Gav' RSM 250

[Gav]

Hi,

Well its been a couple of months now and my tank obviously is still in its early days but Im enjoying planning the rest of the setup and shopping around for the right peices of coral. I think most of the really good coral gets exported so Ive been visitng as many shops as I can each weekend to try and find the ones Im after. Hoping to get some really bright colours in there.

Still have a bit of turf algae but it looks like that part might be finally over :fingerx:

Ive found this forum to be a massive help to me so far. I havent posted much but Ive read a heap of posts on here so thanks for the much needed help.

Might have gone a bit overboard with so many fish so soon but here is a pic of my tank so far.

 

[Reefmack]

Nice tank shot and it's all looking very nice! Thanks for starting a tank thread for us.

 

[Dweezil]

Welcome to RS Gav ~ Looking good so far. Take lots of pictures..you will appreciate it when you look back a year from now and see how far you've come

 

[redsea reefer]

Welcome and good luck Gav, Nice tank!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Lovely ! Pretty fish too ! You are off to a great start you have some great corals & pretty clam too !

How the skimmer doing for you? Noticed in the pic, you are running your skimmer gate very very low.

 

[tnwillia]

Welcome to RS! Your off to a great start. Have fun with it!

 

[imaccat]

Hi and welcome to RS

 

[Gav]

Hi, Thanks for the replies. In regards to the skimmer Ive never had one before so Im not sure how its doing. If its supposed to run like this:


Then its working fine. Ive found that by adjusting the air nozzel either has it filling up the collection cup in a few seconds-minutes or filling it very slowly. Having the gate open wide like this just means I need to turn the air nozzel down. Ive read its best to have the gate about 2cm below the water line but this seems to result in the bubbles not really making it out of the neck. Is that video how its supposed to work?

Also another problem Im having is that there is a lot of particulate matter floating around in the water and also sitting on the surface of the water. Im assuming this is because I dont have enough flow in the tank? I am getting a vortech MP40 in few weeks time so Im hoping this will fix that problem but not really sure. Any thoughts on that could it be something else besides lack of water movement like maybe the gate being so low?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

The skimmers bubbles look great ! Didn't know it was possible with the gate that low - thanks for sharing !

 

[imaccat]

The skimmer looks like it is working very well, but the problem you are having with the matter on the surface may be because of the level of the skimmer gate. I assume that because it is low there isn't a waterfall effect over the skimmer gate. If the gate was higher, with a waterfall, this would pull any surface scum into the skimmer.

This wont fix the floating matter problem you have in the water column, that may be due to the sand grain size (i.e. too small) and the turbulence in the tank kicks up the sand, or specific fish causing the problem, my clown fish kicks up a sand storm every now and again and the fine stuff stays in the water column. Do you use the fine filter?

Good luck

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Good advise ^

 

[RSM250PEARL]

Welcome Gav and nice pictures! I'd love a close up of your mini maxi. I have 2 myself and yours looks really pretty. Your skimmer looks like its doing the job. Good advice above from Iain, I have very fine sand and some dust floating about all the time. Cant get rid of it so I've had to live with it. Doesnt take much away from the look of the tank IMO.

Good luck and have fun with your 250!

 

[Gav]

Hi, thanks all. Ive lifted the gate so the raised part in the middle is almost touching the waterline. Thanks Kay I didnt know I had a mini maxi What are they?

I took a new FTS plus one of the clam and a new rose BTA I bought yesterday in case those were what you meant lol.

The BTA went straight into a crack in the rocks where I couldnt see it but I was glad to see its starting to come back out when I got home from work today. I'd really like to just sit itself on that ledge above the claim.

 

[RSM250PEARL]

Gav looking at your new pictures I think I made a mistake! On the second picture you posted, the thing above your clam looked like a mini carpet anemone. What is it? It's very pretty.

 

[Gav]

Ohh I think thats a purple Cynarina Lacrymalis. I moved it to make way for the BTA but its gone all out of shape so I might need to find somewhere against the rocks for it. This isnt the best photo of it its expands much bigger and rounder a lot of the flesh is fairly transparent so from the front of it you can see a lot of the purple, greens and red from the other side of it.

 

[RSM250PEARL]

It's beautiful!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Pretty clam & nem - good luck with them !

 

[Gav]

Hi, Just thought I would update my tank journal.

I got some new corals yesterday direct from the collector. Even had to go and pick them up from the airport lol.
A while back I got another one of those blue squamosa clams a bit smaller than the other but otherwise identical. The new additions are 3 scolys which are quite small and out of shape but have some really nice colours. Also a Favia, Acan, Chalice and a Euphyllia. The Euphyllia didnt photograph well but its got purple tips with really cool looking gold colour stems. Heres some pics.
This is an updated FTS with the lights off in the tank.

The scollys. The new ones are only about 3 or 4 cm in diameter.

Favia Prizm

Chalice

Acan

and the new clam. I have to relocate the bigger one its been lying on its side for a while now

Oh and I think this sun coral is new since my last update as well. This photo is just after it had been fed.

 

[steved13]

Looks very nice!! Those scolys have really nice color. All looks very healthy and happy.

 

[Reefmack]

Wow - you've added a lot of really nice corals!