Joey's RSM 650 Tank Thread

[Joeys Tank]

Alrighty ... getting ready to get my feet wet.

Jolly good day, all. I am a new reefer and starting up a FSM 650 tank. I have been wanting a reef tank for a dozen years now and finally got the green light from the Mrs. Decided to go with the 650 because the common thread is that the larger the tank, the more stable it is. I have been reading the amazing advice given at RS on a couple of tank threads and wanted to say reading DianaKay's tank thread has been extremely enjoyable.

I finished setting up the tank last night in my basement and completed a leak test. When I get home this evening I will drain it and put in the 50 gal of SW I have mixed up and start "cooking" the next 50 gal.

 

[goma]

Hi and welcome to RS!!! Friendly bunch of helpful folks here, feel free to ask any questions you may have! :swmfish:

 

[DianaKay]

WELCOME to Reef Sanctuary Joey
and CHEERS for starting a tank thread
Very exciting that you jumped in so deep with that AWESOME TANK
Ready to follow along with your thread...THANKS for reading mine
Any ???s you have just ASK, like Greg just said: lots of helpful members happy to give advice!

 

[Big Pete]

Hi Joey

i agree with Diana why do things by half, good luck and don't forget to post some pics i cannot wait to see it.

cheers

Big Pete

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

to ReefSanctuary amd the RSM Club, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Cheers for starting a tank thread & sharing your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics - after 5 post you can add pics

 

[Joeys Tank]

Pics go up after 5 posts ....

I guess it is story time for a bit then.

I did have an issue with the shipping company used to send my crate.

Two weeks ago ...

I get a call from the shipping dispatcher on Thursday asking when would be a good time to deliver the tank:
Dispatcher: We have Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday currently open
Me: Let's go for Saturday afternoon
Dispatcher: Ok, the delivery window will be between 1pm and 5 pm. We will provide a one-hour call ahead before arrival. Any special instructions?
Me: As long as you get the crate in my garage, I will be happy. No need to get it into the house or anything.
Dispatcher: Sounds good. See you Saturday

One hour later ....
Dispatcher: I am sorry, our shipping office in Denver doesn't have any deliveries going to the Springs on Saturday. Could we move delivery to next week?
Me: Sure thing (things happen). Will Monday work?
Dispatcher: Sure does, see you then.

Monday rolls around. I don't get a call by 3pm so I decide to head home from work and wait. 4:50pm and no call. I contact customer service and ask what is up. I am told that the driver is running late and that he should be at my house by 5:30pm. "So, I guess this is my one-hour call ahead then?"

7:10pm driver finally shows up (with no call).
Driver: Where do you want it?
Me: I was told you would put it in my garage.
Driver: (looking up my driveway) There is no way I am putting it in your garage.

He then goes into the truck and has to move crates around. Seems my crate was put on first so it is at the far end of the freight truck. Driver spends 50 min to get the crate to the back end and down on the street.

Me: A little behind schedule today, I see. Why didn't I get a call-ahead?
Driver: I called you three hours ago and no one picked up.
Me: What number did you call?
(driver shows me the invoice with my cell number on it)
Me: Interesting. I didn't get a call from you on my phone. A neat thing about iPhones is they keep a call log and I don't see your number listed here.
Driver: You calling me a liar?
Me: No, no, no. I just find it odd that the number didn't go through to my phone. Hey, let's look at your cell. It will have it listed there. Perhaps you misdialed.
Driver: I ain't showing you my phone
Me: Ok, now I am calling you a liar.

Driver proceeds to shout at me in the street (I calmly asked him three times to not yell at me) and begins to attempt to put the crate back on the truck.

It's well pass 8pm now, but I am able to call up the dispatcher and detail what is happening. After 15 min of me chatting with the dispatcher (and the driver still trying to get the crate back up on the lift), we agree to just have the driver leave the crate in the street and I will hand carry parts up.

Yay! Fun times.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I would share that story with Red Sea, they drop ship so many tanks, they could choose to not use that carrier again - which one was it?

 

[Wolffman64]

Jeeez what a start!

I hate all the big logistics companies! They have one business idee, transporting things from point a to point b, and they can't even do that right. Here in Australia, and also when I ran the UK business, we used DHL, UPS etc etc, and they are all completely useless and arrogant.

Glad you got the tank at last, and that the driver didn't just push it off from his ramp without lowering it ;-)

Will follow your thread with excitement. Any questions, please just ask. I have a 500 and love it (quite a few mods..)

 

[RedSeaKev]

Pics go up after 5 posts ....

I guess it is story time for a bit then.

I did have an issue with the shipping company used to send my crate.

Two weeks ago ...

I get a call from the shipping dispatcher on Thursday asking when would be a good time to deliver the tank:
Dispatcher: We have Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday currently open
Me: Let's go for Saturday afternoon
Dispatcher: Ok, the delivery window will be between 1pm and 5 pm. We will provide a one-hour call ahead before arrival. Any special instructions?
Me: As long as you get the crate in my garage, I will be happy. No need to get it into the house or anything.
Dispatcher: Sounds good. See you Saturday

One hour later ....
Dispatcher: I am sorry, our shipping office in Denver doesn't have any deliveries going to the Springs on Saturday. Could we move delivery to next week?
Me: Sure thing (things happen). Will Monday work?
Dispatcher: Sure does, see you then.

Monday rolls around. I don't get a call by 3pm so I decide to head home from work and wait. 4:50pm and no call. I contact customer service and ask what is up. I am told that the driver is running late and that he should be at my house by 5:30pm. "So, I guess this is my one-hour call ahead then?"

7:10pm driver finally shows up (with no call).
Driver: Where do you want it?
Me: I was told you would put it in my garage.
Driver: (looking up my driveway) There is no way I am putting it in your garage.

He then goes into the truck and has to move crates around. Seems my crate was put on first so it is at the far end of the freight truck. Driver spends 50 min to get the crate to the back end and down on the street.

Me: A little behind schedule today, I see. Why didn't I get a call-ahead?
Driver: I called you three hours ago and no one picked up.
Me: What number did you call?
(driver shows me the invoice with my cell number on it)
Me: Interesting. I didn't get a call from you on my phone. A neat thing about iPhones is they keep a call log and I don't see your number listed here.
Driver: You calling me a liar?
Me: No, no, no. I just find it odd that the number didn't go through to my phone. Hey, let's look at your cell. It will have it listed there. Perhaps you misdialed.
Driver: I ain't showing you my phone
Me: Ok, now I am calling you a liar.

Driver proceeds to shout at me in the street (I calmly asked him three times to not yell at me) and begins to attempt to put the crate back on the truck.

It's well pass 8pm now, but I am able to call up the dispatcher and detail what is happening. After 15 min of me chatting with the dispatcher (and the driver still trying to get the crate back up on the lift), we agree to just have the driver leave the crate in the street and I will hand carry parts up.

Yay! Fun times.

Hi Joey, I am sorry to hear of your poor experiences with the delivery company, please pm me your email address as I would like to contact you directly.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Jolly good morning, all.

Continuing the slow fill of the tank with RO/DI saltmix. Getting there.

Already had the tank full of tap water for a leak/stress test. No leaks and no cracks!!!

Next up on the agenda is to contact tampabaysaltwater to order the live sand/rock and begin the tank cycling process.

Also, last night I received my Steve's LEDs mod kit (Extreme SPS, 14,000K Full Spectrum JMB Special, 99% completed build). Now is the modifying the tank hood and installing the LEDs. I am a little nervous to be doing the install. Couldn't find an installation guide for the 650 so I am assuming it will be very similar to the 250 guide.

 

[goma]

Good luck with the LED install!

 

[Wolffman64]

Jolly good morning, all.

Continuing the slow fill of the tank with RO/DI saltmix. Getting there.

Already had the tank full of tap water for a leak/stress test. No leaks and no cracks!!!

Next up on the agenda is to contact tampabaysaltwater to order the live sand/rock and begin the tank cycling process.

Also, last night I received my Steve's LEDs mod kit (Extreme SPS, 14,000K Full Spectrum JMB Special, 99% completed build). Now is the modifying the tank hood and installing the LEDs. I am a little nervous to be doing the install. Couldn't find an installation guide for the 650 so I am assuming it will be very similar to the 250 guide.

Hi Joey, I have the same LED install in my 500, and the instructions are not really the same as the 250. Contact Jeff at Steve's LED and he will send some instructions (not very good, but better than nothing)...

One instruction that is OK, is the one that tells you how to dis-assemble the 650 light ramp. Get that one from Jeff. After that you will need to drill the holes, and I was very nervous about that. What is very important before you drill the holes is to measure it correctly. I lined up the LED's inside the canopy to mark where I wanted the holes, but I forgot to also attach the plastic end bits to the canopy, so the actual LED "rods" were fitted too close to the edge and I had to redo some of it. So, do a dryfit with the LED "rods and the plastic endcaps of the canopy in place, before you mark where to drill the vent holes and screw holes to keep the "rods" in place.

Are you going to use the typhon controller? If so, that was the next thing that caused me several hours of extra work. The forgot to send me some cable splitters (since the typon can only control 4 units, and you will have at least 6 (not sure if it's 6 or 8 units of LED's for the 650) LED units to control. I had to manufacture that with cables and soldering at the time.

Last but not least, I would recommend to have extra cables and a soldering iron at hand, since all my cables supplied were too short.

Good luck, and please PM me if you have any questions, I have been there and made a couple of mistakes that I would like for you to avoid.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Thank you very much for the thoughts on the LED install. I made the attempt last night. It was a little intimidating at the beginning until I finally said "whatever, let's start gutting it".

The online installation guide is for the 250 but there was nothing for the 650. Therefore, I tried to look over the 250 instructions and "make it work" for my system. There are several discrepencies. When I dry fit the two LED rods into the "central hood", I noticed that the heat sink fan casing just (just) barely fit under the metal guide tracks in the frame. In fact, it was a very tight fit for the second one not because it was the second but I think a couple of the casing screw heads stuck out a tad bit and made it a very tight fit. I tensed up, cringed and took a rubber mallet to it and got it in (pics to follow once I hit 5 posts and set up a photobucket account).

Finally got both rods in and knew there was no way I was easily getting either one out. Too late to drill in vent holes above the fan assemblies but there is no way those rods are moving. Hooked up the power and the LEDs came on like a champ. I was feeling good. Then came the dimmer switches. The wiring for the switches are not long enough to do much of anything with them. What I decided to do was drill 1/" hole pairs on either side of the central frame in the plastic end caps where the power cords go through. With the washer/nuts, I was able to secure the dimmer switches facing out from the light system. Awesome!! They are now "easily" accessible. I went to reinstall the central frame into the holding bar for the 650 lighting system and noticed that there was a piece of plastic blocking the dimmer switches from sliding in (both sides are notched for power cables to run through the frame and out the back). I took a hack saw to the plastic and dropped the notches down an inch on both sides. Now, the dimmer switches slide into place, are still accessible and are hidden behind the Red Sea Max caps (again, pictures to follow).

Now is the Typhon controller. Without the controller, I had all LEDs lit up. Then I started using the instructions for the Typhon. When they say it is "very easy and if it takes you longer than a minute then you are doing something wrong" .... well, very misleading. Again, there are no photos for the 650 install. The driver photos for the 250 install are different than the driver set up for the 650. I never saw a "wire bridge" or dip switches on my set up. I saw four driver boards but there were 6 LED "strips". I did my best (and perhaps it still requires a learning curve on the programming of the controller), but I am unable to get all of the LEDs to come on full again.

The controller is a problem I still need to tackle. I was wondering if the Apex controller can do the same increasing/decreasing of LED intensity as the Typhon does via the LED power supply or do I need to patch in to the drivers on the LED rods. If the Apex easily does it, I may just remove the Typhon altogether.

All said and done, Steve's LEDs has a long way to go for the 650 installation guide (i.e. it doesn't exist). Don't take it personal if the instructions say "so easy, you should have it done in less than 30 minutes" and it ends up taking you several hours.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Huge props and a shout out to Red Sea Kev!!!!!

I received an email this morning from Scott Kohler at Red Sea North America asking me about my delivery experiences. I forwarded him the email I sent to both R+L Carriers and Acrylic Aquariums Direct on 8 July and mentioned that I didn't receive a reply or ackowledgement from either company over the last 10 days. Scott offered up an appology and said he would contact them. He also offered a Calc, Mag, Alk test kit for the troubles.

Huge thank you to Scott and Red Sea for reaching out like this. While they had nothing to do with the delivery process, it shows great customer service of the company!!

 

[Joeys Tank]

Ok, after some more research I think I may need to pull apart the central hood again.

1) The Typhon instructions say only one black wire needs to be used and none of the green wires. However, I am thinking each driver connection needs to have a ground.
2) I also read that even though I didn't see any dip switches, they should be there. Perhaps covered up with some yellow tape. I will need to hunt these bad boys down or else the Typhon won't work.
3) Since I dry fit both of the LED rods and heat sink fans and it was a tight fit, I was unable to pull them back out to drill the vent holes for the exhaust fans. I had originally thought the fans would be ok since I was feeling air flow but I start to doubt myself. I may end up turning the frame over and SLOWLY drill vent holes upside down to let gravity pull the aluminum shavings down to minimize debris in the fan assembly. This one worries me some

 

[Joeys Tank]

Yay, over 5 posts. Here come some pics.

First pic is the 80% solution on assembly.



Second is completed system (without lights) and doing the SW fill



Here is the Steve's LEDs retrofit kit



And the LEDs mounted in the center hood



Final pic is how/where I mounted the dimmer switches so they fit into the cable slots on the frame. They will be covered up along with the wires by the Red Sea Max logo plate.

 

[Naj117]

Looking good mate

 

[Joeys Tank]

Ok, played around with the LEDs some more. Was able to get the Typhon controller to work with the system. It was dip switches. Note to others, they are very very small and most likely have a translucent yellow tape over them so it may be difficult to track down.

Still worries about cutting the exhaust holes while the assembly is still in the frame. Need to go very slow and very softly.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Finished with the LEDs. Power working, Typhon controller working, and instead of cutting behind the exhaust fans (didn't want to risk damage) I drilled holes 1' apart down the center line. 150 lbs of live sand and the first 150 lbs of live rock shows up tomorrow.

 

[Joeys Tank]

Whew, what a day. Drove up to Denver International this afternoon and picked up 150lbs of sand and 150lbs of rock from Tampabaysaltwater. There were several hitchhikers mixed in. Haven't taken any photos yet because of the cloudy water but hope to get several tomorrow after it clears. There looked to be a sea cucumber in there (don't think he survived), three different types of starfish, a handful of hermit crabs and several snails. The rock itself had a bunch of life on them as well.

Sump is working well, ATO doing its job, heaters are running .... Will get the skimmer working in the morning (want to give the bacteria some time to settle out).

Cheers