Tim's (lakelivin) RSM 500 build

[Danreef]

Hello all, it's been awhile since updating my thread so I thought I would provide an overview of my build and it's progress for those interested. Questions and comments welcomed.

It's been over 5 months now since I started doing automatic continuous water changes (3 gallons per day) and the tank appears to love it. I was planning to do a more traditional manual water change every few months or so along with the daily changes but so far I see no need for it.

Still going hoodless and using Radion Pros with good results. It took a few weeks to find the sweet spot with all of the control you have with the different intensities and color spectrums but I found a pretty good schedule/setup using my APEX to control them and all is going great.

I upgraded my MP40's to the new QD's a while back and they are literally silent and do a good job. As some of you may remember who have followed my progress I stopped using the rear stock pumps a long time ago. They were generating too much heat and flow for my setup. Two MP40's along with the flow from the return works perfectly for me.

Between the LED's and not using the rear pumps my temp stays consistently between 78.9 to 79.1 so I still have not needed to add a chiller to my setup.

My APEX controller continues to work great. There is a bit of a learning curb with APEX in the beginning but there are plenty of resources to get help while you are learning how to use it so I highly recommend it.

As far as stock goes not much has changed. Still have the large sail-fin tang, multi colored angel, pair of orange anthias and a onyx clown. Fairly low fish load for this size tank but they are happy and healthy so I hesitate to add anything new to upset their world. I have a lot of rock in my tank that takes up a fair amount of swimming room for the fish so it's best to limit the number anyway IMO.

The APEX automatic feeder still works perfectly and sits perfectly on the lid in the back right corner of my tank. I programed it to feed twice a day. I was having it feed 3 times a day but decided I was overfeeding so I cut it back to twice a day. It's nice being able to feed the fish on a consistent schedule and not having to worry about missing a feeding with my schedule. I still supplement frozen foods a few times a week but their main diet is a mixture of different dry food I fill my feeder with.

All and all the tank is doing very well and with all the automation I've cut the time it used to take to do maintenance way down. I mostly just have to clean the glass and manage my water station adding salt from time to time and turning valves moving water around.

What is the mix of dry food you are using in your Apex Feeder ?

No issues with humidity in the food after a long time (days) in use ?

Thanks....Daniel

 

[LakeLivin]

Hey Daniel, I just buy a number of different kinds of pellet food designed for all types of fish. Right now I have been feeding them a mixture of foods from New Era, New Life Spectrum and a pellet that Neptune Systems sells that they designed for use in their feeder.

I try to buy pellets that will sink fairly quickly so I don't waste much going into the overflow and into my sump sock. I don't bother programming the main pump to turn off during feeding because it's just way too loud when you turn off the sump pump. I also stopped turning off my skimmer during dry food feedings because I found it was really not necessary. I do have the system programmed to turn off the MP40's for 5 minutes during feeding though.

I have had no problems with humidity based on where the feeder sits. I have heard some have had problems with these types of feeders when they put them down inside their sump area where humidity if very high so I would not recommend that location.

I hope this info helps...

 

[Danreef]

Hey Daniel, I just buy a number of different kinds of pellet food designed for all types of fish. Right now I have been feeding them a mixture of foods from New Era, New Life Spectrum and a pellet that Neptune Systems sells that they designed for use in their feeder.

I try to buy pellets that will sink fairly quickly so I don't waste much going into the overflow and into my sump sock. I don't bother programming the main pump to turn off during feeding because it's just way too loud when you turn off the sump pump. I also stopped turning off my skimmer during dry food feedings because I found it was really not necessary. I do have the system programmed to turn off the MP40's for 5 minutes during feeding though.

I have had no problems with humidity based on where the feeder sits. I have heard some have had problems with these types of feeders when they put them down inside their sump area where humidity if very high so I would not recommend that location.

I hope this info helps...

This info is very helpful. Thank you for taking the time to write it !!!!

Daniel

 

[Choff]

Hey Tim! Looking forward to seeing your new custom tank. What do you have in mind? I'm a huge fan of reef savvy. I like that they use ghost overflows (bean animal). I've liked them ever since I saw their tanks at MACNA a few years back. They had a sweet low profile 400g rimless tank.

Things are going very good in my tank. I've had a few lulls, but since I'm fully automated there was little drop off in my tank. I just removed my Colorado sunburst nem as he was impacting too many SPS. I trimmed back a bunch, moved my scape around a bit and opened up more space for some new frags. Pulled a few colonies too and swapped them out for more frags.

I've been posting mostly on my local board lately and getting to know more tank folks around me. Have not been here in ages until I saw the Red Sea led upgrade. I was hoping for much better as one of my kessils is on the fritz and they are over 3 years old at this point. No idea how long they are supposed to last, but I thought I recalled something about 5 years for LEDs.

Anyway, best wishes and I'll check back to see your new build.

 

[LakeLivin]

Hey Mike, good to hear from you. I have not really done any serious homework on what type of tank to get. I just started putting out feelers to see if I could find anyone interested in purchasing my current setup and then I will go from there.

As you know my RSM 500 has been so heavily modified that it really is not much of a RSM tank anymore. Like you I also heavily automated my tank so much so that I have not conducted a manual water change in over a year. The tank is pretty self sufficient and my biggest chore is keeping salt water mixed to complete the continuous water changes and keeping the auto top off reservoir full.

Those are quick and easy jobs thanks to my plumbing and water station setup. What I really would like to get is a state of the art sump that is larger and easier to keep clean and maintain. The RSM tank design makes it difficult if not impossible to design and install a custom sump to keep up with advances in technology. Simple stuff like hanging a filter sock is a pain because the sump is not designed to have one.

The bottom line is I would like to begin building a new tank starting from scratch with the knowledge I now have. You may remember I was just sort of winging it and making changes as I went with this tank. Now with all the lessons I've learned I would like to begin again.

 

[Choff]

I'm with you Tim, fully automated is the way to go. If mine wasn't it would have been a disaster long ago. Far too many ebbs and flows of interest and time to stay on top of reef tank. Like you I started doing auto water changes with the genesis system right around the time apex came out with the pumps you use. The other biggy is my auto neck cleaner and 2 gallon over flow for my skimmer. The neck cleaner keeps it whistle clean so I never need to adjust it. I clean the head maybe once a month. I empty the reservoir every 10 days when I mix salt. My ato is automated too.

I love the look of the RS, the only thing I would change is I would like a bean animal overflow. I'm set until we build a new house someday and then is like a nice 220 or 240g peninsula room divider tank.



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