David's Red Sea Max C130

[dgilbert2]

First post in my new C130 thread is similar to what I just posted in "New and Thinking", so apologies for that but it sets the scene.

I went to Shirley Aquatics (near Birmingham) this weekend and they were selling off an ex display Red Sea Max C130 in black. Never been filled with water or plugged in, just a former static display model, covered in dust

The price though meant I got "approval" which was looking incredibly unlikely a week ago! So it is now sat in our living room waiting to be setup next weekend.

I have cleaned it all up and it looks lovely, even though empty. My wife is still not sure about the black or size of it, but hey ho, the good price won her over.

So my first question, based on concerns I've seen in other threads about the skimmer pumps warming up the tank. I tested it in a bucket of tap water for 30 minutes and when I switched it off, took it out the water, the top of the pump body quickly become very hot. So no wonder its heating tanks up! I have emailed Red Sea, but is there a solution for a cooler running pump?

 

[dgilbert2]

Home...

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Congrats on your new tank & cheers for starting a thread so we can follow along

Here is a good read... on reef temperature - before worrying about it being to warm, you will need to decide what to warm is...

http://www.ronshimek.com/salinity_temperature.html

 

[Drew]

Welcome David! There are a few us with 130's that have recently setup our tanks. Great to have another to follow... looking forward to your updates!

 

[Desmond]

I did not find the pumps any issue but the lights themselves add all of heat. I did a mod inside the hood on my fans and this helped allot. Also the fan at the back of the tank i have hooked up to aSTC1000 temp controller as weel as the heater. I recently change the lighting now for leds but before i did my heat stabilised with the fan mod.I also changed my skimmer and add an intank media rack. I have read that the skimmer contributes to allot of heat also. look forward to watching your thread. I have a 2 month old 130 d.

 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

Congrats on finding such a great deal!! It looks great! Let the fun times begin!

Cheers, Sandra

​

 

[dgilbert2]

Thank you for the welcomes from USA, Norway and Austrailia, amazing spread from across the globe,

Looking forward,to the weekend when I can transfer from my old nano cube and setup the new tank. Need to think it through though especially with live stock and only certain capacity to store water when moving the tanks around! Oh, and not get everywhere too wet!

 

[Desmond]

Ha ha i hear you on not getting everything wet . My woman goes mad with me part of the reason i am not allowed bring it into the living room Mind you she is starting to grow fond of the tank now so she is

 

[whip]

Congratulations on the new tank! Have fun and read, read, read! Almost everyone on here has tank threads and you can learn from our mistakes and successes. The cool thing is that you get salty RS members chiming (nanoreefing4fun to name but a few) chumming in and following alone to help you out. It is a huge bonus.

Also, there has been a rash of new 130's starting up within the last few months (me included), so you can read our tank threads and see what we did.

Have fun!

BTW, a piece of advice Diana gave me... Be patient, only bad things happen fast.

 

[Desmond]

I second the being patient i learned the hard way when i set up my other tank.
I will get my first fish week after next cant wait.

 

[dgilbert2]

Yes, completely agree that patience is key in our hobby. For me in terms of maturing the tank, I'll be moving the livestock from one tank to another including all the live rock. The live rock is my only form of biological filter in my old system and the c130 concept looks to be the same, so I should be ok? I will need to monitor ammonia and nitrite in the first couple of weeks though. No plans currently to add more livestock.

Hopefully this should be ok?

 

[dgilbert2]

I second the being patient i learned the hard way when i set up my other tank.
I will get my first fish week after next cant wait.

Adding the first fish is always exciting, good luck and enjoy

 

[dgilbert2]

This is my starting point today with my old Nano Cube so hope to post the C130 when everything moved over later. Already started on the wiring hence the spaghetti!

 

[dgilbert2]

A question already, the bottom of the pump chamber has black foam stuck to two sides. How should the pump sit in relation to the foam?

 

[Desmond]

Good luck ☺

Sent from my SM-G870F using Tapatalk

 

[Desmond]

Not sure might get a video on YouTube.

Sent from my SM-G870F using Tapatalk

 

[dgilbert2]

All transferred over . Used most of the water from my old tank plus about 8 gallons of new water due to the larger capacity (old tank was 90L).

Will post some pictures tomorrow.

Only "issue" is that I only have to open the skimmer air valve the smallest amount and the tank fills with micro bubbles and no skimmer activity whatsoever. So for now I have closed the air valve completely (The simmer adjuster is fully down). From reading the manual and posts on here this is probably down to the amount of new water and the skimmer being brand new? Anything I'm doing wrong though?

Finally, although the water level is at the "optimum" level marker, in the main tank the water touches the glass brace that the hood support rests on? Have I too much water in the tank?

 

[dgilbert2]

Sorted my skimmer, touch wood!

Followed the instructions below and no longer have the micro bubble problem and now producing some digesting liquid in the collection cup

==============================================

The air control valve that comes with the Max C 130 is supplied for set-up purposes, once the skimmer breaks in you can remove the white air control valve, you will then find that the skimmer will take in more air and produce more skimate which can then be easily adjusted using just the skim adjuster on the outlet of the skimmer at the top.


Remove the white air control valve using the following procedure.


1. Ensure the aquarium is running at the optimum water level and not above.

2. Using a plastic jug and storage bucket remove enough water to reduce the run level by 1cm below optimum.

3. Ensure the skim adjuster on the protein skimmer is set at its lowest position.

4. Remove the white air control valve fully.

5. At this point the skimmer may start to over skim filling the collection cup, allow the collection cup to fill 2 to 4 times before the skimmer settles, discard any of the water collected in the collection cup during this 2 to 4 fill time, DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE AQUARIUM.

6. The skimmer should now start to skim normally, in removing the air control valve you have increased the amount of air and reduced the amount of water in the skimmer body allowing a bigger expansion area in the neck of the skimmer body below the skimmer cup, this allows the skimmer to breath and increases the volume within the skimmer body for skimate to form.

7. You can now slowly return any removed water to the aquarium and top up with new salted water as necessary.

8. If after this process you continue to experience over skimming it is likely the aquarium has a very high organic content that is effecting the surface tension of the seawater. There can be many reasons for this including over feeding, the types of foods and additives used.

9. Once the skimmer has settled and is performing without over skimming you can then use the skim adjuster to raise the level of air and water in the skimmer to produce a wet or dry skimate.

 

[whip]

Good luck and keep us posted.

I did the same thing (kind of). I have a 12g AquaPod, but i only transferred over some select corals. Other than that, my RSM was set up with new everything.

My assumption is that you will have a quick cycle. Maybe some slight die-off from your LR, but you should be up and running quick.

I left my AquaPod running. Having two tanks is a PITA. I am still debating what I am going to do with the AquaPod. I might give it to a friend, though giving someone a saltwater tank is like giving them crack... they'll hate me for it when they start going broke and buying a bigger tank!!!

 

[dgilbert2]

Temperature

Starting with my old Nano cube, to help the tank in warmer weather I just left the front part of the hood open (similar to the Red Sea Max hood front). This was enough to start evaporation, let the heat out and overnight the tank would easily cool down ready for another daily heat cycle.

So I also did this last night on my new c130 setup i.e. front section of the hood left open and the rear flap that covers the centre section where the skimmer is was also left off (hadn't got round to fitting it yet!).

So overnight I can tell by the level indicator that there was some evaporation (water level dropped by about 10mm), BUT the tank has not cooled down at all, in fact its ever so slightly warmer. (Temperature went up 0.4 deg C to 26.4, my old Nano on a similar cool summer night like last night would have easily dropped by about 2 deg C.

So, like for like, I'm looking again at the pumps, as this is the only possible source of heat and is the only real difference between the two setups. (Heater set to 24 and checked not heating). I posted earlier about concerns how hot the skimmer pump was during testing.

I've not got the cooling fans on admittedly and realise the increase is only small, but I'm not too happy at the moment just how much heat the pumps are putting into the tank as its warm already for another light cycle so will only get warmer.

I would appreciate any thoughts on this?