My Red Sea Max 250

[Jigity_jigity_joe]

I started one in the all in one threads but I went about it pretty sloppily so I’m gonna try again here. I’ve been working on this tank for about a year and a half now. It evolved from an IM nuvo 10 when I found the tank stand and light for 300 on Craigslist locally. Here’s the tank when I first brought it home.

8/12/2021

And after I got it all cleaned up and transferred everything over plus a couple brand new pieces of rock

8/16/2021

And after it cleared up a little

8/17/2021

Current equipment list:
RSM 250
Aquatic life t5 hybrid fixture
Bulbs are:
Giesemann super actinic
Giesemann super purple
Giesemann super actinic
Giesemann super purple
1 ai prime hd (later upgraded to two and then back to 1 after I realized it was too much light and one of my lights would not longer let me adjust it)
2 unknown return pumps
1 maxspect jump 2k gyre
Stock skimmer
Back chambers are loaded with bioballs
Run Red Sea carbon on occasion when I see
Auto aqua smart ATO

Dosing ESV B-ionic

Hanna alk and calcium checker
Red Sea phosphate and nitrate tests
Salifert mag alk and cal test to double check the Hanna readings

And that’s about it. Sorry I’m starting this so late I will continue to add to it this weekend until we get to current day but I will start with this, thanks anyone for checking it out and I’m excited to really be trying to become apart of the online community and not just watching from a far! I love this place, it’s definitely the best form of social media if you can even call it that.

 

[Jigity_jigity_joe]

So it settled out and looked nice but definitely short on rock which is something I’m still working on filling in to this day. Here’s the tank on
8/21/2021

And then 8/27/2021 after a trip the the lfs (which was an hour away from this house) Strictly Reef in Reno NV with some more rock

 

[Jigity_jigity_joe]

The tank settled in pretty well, things were growing. This is right about the time we found out we had the opportunity to move. I adjusted the scape a couple times. Was doing weekly water changes and feeding the thing (far too lightly I’d later learn)

10/10/21

 

[Jigity_jigity_joe]

Corals over all were doing ok but I was starting to deal with dinoflagellates and did not realize the severe error of my ways with underfeeding and not monitoring my phos and nitrate values at all. I actually thought it was more of a bryopsis or hair algae issue at the time and honestly I was pretty in the back seat with it. Knowing that I’d be moving the whole thing in the very near future I didn’t take getting it super clean too seriously and just kept up changing the water and scrubbing the rocks and walls and I was still not feeding nearly enough.

12/22/2021

 

[Jigity_jigity_joe]

As long as I was scrubbing the tank once a week it stayed looking pretty clean. Also at this point my wife broke her 20 gallon tank down and the rock, a lightning maroon clownfish, an azure damzel, various clean up crew and 2 rock flower anemones and the ai prime that was over that tank got moved to the 65. Had I been more aware of my dinoflagellates issue and got on top of my nitrate and phosphate levels I think I could have been in a much better way for moving the tank. I still was not feeding enough especially with the added load on the tank.

1/15/2022