Redsea E-260

408Dartfish

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Hello all thought I’d share my tank build. Got my new Redsea Max E-260 on the beginning of May 2018. This is my 3rd saltwater tank, my other two turned out ok. I’ll be starting over fresh with all dead rock and new sand, only a clown Fish has made the cut to the new tank. Most of my other rocks and such were overrun with bubble algae.
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I decided to go with the opotional lower sump. So I got a Reef Octopus varios 2. Fitted the sump with a Reef Octopus Essence 130 and a BRS GFO/Carbon reactor. So far so good.
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Tank cycled rather quickly and added a small clean up crew. About 5-10 random hermits and a couple of snails. I used 80lbs pink Fiji sand. Starting to think I should’ve went with the special grade little bigger. Beginning of June started to add some fish, fist my black clown have had few awhile and some pajama cardinal. Now got a line spot flasher wrasse, blue/green chromis, hellfrichi Fire fish, orchid dottyback, and a midas blenny. I did end up building the lid for the tank, wasn’t as bad as I read to build.
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Been up now almost 2 months, everything going great. Holding out on adding any coral for a bit, will probably start off with some GSP and other hardy corals. Dustin
 
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The E260 is a great looking tank and welcome to R2R @408Dartfish !

I had the E260 for a few months before upgrading to the S650 so watch out. It’s very addictive! Lol
 
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408Dartfish

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The E260 is a great looking tank and welcome to R2R @408Dartfish !

I had the E260 for a few months before upgrading to the S650 so watch out. It’s very addictive! Lol
Thank you and yes very addictive. I’ve already been looking at bigger tanks, my wife thinks I’m crazy lol.
 
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408Dartfish

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Everything going great did my first phosphate check with my new Hanna checker and came out .04 so that’s good. I don’t get much algae growth yet besides on glass. Added some corals finally. 2 fighting conch also.
1x Duncan
1x Hammer
1x Lavender mushroom
1x Orange zoa
1x Green bullseye mushroom
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Little update, I’ve added a 12x12 Mr Cube aquarium in my sump cabinet. Drilled it out for a refugium and have a MJ 900 in the back of tank feeding the fuge. Have a Zetlight for the chaeto in there. Everything else has been running great. Dustin
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408Dartfish

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Fish:
3x Blue/Green Chromis
3x Pajama Cardinal
1x Orchid Dottyback (ORA)
1x Midas Blenny
1x Linespot flasher wrasse
2x clownfish one black, mocha gladiator (ORA)
1x Black cap jawfish
1x Lawnmower blenny
1x Mandarin (Biota)
Inverts:
7x Nasarious
2x Fighting conchs
10x+ Red and Blue legged hermits
10x+ Astria and Trochus Snails
1 short spine urchin
1 serpent sea star
1 Babylon snail
Corals:
Duncan
Blue star polyps
Orange Pavona
Mushrooms: Purple, red, green
Zoas: Orange, Crown Royal, Wild Australian, WWC gatorades, WWC Bob Marley, WWC everlasting gobstoppers, WWC blue watermelons
Equipment:
Tank: RedSea E Max 260
Light: 2x HD 26
Return Pump: Reef Octopus Varios 2
Heaters: Primary: Equis 250w Backup: Eheim TruTemp 150w
Powerhead: 2x Redsea 570gph 1 MP 40
Filtration:
Protein Skimmer: Reef Octopus essence 130
Carbon/GFO: BRS Deluxe 2:1 Carbon GFO ratio
Filter socks: 2x Redsea
Subsrate: around 100lbs mixed Fiji pink and special grade
Rock: that much to count. Some in back of tank and in sump.
Refugium:
Tank: 7.5g Mr Aqua
Lighting: White Zet Light
Pump: MJ 900 feeding fuge from back of DT
Misc: 3/4 overflow drilled, pvc runs to return pump chamber.
 
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408Dartfish

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Little update. I started with 5 blue/green chromis. Bought a fishtrap and decided to rehome a few. Took a few days but was able to capture 2 and re-homed them to a nice lady. I re-homed do to my overstocking of tank, my flasher wrasse gets stressed towards evening when the chromis all want to sleep in the same rock. Been battling a cyano outbreak, bought an MP40 to up the flow in some dead spots. Other than that all fish and corals doing great. My black cap jawfish pretty interesting to watch.
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Tanks been running pretty good. Been battling some cyano and algae just letting it ride out, hasn’t gotten to bad. Added a reef cleaner pack so we will see if that helps with the algae. Added some corals from WWC will add pics of those soon.
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Some updates on the tank. Lost my first fish I believe. My helfrichi firefish started hiding and not coming out, been about a month so I’m guessing it’s a goner. Added a female captive bred mandarin in my refugium a few weeks ago. Had been battling cyano but seems to have mostly gone away on its own. Still maintaining my 25% bi weekly water changes. Have very low nitrates and .05 phosphates last test.
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408Dartfish

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It’s been quite awhile since last update. I lost my black cap jawfish due to me not securing lid overnight. I’ve replaced it with a tiger sand sifting goby. Which is an amazing fish not scared of anything. Everything else is growing nicely.
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Hello,

I have the e260 and honestly love it (except for the connectivity issues with the lights . . . but after I set them up and saw how well they worked I figured I'd just never touch the settings again since they work so well and I couldn't even if I wanted to do so!). I am looking to going with the sump upgrade. It seems like you've had it up and running for quite some time. Are you pleased with it overall (and with the return pump and skimmer you went with).

Also, your add on refugium is brilliant and not only serves an additional function but water volume as well. I have a ATO resevoir kind of hidden on the side of the tank so have room to do this too. I was going to send you a private message but thought others might benefit from a more public review:

Can you please let me know what you think of the optional sump upgrade since you've had it running for awhile, the exact return pump and skimmer you used, and detail how exactly you built the refugium and did the plumbing (with approximate costs). Thanks!!!
 
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408Dartfish

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Hello,

I have the e260 and honestly love it (except for the connectivity issues with the lights . . . but after I set them up and saw how well they worked I figured I'd just never touch the settings again since they work so well and I couldn't even if I wanted to do so!). I am looking to going with the sump upgrade. It seems like you've had it up and running for quite some time. Are you pleased with it overall (and with the return pump and skimmer you went with).

Also, your add on refugium is brilliant and not only serves an additional function but water volume as well. I have a ATO resevoir kind of hidden on the side of the tank so have room to do this too. I was going to send you a private message but thought others might benefit from a more public review:

Can you please let me know what you think of the optional sump upgrade since you've had it running for awhile, the exact return pump and skimmer you used, and detail how exactly you built the refugium and did the plumbing (with approximate costs). Thanks!!!
So far this tank has exceeded my expectations. I understand the light issue and I did the same just found a setting liked and left it alone. The sump upgrade has been great I would choose it again in a heartbeat. My return pump is a Reef Octopus varios 2 and skimmer is a Reef Octopus Essence E-130. For the refugium I got a 75$ 7.5 G cube tank and 20$ drilled an overflow hole. Got a $35 MJ 1200 pump to feed the refugium. Used murloc ball valves to adjust flow. Misc other pipes and fittings 20$. I used a $80 zet light Led for the chaeto and it worked good. My tank does not have the refugium currently as I have removed it do to many power outages lately. Gravity works against me even when I close the ball valves on the murloc they still drip and overflow. I’d try find something better seemed to happen when wasn’t home per my luck. After removing the fuge I haven’t noticed much changes besides clean my glass little more.
 

Okd

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So far this tank has exceeded my expectations. I understand the light issue and I did the same just found a setting liked and left it alone. The sump upgrade has been great I would choose it again in a heartbeat. My return pump is a Reef Octopus varios 2 and skimmer is a Reef Octopus Essence E-130. For the refugium I got a 75$ 7.5 G cube tank and 20$ drilled an overflow hole. Got a $35 MJ 1200 pump to feed the refugium. Used murloc ball valves to adjust flow. Misc other pipes and fittings 20$. I used a $80 zet light Led for the chaeto and it worked good. My tank does not have the refugium currently as I have removed it do to many power outages lately. Gravity works against me even when I close the ball valves on the murloc they still drip and overflow. I’d try find something better seemed to happen when wasn’t home per my luck. After removing the fuge I haven’t noticed much changes besides clean my glass little more.

Thanks for the information! Everything is going great right now so no hurry but I think I'll purchase it and the same return pump and skimmer. The refugium add on is a great idea but I too was concerned with how perfectly everything would need to be in balance so I'll start with sump upgrade when I get around to saving up some money or perhaps there is a sale. Thanks again!
 
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408Dartfish

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Thanks for the information! Everything is going great right now so no hurry but I think I'll purchase it and the same return pump and skimmer. The refugium add on is a great idea but I too was concerned with how perfectly everything would need to be in balance so I'll start with sump upgrade when I get around to saving up some money or perhaps there is a sale. Thanks again!
The refugium was nice but I was constantly adjusting the ball valve on the redsea tank to adjust water levels. You will be satisfied with sump upgrade. I got an email for Redsea stuff 10% off on saltwateraquarium.com recently.
 
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