SIG32's RSM 250 Build

[Sig32]

Sorry for the picture heavy thread. I wanted to share my build and get some thoughts and advice. This tank breaks a 14 year dry spell for me and I wasn't familiar with the RSM setup. I was only looking for 65 gallon tank due to size constraints when I came across this one.
The tank and everything with the exception of the lights and fans were purchased second hand. The tank cycled about two months ago and I have two fish, three shrimp and a CUC. I am currently battling GHA (I have seen much worse) and I am having a tough time getting rid of it. I don't have any of the large black sponges in the tank and I am changing my filter floss daily because they get so dirty. I started using CPE & Purigen last week and it seems to be helping, but the GHA isn't completely dying off.
I feed once a day and my lights run for seven hours, but I find there is a lot of detritus material in the tank. Is this normal? Any suggestions of what I could/should be doing?

.....Now on to the build pics.


I made new doors and side panels to better go with the decor of our home.




I placed dosing lines along the back and into the area where the rear fans went (previous owner had removed them).


I made a new acrylic panel to house the dosing lines, ATO line and a small fan.


I also put a QD connector plumbed to the outside that I use for water changes. I made the mistake of placing it with the hood off and it ended up hitting the connector. I decided to notch the hood and I re-use the plastic piece I removed. The piece was cut and epoxied into place so the hood stayed sealed.


I replaced the hood fans with 25mm (just got a good deal) and so I had to cut the slots from the factory 20mm fans so they would fit.


I purchased Chinese black box LED lights and removed the LED panels from their housings. I had to cut the LED panels as they were too wide to fit in the hood.


I used angle aluminum to hold the LED panels in place and installed the LED's drivers into the hood. I use an Apex to control the white and blue channels and three separate blue LED's that I use for moonlight. I just left the timer in place, but it isn't used.

 

[Sig32]

....and more pics.

I mocked up a "control panel" for my accessories with cardboard then used the original door as the material for the panel.




I actually had the rocks from my last tank stored in the garage in boxes. I decided to try and be more creative with the aqua-scape this time around and put some time into it.


I used hydraulic cement to hold all of the individual rocks together. I stopped counting how many I ended up using.


I used zip ties to hold the the pieces in place so I could put the cement on.


After several days (seemed like forever), I finally finished and got the rocks in the tank.


This was about a month ago after it cycled and I added the CUC. Currently the water isn't as clear/polished and the rocks and sand have GHA on them.






Moonlight LED's


My latest mod to the tank is installing an Eheim auto fish feeder into the hood. I started it yesterday and hope to finish this weekend. I'll post some pics of the completed project and hopefully it will work/last for while.

 

[Whitey1973]

Nice build, love the scape....are you using RO water when you filled you tank? Gha is normally from to much phosphate, I would run a reactor with rowaphos in it which will bring your phosphates down and should kill off you gha


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[Whitey1973]

Sorry pressed send before I'd finished[emoji23] what are your fish stock levels? Over feeding will cause higher levels of nitrates so maybe reduce this, also what protein skimmer have you got? With a tank at 250 litres I would get one that is capable of doing 500 litres


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[Sig32]

Thanks for the compliment and reply. I did start out with RODI (all new filters) from the beginning and since the tank cycled I have done approximately 12 gallon water changes every 7-10 days. I currently have a blackcap basslet and a hi fin goby. The shrimps are a Randall's pistol shrimp, a skunk cleaner and a blood shrimp. There's eleven snails and four crabs.

I am using the stock RSM skimmer that came with the tank. It skims, maybe not the best, but I empty the cup about once a week and the contents are foul and dark green to brown in color. Feeding is once a day and I use about 1/8 of a cube of frozen mysis (very small amount) with a some NLS pellets. I pour it in a little at a time to make sure its consumed. Obviously one or two pellets make it to the sand bed and could decompose, but I think either the crabs or shrimp get it if not even the fish once the pumps turn back on and it circulates in the water column.

I am baffled at the fact that some people do not run, or run very little mechanical filtration. I am using three filter floss pads, one polishing pad and a hand full of loose filter floss. By the end of the day, the tank starts to look cloudy and all of the filters are dark brown. Not sure what is producing the waste.[/QUOTE]

 

[Whitey1973]

IMO I would test for phosphate and start from there, if they are on the high side try rowaphos


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[saintsreturn]

I run only 1 mechanical filtration which is a sock to keep crap from filling my sump and only added it because of the sediment that was accruing. I haven't had an issue like you are encountering which makes me ask a few questions. Great start up on the original comments to guide us along though!
What are your water test showing? Specifically what is your phosphate levels? Are you running any carbon, GFO or phosban? Have you tried skipping the pellets?
I had an outbreak once that baffled me... For weeks... Then I found out "we" were feeding flakes when I wasn't home. Killed the flakes and killed the algae. That's why I ask.

Do you have any natural light hitting it? I just dropped my light time because of ambient light that left me with a problem u til I figured that out.

Love the setup and hope you get it under control quick! Best of luck

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[SPR]

Hi Sig
You definitely need to check your Nitrate and in particular phosphate levels, the later of which should be around 0.03ppm so nearly zero. You may however get a false phosphate reading depending on the amount of hair algae you have as it will be storing it all up for you in itself.

I would get yourself some Rhowaphos (or GFO of your choice) in a reactor and that should resolve your phosphates. You may need to change it frequently for the first week or so while it removes excess phosphate but once low you only need to change it when figures start to increase.

Depending on Nitrate etc once the phosphates are in control the algea should start to recede but it can be a very slow process.

Once and only once you have solved the cause of the algae, high nitrates/phosphates, if you want to get rid of the hair algea try Vibrant. It certainly worked in my tank, and very quickly and makes the tank shine. It does exactly what it says on the label.

 

[Sig32]

Thanks again for the advice. I started CPE & Purigen about a week and a half ago. Before this I had only mechanical filtration, the black sponge and a polishing pad. My nitrates measure 4ppm and phosphate 0.02ppm. They have always measured low after cycling and water changes brought everything down.

I believe that I have reached a turning point though. Yesterday was the first day that the tank wasn't cloudy at the end of the day. I still switched out the filter floss/pads and noticed it wasn't as dirty. The GHA also doesn't appear to be growing. It looks like I'm on the right track. I'll give Vibrant a look at once everything is under control.

As for the source of the phosphate, I am starting to think that it may be my rocks. Not sure if this could be the case, but it does appear that the source is diminishing.