Nassarius Vibex
3 Nerite Snail

I'll let the crew get comfortable for a couple weeks and look to add livestock around the 2nd week of January. I'll be starting with a pair of clowns and a coral of some sort. I've been keeping a list of coral I like including:

Toad Stool leather
frog spawn
maze brain
favia
Zoanthid
Wellso coral
devil's hand

Not sure what i'll start with but the 2 closest LFS to me both have strong selections of coral and frags so shouldn't have to worry about that!

 

[Excelsior856]

Day 17 and the diatoms showed up!

Luckily the first half of my CUC arrived from Reefcleaners just in time to handle the task!

2-3 more weeks and if all goes well we'll be adding a couple clowns and my first (ever) coral...

 

[Excelsior856]

Day 31 Update:

I was out of town for the last week over the holiday. When I returned I was disturbed to find the main return pump running dry and the DT water level down about 5 inches! Turns out the hose on my ATO disconnected from the pump and I didn't run any top off water for the whole time...

I added water, got everything back to level and luckily didn't lose any of my CUC. Phew, thank god i hadn't added any fish/coral yet. Even under these bad conditions I still experienced a nice pod outbreak and the development of some filter feeders (mostly pineapple sponges)

On Sunday I did another 5g water change, installed my newly purchased Apex Jr (had ordered it over vacation - must have been serendipitous, hopefully this problem won't go unnoticed again!), and added in my CPE and Purigen. By Sunday night everything was back to perfect and all levels look great. The CUC has done a fantastic job on my diatoms but I do have a little green hair algae. All part of a new tank, as long as it stays minimal. My Florida Cerith's a trying to keep up but because I only have 3 right now I'm not sure they can cut the mustard. I'll give it another week or two and then consider an emerald crab or a few more FL Cerith's.

Will probably add a couple clowns and my first coral at some point this week!

 

[Jetmart]

Do you have a cover over your aquarium? I have the Max 130D and may evaporate an inch in a week.

 

[Excelsior856]

I do but I also run the cooling fans full time. Without them the temp will climb pretty high with the skimmer running. I was shocked at the amount of water that evaporated too. When I filled it back up it was probably 4-5 gallons. I haven't had that much evac in one week since I've owned it.... I'm going to keep an eye on it over the course of the next couple weeks. Even with the skimmer running, an mp-10, heater at 79, fans running 24/7 and lights on 8 hrs I've never burned though more than 3-4 gallons of topoff in a week.

I'd prefer to not run the cooling fans all the time but when I turn the off the tank can fluctuate up to 82+ and I've always gotten nervous and turned them on. Now that I have the apex I could program the fans to only turn on when needed i suppose... My house is always kept at 70 so we'll see...

 

[Excelsior856]

Day 36: Livestock!

Big week, added 2 clowns and a yellow leather on Tuesday. Unfortunately, one of the clowns (he was much, much smaller and I never should have bought him) died a little over 24hrs after being introduced. I think it was a combination of the bigger one beating him up along with overall poor health from the get-go...

Thursday I was near another LFS and picked up another clown (much closer in size but still noticeably smaller) along with a cleaner shrimp and some Zoas. Definitely a heavy load to introduce in one week but so far everything has been handled great.

With the dramatically increased bio load I've seen more algea develop this week - more diatoms, a little carpet algea and a few spots of green hair. The CUC has been doing a pretty good job keeping up but it's time to introduce the 2nd shift. I ordered more FL Ceriths, Nerites and Nassarius today, they'll be in next week. I'm trying to hold off on any crabs (emerald or hermit) unless necessary. If the rest of the crew cant balance things out i'll go down that path.

On another note, I have to say I really like the Apex (like most people say after they pull the trigger). I was initially only controlling my heater as a failsafe but now I have my skimmer and return pump on it as well so that I can automate my pump shutoffs for feedings. I am also going to hard wire the water cooling fans to their own outlet so that I can program the Apex to turn them on when needed. It's crazy that I'm blowing through 7g of topoff a week in a 34g tank with a closed lid.

Final note: I pickedup some Reef Frenzy food at the LFS this week, too. Everyone loves it - neat stuff. I way over-fed the first time, though, breaking off a piece about the size of a silver dollar. Next time it will be dime/nickel sized - should be much better.

 

[Excelsior856]

Month 2.5 Update:

Tank has been maturing nicely. a few weeks ago I added the Wellso and Duncan that you can see below and they've been doing great (the Wellso is a little retracted in this photo because I had recently done a WC). Also, the Cardinal was introduced and fit right in. My minor GHA problem continued so I did pickup an emerald crab and he's done a great job. I originally wasn't going to introduce any crabs, including hermits, but I noticed about a month ago that somehow a hermit had taken over the shell of one of my FL Cerith snails. A couple days later I noticed another, and then another! All of my CUC came from Reefcleaners and I didn't order any hermits so they must have hitchhiked?? Oh well, everything is fine and my CUC is doing a good job so I'm not worried about it.

The tank has gone through several minor algae blooms (GHA, green slime, carpet) but with my bi-weekly water changes I've been able to suck out most of it and keep everything to a minimum.

I did modify my cooling fans to only turn on when the water needed to be cooled down (via Apex). This has been great as my 7 gallon top-off tank is lasting a full 2 weeks now (plus my heater hasn't turned on since). I really love the Apex. Haven't added any more modules but will probably go with the PH probe next. I'm also thinking about the DOS to do automated water changes....

So, so far so good! It's been fun to watch the tank mature and I have to say i'm most proud of the coraline algae I found today growing on my wavemaker! It thought that was pretty good for only 2.5 months.

 

[Travis]

Looking great!

 

[Pat24601]

Looking great!

Definitely! Nice work.

 

[Excelsior856]

Hello all. Been a while since I've updated so I thought I'd share a pic of my tank almost 9 months in.

I've been through a few algae outbreaks, had a couple of fish that weren't the didn't work out, but all in all, a lot of great progress.

At this point I have a Coral Beauty, Perc Clown, Cleaner Shrimp and a Bengai Cardinal. I had a Royal Gramma that mysteriously disappeared. Also, the Coco Worm

For corals, I have Zoas, Yellow Leather, Red Mushrooms, Devil's Hand, Duncan, Montipora, Favia, Wellso, Pom Pom Xenia, Pineapple Tree, Glove Polyps, and a Taro Tree. Feel like there's room for tons more!

All in all, everything has been growing great - the tank is very stable and is maturing nicely. Tons of coraline which is oddly rewarding. Looking forward to the 1 year anniversary