spiraling
Well-Known Member
Hello!
I found these RSM owners threads while I was dreaming about getting a RSM 650. Maybe one day, especially when they are avaialable with LED's. But for now I have the 130.
I got it on CL a year ago for a steal. I keep freshwater fish and I thought the RSM would be a good breeding tank. But then I started to think about saltwater since I suddenly had a complete system, and the bug bit me!
So I set it up as a marine tank last October. Here is a photo of the original rock work. It was part dry rock I got off ebay, live rock from someone else on CL, and some live rock from my LFS.
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The rock was just stacked. But it kept falling over. And it always fell over onto any corals I had in the tank.
We tried all sorts of ways to attach the rock. The superglue/epoxy combo didn't work. The rock fell apart immediately after the set time was up. I also didn't like leaving the live pieces out of the water for so long. We tried drilling it so we could insert acrylic rods. Using a quality drill and a masonry bit we gave up after 10 minutes and had a hole that as maybe a half an inch deep. I'm not sure what other people use for this system, but I didn't have the patience. Finally I used quikrete which worked pretty well. Now after about 6 months some of the pieces are coming apart, so I'll have to re-attach them.
I've had my share of ups and downs with the tank. The cool hitchikers I got were mushrooms (green and purple), little brittle stars, tiny feather dusters. The bad ones were aiptasia (of course) and caulerpa bryopsis. I also got things like bristle worms, which I find annoying, but are a good indicator that I'm overfeeding. Joes juice and a few peppermint shrimp got rid of the aiptasia, or at least keeps it in check. One year later and I'm still battling the caulerpa. I was also given a dying sun coral with the live rock that I have been trying to nurse back to health.
I let my tank cycle for several months. We loved seeing the little life forms that would appear on the rocks. Then I put in my CUC and started getting corals. I battled algae of many types, including a recent and long lived cyano outbreak.
I wanted to start a thread about my tank because, unlike most of you, my tank still looks like crap after a year. When I started dreaming of a 650 to have a beautiful large tank, I had an extreme reality check that I need to help out my current tank. I'll try to get some current pictures today so you understand what I'm talking about.
I found these RSM owners threads while I was dreaming about getting a RSM 650. Maybe one day, especially when they are avaialable with LED's. But for now I have the 130.
I got it on CL a year ago for a steal. I keep freshwater fish and I thought the RSM would be a good breeding tank. But then I started to think about saltwater since I suddenly had a complete system, and the bug bit me!
So I set it up as a marine tank last October. Here is a photo of the original rock work. It was part dry rock I got off ebay, live rock from someone else on CL, and some live rock from my LFS.
The rock was just stacked. But it kept falling over. And it always fell over onto any corals I had in the tank.
We tried all sorts of ways to attach the rock. The superglue/epoxy combo didn't work. The rock fell apart immediately after the set time was up. I also didn't like leaving the live pieces out of the water for so long. We tried drilling it so we could insert acrylic rods. Using a quality drill and a masonry bit we gave up after 10 minutes and had a hole that as maybe a half an inch deep. I'm not sure what other people use for this system, but I didn't have the patience. Finally I used quikrete which worked pretty well. Now after about 6 months some of the pieces are coming apart, so I'll have to re-attach them.
I've had my share of ups and downs with the tank. The cool hitchikers I got were mushrooms (green and purple), little brittle stars, tiny feather dusters. The bad ones were aiptasia (of course) and caulerpa bryopsis. I also got things like bristle worms, which I find annoying, but are a good indicator that I'm overfeeding. Joes juice and a few peppermint shrimp got rid of the aiptasia, or at least keeps it in check. One year later and I'm still battling the caulerpa. I was also given a dying sun coral with the live rock that I have been trying to nurse back to health.
I let my tank cycle for several months. We loved seeing the little life forms that would appear on the rocks. Then I put in my CUC and started getting corals. I battled algae of many types, including a recent and long lived cyano outbreak.
I wanted to start a thread about my tank because, unlike most of you, my tank still looks like crap after a year. When I started dreaming of a 650 to have a beautiful large tank, I had an extreme reality check that I need to help out my current tank. I'll try to get some current pictures today so you understand what I'm talking about.