Adrienne
Well-Known Member
Way back in January I ordered a Red Sea Max C-250, the first shipment of which was due to arrive in NZ mid April. This was my first foray in to reef keeping and was instigated by my husband who wanted a marine tank.
Three weeks ago we finally picked up the tank from our LFS
and a couple of days later my husband and I put the cabinet together. Being a total newbie to reef keeping I had been searching the net for information on how to build the tank and cabinet and by very good fortune, the night before I had come across Roy Page's videos on YouTube which gave me way more information than the instructions that came with the cabinet.
Construction of the cabinet took about two hours and then we placed the tank on top. At that stage I headed away for a weeks holiday.
Last week over several days I placed all the equipment in the sump and here I struck problems. Being that my tank is most probably the first tank set up in the country so no actual tried and true information available, and with no idea about a skimmer, I found the instruction manual seriously lacking in detail. My LFS could not answer my questions so on to the net again and I came across Reef Sanctuary and this group :whstlr: and immediately found that I was not alone in trying to work this out. However with my questions now answered I moved on on Sunday with the layout and filling of the tank.
The tank has 25kg of partially cycled rock and 18kg of Red Sea Sand (pink) - this became available in NZ only two weeks ago.
With everything ready to go the tank was switched on and apart from one of the circulation pumps being faulty (replacement arrived today) the tank is now GO!
Yesterday morning the tank was relatively clear - 20hrs after initial fill but by mid morning there were a lot of bubbles in the tank causing cloudiness (this seemed to be coming from the skimmer). Today with the one pump going the bubbles from the skimmer seem to be being pushed into the tank by one of the circulation pumps however it may just be that the flow is pushing the skimmer bubbles around the tank. This evening the millions of bubbles are still there, but with both circulation pumps running I hope that the tank will be clearing by morning. I have put the white cap on the skimmer hose and turned it down to keep the skimmer from overflowing into the tank. Perhaps I should have left it off?
Here are some recordings:
Day 1 - temp 23.5, Salinity 1.032 (earlier in the day it was 1.025)
Day 2 - temp 23.9, Salinity 1.028 (after removing 16 litres of water and replacing with RO)
Day 3 - temp 24.8, Salinity 1.026 (afer removing a further 12 litres of water and replacing with RO), Ammonia 1.2, Nitrite 0, Nitrate <5
The heater seems to be struggling to get the temp up, it is currently set at 27 and the only fans running are the ones inside the hood. I had thought that it would be the other way in that it would be difficult to keep the temp down.
I'm really pleased with the tank and the look of it. I do have the patience to wait until the tank is completely ready before adding anything else to it Mostly because I also have two freshwater tanks to tend to.
Three weeks ago we finally picked up the tank from our LFS
and a couple of days later my husband and I put the cabinet together. Being a total newbie to reef keeping I had been searching the net for information on how to build the tank and cabinet and by very good fortune, the night before I had come across Roy Page's videos on YouTube which gave me way more information than the instructions that came with the cabinet.
Construction of the cabinet took about two hours and then we placed the tank on top. At that stage I headed away for a weeks holiday.
Last week over several days I placed all the equipment in the sump and here I struck problems. Being that my tank is most probably the first tank set up in the country so no actual tried and true information available, and with no idea about a skimmer, I found the instruction manual seriously lacking in detail. My LFS could not answer my questions so on to the net again and I came across Reef Sanctuary and this group :whstlr: and immediately found that I was not alone in trying to work this out. However with my questions now answered I moved on on Sunday with the layout and filling of the tank.
The tank has 25kg of partially cycled rock and 18kg of Red Sea Sand (pink) - this became available in NZ only two weeks ago.
With everything ready to go the tank was switched on and apart from one of the circulation pumps being faulty (replacement arrived today) the tank is now GO!
Yesterday morning the tank was relatively clear - 20hrs after initial fill but by mid morning there were a lot of bubbles in the tank causing cloudiness (this seemed to be coming from the skimmer). Today with the one pump going the bubbles from the skimmer seem to be being pushed into the tank by one of the circulation pumps however it may just be that the flow is pushing the skimmer bubbles around the tank. This evening the millions of bubbles are still there, but with both circulation pumps running I hope that the tank will be clearing by morning. I have put the white cap on the skimmer hose and turned it down to keep the skimmer from overflowing into the tank. Perhaps I should have left it off?
Here are some recordings:
Day 1 - temp 23.5, Salinity 1.032 (earlier in the day it was 1.025)
Day 2 - temp 23.9, Salinity 1.028 (after removing 16 litres of water and replacing with RO)
Day 3 - temp 24.8, Salinity 1.026 (afer removing a further 12 litres of water and replacing with RO), Ammonia 1.2, Nitrite 0, Nitrate <5
The heater seems to be struggling to get the temp up, it is currently set at 27 and the only fans running are the ones inside the hood. I had thought that it would be the other way in that it would be difficult to keep the temp down.
I'm really pleased with the tank and the look of it. I do have the patience to wait until the tank is completely ready before adding anything else to it Mostly because I also have two freshwater tanks to tend to.