Red Sea Max Owners Club

[stephensturman]

it is still making skim and it hasn't even been a day yet! so i will let u know in a week!

[Hodge]

LaurentSeattle,
sent you a PM.

Y-DesygnGuy,
According to ORA, they are the exclusive provider of naked clowns... Nice job getting a "special" pair.

stephensturman,
Did you ever have problems with MB with the stock skimmer or was it just poor skimmer performance only. I'd be interested to know before trying my mod idea.

Looking at my Tunze skimmer, they incorporated a neck (3" long) on the bottom of the collection cup that sticks down into the bubble stream. Something the rsm skimmer doesn't have. Maybe someone could try a cup mod (pipe glued to bottom of the cup) to help direct bubbles up into the cup, instead of flowing into the secondary passage of the skimmer.

[Patio]

I cut a quarter inch off the bottom of the skimmer and have not seen much of a difference yet. same amount of skimmate that just wants to hang out in the conical over flow.

I have not heard from anyone if the mesh mod is worth it but will be working on that right now.

If my LFS is open I will do the same with the air valve.

Can I see pics of a tunze skimmer installed in someones setup? That would be my next option if these mods don't do the trick.

Thanks,

Pat

[Reefmack]

Wow - so many posts to catch up on while I've been doing a water change and all that involves. Wrapped a few presents also.

Rue - congrats on the new splitting! I have a feeling the incident with the overflow may have prompted that but who knows?

Looks like Y-DesygnGuy grabbed the light fixture that stephen was looking at. Gotta be quick on Ebay. That looked like a real deal at that price - almost too good to be true. What happened to staying with the RSM hood look Y-DesygnGuy? Minds can change fast in reefing! I haven't had any fish jump out in the few months I've had the raised hood, but I don't have any firefish. If the hood covers the whole display tank area I think it lessens the chances of jumping. Just my opinion.

stephensturman - here's a couple pics of my Orbit hood on the max - there should be some in my blog on rsmreefers:



This shows how it opens up the back. I still had the RSM skimmer in at this time. The object at the top (right of the skimmer) is a dual cooling fan by Azoo that I have timed to come on with the HQI lamp:



The tank pretty much as it is today, with the fuge on the side. I did replace the 10,000k bulb with a 20,000k one - it's a bluer spectrum and really make the corals pop more. Also, in the few weeks I've had the fuge the chaeto has now filled the fuge - time to harvest some soon.

[reefsr4me]

Just wondering about ro/di, or any of that stuff?

Does onyone just use tap water for their mixing and top off's? I have a General Ionics water softners, like the best system made, costs about 4K new. I just use that, and my only draw back is that I clean the glass once a week because the diatoms look like little brown pin heads and skew the view. Other than that, I have never lost anything in the tank but the clam in 5 months setup.

I was just wondering who else out there just uses water from the tap and their successes, or if I really need to invest in a RO/DI.

[Reefmack]

reefsr4me - I used a small carbon/DI cartridge gizmo for the first several months.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...84&pcatid=4484

I think the water it turned out was pretty good as I never had a major hair algae or cyano outbreak. But, even though the water tested 0 TDS before a cartridge was exhausted, I always had dingy substrate due to recurring brown diatom growth. About a month ago I got a fulled fledged 5 stage RO/DI and shortly after that my substrate cleaned up - no more brown diatom, and my substrate now looks as clean as the day I put it in the tank. Just my opinon, but I think a good RO/DI would remove more than the best water softener will. In addition to the deionizing that a water softener does, a good RO/DI will filter out particulates, absorb Cl in the carbon stage, etc. I don't think the best water softener will do all those things? I think most water softeners just use rechargeable resins, like the DI resin stage of an RO/DI? I'm sure no water treatment expert, but I know things really improved for me when I went to the RO/DI.

[Y-DesygnGuy]

Reefmack -- I know I know, I couldn't resist the price. But at the same time I am a firm believer of you get what you pay for. So I am not expecting to much this system. Your set up looks very nice, I like the way the lighting system covers the entire tank. I was reading more on the one I bought, it says its 15" wide, which should cover the top of the tank sorta like yours. *heres to hoping*

Hodge -- Thanks! Now if I can get them to eat I will be thrilled. I saw them take a few small bights of food today, but they are just swimming in the same spot trying to nudge their way through the front of the tank... I swear clown fish are totally neurotic creatures.

[reefsr4me]

My substrate is brown also, but there is 0 Cl at all, I don't add anything but salt before putting it in my SW tank, and nothing at all for my FW tank.

Anyone else with no RO/DI system with input would be helpful

[Iostream]

Well, I couldn't resist some new additions over the weekend. I think I have my coral layout more or less in my head now...

The new zoas:


And a xenia:


Hope everyone has a good one.

[stephensturman]

reefmack- ya he got the one i was looking at but there are tons on ebay that are all the same so we will see how it turns out! if he likes it and the quality is ok then i will pick one up if he doesn't like the look then maybe i will get lucky and he will sell it to me?

[Y-DesygnGuy]

Iostream -- Your new additions are looking very nice!

stephensturman -- Your the first person im contacting if I don't like it and at a good price!

[stephensturman]

ok thanks buddy!

[martinphillip03]

A RO unit makes the water pure. Zero dissolved solids. A water softener adds ions to the water to make it more palatable. There is still plenty of dissolved stuff in the water. It is recommended that when mixing salt water you use RO water.

Marty

Marty

Originally posted by reefsr4me
Just wondering about ro/di, or any of that stuff?

Does onyone just use tap water for their mixing and top off's? I have a General Ionics water softners, like the best system made, costs about 4K new. I just use that, and my only draw back is that I clean the glass once a week because the diatoms look like little brown pin heads and skew the view. Other than that, I have never lost anything in the tank but the clam in 5 months setup.

I was just wondering who else out there just uses water from the tap and their successes, or if I really need to invest in a RO/DI.

[martinphillip03]

Yes the mesh mod works, according to this thread. There is a link to it a page or two back.

Marty

Originally posted by Patio
I cut a quarter inch off the bottom of the skimmer and have not seen much of a difference yet. same amount of skimmate that just wants to hang out in the conical over flow.

I have not heard from anyone if the mesh mod is worth it but will be working on that right now.

If my LFS is open I will do the same with the air valve.

Can I see pics of a tunze skimmer installed in someones setup? That would be my next option if these mods don't do the trick.

Thanks,

Pat

[martinphillip03]

Do you know what type of xenia it is?

Marty

Originally posted by Iostream
Well, I couldn't resist some new additions over the weekend. I think I have my coral layout more or less in my head now...

T

Hope everyone has a good one.

[Reefmack]

reefsr4me - do you know if your water system removes all of the phosphates? I think phosphate is what feeds the brown diatom?Even though I was getting a 0 TDS reading with my little API gadget, I think I must have been getting some phosphate through it. One other thing I noticed was that I'm no longer getting a brownish sediment in the white bucket I store my SW in.

Iostream - nice corals and nice pictures too. Looks like the Xenia elongata is also doing well.

Before my water change today I tried scraping coralline off the sides & front glass. That stuff is sure tough to get off. In the process I knocked loose my Turbinaria pagoda coral - quick superglue/epoxy fix and then I gave up on further coralline removal and proceeded with the water change, etc. I noticed that my flower anemone that had moved toward the back of the rock had now moved back & higher up. So much for them staying in one place.

Side note & totally off topic: One present I wrapped up for my son were 2 coprolites (fossilized poop lol) - one 150 million year old Jurassic dinosaur poop, and one Miocene-Oligocene Era, 30-35 million year old turtle poop that looks surprisingly real. Now he can't say that he didn't get s__t for Christmas! And no - they don't smell - the organic content has been replaced by rock. Some folk even make jewely out of this stuff - the insides are often agate and quite colorful. Aren't you all glad I shared this with you?

[Hodge]

Patio,
Here's a couple pics of my Tunze.


You can see the slight mod to the the lid brace to get the lid to close. Thats the amount of skim I've got since last night.

[Reefmack]

martinphillip03 - it's Xenia elongata - aka silver branch & other names. It's the curse in my tank LOL. It looks like Iostream's is up high so it shouldn't be too much problem controlling it. I put mine in low on my rock and it's branched it's way up to the top of my rock. It stay shorter once it gets to the top, but the long branches wave around in the flow, and that be aggravating to nearby corals that it flops against. That's just my experience with it. I also have the white Red Sea Pom Pom type and I much prefer that - stays shorter (still grows upward though).

[Reefmack]

Hodge - what's that green gizmo on the left? Did you use the bracket on the Tunze or a mag mount or ?

[NaCl+H2O Fish]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by reefsr4me
[B]My substrate is brown also, but there is 0 Cl at all, I don't add anything but salt before putting it in my SW tank, and nothing at all for my FW tank. Anyone else with no RO/DI system with input would be helpful.

Reefsr4me -
This has also been one of my BIG concerns living in Hollywood, FL. I can't tell you the amount of time I have spent researching the same question!

This past February my wife & I upgraded our dated Hague whole house softener system to an updated Hague 63BAQ WaterMax (built in Groveport, OH.) - a brine regenerated resin ion-exchange with a HI-Performance Activated Carbon stage. The key for us was softening, removal of foul smelling chlorine/chloramine and the local issue of discoloration removal due to tannin.

I contacted Red Sea about using my 'treated' tap w/ no measurable calcium (tested with the kit from Red Sea) for mixing the Red Sea Pro salt mix. I was told it would be fine.... hmmm?

Many forum responses suggested otherwise as Reefmack suggested... Basically my system does half the job of RO/DI system, that of a DI system. The RO job removes the positive cations and remaining organics (nasties) that the resin and carbon may miss.

I called my local water utility and spoke to a city H2O chemist. What I discovered is that my cities water is pretty darn good!!!
TDS 139 ppm. Very low, much above standard readings for heavy metals and organics. Since I don't own a TDS meter yet, I have no idea what my tap water reads after processing by the Hague; but I do know that it looks good, smells good and is soft! After inquiries with the filter guys, spectrapure and buckeye.... I got a link to an affordable RO/DI system (once again thanks to THE FORUMS ORACLE - Reefmax) that might work well for me @ www.airwaterice.com I emailed and asked if the $ 99.95 Mighty Mite (20 - 50 gals./day) system would be a fit with my Hague. don@airwaterice.com said it would be a great match for MAINTAINING a RSM for daily 'freshwater' evaporation top offs and water changes. He also said (as have others) that my home system would extend the life of the filters.

Also discovered this... OY! a sale price of $ 69.95 rated at 75gals./day! http://www.purelyh2o.com/product.php...cat=249&page=1

Hope this Helps,
Kent

[NaCl+H2O Fish]

My Gosh!

I finally deciphered the photo 'resizing' and 'upload' process and now have a gallery of my 36" square x 18 1/2" high solid oak coffee table, and the photo details of the pedestal I am constructing to put on it for my RSM reef adventure.

I found the 'photobucket site' annoying.... with all the pop-ups and advertising! I went back to my 'PRIMARY' photo editor Picasa2 from google & gmail. I discovered that I could export a file(s) to my desktop into a relabeled folder and Picasa2 would prompt for resizing!!! MY GOODNESS! I am using 480pixels, which translates to 43.6KB's.... under the RC posting limit! YEAH!

Anyway... I have posted 'in my gallery' a link to the pedestal project....

Oh my gosh... still struggling! Go to my gallery...

Kent

[Reefmack]

NaCl+H2O Fish - Sounds good on the RO units if you already have a good house softener/deionizer. Makes sense to me. My tap water here is only 56-58 TDS, and we have very soft water - only about 20-30ppm, so it doesn't put much load on an RO/DI unit and water softeners here don't sell well as they're not needed. When I tested the tank water for phosphates not long ago, I found no measurable levels. I never have tested my tapwater though. Glad you figured out the picture galley - I think I have Picasa installed, but only used it once. I do still like Photobucket though, and I never pay any attention to the ads and don't get any popups at all - maybe my popup blocker kills them. You'll find that if you're trying to show any fine detail that it's difficult to do with the size limits on the RC picture gallery. Those pics in your gallery look familiar LOL!

[Hodge]

Reefmack,

The green gizmo is the plastic frame for the Whisper brand filter I'm using. It used to sit right behind the overflow but now there's no room with the Tunze mounted on the right side.

[Reefmack]

Hodge - I have the Whisper filters too, but ordered the wrong size. Too big to fit back there in that position. Do the junior size ones cover that area by the heater pretty well? I've been running an inch thick sponge (original RSM sponge) and it hold pretty well with no extra support needed. But, I may get the junior size whispers if that what you're using? I can't remember, and I can't tell from the pics - did you use the standard Tunze bracket or get a mag mount for it?

[JB23]

Reefmack;
I have spent about 2 hrs trying to post a photos of my 2 month old RSM without any success. Really frustrating! Seems my photos exceed the KB limit. Do you have any advice?
By the way, all original with no mods, & would love to share my experience with the rest of the folks.
Take Care Jerry