Skijumper's RSM 130

[skijumpersc]

FTS 6/20/18

I've been researching tanks and equipment for awhile now, my goal was to put together a decent starter tank on a budget. I was trying to avoid established tanks with a lot of livestock so I could have the fun of picking out fish, however when this tank showed up for sale it was impossible to pass up. I was really happy it was very sparsely stocked, yet had most of the equipment that I'd been looking at. I think it has a ton of potential.

Equipment

• Display: Red Sea Max 130
• Lighting: AI Prime
• Skimmer: Tunze DOC 9002
• ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
• Powerhead: MP10
• ETC: Intake Drop in media Box
  • Surface skimmer attachement

Livestock

• CUC
  • 5 Nessarius snails
  • 3 hermit dwarf hermits
  • 3 trochus snails
  • 1 Turbo Snail
• Inverts
  • Emerald Crab
  • RBTA
  • Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
• Fish
  • Clown
• Coral
  • Green Crown Leather?
  • GSP
• Macros
  • Dragon's breath
  • Cheat

I grew up with a freshwater tank, but this is my first reef tank so I'm sure I'll been on here much more often. My goal is to add some macroalgaes, as well as some mangroves. I'd like to get something of a lagoon theme going. I'd also like to add a refugium in the overflow box at some point, possibly at the expense of the skimmer. If anyone has any advice or ideas for me I'd love to hear them.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice! Welcome to R2R!

 

[skijumpersc]

Nice! Welcome to R2R!

Thanks!

 

[skijumpersc]

I think I've going to try taking the skimmer out and turning the middle section of my rear chamber into a refugium of sorts. I've going to make an eggcrate divider to keep the chaeto out of my return pump chamber and maybe I'll start some mangroves back there before I add them to the display. I'd like to get a pod population started back there so maybe ill build a pod condo that I can take out and swap into the display. I'm not sure if I should go barebottom, sand/mud, or rock rubble or a large piece or two of live rock. I'm leaning towards sand and the pod condo will have some rubble in it. I'll probably toss some hermit crabs back there if I do end up going with a sand bed

 

[NY_Caveman]

Have you considered something like the CPR AquaFuge HOB refugium? Not saying you have to have both skimmer and refugium, just throwing it out there.

 

[skijumpersc]

Yeah, I've been thinking about doing something like that or the DIY aqua clear mod. I might test it this way and if I miss the skimmer move to the other system.

 

[skijumpersc]

Couple of updates. On monday I added a second tiny ocellaris. My big one seemed to take him right in and he's already at home in the anemone. That was some nice luck, but today I got home from work to find a tank that was on the verge of overflowing. My filter floss in the top chamber or my media basket had gotten clogged enough that it dropped the level in my return chamber which switched on my ATO. By the time I discovered it my ATO had added several gallons. My SG had dropped from 1.026 to 1.023 and my banded serpent star was running around the tank like i'd never seen him before and my anemone looked like it wasn't loving life either. Plus, to add insult to injury, the GHA was back with a vengeance all of a sudden. I turned off my ATO to let it evap back to normal levels and I put in a new pad of filter floss.



I guess I can't get as much time out of my filter floss as I was expecting, I need to change it more often. I think I'm going to remove the surface skimmer as well. It wont be as aesthetically pleasing, but I think with the lower volume most, if not all, of the ATO reservoir could empty into the tank without it overflowing. I want to figure out a better mechanical filtration media so it won't fill up so fast. I think ill put something really course in the top chamber so its super easy to change, then something finer in the second chamber and run my purigen in the third. Has anyone done something similar?

 

[easily_fishstracted]

I guess I can't get as much time out of my filter floss as I was expecting, I need to change it more often. I think I'm going to remove the surface skimmer as well. It wont be as aesthetically pleasing, but I think with the lower volume most, if not all, of the ATO reservoir could empty into the tank without it overflowing. I want to figure out a better mechanical filtration media so it won't fill up so fast. I think ill put something really course in the top chamber so its super easy to change, then something finer in the second chamber and run my purigen in the third. Has anyone done something similar?

where did you put the shut-off valve? should that not have prevented getting close to overflow?

my osmolator gave me some scares in the first couple days of use during break-in but has been running for months now like clockwork.

 

[skijumpersc]

where did you put the shut-off valve? should that not have prevented getting close to overflow?

my osmolator gave me some scares in the first couple days of use during break-in but has been running for months now like clockwork.

The display part of the tank was filling up since it was draining through the media chamber into the back chamber where the top off sensor is located. Usually that part of the tank should stay the same level, however the filter media was clogged and caused the water level to drop in the return pump chamber

 

[skijumpersc]

It seemed like it took forever for my salinity to come back up after that ATO incident. I was holding off on water changes until it got back to where I wanted it. Two days ago I noticed my serpent star out cruising around again and acting weird. Yesterday I did a water change and afterwards he was starting to lose pieces of his arms. I think it had started before the water change, but I did some tests and nothing seemed out of whack except for my nitrates which were above 40ppm. I wish I'd tested that before the change since I just got a new gravel vacuum and did a good sand bed cleaning. Im not sure if that might have stirred up a bunch of nitrates or if they were already that high. Today I got back from work and he's lost almost all his arms, but his disk still looks ok. I've heard of them making miraculous recoverys so I want to give him some more time, but I also don't want him to die somewhere that I can't find him. Its a tough call to make. My nitrates are still about 40 so I think I'm going to do another change and see if I can get them back in control. I also added some chemipure elite so hopefully that will help

 

[skijumpersc]

I came home from work to find my display tank had more water in it than it was supposed to. My filter was clogged again and triggering my ato. I caught it this time before it got too bad and hopefully reversed it. I thought after last time I'd been replacing them fast enough. I put this one in the day before yesterday, but then I remembered hearing that Nopox will cause filters to clog and I've been dosing that for a week.

I discovered all this an hour before I had to leave for the airport, so in the meantime I just removed the filter floss altogether. I think I may either keep going without it or get something super coarse that will only get the stray chaeto and such and that I can rinse and reuse a bunch of times. I'm getting sick of how wasteful throwing filter floss away everyday is

Oh and one of trichus died. I found a hermit munching on him, he and my turbo have been looking rough for a week or two. They were still alive but not moving at all. I'm afraid I'll get home on Sunday and my turbo will have become crab food. Hopefully if he goes they'll take care if him and he won't bomb the tank

 

[skijumpersc]

I'm getting really discouraged with this hobby. It seems like everyday there is another emergency or problem with the tank and I just can't get on top of it all. I returned from vacation to find that my ATO had stopped filling for some reason, I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it started working fine again. Luckily my salinity wasn't too out of whack. Some weird algae had also grown over my shaving brush macro and seems to have strangled it, some of its leaves are black and its lost al its rigidity, luckily the offshoot it had sent out seems to be doing ok still.

I still haven't made any appreciable dent in my nitrates so I did a 10g water change tonight, when i finished I plugged everything back in and now my skimmer has **** the bed. So that sucks. I took it apart to clean it and try and find the issue and the pump seems to be kaput. I've either got to buy a new pump which is going to stretch the budget, or go skimmer less, or figure out a way to fix it. And although its the least of my worries, my QT has been cycling for a month now and the nitrites are still holding steady at .25. its driving me crazy.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel here? It seems like all my free time lately has just been spent putting out fires with this tank. I know that its not an easy hobby, and I was prepared to put in time and effort, but so far its just one problem after another and very

 

[Gene Ashton]

I feel your pain. I have a C130 and recently have a huge algae bloom where my water is so f$cking cloudy I cant see through one side to the other. Did you have a bloom at 4 months? I am thinking about adding a small power head and increasing flow to see if this helps. My nitrates and ammonia are 0 all the time. Weekly 5 gallon WC.

 

[Gene Ashton]

I have a massive algae bloom going on right now. So cloudy I cant see though the tank from one side to the other. I am about 4 months old. All parameters are in line. Ammonia Nitrates nitrates 0 salinity 1.025 and temp around 78.50 using ATO. Have Steves LEDS running about 8 hours a day at 40%. Weekly WC about 5 gallons. I'm frustrated also and in the process of setting up my Reefer 450. I hope the bigger tank is easier. Also have BRS 4 stage 150 GPD RO system with 0 TDS. The only thing I'm on the fence about is salt. I have Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. People say its crap and people say its good.

 

[JoshH]

I know what you mean, my C130 has had most of these algae issues not that its related to the tank atall lol but give it a little time and things will come around still having a couple issues with Aptaisia and a little hair algae but took a look at my tank today and still love it! I will ask this, what are you using for test kits?

 

[Gene Ashton]

I know what you mean, my C130 has had most of these algae issues not that its related to the tank atall lol but give it a little time and things will come around still having a couple issues with Aptaisia and a little hair algae but took a look at my tank today and still love it! I will ask this, what are you using for test kits?

API Nitrate Nitrite Ammonia all 0. Salinity 1.025 tempo 79 PH a little high 8.4 I think. I just cut back the lights by two hours a day and feeding much less. My sand is perfectly clean all of a sudden but water is so cloudy and green tint my Zoas wont open. Its been cloudy for about ten days.

 

[skijumpersc]

Its been a bit since I updated, the last week or two has been pretty eventful. I bought a Molly Miller blenny. After a week in qt in which my ammonia kept creeping up despite water changes I decided to jailbreak him to my DT where he has been making himself at home in a barnacle rock. I think I didn't have a well enough established biofilter yet in the QT, so in the meantime I'm working on that.

Today I woke up to find my juvenile clown stuck to my MP10, I got him off asap, but he was already gone. My shrimp swooped in and I had to fight him to get the little guys body back. I'm not sure what happened, he was quite small <1" still, I'm wondering if he just got too close while sleeping. I didn't have it on night mode since Ive been shutting power off to feed and that seems to reset my night mode settings which I'd forgotten to turn on. A lot of people say that healthy fish don't get sucked into powerheads, but up until I found him he'd been eating and swimming and acting healthy so who knows.

In other news, after doing some research I've settled on trying my hand at a DIY up flow ATS. I think I'm going to try going skimmerless once I get that set up. With the way the rear chambers are designed on the RSM I find my skimmer isn't super effective because by the time water gets past it its already gone through my media basket with filter floss, chemipure and purigen. As I understand the most effective way to use a skimmer is to have it be the first stop in the filtration system, but there isn't a way that I've figured out to arrange the red sea in that order.

I'm hoping If I put in the ATS and build a large rock rubble pod hotel to put in the rear chamber eventually I can build up a large enough colony to thinking about getting a mandarin someday.