Red Sea Max Owners Club

[Hodge]

I got a reply from the Tunze rep, regarding installation depth of the Tunze nano skimmer. He is suggesting the marked level be the max depth and less is better. That means...no way the back lid will close without a lid mod.

I've had the Tunze running for a week and haven't got any decent skim except for light tea. The stock skimmer was pulling out some nasty crud in comparison. I'll try lifting the skimmer up and see if the performance is better. Just have to figure out how to keep the cat out of there with the lid open.

I'm thinking I may take the "design a skimmer" challenge. I think I may be onto why the bubble problem with the RSM.

[Reefmack]

Hodge - that's a bummer. Does giving it less air in help any at all at the depth you have it? I can't remember - do you have it on the mag mount on the power center side? I now remember the cat that likes to lay on top of the hood. I liked the "design a skimmer challenge" remark.

Donna - I forgot to mention how much I also liked your rock - very nice indeed. Good to see you've gotten rid of the algae too!

[Rue]

Donna! Tank looks nice! Want some algae for it?

Originally posted by Stuart60611
Donna:

I think your problem may be that you have one false perc and one true perc. The darker and thicker black bands are markings of a false perc, where the thinner and less dark bands are the markings of a true perc. This is the best way to tell them apart. This would explain the aggression issue.

Isn't it the other way around (IF colour is an indicator at all)? A. percula has the thicker black stripes and A. ocellaris has the very thin black stripes?

My 'nem is still okay...but still small looking. Gosh, I hope it's all good with it from here on in!

[mbdave]

Reefmack,
No way all my stuff will go with me back to the west coast. I have sold out twice in the past and regretted it. If I loose stuff let it be but at least most will make it'"I'm really good at shipping" shipped bunches from Guam to CA.

[Fishy Something]

Gigs - happy to trade, but will have to wait a couple of months as the RSM is all I have right now & there is not a lot in it... This place is great for getting answers, but if you want some local knowledge, feel free to PM me.

Donna53W - I'd just call them clowns! Re your pump, I sometimes get a funny rattling sound & have discovered that the inlet on the pump tends to work it''s way loose & it is the impellar knocking on it. I have gotten reasonably dextrous at squeezing my hand in there & being able to push it back on without taking the pump off.

Cheers

James

[Reefmack]

[i].....Isn't it the other way around (IF colour is an indicator at all)? A. percula has the thicker black stripes and A. ocellaris has the very thin black stripes?

My 'nem is still okay...but still small looking. Gosh, I hope it's all good with it from here on in! [/B]

Rue - I thought the same too - that the A. percula had the wider black bands. But, whenever I assume that I think I know what I'm talking about......

Glad the nem is still OK!

Fishy Something - good point - that plastic casing does come off too easily. For me it's usually just as I've gotten the second pump installed back into it's hole, then off it comes and I have to pull both out and go diving for the piece. At least with rubble & media in there I don't have to squeeze my big hand down too far to recover it. Not the greatest design of the pumps, or the space in that last compartment.

mbdave - OK on the move and it all going with!

[stephensturman]

ok can we keep micro, acan and blastos with stock lighting?

[Reefmack]

I kept acan no problem with the stock lights - haven't had the other two.

[stephensturman]

ok thanks!

[LaurentSeattle]

I have noticed that a decent amount of light is going through the back wall of the RSM and brings some light to the area between the skimmer and the heater chamber. There is enough light at this time to allow growth of some pest algae...

Could this be enough light to grow some cheato algae? Does anyone has tried that already? I am wondering if this highly oxygenated spot could be a sweet spot for this macro algae... assuming that there would be some easy "mod" (like a mesh) to prevent the chaeto ball to get swallowed into the filtration chamber.

Could this addition "kill" some of the micro-bubbles from the skimmer?

Thanks,
Laurent

[donna53w]

So much is happening here!!

Thanks for the nice compliments on my rock work, reefmack & rue!

My pump has been running for about an hour now, with no noise. All I did was check the nut that holds the nozzle on, the nut was loose! Hopefully that was the quick & easy fix I was hoping for.

When I work in the back of the tank and take the hinges & back cover off, I then just slide the whole top forward ... it kind of hangs over the front edge of the tank. Does anyone else do this? I kind of worry that I might break the front hinges or have the whole thing hit the floor. At first, I took the whole top off, but that was a lot of extra work.

James you can squeeze your hand into the pump compartment??? Not with both pumps in place??

I tend to agree with the darker bands belonging to the True Percs. I've researched & have also found that often true percs do not develop their darker colors until they are about 2 years old. Also the odd band before the tail on the darker- lined fish could be an indicator of True Percs. All of you have been so helpful & it's certainly been interesting! Whatever they are, tonight I did notice the little one shimmying when it got close to the other one!

Another happy moment ... I thought I had lost my emerald crab ... hadn't seen it for quite a few days. But there he was, in his favorite corner tonight ... I could have just kissed the little guy! My bue tuxedo urchin is still AWOL & I really do think that he has met his demise.

Rue, what do you have for CUC? How many snails & what types?
I just can't say enough for my snails & the great job they do ... they just cleaned up my algae in no time! It could also have been due to the 'cycle', but they literally made tracks through the stuff!

Stephensturman, I am just checking into Acans & the dealer has been very helpful. I sent him the specs on our stock RSM, and he said the Acans do great with T5 and PC lighting.

Reefmack: You said you 'kept' acans with stock lighting. Do you still have them? Did they pose stinging problems??

[lpsluver]

True Percs = wider black bands, bright orange (less hardy fish)
Ocellaris = very thin black band, duller orange (more hardy fish)

[Reefmack]

Laurent - I once had a piece of what I think was caulerpa attached & growing in that left section of the skimmer compartment, when i still had the stock hood. Where it came from I have no idea, as I've never had any of that type on my rock. Anyway, the amount of light from the stock hood was enough to have it grow. I do see a fair amount of pest algae back there now, but I get a lot more light back there now, from the raised hood. Whether or not the stock hood would provide enough light for chaeto I don't know. I think at least one RSM owner installed a little fluorescent light, or LEDs under that back flap to allow chaeto to be kept back there. As you said it might also act as a microbubble eliminator!

I was looking at some pics I took when I first installed the hang on fuge and realized that the chaeto in there has doubled in size in a short time.

Donna - glad the pump chatter was an easy fix! I never thought about the powerhead fitting being loose - duh! On that pump casing I think James meant putting a finger or two under the pumps to be sure that casing was on tight. Glad the emerald showed up - I see both of mine out now even with the lights on. One is so big he's almost scary! Last night he was on the rock with his two arms spread wide, and threatening fish that swam by with his pincers. Hopefully he isn't trying to catch fish, but I'm really wondering. On the acan - I think there's a pic of my boring blue/purple one at the top of the previous page - yes, I still have it , and it's done well under both stock and MH lighting. I've never seen it put out sweeper tentacles, but I once had a nice big toadstool that had a stalk about 6 inches high. I never could keep that toadstool upright and it would often fall onto the acan, and the acan would then put out a mass of long tentacles and sting & try to digest the parts of the toadstool that were in contact with it. I eventually had to dispose of the toadstool as it was beyond repair after a few "incidents". But I think the acan (mine anyway) won't normally reach out and sting something, like a frogspawn will. I keep the acan under my big tree-like frogspawn now, and the frogspawn once put out a long sweeper that went down and laid across the surface of the acan, and cause a burned out thin strip of skeleton all the way across the acan. The acan has since pretty well healed up and repaired itself. I never thought to take pictures of the damage the frogspawn did, but the frogspawn was the obvious winner.

[martinphillip03]

Any updates on the RSMD? Also is there anyway the lights can be modded to increase wattage? ie add another t5 or overdrive the lights.

Marty



The RSMD is the answer to all your RSM skimer needs. It will skim with hardly any bubbles, it will have a place for media where a reactor is not require, it will have a place for a chiller pump, its the alfa, the omega, its what we all will want, what we all will need, the skimmer of skimmers, the big kuhuna!!!!!.......NA my feeble atempt at making a better skimmer unit for the RSM. [/QUOTE]

[Y-DesygnGuy]

Missing Ricordea rock!

So I had a small Orange Ric which was attached to a rock which was glued to the main rock up and disappear on me over night. It's heavy enough I know the flow did not take it away and its been in the same location for weeks., but today...poof! it's gone! The entire rock(s) are gone not just the mushroom... very weird, my money is on the Watchman goby... Even after getting him a pistol shrimp to hang with (which he doesn't even give the pistol shrimp the time of day) he still grabs hermit crabs and drags them around. So I am wondering if he moved my rock!! Little b@stard that he is, I really liked the orange ric!!

[donna53w]

Y-DesynGuy, missing ric and rock! That's quite a mystery, all right. Do you mean you think your Watchman carried it away? or that he dug and it fell into a crevice somewhere?

I have put in an order for 4 acans and a couple other small frags. These frags are all just 1 or 2 polyp ... hopefully they will be beautiful to make up for the size! And pricey ... whooo! Reefmack, did you buy your acan smaller than it is? Is the picture of it, basically the way it looked when you bought it or has it changed ...

Question: what do you do with frags upon arrival? Do you dip them in something? How do you acclimatize them properly?

[Reefmack]

Y-DesygnGuy - how big was the rock? Could it be behind your rock, or as Donna said fell into a crevice? I lost a nice florida once, when it came off the rock it was on. I evenually saw it growing on the back of one side but in a place where it was too hard to get too without messing everything up. I haven't seen it recently - some red mushrooms were starting to gow over it and now I can't see it anymore. The Ric is somewhere in your tank. With luck it will show up somewhere. Even if floating around loose they'll eventually find a spot they can attach to - I have shrooms attached to my back wall, and other places on the back of my rock. They are capable of moving, but very slowly as they have to do it by growing their base in the direction they want to move - takes a long time. The yuma I have that just split off 2 babies has moved about an inch away from them - to give them growing room maybe?

Donna - good luck with the frags, and i hope the grow and multiply quickly. My Acan may be a bit bigger than when I got it. The back side of it was bare when I got it and it's now grown over and begun covering the back side. I'm not sure how Acans grow - if they expand with a self made skeleton, or if they encrust existing structures? I think it's by encrusting, but I'm just guessing.

[Hodge]

Donna,
Had I bought my clowns first, I may not have added anymore fish. Their behavior is fascinating compared to the other fish I've got.
My astrea snails completely cleaned my back wall. Other than having to tip them over once and awhile, they've been great.

Y-DesygnGuy,
Bummer on the MIA Ricordia. I've had a zoa polyp floating around for awhile...see it one day and then gone for a few. I haven't lost any rocks tho!!

Thanks for the ATO advice. I think I'll hold off until I get my skimmer tuned in before farting with anything else.

Tunze update: I'm still having issues with proper control. I did read it may take a couple weeks to completely break in. I went from no foam to a full cup of water on two occasions last night. No bubbles at all tho, so I shouldn't complain.

[Hodge]

Donna,
I have been acclimating for Temp and Salinity and then a dip in a bucket of siphoned tank water to shake off hitchhikers/gunk. I usually time it with a small water change (have to remove some water to float the bags anyways).

[mbdave]

Howdy people! The RSMD is in progress I'm fitting it up today to make sure it will fit in the skimmer compartment of the RSM. After carefull thought I made the skimmer column larger on this one this left less room for media but still plenty. Also it gave me an idea for a refugium to fit back there but with no skimmer. I will work on that one on another day (for those natural types)

[mbdave]

Reefmack, the other night I got ****ed at my pumps for some I'm sure stupid reason, but I plugged one of the holes for the pumps(epoxy it was the closes thing I had to use) and just use one tube now. Gave more pressure out of the one tube which created some random motion in the tank.

[Y-DesygnGuy]

The rock was about the size of a dime, decent size, large enough it wouldn't be moved by the water flow. That's what I find weird is the rock is gone and the ric that was on it. I don't see either of them any where in the tank, i felt below the sand and everything. LOL oh well what do you im sure like you say it will show up at some point, in a really weird spot im sure. I just found it odd to see the entire rock missing not just the mushroom. I know that goby did it he is always looking at me funny!

[Reefmack]

Donna - I forgot your question about the dips. I know some do a RO/DI dip, some an iodine (Lugols) dip, some iodine + flatworm exit, and some a combination of these. I've never done a dip, as I was concerned about doing more harm than good, and so far I've been lucky (knock on wood).

mbdave - interesting on just having one powerhead powered by the MJ1200. I'll have to think about that one, maybe with the hydor flow on the one that's going to spread out the flow and circulate it. Looking forward to the trial and release of the RSMD P1 (Prototype 1) just don't give out the specifics!

[Y-DesygnGuy]

So I thought I would show you what the orange ric "looked" like the one that went missing. It looked just like this one...




And here are a few more shots of the rics I have. They are starting to look really nice I think. A lot bigger than when the shipment came.



You can see the bandito sitting on his rock!! I know he did something with the orange ric, I just know it!


And here are a few zoa frags ive collected. Some of them used to be in the 14g, but I couldn't resist fragging them and adding some to the rsm.



And who says you can't keep sps in the rsm with stock lighting!!!
This piece I got from a friend on Saturday around 4pm in the afternoon. The top picture shows it bleaching and looking pretty bad. The bottom image is what it looks like as of 15 minutes ago, you can see its coming back! I have another sps frag in the tank I will take some before and after of that as well.

[Hodge]

This is one of my sps frags (Pocillopora) which is doing quite well under stock lighting.