Whip's "new to me" RSM 130

W

whip

Well-Known Member
Hello everyone!

Just wanted to say hello and express my thanks to the many RSM reefers here. I have been gaining a significant amount of knowledge from this forum and its members and I figured I would start a tank thread to get some help and input.

I picked up a RSM 130 (in Silver) off of Craigslist for $400. The prior owner was OCD and the tank was in almost new condition (though it had been sitting in his garage for years). He had receipts from the original purchase (back in 12/11/07) and all spare parts (pumps, fans, bulbs, media, etc.) were NIB with purchase receipts. All original manuals were in perfect condition and supplied with the aquarium.

It came with an upgraded Red Sea cooling fan upgrade (NIB), circulation pump upgrade kit (NIB), and surface skimmer (installed).

Overall, it seemed like an inexpensive way to upgrade from my AquaPod 12, yet still stay in the all-in-one style I had grown comfortable with.

So... I decided to make it a more expensive upgrade (killing me)! I went out and bought the following:

Vortech MP10QD
Tunze 3152 ATO
Steve's Media Basket (with Chemipure, Steve's filter floss, and Purigen)
Tunze 9001 Skimmer
RSM Single Pump Upgrade
Fluval E200 (just because I dig this style of heater in my AquaPod)

I'll post some pics in the near future, but I noticed the cool thing about the RSM is that I can slide it almost flush with the wall because the cabinet cutout allows room for the outlet and associated cords from it. Is this a good idea? The lid still opens completely, but that back fan doesn't have much room to breath.
 
nanoreefing4fun

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
Congrats on your like new RSM 130 !

welcomefish.gif

to ReefSanctuary, a real Sanctuary of reef forums, with lots of very nice members

Start a tank thread & share your tank with us so we can follow along, we love pics :dance:

I would leave a few inches so you can easily blow some air in to clean the rear cooling fan.
 
Pat24601

Pat24601

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you got a great deal on the tank! Anytime someone is OCD like that it typically means they took great care of the tank, which is a HUGE plus.

Heck, I'm pretty darn OCD myself and I don't have the receipts for everything I bought. :)
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
Update...

Well, the MP10 came in... very cool.

I also ordered and received 60 pounds of Tropic Eden Tonga Reeflakes from Premium Aquatics. I had done a lot of lurking on this forum (and other forums) and read that it is good sand that doesn't tend to drift around the tank. I liked the color too.

I am new to the DSB, so any suggestions would be welcome.

I am thinking about going with a 4" DSB. To determine how much sand I needed, I used the following sand bed calculator:

http://www.garf.org/calculators/SandBedCalculator.asp

Anyway, I am now moving on to the rock. I think I am going to go with dry rock; so I can do some artsy aquascaping and not have to be worried about having live rock out of water for too long. I have read that the cycle is longer with dry rock and sand, but I have time and I'm not in any rush.

I backed the tank up to the wall. Because of my baseboard, this gives that back cooling fan about 3/4" to breath. The only bad thing is that my room's light switch can't be accessed now. I ordered a remote light switch to install behind my tank so I can turn the lights on and off to the room. Hopefully it lasts forever or I'll be buying a bunch of lamps in the future!
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
So... on to lighting. I went crazy (probably too crazy) when lighting my AquaPod 12. I pulled the lid off and ran seven (yes seven :ponder2: ) Ecoxotic Panarama Pro's in an 18" Ecoxotic fixture.

Needless to say... I was able to peel two out of there and install them into my RSM. Overall, it was relatively painless.
 
DianaKay

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
:thumbup: Looks brand spankin' NEW!! Very exciting to think about your dry RockScape build. This will be a great tread to watch :couch:
Hope your patience holds out, it's not easy to wait :fingerscrossed:
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the likes!

And yes, I lack a lot of patience, but having to mail order everything in is forcing me to be patient. I still have my AquaPod to play with, so that is keeping me occupied.

I did have a quick question..

Is this where I should be placing my ATO sensor and inflow tube? I have never used an ATO, but I am curious if this place is logical. If the filter floss plugs up, the chambers will drop their water level and the ATO will activate; possibly overflowing the main display. Now I have read a lot of RSM owners placing their ATO here and not having any issues, but I am "somewhat" lazy, and I have allowed the back chambers on my AquaPod drop considerably in the past. Luckily, I buy Fluval heaters that have an auto shutoff, so I haven't burnt out a heater, but I have never had to worry about overflowing the main display before because I just dumped RO water in the back to top the tank off. This ATO concept is new to me.image.jpg
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
My second question is regarding the Tunze 9001 Skimmer. For those of you running this (I have never ran a skimmer before), where do you put the silencer? It just seems kind if dookie just flopping around in there. image.jpg
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
Pat24601 said:
Cool pic! Great start!
Click to expand...

Thanks Pat!

I will be firing questions out left and right when it comes to cycling my tank.

My AquaPod was sold to me by a friend for $100 (about two years ago). It had been established for about six years, so the tank is about eight years old now. When I got it, he just threw the water out, put the rock in a bucket, and we took it to my house with the sand still in it. We dumped the rock back in and added water and it has ran ever since.

This will be the first tank I have started from scratch, so I fall into one of those weird categories of being a somewhat knowledgable reefer AND (at the same time) a complete noobie!

One of the good things is my AquaPod allowed me to learn a lot at a fairly inexpensive rate.
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
Pat24601 said:
Very cool!

Your tank does look brand new. Great condition!
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting your tank thread. I have been reading it daily as it is filled with great information for people like me following along and learning from your experiences.

Well, I put 60 pounds of Reeflakes in there for the start of a DSB... and I absolutely hated it. I just couldn't get over seeing 3-1/2" of sand in the display. I normally ran a SSB in my AquaPod that was about at the same elevation as my bottom trim.

I took 30 pounds out for a 2" sand bed and, well, hated that too.

So... I finally rested (at least for now) on going bare bottom!

Since I am going to try to get artsy with the dry rock (which is in the mail as I type this), I figured why not get a little artsy and go bare bottom?

I read there was a lot of benefits to bare bottom and and think I am fighting a losing battle with a dying SSB in my AquaPod.

I figured why not give it a shot? I have been checking out amazing bare bottom tanks with zoa carpeted bottoms. Looks cool!
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
Rock came in and is causing me to have a mental breakdown. I could use some help!

I am trying to deploy technics like:

1. The Golden Rule
2. Forced Perspective
3. Keeping the back glass cleanable

Of course reading about it is easier than having chunks of dry rock in your hand, so any help would be appreciated!image.jpg
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
I will have to pop off that nub on the right hand side to get it off of the glass, but I left it on in case you all give advice that it needs to go elsewhere in the tank.

Again, I think I am going bare bottom, but will have sand standing by if I think I like the sand bed look later on down the road.

I'll post some good reads on aquascaping for you all. It is a three part series on aquascaping. Good stuff!

http://www.reefs.com/magazine/100520-aesthetics-aquascaping.html

http://www.reefs.com/magazine/111388-aesthetics-aquascaping-part-2-a.html

http://www.reefs.com/magazine/119589-aesthetics-aquascaping-iii.html
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
I have also been trying to consider water refraction and making sure my gradients are shallow sloping.

I also watched a good BRS video on hacking tunnels in dry rock. I can tell you that I was freaking out during the first couple of swings with the hammer!

Here us a good video tutorial on modifying Pukani rock from BRS. It was so good that I bought my Pukani from BRS and started hacking away.

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/video/view/aquascaping-pukani-rock/
 
W

whip

Well-Known Member
So, when I ordered the rock, I order 10 pounds of Tonga shelf rock and 30 pounds of Pukani. I expected the box of rocks to be just that... a box of several rocks. What I got was a big box with two 15 pound Pukani rocks and one 10 pound Tonga shelf. It was a slight curveball, but it ended up working out good as I kept the tall pillar whole and broke the other one up so it was on a lower elevation holding up the shelf.
 
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