Rien his RSM C 250 adventure

[Rini]

Oh yes, she is the cutest (is it a word?) helper. Sometimes when she is helping things take a bit longer. No problem we both enjoy it.
In our Nano tank we have an percnon gibessi, he was part of tue CUC. We called him LEO. If we come downstairs in the morning the first thing she says : Leo kijken, Leo kijken (want to see Leo!)
LEO : Lomp En Onhandig (something like : clumsy and awkward). Since he is clumsy!

Ok. serious talk now!
Day 3 of the 21 day step plan of Red sea.
Amazing how close the results are.
Today i tested the water for : Nitrate / Nitrite /KH / PH / Ammonia





The skimmer is slowly doing the job. Still get an half cup full of water with some foam on daily base. So i just throw it away, and clean it and put it back.

Made a small movie with the phone to give an impression how it is looking right now.
There is probably not much to skim at this point in time.

Further everything seems pretty good going. The tank is today a bit more cloudy as yesterday.
The ATO still does a good job. The water level is stabile.

Ready for day 4 in the step plan

 

[Rini]

Glad to hear all went well!

The sponges are handled differently by different people (assuming you mean the two big black sponges). Some people put them, but clean them once a week and some people don't use them at all because if you don't clean them well once a week they can hurt your water quality. A lot of people use them for a while and then decide they aren't worth it and take them out. They are there to protect the pumps primarily.

Most of us use the bags of carbon that came with it while cycling and then switch to chemi pure elite when we out corals/fish in.

We have some people here that used the reef mature kit. I didn't so I can't comment well.

About the carbon. Do i need to put both carbon bags in the media rack at the same time?

The sponges are no go. On my left side is the ATO system, and to remove that a few times a week is to much trouble i think. Only put the sponge on the right side probably does not really do anything.
Must say there is not much floating around within the water at this moment.

 

[Pat24601]

While you are cycling, I'd say it doesn't really matter how much carbon you put in, but I put both in the media rack at the same time. Once I was cycled, I threw both away and put in chemi pure elite because I wanted the gfo. Really, you don't even really need it while cycling. It just (theoretically) helps clear up the water a little bit and why not use them up?

I don't use the sponges in my system. I don't typically recommend what people do one way or the other, but I personally find them difficult to clean and a nitrate trap. So, I agree with the decision to leave them out.

I do put some filter floss in the media rack. I'm not sure how much good it does, but it gets dirty so it does clean up things a bit. (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B50UPE0/?tag=reefsanc-20) I throw it away and replace it once a week with my water change. It's super cheap and easy, so why not?

 

[Steve Lane]

Did someone say they wanted a cycling shrimp?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

 

[Rini]

Problem with à cycling shrimp to much iron in the water.


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[Steve Lane]

The same RSM 250 as mine.

 

[Rini]

Mean while we landed on Day 4 of the step plan.
Day 4 & 5 are lazy days it seems. just have to add 7,5 ml NO3-PO4-X.
Regarding the description algue will start to bloom from now on.


Tomorrow another lazy day, just add 7.5 ml of NO3-PO4-X.

The 2 carbon bags I have put in an bucket with water. Seems it is good to keep it 24 hours in the water before you put it into the aquarium.

we have high summer here in the NL. Temp above 30C. The tank is currently 28C. Have powered of the lighting otherwise it will probably get to hot.

What I understand is that temperature is a struggle with the red sea aquariums if you do not have an chiller. Gladly our summers are not that hot here.
If I keep the temperature with lighting out at max 28c guess it is ok for a short period of time.

 

[Steve Lane]

While you are cycling, I'd say it doesn't really matter how much carbon you put in, but I put both in the media rack at the same time. Once I was cycled, I threw both away and put in chemi pure elite because I wanted the gfo. Really, you don't even really need it while cycling. It just (theoretically) helps clear up the water a little bit and why not use them up?

I don't use the sponges in my system. I don't typically recommend what people do one way or the other, but I personally find them difficult to clean and a nitrate trap. So, I agree with the decision to leave them out.

I do put some filter floss in the media rack. I'm not sure how much good it does, but it gets dirty so it does clean up things a bit. (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B50UPE0/?tag=reefsanc-20) I throw it away and replace it once a week with my water change. It's super cheap and easy, so why not?

You would put the floss in the upper partition of the rack I take it Pat?

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[Pat24601]

You would put the floss in the upper partition of the rack I take it Pat?

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Yes. Theoretically, it would be better at the bottom since the water flow goes from bottom to top. That would give the filter floss a chance to clean the water before it got to the carbon and help make the carbon last longer.

That said, my media rack is a pita to get in and out. So, I put the filter floss on top so it's easy to remove and replace once a week without taking the media rack out. If it was on the bottom, I'd never change it and it would become a nitrate factory.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

82F imo not bad... here a good read

http://www.ronshimek.com/salinity_temperature.html

 

[Rini]

So. we are landed at day 6 of the reef mature program.
Today checked some stuff as requested:

PH 8.3
dKH 8.3
Had to add come corralline to bring the dKH to 8.4.
Another 7,5 ml nopox added. Things looking good so far.





1 question i have. I hav put my lightbulks in this order: 2 blue 3x white and on top the pink one.
I do not read anything about an special order in the manual.
Does it matter in what order to place?

 

[Pat24601]

Order does matter for appearance. It will look a little different depending on the order. You can experiment and see what you like. I did this (from front to back).

1) actinic (blue)
2) aquapink (pink)
3) actinic (blue)
4) aquablue (white)
5) actinic (blue)
6) aquablue (white)

 

[Rini]

Will try that. Have the feeling that i should not experiment to much, the system where the bulbs click in look a bit fragile.

Have no put in the same order. Can't say i see much difference. If i must guess a tiny bit less blue'ish.

 

[Pat24601]

Will try that. Have the feeling that i should not experiment to much, the system where the bulbs click in look a bit fragile.

Have no put in the same order. Can't say i see much difference. If i must guess a tiny bit less blue'ish.

Sounds good. I'd say leave it like it is then. It doesn't make a major difference really. No.

 

[Rini]

Will keep it this way.
Further i'm wondering about the cycling method we use here at the NL. Here it is pretty common that you wait with the sand till the cycling is done. Some even wait longer. And they advice to have max 1 - 1,5 centimeter of sand.
At the forums here I read regular that sand goes directly in a new fresh tank. And many times i see much more sand as what they describe here in the NL.

Wondering what is smart to do. Seems if you add the sand directly it get dirty from all stuff that comes in your cycling period. Stuff that comes from the rocks.

I'm a bit lost on this subject. Any advice is welcome.

 

[Rini]

Meanwhile we are on day 7 of the red sea step plan
Things going pretty as it is described in the manual of the reef mature pro kit.

PH 8.4
dKH 8.6
Nitrite : 1 (coming down from 3 earlier this week)
Ammonia : not able to measure. Close to 0.
Added the suggest doses of Bacto start / Nitro Bac / Nopox / Coralline.


I found an hitchhiker last night. Looks like a snail. Any idea's?
Think the creature is around 1 - 1,5 cm long and 0,5 cm wide.

 

[Pat24601]

On sand, there are a lot of ways to do sand beds and none of them are wrong. Here is a post DaveK recently wrote on the topic. Anything from no sand bed, to 1.5 inches, to deep sand beds. They are all OK.

How much live sand?

Everyone I know puts sand in before the cycle. I've never read the pros and cons of doing anything else, so I can't comment intelligently.

 

[Rini]

Indeed thats the difference with here. The comments here are:
If you put in sand directly, the sand will go very dirty because of live rock, that keep dripping "mess" out of it. (can't find the correct english words, sorry).
With an sandbed more as 2 cm, the comment this will be an nitrate issue. Dirt goes in the sand pretty deep, stays there. As soon you whirl around in the sand, it will come in the tank.

thats why i ask here. Since there is apparently no good or bad way. With us they wait with the sand. And things go pretty OK. And here they put in sand directly and it goes OK as well

Will grab some sand next week probably. Think the red sea pinkish. Looks pretty cool.

 

[akejan]

I think it's better to wait with the sand if you use LR. Then you can vacuum up The dirt from the rocks.
If you use fine sand the debris will stay on the surface. You can have a 1-4cm deep sandbed without any problems.