Zoe's first aquarium - RSM250 thread.

Well, my wife and I decided that an aquarium for our 18 month old daughter, Zoe, would be a blast. I had freshwater aquaria when I grew up and actually had a 70 gallon sw tank in the early 90's until life got it the way. I've been lurking here for a couple of weeks and will be taking delivery of the 250 on Friday. I had about 50lbs of base rock delivered today, a TDS meter, and will soon have my RODI system in hand to get things rolling.

I'm amazed at how much has changed since I had my SW aquarium 20 years ago. Magnum canister filter, some dead coral, and my FO tank was rolling. No protein skimmers, UV lights, Live Rock. This is going to be a whole new game.....

The initial plans are to have this be a FOWLR but leave the door open to some soft corals down the road. Everything I've read indicates that this set-up should be idiot (me) proof, so I'm excited. It will be placed in our just finished basement and the temperature there stays between 68-70F so I'm hoping to avoid a chiller.

Initial plans for fish (over time, not all at once) are:

1) Couple of B/W clowns
2) Firefish
3) Goby
4) Dwarf angel (either Flame or Coral Beauty)
5) Potentially a small butterfly fish.

I'll be sure to post pics as I go through the process. I'm just hopeful that it will look as beautiful as some of the member's tanks I've seen here.

Can't wait 'til Friday!

Gary
 

catran

Well-Known Member
Welcome!

A couple of things:
I have a chiller on my RSM 130, but I use a fan on the 250. There's a lot of evaporation, but I don't mind.
If you may decide to do corals later, you might want to reconsider the coral beauty. They tend to nip at corals.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for the welcome. I just noticed that I fat fingered the spelling of F I R S T in my thread title. Hoping a moderator can fix that. Once I get a shot of Zoe next to the tank (probably next week by the time I get it all assembled), I'll be sure to post pictures.

Great call on the Coral Beauty - I read that as well and will proceed cautiously (and slowly).
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
fixed typo
050.gif


If you have any questions just ask, all the members of RS will help you have success & no question asked here will be flamed, we are all learning ...
009.gif
 
Quick question. I ordered the RSM from Marine Depot and it will be here tomorrow. However, in reading through all of the literature/descriptions, I can't determine whether I need to go out and buy salt and a test kit or if it comes with one. I already have a salinity gauge being delivered tomorrow as well. If I need to get salt, what does everyone recommend? And can I mix the first batch in the tank? Thanks.
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
You can mix the 1st batch in the tank

some (most) RSM tanks sell & ship with the "starter kit" ask Marine Depot if yours did, if so you will get you started & cycling...

Red Sea MAX250 | Starter Kit

you will I think need to get some sand...

There are lots of good salts the new Red Sea Coral Pro Plus is one

I use Seachem Aqua Vitro Salinity, another good one - imo
 
Just received the kit - looks like I have a weekend project! Noticed that I was missing the starter kit ( they did send some salt) and contacted Marine Depot. They're checking with Red Sea to see what happened. Any chance someone could give me direct contact info for Red Sea in the US so I can get this resolved without an intermediary? Seems to go better this way. Thanks.
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
In the USA - call Amanda

U.S.A. Office: Red Sea 18125 Ammi Trail Houston, Texas 77060

Tel: (281) 447-0205 Fax: (281) 447-1153

Toll Free: 1-888-RedSea9
 
Thanks. Spoke with their COO, Christine, and everyhing's been resolved. If this is what I can expect for customer service, I'm in. Guess all that I've read about their customer service was right on point

As an update, everything's assembled, water is in. Rock and sand tomorrow, then the waiting game begins.

Just wondering if everyone's stock left pump is loud? Mine was sucking air for couple of minutes, settled down but its still considerably louder than the pump on the right.

Thanks for all the help. Pics will be coming tomorrow or Sunday.....
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
You are very welcome !

Spoke with their COO, Christine, and everything's been resolved. If this is what I can expect for customer service, I'm in. Guess all that I've read about their customer service was right on point

Red Sea has GREAT Customer Service ! Thanks for sharing another good report !

The left pump puts out 640 gph where the right one is 320, but if it's loud, I suspect a small peice of trash in the impeller, pulling & cleaning should solve - pretty easy to do...
 
A couple of newbie questions

So, I assembled the system on Friday and filled it with water/salt. Placed the sand in (forgot to wash - what a mess), 55 lbs of base rock, then on Sunday after things settled down a bit, went to the LFS and picked up 8 lbs of Live Rock to "seed" the system. Also put in Dr. Tim's OaO and required Ammonia. Now we wait - and tinker..... Here's where the questions come in:

1) I'm assuming since there's nothing producing waste that the Protein Skimmer won't really be doing anything other than making bubbles?

2) I've noticed that the right hand chamber almost seems stagnant. What I mean is that I can see a film on the top of the water in that chamber and it doesn't appear to be moving much if at all. I've confirmed that the pump is working correctly. Is this normal?

3) I've been reading, and reading, and reading some more about this skimmer and how to properly get it set up once the time comes (fish in tank), but one thing keeps eluding me - where is the water level indicator located? I've searched everywhere, even taken the skimmer and stuff out. I know I'm going to feel like an idiot when someone points it out to me, but that's ok. I can't find it and would certainly appreciate some help in guiding me to it specifically.

Sorry to bombard everyone with questions. I haven't taken pictures yet because I'm still trying to get the residual cloudiness out of the water (stupid rookie mistake to not wash the sand). I'd appreciate any help you could give me.

Gary
 

nanoreefing4fun

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
I forgot to wash my sand on my 1st tank too... it will clean in a couple of days... just rinse the fine filter several times a day... your not the 1st to do this :)


1) I'm assuming since there's nothing producing waste that the Protein Skimmer won't really be doing anything other than making bubbles? Correct - I ran mine a few hours every couple of days just to break it in, with all LR I would run it, with dry rock & some LR, you can wait until your cycle completes, if you want...

2) I've noticed that the right hand chamber almost seems stagnant. What I mean is that I can see a film on the top of the water in that chamber and it doesn't appear to be moving much if at all. I've confirmed that the pump is working correctly. Is this normal? Mine does this too...

3) I've been reading, and reading, and reading some more about this skimmer and how to properly get it set up once the time comes (fish in tank), but one thing keeps eluding me - where is the water level indicator located? I've searched everywhere, even taken the skimmer and stuff out. I know I'm going to feel like an idiot when someone points it out to me, but that's ok. I can't find it and would certainly appreciate some help in guiding me to it specifically. - it is outside the tank... back left hand side... near the top - if you happen to have your tank against a wall on the left... well... it will be hard to see... very dark too... I always use a flashlight... it's a plastic window... into the back section
 
Last edited:
Thanks you for the great help!!!! I was going bonkers trying to find the water level line. I'll have to re-mark it elsewhere (where I can see it) to provide me a quicker reference point going forward. Thank you again.
 
So I'm back with a quick update...

Water is finally clearing up nicely. The protein skimmer actually helped pull a lot of the sediment out (I don't know how, but the cup was nasty with silt). I have the sacrificial shrimp in there and ammonia levels are at .25 PPM, so that seems to be in line.

However, now that I've got some time to tinker while the cycle does its thing, I have a couple of questions about potential add-ons:

1) My sand is blowing around in the tank and there's constantly particles in the water column. Is there something I can do with aquascaping, aiming the nozzles, or replacing the nozzles to a more dispersed pattern that will help this?

2) I'm thinking of adding either a Vortech MP10 for flow, or an ATO (adding water every day, then fiddling with the skimmer is quite tedious). Do either/both of those sound like good ideas? With the ATO, I just don't have a clue and was wondering if anyone could make recommendations as to which system has been successful for you.

That's it. I'm sooooo glad I found this site as the help I've received already has been tremendous. Pictures w/ the tank and Zoe coming tonight!

Gary
 
Top