Red sea max s 500 first reef tank

Ewellio · Aug 9, 2022

Purchased a used red sea max s 500 couple months ago. It is fully cycled and waiting on fish now. Drove 5 hours to pick it up but it was a very good deal. Came with the typical setup plus an apex, probes, neptune power bar, 2 dos containers, 2 dos pumps, trident and 6 months of reagents, 2 neptune wav powerheads and various other assorted items. Tank had quite a bit of precipitation in it so I filled and ran with vinegar and citric acid, cleaned it up nice. Took apart and cleaned all the pumps etc. I replaced the 3 recirculation pumps with new ones and fixed/ replaced various bits and pieces. I replaced all 3 fans on the hydra 26 lights, 1 of which still won't work so I added a cheap clip on Amazon fan so the one light doesn't overheat for now, not that the lights are on at this point. I replaced all the probes with new ones and calibrated. The red sea skimmer has a crack in one of the handles so I replaced it with a reef octopus regal 150. Also replaced the return pump with a sicce sdc 9.0 which is overkill I'm sure. Cycled the tank with fritz turbostart 900 and ammonia, fish less. Now I'm just waiting on my first clownfish to get here from Dr reefs quarantined fish. Plan on adding 2 clowns, 1 Lawnmower blenny, a wrasse of some kind, a bristletooth tang for sure. Loosely following advice from brs tv videos and leaving lights off for 4 months. I plan to turn a portion of the sump into a refugium once the lights go on. Will seed with copepods near that point. Have a 5 stage rodi system so I don't have to deal with hauling water etc. Been fun so far but I'm ready to not stare at an empty tank lol. Have to wire manage and whatnot still, just haven't had much time lately and/or laziness. Just a big pile of cord mess in the non sump side of the cabinet. Plans for tank are mainly lps, not interested in acros or any of the super high maintenance corals. Also added a cheap fan deal in the sump for cooling as I'm in alabama and it's worked so far. Threw away heater that came with tank and just added a 300w titanium w an inkbird hooked to apex. Did an arch with my rockwork, not sure how well it will workout but we will see. Used Marcos rock and caribsea special grade sand. Will update once I have some fish in there.