RSM (Red Sea Max) Owners Club

[Reefmack]

Reefmack -- Good call on trimming the anthelia near my SPS. That stuff grows like mad! I've been fighting to keep it confined to one piece of Tonga branch LR.

Hi - I wasn't sure if that was Xenia or Anthelia. I had Xenia trying to take over my tank a few months ago and I think after a few months of cutting it off the rock I've finally won the battle. Xenia is pretty and fast growing but it grows like a weed and when you place it low it grows upward and sideways, leaving colonies all over. I think I should start an Anti-Xenia Club LOL! What type of SPS is that you have up there? I though Montipora digitata at first, but maybe a birdsnest?

 

[arh]

Hi - I wasn't sure if that was Xenia or Anthelia. I had Xenia trying to take over my tank a few months ago and I think after a few months of cutting it off the rock I've finally won the battle. Xenia is pretty and fast growing but it grows like a weed and when you place it low it grows upward and sideways, leaving colonies all over. I think I should start an Anti-Xenia Club LOL! What type of SPS is that you have up there? I though Montipora digitata at first, but maybe a birdsnest?

Reefmack:

It is a little piece of Acropora Microphthalma that is doing well, given that it is only under PCs (RSM stock). While it is not the most beautiful in color, it represents my first foray into SPS. It seems to like being right next to the Koralia.

I notice that both you and StevieT (from nr dot com) have your ricordeas bunched together on rocks that are slightly removed from the rest of your coral and LR. Is this on purpose? Are they aggressive enough to be a hassle or did you just bunch them for the visual appeal?

 

[Reefmack]

arh - No reason that my Ricordea floridas are kept separate. I have some that are right on top of my rock, but they're towards the back on the left side, and even I can barely see them. They've done great right under my 150W MH lamp. Those that can't be seen are actually touching the big clump of tan palys on the upper left, and close to some Montipora digitata and Hydnophora, with no troubles seen so far. Those floridas used to be visible but got moved around on a piece of rock that I moved. I've seen a lot of folks that like to get a nice size rock and cover it with floridas of different colors. I've also got some R. yumas on the lower right side of my rock, below a huge colony of brownish zoas (came as hitchhikers and really spread). There's a huge purple yuma (4+ inches across) to the right of my lower clump of duncans that has had a bunch of babies branch off and move down the rock on the lower right side, Also a big Orange/green yuma above those floridas you saw (with a green mushroom right below the orange yuma). So far I've seen no problems with either type of Ricordea and other close or touching corals. I did however have some floridas killed off by frogspawn/torch types that grew too close. I've only got one piece of torch left now - I got fed up with the ability of the Euphyllia types to sting anything near them (and the back of my hand a few times) so I gave them away.

 

[Reefmack]

My orange R,. yuma that's not always real visible in pictures as it's in a shadier area:

and the purple yuma that keeps branching off babies on runners. Easy to miss as it's close to the color of coralline:

 

[LaurentSeattle]

News from my 14 months old and declining RSM

Done since my last post:

- Trimmed more Xenia
- Daily removal of algae!
- A water change per day!
- Cleaned the skimmer
- Cleaned the back chamber

What can be seen so far:

- NO3 at zero. (Still with my one year old test kit)
- A bit less cyano
- A bit less of algae
- Ricordea Yuma look a bit better
- Candy canes now showing some tentacles: I have not seen that since weeks!
- Red Mushrooms expanding a bit better.
- Pink zoas still badly on the decline, not recovering at all.

- All other corals, same.
- Fishes, shrimp: No apparent stress.

Notes:
- I replaced the lights with new tubes at 10 months.
- I have reduced a bit the photoperiod already and I do not want to reduce it even more: Lights are on from 11am to 9:30pm

Things I will do on Thursday (Thursday is usually "canister filter day" )

- Will replace ChemiPure and PhosBan two weeks ahead of schedule
- Will replace the ceramic tubes with Live Rock rumble

This weekend:
- Will clean and maybe replace the circulation pumps.

It seems like there is some improvement but in the future, I will not have the time to spend so much time every day on this tank!

What could I do to improve things on the long run?
Is it a good idea to use LR instead of the ceramic tubes? ( These were provided with the Fluval canister filter.)

Thanks!
Laurent

 

[LaurentSeattle]

Reefmack: Gorgeous pictures!

 

[Scooterman]

Do %70 change monthly & most of all those issues will go away.
Easy as pie with these smaller tanks!
Doing weekly tiny changes will only go so far, every so often you need to clean house & believe me it works well!

 

[Scooterman]

I use reef crystals & bump up MG & CA as needed, don't need anything else to make things thrive! Replacing so much water does wonders, I only have three fish, you may need to do more depending on your fish poopage!

 

[LaurentSeattle]

I use IO Reef Crystals too. Mg and Ca are constantly high and in range and I do not need to add anything.

I only have two fishes.

 

[grandy]

Reefmack: Wow!!! Your tank has really come along beautifully. I love the Yumas, too.
Thanks for the suggestions re my brain coral. I actually just moved it to the location in the photo. It was on the substrate, and that's where it started to show the skeleton. On the left side is a green mushroom & at the top right is a ricordea. I really would like to save this coral, it's been with me for about 8 months or so. I will post under the 'coral'section here.
LaurentSeattle: I commend your diligence and determination!! You've improved the water quality. What are your Calcium & Ph at?
Just a suggestion, but you could cut down your lighting period as you are at 10.5hrs/day. Try going to 8.
Did you notice that your algae problem started around the time you changed out your bulbs? That's when my algae seemed to 'come out of the wood work'!

 

[LaurentSeattle]

Grandy:

I think the troubles slowly started a few weeks after the installation of my Fluval canister filter. I installed it to solve the problem of having to remove the hood and the pumps to access filtration media that was getting clogged in the leftmost back chamber of the RSM.

The Fluval is great to replace quickly filtration media. Despite weekly cleaning of the canister, I believe that Nitrates slowly built up and fed the current algae bloom.

I hope removing the sponges and replacing the ceramic rings with LR will solve the problem because I am not really willing to put stuff under the pumps again.

 

[MrsPeer]

Wow, it's nice to see a lot of the familiar faces again along with new RSM owners participate in this thread.

One major update that I would like to announce. I am a proud owner of not one, but two RBTAs. A local reefer was getting out of the hobby and he desperately needed to get rid of his tank. He gave me a sweet deal for the nems ($10 each). My initial intention was to get only one nem, but it was really hard to remove it from the rock so he decided to sell the rock with the nem. As we were removing the rock, there was a second nem that was attached to it and another rock. We accidentally tore the bottom half of it off, but was able to get the rock and two nems.

I didn't want to keep the live rock so I went to my friend's LFS and he used a dremel to frag the rock. The two nems were on small rocks and placed into my tank. The torn nem has since moved and found a crevice between two rocks (not the brightest). The other healthier one is on its rock on the sandbed.

Tonight when I got home, I found the female percula in the healthy one! It only took her three days to take shelter in her new upscale real estate. She is currently chasing the male percula away from her and the nem. I hope she doesn't buffet the nem to death. The nem is about two inches in diameter, and she is about one inch long. I am on a euphoric high now!

By the way, I have the stock lighting. I sure hope that it is enough lighting for the nem. What do you guys think?

Here are some pictures. I'm sorry the female clown is not looking her best with all her black dots on her. I've been told they're from coral stings and that it takes months for the black dots to clear.

 

[Scooterman]

Grandy:

I think the troubles slowly started a few weeks after the installation of my Fluval canister filter. I installed it to solve the problem of having to remove the hood and the pumps to access filtration media that was getting clogged in the leftmost back chamber of the RSM.

The Fluval is great to replace quickly filtration media. Despite weekly cleaning of the canister, I believe that Nitrates slowly built up and fed the current algae bloom.

I hope removing the sponges and replacing the ceramic rings with LR will solve the problem because I am not really willing to put stuff under the pumps again.

Want to make it simple? Remove all media, pads etc & toss them.
Change out %70 (23g or close) once a month, use a Refractometer to get your salinity exactly as in your tank (should be 35ppt), also get your temp. exactly the same, aerate your mix 24hours. Siphon your SB stir it well & use a turkey baster & blow the rocks well. Use empty 5g IO buckets & siphon out as much nasty water while it is still up in the water column. RC doesn't always mix to 400ppm CA so you should test & bump it up if necessary, Kent Turbo CA works great for this short bump. Your rear chambers should be empty, they will stay cleaner & not become a detritus trap.
Doing this once a month, your tank will gleam in time, unless your overfeeding really bad. You shouldn't add anything else, nothing, replacing so much water will cover all your corals & fish needs. No phosphate removers, maybe carbon but I've stopped all that. Now I did upgrade the skimmer & lighting so it helped but the bigger wc's really done the trick, just make darn sure you get your temp. & salinity right.

 

[Reefmack]

Laurent - just my opinions as always:

1) I'd get a new nitrate test - after a year the old test kit chemicals may not be good anymore. Keep in mind that something has to be feeding the algae - it could be that you have a lot of nitrates, but they are all being consumed by the algae and won't show up in the tests. Do you think you're overfeeding the fish and corals? Just my opinion, but I very rarely ever add any coral foods and my corals do great without it. IMO the coral foods are only good for adding excess detritis to the tank, and very little, if any, are ever consumed by the corals before they settle in the tank and/or are removed by mechanical filtration. Unless you have corals that are non-photosynthetic I feel that they do just fine on light energy alone.

2) I can't remember - are you using RO/DI water?

3) I had to get rid of my Fluval cannister. Even with a weekly cleaning/rinsing, and replacing Chemipure Elite and other media much more frequently than the directions, my nitrates climbed from 0 to over 30 while running the cannister. I wasn't running any ceramic or LR rubble in my cannister. Since pulling the cannister they dropped to 5 then 2.5, and are now at 0 - 0.5 using a small daily dose of 10 drops of AZNO3 to keep them down. I now have a pad and my chemical media in a "media basket" that sits under the gate. But the media basket is only any option if you replace the RSM skimmer so that there's room for the basket. I suppose a short basket could be made, that would fit over the RSM skimmer pump, but I haven't seen anyone offering those for sale. You might be able to DIY a short basket from acrylic or even eggcrate if you want to take on a little project. I'm trying to make maintaing the tank as easy as possible, without a lot of time consuming work. I've even skipped a few weekly water changes lately (got lazy), but will try to get back to a weekly or every other week schedule.

4) Reef crystals here too, but I often alternate with IO and Red Sea Pro salt. I also add a daily dose of 2 part Ca/Alk to keep my Ca about 450, and my Alk at about 10 dKh. I always seem to be fighting to keep my pH above 8, but adding a buffer to my top off water has helped with that.

It sounds like things are improving for you a little so that's good news.

grandy - I didn't realize that you had moved the brain. Hopefully that alone will bring it back to good health. My brain recently shrunk down for over a week, and I was really worried about mine too. But, it's back to looking healthy again now. I'm not sure what caused that to happen.

MrsPeer- you got a real bargain on the RBTA's!!! And great to hear the clowns have taken to them (well one at least!). IMO the stock lights are fine - the RSM lights have always been capable of more than they get credit for (the great light debate between owners & non-owners LOL). I'll check out your pics when I get home from work today.

Now if we could only get SWFish (Kent) to reappear in here once in a while!

 

[Reefmack]

Scooterman - great idea on a monthly 23 gallon water change, but I don't have the space to keep or even make up that quantity of RO/DI water or SW. I don't even have space for the buckets I would need LOL! It may be a great thing to do, but I'm not sure how many of us could tackle something like that. It takes me a few hours just to do a 3-4 gallon water change, make up SW for the next water change, refill my jugs of RO/DI for topoff, etc. You must be set up to handle something like this with a lot of water storage space or mass production equipment? I think Laurent has even more limited space than I do, and I don't think he could manage a 23 g water change. even once a month.

 

[Scooterman]

Reefmack you seem to do things very close to what I do, that makes a big difference in these small tanks as shifts can happen very sudden. Only difference is I do big wc's over a bunch of little ones, you get more water replacement that way, as doing little changes you always replace prior made water.
On Ph, trying to swing that can actually cause in-balances, so thread lightly on that. JMO as always!

 

[Scooterman]

Scooterman - great idea on a monthly 23 gallon water change, but I don't have the space to keep or even make up that quantity of RO/DI water or SW. I don't even have space for the buckets I would need LOL! It may be a great thing to do, but I'm not sure how many of us could tackle something like that. It takes me a few hours just to do a 3-4 gallon water change, make up SW for the next water change, refill my jugs of RO/DI for topoff, etc. You must be set up to handle something like this with a lot of water storage space or mass production equipment? I think Laurent has even more limited space than I do, and I don't think he could manage a 23 g water change. even once a month.

Yes your right, one thing you don't want to do is mix up a bunch of smaller buckets trying to do one large change, that would not be a good idea, too difficult to get everything right.

Yes your right, I've come down in size from a 125 (180g total) set-up to my 34g RSM, so I kept a few things. I have a rubber-maid 30g trashcan on wheels to make my water. I have a Dual 75g RO/DI producing 7.2GPH or 150GPD. So yes it is easier for me, I can do a change very quickly & the results are Awesome.
SO my next thought is what do people do when they can't do what I do?
Lets see....thinking here.. hold on lol!

 

[MrsPeer]

My brain recently shrunk down for over a week, and I was really worried about mine too. But, it's back to looking healthy again now. I'm not sure what caused that to happen.

If this was read by a non-reefer, he/she would think an alien was the cause for losing your brain.


That's great to hear that lights should be sufficient. I was a little worried there. I had thought about getting a canister, but after all this talk about nitrate and algae problems, I think I will cancel that thought. Currently, I run everything stock for all biological and mechanical filters and I use chemi-pure elite. I have a bit of algae on the black glass and very few on the sandbed, but never a really bad outbreak so far (knock on wood). I'm crossing my fingers.:fingerx:

Whatever happened to Brent and SWFish anyway? Hey, I'm a tubeworm now!

 

[Scooterman]

This isn't easy to compensate but I think you can accomplish better results through a little planning or tweaking. Lets start with the RO/DI unit. I'll list a little information about them.
#1 Once you get the basic RO/DI unit, converting it to a better more efficient unit is easy and affordable If you consider the Long term.
#2 75GPD Dow Filmtec RO membranes are way more efficient than any 100gpd ro membrane.
#3 Adding a second 75gpd RO in series to the first one, is even more
efficient.
#4 when one membrane starts to wear out over time, you can replace it & extend the life of the other, same principle of having a dual DI set-up.
#5 setting up a dual stage RO will allow you to make plenty of water for changes & topping off, one of the First & foremost best Investments you can have for a reef tank.
#6 you can make lots of pure water for home drinking with any of these units, all you need is a Tee & a shutoff valve that may cost you $5.
#7 If you use water evaporation to your advantage, you can eliminate the need for a chiller but will need plenty of top off water to accomplish this with a way to automate your topping off so you don't have to do it manually every day, get salinity shifts & cause issues.
SO that is a touch on RO/DI.

 

[LPSLuver]

LPSLuver What are you using for a return pump?

Sorry guys. I haven't been keeping up. I use a Mag 5 right now, fully open. I have enough room for an OR 2500 si I may do that in the future if I can get a good deal on an Eheim 1262 to replace my OR3500 on my 90. That will then become the return pump for my chiller and the 2500 will move over....

I am waiting on a aquasilencer from Champion Lighting. I will get a 1" to 3/4" reducing bushing to make it work. Still a little too much spill over and gurgling for my liking. But restart issues are a thing of the past. These things cannot lose prime unless the U tube is removed from the set up.