Oxy's RSM250

Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
I never started a reef thread, so here it goes....

A little background - I've been keeping FW tanks since around '89. Began keeping marine fish in '96. By 2000 I had five tanks running in my house! Including a tank of gold fish which I used to practice fish tagging methods on. Also during 2000-2005 I was maintaining a touch tank for a science center, inverts for biological studies, and maintaining lfs's tanks. Took a hiatus from keeping home tanks from 2002-2007. In early 2008 I set up a 40g marine fish and mobile invert tank.

In Oct. 2011, I purchased a RSM250 and began to transfer all inhabitants from the 40g to the RSM250. At the time I had three tanks running, now I'm down to the RSM250 and a turtle tank w/guppies.

Evolution of the RSM250


October 2011


Spent Oct-Mar researching sps and determining what I wanted in my tank. Also filled tank with sand and bought additional live rock. Once cycle was complete, transferred all mobile inverts from 40g to RSM250. I took the set-up very slowly...


March 2012


The tank had some issues with heating up so added a chiller to the system. Also, added ATO and upgraded the heater.

In March purchased my first batch of sps corals and two 5 month old clowns (from someone who bred them outside Baltimore).


March 2012




Aiptasia went on a breeding spree and the tank also began to get some cyano.


April 2012


Purchased a few more sps corals, and lost a few of the original ones that I bought....


April 2012 The Ugly Phase


Almost all tanks go through an ugly phase and towards the end of April my RSM250 did - got the cyano out, but began to get a horrible thick hair-type (filamentous) green macroalgae that I believe is Chlorodesmis fastigiata. To this day, still haven't found any inverts that eat it. It has herbivore-deterrent properties to prevent being eaten. And aiptasia still is not in check, so I kept ordering more and more peppermint shrimp.

In June, I had a temperature control problem and lost some sps. I was also dealing with a light combo that I wasn't happy with.

Aiptasia is still the bane of my tank. I had up to four different peppermint shrimp in the tank, not a one would go for them.



In Nov, I had to deal with a power outage. Thanks to suggests from folks here, made it through w/out any issues.


Dec 2012



By Spring 2013, I began a thread showing a years growth of my Monties.


July 2013



Sept 2013


In Sept, I had an issue w/super glue. My smallest clown decided to eat a mouth full of fresh soft super glue. It is still alive, thank goodness.


Oct 2013
 
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ReefLady

ReefLady

Well-Known Member
Staff member
Looking great! Love the progress pics and looks like you're getting some nice growth now!
 
G

Gasturbineguy

Member
Yes... well done so far. If the lil aips still annoy ya try some aiptaisa eating nudis. They're crazy good at their job but not sure you ever really get rid of that pest, I never did. One of the main reasons I'm re-doing my tank(s). I have one of the original Aiptasers that doesn't electrocute them as much as produce a very localized chlorine bubble I guess. They really hate that tool lol. Good luck and nice pics! :wave:
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
I should add one more thing. For the filtration system, I am running the tank w/only a skimmer and carbon (I took out all the foam and ceramic pellet-things). And by doing this my nitrates came under control and the algae is no longer an issue. Come to think of it, it was around this time my corals began to grow faster also. So, I stand by the old saying, less is more.

Equipment:
ATO - Tunze 3155
Chiller - JBJ Arctica
Heater - Eheim
Skimmer - Stock model
Refractometer - Milwaukee MA887
RODI - Typhoon III
6xT5HOs (front to back)
*ATI Coral Plus
*RS Actinic
*ATI Coral Plus
*RS Actinic
*RS 10,000K
*ATI Actinic
 
whippetguy

whippetguy

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
PREMIUM
Just curious, do you dose anything? If not, how often and how much do you do water changes? This is a really nice example of being patient and good things will happen.
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Gasturbineguy said:
If the lil aips still annoy ya try some aiptaisa eating nudis. They're crazy good at their job but not sure you ever really get rid of that pest, I never did. One of the main reasons I'm re-doing my tank(s). I have one of the original Aiptasers that doesn't electrocute them as much as produce a very localized chlorine bubble I guess. They really hate that tool lol.
Click to expand...

I have never eradicated the aips. They are currently under control.

Well lets see, since the RSM250 inherited all rocks and organisms from my 40g tank, I'd say the tank is about 5 years old, that is how long I have been battling aips (off and on) on these same rocks. You see, I get lazy and let them multiply and then try to tackle getting rid of them all at once. The peps have never kept them in check. I am currently down to one little pep who does go after them, but only after I apply aiptasiaX. I'm sure the pep goes after the little ones. But, for the large ones, the pep will only attack and tear the aip apart after I apply aiptasiaX. It is very strange behavior. But, the aip is larger then the pep, so I'm sure that is the reason why the pep doesn't attack them.

You can't tell by looking at the photos, but there is a large space behind all the rocks (almost all my rocks are flat in shape). The large rock in the center is flat and is leaning against the back of the tank, which provides ample space behind that I can't reach and I'm sure allows for aip growth. Although looking back there from the sides of the tank I can't see any aips.

BTW - It has took me ~2 years of hitting all the lfs in the VA, MD, DC area to gather the flattest rocks I could find.... ;)
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
whippetguy said:
Just curious, do you dose anything? If not, how often and how much do you do water changes? This is a really nice example of being patient and good things will happen.
Click to expand...

I don't dose anything. Not yet. And hope to not have to. Is it possible to reach a plateau of coral growth where I can maintain coral polyp life w/o growth? That is my target.

I do weekly water changes. About 4 gallon changes weekly. I use one of those standard home depot 5 gallon buckets. Early on I would do water changes based on the calcium and nitrate levels, more often as needed to bring down the nitrate levels. But I haven't had to deal with nitrate issues over the last several months.

I have to say that several things happened around the same time. I switched to the red sea coral plus around the same time that I took the sponges and ceramic out of the tank. The calcium in the tank rose and the nitrates diminished. I was able to get that turf macroalgae under control and the corals started to grow faster. Oh and I found a light balance where the tank wasn't too blue, too purple, or too yellow. The orange looks orange, the greens look green, and the purples and pinks look purple and pink - I'm not a fan of blue tanks.

I think one of my early on issues also had to do with the old rocks seeping nitrates back out into the water. In 2008 I had bought all my rocks from a lfs that was closing, I had the choice of any rocks from any of their tanks. The rocks were old to begin with. Once I switched to a reef tank (from a fish and mobile invert tank) I started to use RODI water and that is when I got that horrible turf algae (but only on the old rocks).
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Fantastic thread Oxy! Love that you took and saved pictures from along the way :thumbup:
Thanks for starting this thread, look forward to more pictures & progress updates...
tank looks great! :snshne:
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Current inhabitants:

Montipora
Greensleeves digitata,
ORA German Blue Polyp Digitata,
Orange digitata,
Purple Haze,
Grape Capricorns,
Palawanensis

Stylophora
ORA Green

Fish
2x Black and White Clowns (Amphiprion ocellaris),
1x Tailspot blenny (Ecsenius stigmatura),
1x Coral Beauty Angelfish (Centropyge bispinosa)

Mobile Inverts
2x Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp,
1x Peppermint shrimp,
1x Blue Tuxedo Urchin,
1x Sally lightfoot crab,
1x blue leg hermit,
1x red leg hermit,
3x Hawaiian dwarf zebra hermits,
2x Cerith Snail,
2x Nerite Snail,
2x margarita snails,
4x Nassarius snails,
2x Mexican turbo snail,

Many hitchhikers, including:
collonista snails
brittle stars,
orange and white ball sponges, and
red Pseudocorynactis white-tipped anemones
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Mobile Inverts



Mr. Potato Head urchin (carrying a monti frag)


Mr. Potato Head urchin is always carrying something


Sally's mesmerizing eyes


Hawaiian dwarf hermit in new shell


Hawaiian dwarf hermit same shell covered in coralline algae (coralline algae even covered its eye).
 
Oxylebius

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, I killed my 'Mr. Potato Head' urchin. Was using the mag-float, trying to hurry cleaning the glass swiping back and forth real fast and BAM - hit the urchin, who was hanging out under the outflow in the corner. I heard the crack of the test from outside the tank (test: calcium skeleton of urchin). I was hoping that it would heal and survive, no luck, it stopped carrying shell bits, then lost all its spins, now it sits an empty shell at the bottom of the tank behind some rocks. :(

I'm so angry at myself....









The urchin carried that live coral frag around for a good 6 weeks or so, I found that frag one day laying on the sand and glued it on the rocks again... the frag still lives even after being carried all around the tank.
 
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