Wolffman64
Active Member
Hi All!
My name is Jan, Swedish born but moved to Sydney 3 years ago from London, UK.
I had freshwater cichlid tanks for many years when I was younger, but always wanted to get into the wonderful world of marine tanks, especially after I started scuba diving in 1997, and got even more fascinated by marine life.
I got my first marine tank in February 2012, an RSM250, which has given me lots of joy and many periods of “why is this happening”. It was a very steep learning curve.
Picture of my current RSM 250 below:
When I started the 250, the owner of my LFS told me that I will get bitten by the SW bug, will overstock my tank, and would like to move on to more advanced setups. I laughed and complimented him on his sales techniques. So, 1 year later (March 2013), I was really bitten by the SW bug, fascinated by corals, wanted to get into a more advanced/flexible setup, and was running out of space in the tank. All of this to my wife’s great “despair”. Exactly what my LFS told me. Bugger…
About 6 weeks ago, we bought our first house here in Sydney, and with a lot more space than before. I started telling my wife “in passing” (about 3 times a day…) that the 250 “would look awfully small in the new house”, not expecting her to really agree to anything. All of a sudden, 3 weeks ago, my wife agreed to me getting a new tank (still having sleepless nights about what the payback will be..), and with all the research I had done since March, decided to buy a RSM500.
I joined RS a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed at all the great info in the forums in here, especially threads like David Shaw’s RSM500 thread. David has also been very helpful in sending me heaps of good info and tips/tricks with the tanks, and gave me the inspiration to start a thread in here about my RSM500 journey, hoping that it will inspire and help somebody else in the future to avoid my mistakes.
I have bought the tank, and brought home with me all the parts required to build the stand, so that when we get the keys to the house on the 13th of September, I can take delivery of the rest of the tank the same day, and get the delivery guys to lift it into place straight away on the pre-built stand.
Last week I built the stand all the way to the point where I can just load it into my car, take it to the house and position it where I want the tank, and wait for the delivery of the tank itself. All I can say of the assembly process so far is: Thank You Red Sea for the youtube videos! Even though I grew up with IKEA and their “interesting” assembly instructions, the RSM500 instructions would not have been enough. David, you must have had soooo much fun when you assembled you worldwide first RSM500 without even the manuals!!!
Pictures below shows the stages of building the stand so far, and the comparison in size with my current tank:
I have made the decision that I will break down my current tank and move it and set it up as is in the new house, and run it in parallel to setting up the new tank. I have decided to take it really slow and learning from my mistakes from last time, and get the tank to cycle and mature before I move corals and fish over from my old system.
Now I’m impatiently waiting for the 13th to arrive (2.5 longest weeks in my life) so that I can finish the tank build and really get cracking with my new tank (in parallel with the slight “disturbance” of moving a whole house with wife and two kids, just a minor distraction ;-))
I will get back with more updates (if anybody will be interested) when the tank arrives in the new place.
My name is Jan, Swedish born but moved to Sydney 3 years ago from London, UK.
I had freshwater cichlid tanks for many years when I was younger, but always wanted to get into the wonderful world of marine tanks, especially after I started scuba diving in 1997, and got even more fascinated by marine life.
I got my first marine tank in February 2012, an RSM250, which has given me lots of joy and many periods of “why is this happening”. It was a very steep learning curve.
Picture of my current RSM 250 below:
When I started the 250, the owner of my LFS told me that I will get bitten by the SW bug, will overstock my tank, and would like to move on to more advanced setups. I laughed and complimented him on his sales techniques. So, 1 year later (March 2013), I was really bitten by the SW bug, fascinated by corals, wanted to get into a more advanced/flexible setup, and was running out of space in the tank. All of this to my wife’s great “despair”. Exactly what my LFS told me. Bugger…
About 6 weeks ago, we bought our first house here in Sydney, and with a lot more space than before. I started telling my wife “in passing” (about 3 times a day…) that the 250 “would look awfully small in the new house”, not expecting her to really agree to anything. All of a sudden, 3 weeks ago, my wife agreed to me getting a new tank (still having sleepless nights about what the payback will be..), and with all the research I had done since March, decided to buy a RSM500.
I joined RS a couple of weeks ago, and was amazed at all the great info in the forums in here, especially threads like David Shaw’s RSM500 thread. David has also been very helpful in sending me heaps of good info and tips/tricks with the tanks, and gave me the inspiration to start a thread in here about my RSM500 journey, hoping that it will inspire and help somebody else in the future to avoid my mistakes.
I have bought the tank, and brought home with me all the parts required to build the stand, so that when we get the keys to the house on the 13th of September, I can take delivery of the rest of the tank the same day, and get the delivery guys to lift it into place straight away on the pre-built stand.
Last week I built the stand all the way to the point where I can just load it into my car, take it to the house and position it where I want the tank, and wait for the delivery of the tank itself. All I can say of the assembly process so far is: Thank You Red Sea for the youtube videos! Even though I grew up with IKEA and their “interesting” assembly instructions, the RSM500 instructions would not have been enough. David, you must have had soooo much fun when you assembled you worldwide first RSM500 without even the manuals!!!
Pictures below shows the stages of building the stand so far, and the comparison in size with my current tank:
I have made the decision that I will break down my current tank and move it and set it up as is in the new house, and run it in parallel to setting up the new tank. I have decided to take it really slow and learning from my mistakes from last time, and get the tank to cycle and mature before I move corals and fish over from my old system.
Now I’m impatiently waiting for the 13th to arrive (2.5 longest weeks in my life) so that I can finish the tank build and really get cracking with my new tank (in parallel with the slight “disturbance” of moving a whole house with wife and two kids, just a minor distraction ;-))
I will get back with more updates (if anybody will be interested) when the tank arrives in the new place.
Don't worry about any syntax error... once I see the url, I will show you what to do next time, once you get one, it's easy - feel free to PM me too, I will help !