GemmaS & Semillon's RedSea Max 250 (TOTM winner Oct 2010)

[Semillon]

Introduction:

Our first marine tank!

System Objectives: A natural looking reef environment running as quiet as possible. Would love to propagate corals long term.

System Type: Mixed Reef


Display System:

Strike up Date: 17/02/2010

Display Tank: Red Sea Max 250

Display Lighting: 6 x 39W T5, 8 Blue LED moonlights

Stand: Red Sea Max 250 Stand (Black)

Hood: Red Sea Max 250 Hood, Fan Cooled (Black)

Sump: N/A

Refugium: N/A


Support systems:

System Water: Artificial salt water

Return Pump: x1 1200 l/hr circulation pump, x1 2400 l/hr circulation pump

Skimmer: Red Sea 1000 l/hr

Evaporation Top Up: Manual


Chemical Support:

Calcium & Alkilinity Addition: Two part dosing (recipe #2)

Other Chemical Maintenance: Activated Carbon

Current Water Chemistry:
pH: 8.3
Nitrates: NO2 = 0, NO3 = ~1ppm
Phosphates: 0.00
Alkalinity: 7.7 dKH
Calcium: 420 mg/L
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 1.0255


Images:

[Semillon]

Decided to start a journal as a place to document our initial planning, even though our tank has not arrived yet.

If anyone has any suggestions on the items with a ? I would be very keen to hear your feedback.

Setup Process

1) Assemble tank

2) Water
- RO unit (which one?) or use water ager?
- Salt supplied with starter kit
- Addition of calcium / alkalinity now or later?
- Wait at least 1 day with filters running

3) Aquascape
- Aquascape design
- Add all live rock at once or in batches?
- Add substrate
- Wait for cycle (2-3 months?)

4) Stock tank
- Start with a couple of fish or a few corals?

[jgreve]

If it was me this is what I would be doing in terms of the ? marks

*Go with RO unit and I think most go with PSI filters (http://www.psifilters.com.au/Reverse-Os ... aundry.htm)

*Wouldn't worry about calc and alk straight away

*Add all or at least most of my rock at once, saves having mini cycles continuously.

*No time limit on the cycle it will be ready when it is (when tests give good results) but in my experience with uncured rock around 6-8 weeks

* Stock tank progressively starting with the hardier and friendlier first first

Be interested in seeing this up and running as yet to see a stocked RSM250. Prehaps even put its a RSM in your name?

[Tom the Reefer]

Hope it all goes well.

Keep us updated

[lethal]

I will watch your build with interest.

I too have one of these tanks and they look fantastic. I have only put in substrate and ASW at the moment. Live rock soon.

I recommend that you invest in a chiller as these tanks get very warm. I have a Hailea 1/4hp model even though RS recommend a smaller one.

Good luck

Leigh.

[Semillon]

RO/DI unit is on its way from PSI Filters.

I rang to check on the status of our tank order and apparently the shipment isn't due to arrive in the country until the first week of December

After being led to believe that they were expecting stock last week, it is disappointing to say the least.

[h45e]

Sometimes the stock gets redirected to usa, happened with the first shipment.

[Semillon]

As of today we are still waiting for delivery of our tank

The wholesaler is "expecting" a shipment at the end of Jan ...

[Semillon]

Desired Coral list:

Xenia (Pulse Coral, Cream)
Euphyllia ancora (Hammer Coral, Green)
Lobophyllia (Brain Coral, Red)
Scolymia australis (Scoly, Red)
Plerogyra sinuosa (Bubble Coral, Pink)
Favia (Moon Coral, Purple)
Acropora (Pink)
Acropora (Blue)





I would be interested to hear any suggestions on other colour options or comments about the compatibility of these Corals.

[stefan79]

hi and welcome, great to see a fellow reefer close by.

Take your time in planning while you wait for the tank to arrive. I made the mistake of not researching and planning before i started .

Good luck and all the best


stefan

[Semillon]

After a long wait our tank was finally delivered over the weekend!

My joy was short lived when I went to set up my RO/DI unit only to realise that the connection between the RO tube and the waste water line was snapped off during transit. Thankfully PSI Filters have excellent customer service and have shipped a replacement today! (3 months after my original order, no questions asked )

Hopefully we can start filling the tank Wednesday evening It should take almost 20 hours to fill...

Assembling the stand was 2.5 hours of flat-pack pain If you buy a Red Sea Max 250, try and wrangle the fish shop into doing the assembly for you

[spiro]

Did it have shrink wrapping all over the cabinet like the 130's?

That was painful!

[SaltwaterTankLover]

Nice coral list:)

-Matt

[Semillon]

Did it have shrink wrapping all over the cabinet like the 130's?

That was painful! :wall: :wall:

No shink wrap thankfully.

Forget about lifting the tank out of its box (as per the instructions) however... we ended up carefully cutting it away.

[Semillon]

Desired fish list:

Lawnmower Blenny x1
Clown Fish (Ocellaris) x2
Flame Angel x1
Fire Goby x2
Six Line Wrasse x1




Any other suggested fish for our mid-sized tank?

[Semillon]

The tank is ready for water! Just waiting for a replacement part for our RO filter ...

Some general thoughts on the Red Sea Max 250:

The build quality of some components is not quite what you would expect for the price tag, eg: The squeeky and seemingly flimsy brackets that support the hood when it is open.

It is certainly not "plug and play" - setup takes approx 5-6 hours if you include assembling the stand.

Despite all that it does look the part and the tank itself appears to be well constructed.

Already I wish the tank was bigger

[tomorrows_angel]

I have a mandarin in a 2ft tank and he's fine, but he also eats frozen mysis and brine. I know when he's eaten all the pods in the tank when he eats the mysis, which is very rarely He's been in my tank over a year now. I know that many do not ever take prepared foods, I am just very lucky that he does.

Tank looks very nice!

[Semillon]

RO/DI unit is fixed and the tank is wet

Should have it filled sometime Wed night...

I spent some time mounting a power board up on the wall so as to form a drip loop, likewise I got the nearby entertainment unit powerboard away from the ground - just in case of spillage.

Any other safety measures I should be considering?

[Semillon]

As of this morning, the tank is over 3/4 full - 1cm below the weir.

Time to add salt tonight :-D

[Semillon]

Tank is full and salty :)

RO/DI Setup:


The salt cloud:

[Wratto]

nice .i also have a 250 and it is quite good.mines been setup for a couple of months now and all is functioning as it is surposed to . one thing ya gota watch is the protein skimmer.its quite hard to tune in but once ya get the hang of it, its second nature.and i also agree with lethal on the chiller. because its a closed unit it loves heating up. and to try and maintain the 21 ambient is not really practical!. im running just a 1/10th chiller and it keeps it nice and steady at 26c. Good luck with ya setup ill be lookin!

[lethal]

I'll agree with everything wratto said. Mine's been running since November and going very well apart from temperatures. I have a 1/4 hp chiller and it runs quite often to keep it at 27. There is a new version 3.0 skimmer pump out now which is supposed to keep temps lower and produce a better skim. Or you could go all out and get the EuroReef skimmer. Good luck with it.

Leigh.

[Semillon]

Today with the ambient temperature at 26 degrees, the tank water was sitting at 30 degrees this evening... that was with all three pumps running, as well as lightning and the water cooling fans.

It seems rather high? The skimmer pump is also extremely loud, even after allowing 48 hours for it to run itself in.

I am not happy with the noise level from the cooling fans for the lighting system / water either - sounds like I am standing in an aircraft hanger :o

Ho hum...

[chromus]

Be a bit more patient with the pump bed in.

A lot of people do end up replacing the RO Skimmer.

Is it 1 pump in particular or all of them that are noisy.

[Semillon]

It is mostly the skimmer pump, the other two are acceptable, though louder than I had hoped.

[Wratto]

i agree the skimmer pump is quite noisey i even tried to cut noise down by getting sticky foam and creating a coushin around it but it didnt really work.
its very dependent on the amount of air induced into it (more air less noise, less air more noise).that being said i barely notice the noise from it these days,i guess you just get used to it! also im curious but what would a good/better replacement pump be to suit it?

[pebbles]

What an exciting time for you!

Today with the ambient temperature at 26 degrees, the tank water was sitting at 30 degrees this evening... that was with all three pumps running, as well as lightning and the water cooling fans.

I notice you have a closed hood? Just that you might have some problems:

- poor gas exchange leading to low pH
- low evaporative cooling ( though you could add fans to the sump if theres good ventilation).

So I guess a chiller would sort out the latter, but not sure about the former (unless you can remove the hood).
FWIW nothing in the hobby is perfect - you just learn to work around it.

Anyway, I bet you can't wait to get some livestock in there!

[Semillon]

First water test results are in:

Current Water Chemistry:
pH: 8.4
Nitrates: 0
Phosphates: 0
Alkalinity: 9dKH
Calcium: 480 mg/L
Salinity / Specific Gravity: 1.026

It appears as if there is a lot to like about the salt mix I used to make up the water, all parameters appear to be spot on.

[Semillon]

As of tonight, the cycle has begun!

20kg "premium branching liverock" thanks to Matt from Aquarium Fanatics:


Looks like we will need another 5kg of rock.

Full tank shot: no aquascaping has been attempted, I just put the lot in the tank in a big pile:


There appears to be a tiny bleached acro growing on one of the rocks, unlikely to survive the cycle? Pity...

I saw at least one small crab that remained in the box, one living mollusc of some description and what appeared to be some kind of long legged starfish.

[Semillon]

After purchasing another ~5kg of live rock, we have completed our aquascaping and added the substrate:



Now to continue the waiting game...