Roy's Red Sea Max C-250

[Roy Page]

This is an awesome moment when I have plucked up enough courage to start this thread which will chronicle me taking the plunge for the very first time into reef keeping.
To keep the lovely lady happy and match our house woodwork, I have gone for the Red Sea Max C-250 in White

Kept freshwater tropical tanks in the distant past and had a sizable Koi pool with extensive filtration back in England before we crossed the pond in 1998 to work in NE Ohio.
So I know a little bit about water filtration but know almost nothing at all about reef keeping and saltwater chemistry!

So with the RSM probably arriving on Monday, today was the day to get all the stuff ready for its arrival so the tank setting up could begin.
We keep a fishing boat in Vermilion on Lake Erie so I am making Salty Critter there my LFS.

So far I have bought the following:-

Red Sea Refractometer
Red Sea Pro Testing Kit
50 lbs of Live Rock
40 lbs of Live Sand
60 lbs of Instant Ocean

I have set up a "tank" in the garage to hold the live rock so I also bought a Fluval canister filter and a 300 watt heater to keep the Live Rock cosy and ready to go in the C-250 when it is set up.

So the live rock is now in the temporary tank with the water salinity at 1.025 and 78° with a flow of water washing through the tank.

Question:
The Live Rock has been in the shop tanks for quite a while, Dan, the owner, suggests that it is fully cured and not to expect an Ammonia spike following by the normal rise in Nitrite and as that falls a rise in Nitrate.
I will be following the Red Sea Reef Mature kit so not sure when the CUC will need to go in, maybe just wait for the first signs of hair algae and put them in then or maybe before the hair algae starts ?

Here are photos of the live rock in their temporary home

Roy

 

[Mark9]

Rock looks really good.

 

[goma]

Question:
The Live Rock has been in the shop tanks for quite a while, Dan, the owner, suggests that it is fully cured and not to expect an Ammonia spike following by the normal rise in Nitrite and as that falls a rise in Nitrate.
I will be following the Red Sea Reef Mature kit so not sure when the CUC will need to go in, maybe just wait for the first signs of hair algae and put them in then or maybe before the hair algae starts ?

Roy

This can be a somewhat tough question to answer so I'll give you this advice. He is correct that you might not get a large cycle to include an ammonia spike, however you still might so that is the risk. My advice is to get all the water, live rock and sand in the tank, get your skimmer up and running and then add a raw deli shrimp to the tank. You can mush it up and put it in a media bag or just wedge it between some rocks and start testing. The rotting shrimp will be an ammonia source so if your rock is good enough and it contains enough beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia to Nitrites and then Nitrates, you will in fact see no ammonia rise and then you will know it is safe enough to add livestock.

Here's a good read:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...something-cycling-breaking-new-reef-tank.html

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Welcome to RS & the RSM Club Roy ! Cheers for starting a tank thread so we can follow along ! Congrats on the lovely RSM C250 !

Your rock looks great, Greg's advise ^ is spot on & exactly how I would proceed too !!! Sounds like you have a good plan

 

[DianaKay]

YAY for starting a tank thread Roy :yehoo:
Very exciting that You are sharing your new RSM C-250 with us
Nice pictures of your rock...I love a thread with LOTS OF PICTURES
Do you have a RO-Di water system set up or plans to get one?

 

[Roy Page]

This can be a somewhat tough question to answer so I'll give you this advice. He is correct that you might not get a large cycle to include an ammonia spike, however you still might so that is the risk. My advice is to get all the water, live rock and sand in the tank, get your skimmer up and running and then add a raw deli shrimp to the tank. You can mush it up and put it in a media bag or just wedge it between some rocks and start testing. The rotting shrimp will be an ammonia source so if your rock is good enough and it contains enough beneficial bacteria to convert the ammonia to Nitrites and then Nitrates, you will in fact see no ammonia rise and then you will know it is safe enough to add livestock.

Here's a good read:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums...something-cycling-breaking-new-reef-tank.html

Thanks for the link Greg, Good reading !

As I will be using the RS Reef Mature Kit, I am supposing that I will also still need to add the shrimp as well ?

Roy

 

[Roy Page]

Welcome to RS & the RSM Club Roy ! Cheers for starting a tank thread so we can follow along ! Congrats on the lovely RSM C250 !

Your rock looks great, Greg's advise ^ is spot on & exactly how I would proceed too !!! Sounds like you have a good plan

I am very pleased with the rock, my strategy was to let the LFS owner pick the pieces after I told him the size of the tank.
I reckoned he would do better than me anyway, and he carefully went through his 4 big tanks and found a nice selection of sizes and shapes, arranging them to form a basic aquas-cape, which I photographed.
Hopefully I can re-create that structure again during the next week or so.

It is most definitely live rock, I have at least one inhabitant, who crawled out during the night.
Small body, brown, 6 or 8 "tentacles", maybe 2" in size in spread out. Hope its nothing nasty as it has disappeared during the day.

The new "garage tank" 300 watt heater was way out of calibration, had to add some cool water this morning to get the temp down from about 84° to 78°.
So that meant playing with the salinity, which I think was good practice.
I am using the RS Refractometer and it is back up now to 1.026, again I think this is all good practice ready for starting the tank, which should arrive on Monday.

Roy

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

did your hh (hitchhiker) happen to look like this?

 

[Roy Page]

Hello Diana,

Nice to meet you.
You might regret encouraging me to post lots of photos
Photography and video taking / editing is a long time hobby of my wife and I.
We take great pleasure in recording all the family adventures and many videos get posted on our YouTube channel >>> http://www.youtube.com/g4dyr
[fyi G4DYR = British Amateur Radio Callsign]

You asked did I have an RO unit. This is going to be a lengthy reply !

I have an older unit which was providing drinking water which I installed shortly after building our home here in Damascus Ohio.
At the moment it is on standby with a new membrane ready to be used for starting the tank, however read on...............

Remembering that I have no previous practical knowledge of maintaining a seawater reef, I do have an avid technical interest in totally understanding whatever we do.
This learning curve is steep, but I want to understand it well and I am currently studying the water that appears out of our home taps. [Don't flame me please]

Living in a rural area we have our own water well and after that well had settled down, I designed my own water filtration system to remove dissolved iron and also methane gas.
Essentially the system works by aerating the water in a pressure vessel to oxidize the dissolved iron into spheroidal form which can then be mechanically filtered out through gravel and then through activated carbon filters which are back washed once a week by automatic valving and timers. The resulting water feeds our home and is very tasty so the RO unit was disconnected.

The well water is derived from a limestone aquifer which starts at 250 feet below ground level and I pump the water from the 350 ft level.
Currently our tap water TDS stands at 220 and I am working with a Chemist to determine the actually TDS content.
I believe that Calcium may contribute at least 50% of the TDS and that may be beneficial to reef keeping.
I might add that the water has a pH of 8.1 which I monitor and record as part of that system

For the initial tank filling and care over the first couple of months I will be using my RO unit, but I do want to experiment with using my own filtered house supply down the road, when I know exactly what solids are dissovled in the water.

Roy

 

[Roy Page]

did your hh (hitchhiker) happen to look like this?

Exactly, that is the beast !

What is it ?

Roy

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Micro Brittle Star - great members of the cuc (clean up crew) love all of mine, they can get back in the rocks and eat debris where snails can't reach

Enjoyed your dive vid ! See the little "film strip" icon, click on it & paste in your youtube url & it will appear like this

[video=youtube;VxfP4JUfMO8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxfP4JUfMO8#t=35[/video]

 

[Roy Page]

Micro Brittle Star - great members of the cuc (clean up crew) love all of mine, they can get back in the rocks and eat debris where snails can't reach

Enjoyed your dive vid ! See the little "film strip" icon, click on it & paste in your youtube url & it will appear like this

[video=youtube;VxfP4JUfMO8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxfP4JUfMO8#t=35[/video]

Glenn thanks for identifying, what I now know, is a welcome hitchhiker.

Also thanks for hint of how to include a Youtube video.
Although I have wanted to keep a marine aquarium for decades, it was getting our Open Water Dive certificates in January and using them again in March that really turned the wick up on this interest.
I will try to video all the activity as I open and assemble the RSM C-250 and start the process of building our own bit of ocean here in Ohio.

This morning my live rock tank in the garage is looking good.
Salinity 1.026
pH 8.2
Temp 25.6°C / 78° F

No sign of the brittle star.

Roy

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

I am a diver too & only getting to dive in the oceans on vacations (inland lakes get old), is what made me get a swt too

 

[Roy Page]

I am a diver too & only getting to dive in the oceans on vacations (inland lakes get old), is what made me get a swt too

Glenn, like yourself, I must say that I have no interest in diving in quarries and even on Lake Erie where we fish, it is of little interest when you have been fortunate enough to do it on coral reefs.

Roy

 

[Roy Page]

The Max C-250 arrived this morning.
I was advised that it was 350 lbs so had it dropped at the company and then trucked it home in two pieces.

This evening, I unpacked it all and spent 2 hours building the cabinet which is finished minus doors and fitting the power centre.

I am very pleased with the way it was packed and no damage at all.
Everything is high quality with very good finish on the cabinet.

The one bad thing - Oh my what terrible assemble instructions ! - Really Red Sea you can do better than this !
Cabinet assembly instructions with very small diagrams, no real instructions at all.
Same goes for the main "Installation and Operation manual" tiny diagrams and ambiguous instructions.
As a mechanical engineer I often need to write machinery manuals, annotated photos are so much better than tiny unreadable line diagrams.
Ok had my rant, very pleased with the C-250 so far.

Because of the lack of easy to read instructions I have questions about the filtration equipment:-

Skimmer - Do you have to trim the rubber tube to length because it is about 5 or 6 inches too long ?
Skimmer - Where does the air valve actually fit ? Mentioned but no diagram !
Circulation Pumps - Should there be 4 rubber "sucker" feet to go in each pump base ? There are slots for them but no feet. No Diagram.
And I expect the list goes on because I have not yet got this jigsaw puzzle totally assembled as yet.

But I made progress and here are a number photos for anyone who has never seen a Max C-250 arrive and be unboxed.
Did I say, I am really pleased so far

Tomorrow I should be able to get the power centre fitted into the cabinet and the tank positioned on top of it.

Its been a good few hours

Roy

 

[DianaKay]

Thank for sharing your Turks & Caicos Dive Video...that was AWESOME!
I LVE THAT PLACE! My kids took me there & we stayed a week at the WindSong Resort.
Someday I for sure want to go back there. I only snorkeled the reefs in front of the resort but it was AMAZING :snshne: best vacation ever :snshne:

Your tap water TDS sounds high to me as mine goes into my RO-Di system at 0.48 most of the time & always out at 0.00 TDS. It's the evaporation concentration that kinda worries me so I'm glad my TDS reads zero.

Hope to see Lots & LOTS MORE pictures & videos

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Fantastic post & pics !!! enjoyed

Some of the new C 250 owners will have to advise on theses questions... as you have the "new & improved" C Skimmer

Skimmer - Do you have to trim the rubber tube to length because it is about 5 or 6 inches too long ?
Skimmer - Where does the air valve actually fit ? Mentioned but no diagram !
Circulation Pumps - Should there be 4 rubber "sucker" feet to go in each pump base ? There are slots for them but no feet. No Diagram.

You can also ask Kevin our Red SeaTech Support Mgr here...
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/red-sea/37228-ask-red-sea.html

Looks like you are making good progress ! I really like the white

 

[Roy Page]

Thank for sharing your Turks & Caicos Dive Video...that was AWESOME!
I LVE THAT PLACE! My kids took me there & we stayed a week at the WindSong Resort.
Someday I for sure want to go back there. I only snorkeled the reefs in front of the resort but it was AMAZING :snshne: best vacation ever :snshne:

Your tap water TDS sounds high to me as mine goes into my RO-Di system at 0.48 most of the time & always out at 0.00 TDS. It's the evaporation concentration that kinda worries me so I'm glad my TDS reads zero.

Hope to see Lots & LOTS MORE pictures & videos

Thanks Diana,

Providenciales offers some really good wall diving and snorkeling on Smith's Reef which is often pretty much deserted.
We are intending to go to either the Cayman Islands or Bonaire next Winter and get another dose of reef diving. Just wonderful stuff !

I have started my older RO unit but it is very slow. But will have enough water to start the tank, which will not be for another week as we have visitors arriving from England.

Question:
What do you store your RO water in ? And how long do you mix it before a water change ?

I am taking video as I build the C-250 and assemble the footage and get it on YouTube as time goes on.
Trying to get out of the office early today to get to the tank !!

Roy

 

[DianaKay]

My RO-Di unit is a BRS 5-Stage 75 GPD. http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-5-stage-plus-ro-di-system-75gpd.html
And I make my water up in a 25 gal. Brute container about 2 days before I do a WC.
I don't try to actually store more that 3gal. that I use for top-off water.
I keep a spare pump & heater for easy mixing.
My system stays set up inside a spare bathtub because I flooded 3 rooms when it wasn't where it could go down the drain & I forgot to turn it off. :smack:

 

[Roy Page]

Thanks Diana,

Well I left the office on time and got a bit more of the C-250 assembly done.
Must say it matches the room very well and with the lights on .................. Awesome ....:turntable

So still got to put the main 2 pumps in and then will be ready to start building my reef.

We have friends from England arriving tomorrow so progress will stop till next week.

A few more photos taken minutes ago.

Roy