Getting a RSM C250

M

mferrara91

New Member
Hello Everyone,

I am new to the the Reef Sanctuary, but not new to the hobby. I recently just purchased a RSM C250 and should be receiving it this week. I've read up a lot on this aquarium setup, but I wanted to ask the opinion of those who already own one. Does everyone experience a heating issue with the tank? Is the cause of the heating issue due to the usage of T5 lighting. I am just curious because I have never experienced a heating issue with other tanks that I have had in the past. I can't afford to add a chiller, but I am also sure that I don't want to be running the fans non-stop and going through water evaporation at 1 gallon per day. Any personal experiences and tips are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!
 
J

jringold

Member
I have the 250 and yes, I had a heat issue. Room temp is a constant 74 F. However the tank temp climbed to 87+. When the lights went out at night it would go down to about 83 F. But once the lights fired back up the temp increased again. I am only running stock pumps and stock T-5’s– I have not added any mods either. The twin fans and light hood fans run constantly.

I got tired of fighting it and bit the bullet and got a chiller. The good news is the cooling requirements were not that high for my RSM. I just needed about a 5-7 F drop. I was able to get a relatively inexpensive chiller. I ended up with a 1/13HP for $373 (free shipping and no tax) from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LPKG5Y/?tag=reefsanc-20) It is pretty quiet, only kicks on a few times a day and runs just a couple of minutes each time. I was able to put it in my cabinet. I bought the cabinet fan but haven’t needed to install it – the temp is never too high in the area around the chiller. Not sure about the newer cabinets but there is no back in mine so there is plenty of room for air circulation.

I’ve read from some reefers on this site that they could control the heat with fans. I wasn’t as lucky. But I am glad I made the chiller purchase. It stays at a constant 80F (I could drop that if I wanted but the livestock I have seem to like it). Now I can concentrate my efforts on other things – like getting the freaking skimmer to behave!

Anyway, that was my solution but your mileage may vary….

Morgan
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
jringold said:
I have the 250 and yes, I had a heat issue. Room temp is a constant 74 F. However the tank temp climbed to 87+. When the lights went out at night it would go down to about 83 F. But once the lights fired back up the temp increased again. I am only running stock pumps and stock T-5’s– I have not added any mods either. The twin fans and light hood fans run constantly.

I got tired of fighting it and bit the bullet and got a chiller. The good news is the cooling requirements were not that high for my RSM. I just needed about a 5-7 F drop. I was able to get a relatively inexpensive chiller. I ended up with a 1/13HP for $373 (free shipping and no tax) from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LPKG5Y/?tag=reefsanc-20) It is pretty quiet, only kicks on a few times a day and runs just a couple of minutes each time. I was able to put it in my cabinet. I bought the cabinet fan but haven’t needed to install it – the temp is never too high in the area around the chiller. Not sure about the newer cabinets but there is no back in mine so there is plenty of room for air circulation.

I’ve read from some reefers on this site that they could control the heat with fans. I wasn’t as lucky. But I am glad I made the chiller purchase. It stays at a constant 80F (I could drop that if I wanted but the livestock I have seem to like it). Now I can concentrate my efforts on other things – like getting the freaking skimmer to behave!

Anyway, that was my solution but your mileage may vary….

Morgan
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Will I need to purchase a pump with the chiller?
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
welcomefish.gif


to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:

I have ran a RSM 250 stock - no chiller for 5 years, temps 81F ambient room temp 73F rear cooling fans on all the time - topoff about 2 gallons a week more running fans - no big deal on that here... all my corals & fish thrive

I recently converted my hood to Stevesleds now running 79F , but it's the stock pumps that add most of the heat, in fact I do water changes with an extra skimmer pump & it heats my wc water to temp :winky:

hope this helps
 
T

Trinny

Member
Mine was running at about 83f before I got a 1/10hp chiller, the chiller only runs a short amount of time to keep the temperature at 77f. I bought a Ehiem 1000 compact pump for the chiller which feeds back into the return chamber which seems to work fine and kept the rest of the system stock
 
J

jringold

Member
mferrara91 said:
Thanks for the reply. Will I need to purchase a pump with the chiller?
Click to expand...

Yup but a very inexpensive one. Look up Quiet-One-Lifegard-Aquarium-296-Gallon on Amazon. About $20. Keep in mind that you don't want something that is going to move a bunch of water really fast. You want as much water contact with the chiller as possible - so slow is better. This pump is small so it fits in the RSM sump easily. It's rated at 296gph but with the head pressure on the return it is going to be something south of that.
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
jringold said:
I have the 250 and yes, I had a heat issue. Room temp is a constant 74 F. However the tank temp climbed to 87+. When the lights went out at night it would go down to about 83 F. But once the lights fired back up the temp increased again. I am only running stock pumps and stock T-5’s– I have not added any mods either. The twin fans and light hood fans run constantly.

I got tired of fighting it and bit the bullet and got a chiller. The good news is the cooling requirements were not that high for my RSM. I just needed about a 5-7 F drop. I was able to get a relatively inexpensive chiller. I ended up with a 1/13HP for $373 (free shipping and no tax) from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004LPKG5Y/?tag=reefsanc-20) It is pretty quiet, only kicks on a few times a day and runs just a couple of minutes each time. I was able to put it in my cabinet. I bought the cabinet fan but haven’t needed to install it – the temp is never too high in the area around the chiller. Not sure about the newer cabinets but there is no back in mine so there is plenty of room for air circulation.

I’ve read from some reefers on this site that they could control the heat with fans. I wasn’t as lucky. But I am glad I made the chiller purchase. It stays at a constant 80F (I could drop that if I wanted but the livestock I have seem to like it). Now I can concentrate my efforts on other things – like getting the freaking skimmer to behave!

Anyway, that was my solution but your mileage may vary….

Morgan
Click to expand...
My cabinet only has an opening in the back on the left side. Right side is completely enclosed which stinks because I have a Tunze ATO that I planned on putting on the right side.
 
J

jringold

Member
When you say the right side is completely enclosed, do you mean there is no access to it or it is enclosed on the sides and back? If you have access to it then you can put your ATO on the right side. I have a 5G jug of RO under my cabinet. The only thing that I had to do is get the tube and control cable from the back to the jug. So, you could either drill two small holes in the back panel or you could drill two small holes in the divider between the left and right side then route the tube and cable through the left back and into the right side. Then all you have to do is fill the jug from the front as it is used up.
 
J

jringold

Member
Ignore the messy upper shelves.... The ATO is inside the jug on the left. The only thing leaving the jug is the ATO control cable and the tube to deliver the water to the tank.

Morgan


IMG_2341.jpg
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
jringold said:
Ignore the messy upper shelves.... The ATO is inside the jug on the left. The only thing leaving the jug is the ATO control cable and the tube to deliver the water to the tank.

Morgan


IMG_2341.jpg
Click to expand...
So is there an opening behind your chiller? Mine is all enclosed. I was going to put the chiller (if I get one) on the left side so there is enough open space to keep it cool. I was going to put the ATO where your chiller is and drill the holes.
 
J

jringold

Member
mferrara91 said:
So is there an opening behind your chiller? Mine is all enclosed. I was going to put the chiller (if I get one) on the left side so there is enough open space to keep it cool. I was going to put the ATO where your chiller is and drill the holes.
Click to expand...
That would certainly work. For me, I didn't want anything outside the cabinet. If it was me I would take a saber saw and cut some large openings in the back so I could hide everything. But there is nothing at all wrong with your plan.
 
J

jringold

Member
mferrara91 said:
So is there an opening behind your chiller? Mine is all enclosed. I was going to put the chiller (if I get one) on the left side so there is enough open space to keep it cool. I was going to put the ATO where your chiller is and drill the holes.
Click to expand...
That would certainly work. For me, I didn't want anything outside the cabinet. If it was me I would take a saber saw and cut some large openings in the back so I could hide everything. But there is nothing at all wrong with your plan.
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
jringold said:
That would certainly work. For me, I didn't want anything outside the cabinet. If it was me I would take a saber saw and cut some large openings in the back so I could hide everything. But there is nothing at all wrong with your plan.
Click to expand...

I just ordered the aquarium chiller you recommended. Luckily I already have a pump from my old tank which pumps 230gph. That should work fine, and the Max C250 already comes with the plumbing for the chiller pump.
 
J

jringold

Member
Awesome! I think you will be really happy with it. First thing, when it arrives, take it out of the box and set it up-right for 24 hours before even plugging it up. It's possible the shipper had it on it's side and you want all the oil to run back into the bottom of the compressor before you fire it up. Hook up is super easy. Just take out the low flow pump (right side). Drop in your chiller pump into the bottom and reinstall the low flow pump above it. Route the outflow and inflow through the oval opening in the back of the hood. NOTE: I had to use the RSM plastic pipe adapters that have a 45 degree bend in them. If you don't, the vinyl tube will compress laying on the bottom of the opening and restrict the flow. Also, I used tie wraps on on my connections. Since I am pumping water out of the tank and it's surrounded by hard wood floors, I did not want to take any chances of a pipe coming loose.

Also, as a side note, I have the inbound pipe from the Tunze ATP going into this same compartment. You may already know this, but make sure this pipe is far above the water level of the tank or when the pump turns off, you will get a siphon back into your holding tank. I put the level sensor on the opposite side of the skimmer - the magnet works fine through the plastic back of the sump.

Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

Morgan
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
jringold said:
Awesome! I think you will be really happy with it. First thing, when it arrives, take it out of the box and set it up-right for 24 hours before even plugging it up. It's possible the shipper had it on it's side and you want all the oil to run back into the bottom of the compressor before you fire it up. Hook up is super easy. Just take out the low flow pump (right side). Drop in your chiller pump into the bottom and reinstall the low flow pump above it. Route the outflow and inflow through the oval opening in the back of the hood. NOTE: I had to use the RSM plastic pipe adapters that have a 45 degree bend in them. If you don't, the vinyl tube will compress laying on the bottom of the opening and restrict the flow. Also, I used tie wraps on on my connections. Since I am pumping water out of the tank and it's surrounded by hard wood floors, I did not want to take any chances of a pipe coming loose.

Also, as a side note, I have the inbound pipe from the Tunze ATP going into this same compartment. You may already know this, but make sure this pipe is far above the water level of the tank or when the pump turns off, you will get a siphon back into your holding tank. I put the level sensor on the opposite side of the skimmer - the magnet works fine through the plastic back of the sump.

Let me know if you need any help or have any questions.

Morgan
Click to expand...
Can you take a picture of your ATO tank? Did you have to drill an extra hole for the pump?
 
M

mferrara91

New Member
I have a question about the lights. Do the night lights also work off of the timer or do they need to be manually switched on and off?
 
J

jringold

Member
mferrara91 said:
Can you take a picture of your ATO tank? Did you have to drill an extra hole for the pump?
Click to expand...

Check out post #10 in the thread. It's nothing fancy - the 5G jug on the left side contains RO (that I manually fill weekly). The Tunze pump just sets inside the jug. I don't have a lid on it so I may loose a very small amount to evaporation - but I bet it's not even a measurable amount. Just tie wrap the pipe and control cable every few inches from the pump to about 2 feet out. That keeps everything nice and neat in the jug.

Morgan
 
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