Highly's Red Sea Max 400 Mixed Reef

Alright so I found an offer I could not refuse and decided to buy an RSM 400. Now the owner had this a few years and replaced the t5 lighting with some Chinese leds but I guess they will do for now until I can afford two RS Reef 90's.

So I got the tank and guess what wife did not like its size or the fact that it was black. So as a good lil husband i said hey ill paint it the same colour as the furniture so it "blends in" lol well its better but shes still not happy.

Currently running the stock C-skim 1800 and is very good at removing poop however due to its age has dug into the shaft housing and now make soooo much nose i can hear it from the next room. Guess Im going to need to buy either a replacement PSK pump (no idea if noise will be reduced as reviews say its a loud skimmer) or just save up and buy the new red sea skimmer which looks really good.

As for pumps everything is stock. Ive added about 30ish kg of live rock (i think) and have a few ricordea, two different leathers, few zoa colony's and obv an anemone for my pair of clowns.

As for fish stock I have a yellow belly regal tang, yellow tang, lined wrass, blue spotted goby, mated pair of clowns and an anthias. As for inverts have two sand sifting stars, four skunk cleaner shrimps and a hand full of nassarius & cerith snails.

Been having issues trying to get micro bubbles out of the dam tank, they keep coming from the overflow section in front of the skimmer. Since its a second hand system I have no idea how it was put together from the factory, I cannot seem to find what the original included in the sump, any one had similar issues?

Ill post some pictures asap

 

Tank finally arrived! by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

And so it begins by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Almost full! by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Sand and rocks in by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Rock work complete! by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Glowing shrooms by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

My zoa rock by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Cabinet ready for second coat by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

First layer of primer on by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Semi repainted cabinet by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:13 PM

Tank gif by Highlyagaming posted Aug 3, 2019 at 10:14 PM

 

Did you try to put a sock in the skimmer’s exit?

I cannot see your pics.


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I have set the album perms to members only so should be viewable now.

Nop have not tired the sock, seems the bubbles are not from the skimmer tho but rather the waterfall created on entering the final return pump area. I have even placed blue filter media and standard wool but continues to go through.

 

I seem to remember the micro bubbles are caused by to much flow into the skimmer.

Try turning the red ball valve to half closed (the one that controls the feed pipe to the skimmer) and then work from there to balance it out.

Or just buy a new skimmer if you can afford one, but before you buy a Red Sea one, look at a few reviews. Many of us have the NYOS Quantum’s which are silent and easy to use.

 

Good morning, yeah I had been looking at that to as I had read a few people mention the possibility of to much flow into the skimmer. I have my valve almost closed tho due to getting an extremely wet skim even filling up my cup at times.

As for the new skimmer I was looking at the nyos aswell but its very expensive, and seems a lot more complicated to setup with the extra precise adjustment knobs according to the reviews ive looked into. Ill try and post a few more pics of the sump ect today.

 

The Nyos is great as @SPR mention it, easy install, maintain and very quiet. Looking forward for your pics.


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I had issues with my rsk 600 skimmer and there have been issues with the new rs lights too, just do a search.
Ive always used deltec skimmers until I tried the red sea one and went back to a deltec skimmer, silent, works out of the box with a few minor adjustments, I wouldn't have any other skimmer.
Ive never had a nyos so cant comment but they tend to get decent reviews

 

So yeah just tested the water params, and dam i expected it to be high due to having some of the live rock outside the tank for longer than planned but ouch.

dKh 6
ph 8.5
phos 3 mg/l
no3 75 mg/l
mag 1350
cal (test ran out) ill be buying a kit in an hr or so

 

I also swapped out the C-Skim for a NYOS 160. The C-Skim was just, ugh !

PS - How far away is your LFS around the Gib area?

 

5 mins if that, going to take a sample of my water on thur when im off work to see if my kits are still good. Atm with what ive shown above should have had negative effects on my corals and my duncans, zoas shrooms anemone and leather seem very happy.

Just found that all the micro bubble are coming from the c-skim escaping through the aspirator pump connections.

Will receive a reef octopus this week as my friend has broken down his tank and will be giving it to me. Its rated for a 350L tank but will do for now until xmas comes along with that Nyos 160

 

The C-Skim really is awful. The outlet pipe on mine would never stay on, the air pump was noisy as it is not underwater, and it needed constant 'tinkering'. When skimming it actually worked well, but it wasn't worth the hassle nor noise.

 

Just went buy my lfs but the guy who does the water maintenance wasn't there so couldn't check my sample. I did how ever end up with an acan which looks awesome, as for the chiller i have done the patch job now to reinforce it.

Acan by Highlyagaming posted Aug 5, 2019 at 2:43 PM

 

Next week you will buy a fish that eats it

 

Ok a few updates. So my mate finally gave me his old skimmer, a reef octopus classic 150 space saver and man what a difference in both sound and space! I will report back with how well it does but as soon as it went in it went to work.

Now i've done some more water tests and they continue to stay the same with minor changes to dkh which has gone up to 7 and calcium stable at 480.

Sump by Highlyagaming posted Aug 13, 2019 at 9:48 PM

 

Nice ! that old C-Skim does not belong to your system, too noisy and messy to clean.


It’s about reefing!

 

Yeah, can finally enjoy the tank peacefully now at night.

Don't get me wrong the c-skim was pulling gunk out very well but with modern tech is was to noisy and space consuming.

Now with constant daily dosing of no-pox should hopefully get the No down to what it needs to be. Love red sea products but they overprice them locally so im forced to order them from across the border in spain which takes a while.

Im thinking of replacing the return pump with a more efficient and quiet pump anyone changed theirs? Any input would be helpful and appreciated, thinking of a controllable dc pump been told they are real good.

 

I only know one guy who is now in the process to switch from the standard Sicce pump to an Abyzz. I think @Nobbygas has been looking at the Vectra and I have been looking at the Sicce 9.0 and the COR-20 but since I took the Apex I am going for the COR-20. What DC pump are you looking at?

 

Was considering going for the Reef octopus varioS-6 has some good reviews and really nice controllability including a feed mode which rampa down the current then auto ramps up after 15-60mins which is a good option.

 

I may be wrong on this, but the problem with the variable pumps and the S-Series tanks is the fluctuation in the water levels. I think the tanks are designed to run with the water levels constant. By running the variable pump you may get gurgling noises coming from the downflow pipe. This won't cause any harm, but I'd imagine it could get annoying to keep hearing it. You can test this by just switching off one of the circulation pumps, and you'll hear the tank making noises as the water level changes.
I don't reduce flow at all when feeding. I like to see the lazy buggers chasing their food around the tank. It's the most exercise they get all day
As I said, I'm not certain about this, and if anyone knows anything different?