Red Sea Max Owners Club - Page 13

mbdave · #**301** 01/07/2008, 06:21 PM

Hey people,
How would you all like to start our own IRC chat room (RSM chat) I think it would be cool we could have meetings, trade ideas, all that in full discussion???? I used to do IRC chat for fish often and really enjoyed it, would like to start again.

What cha think???
Dave

donna53w · #**302** 01/07/2008, 06:34 PM

Fishy Something: The horses are beautiful. I hope they make it. What a gentle-looking fish they are.

Y-DesygnGuy: Another small & Pretty fish is the Royal Gramma ... lovely colors. Reefmack's diadema pseudochromis is a great choice, too.
I have a six line wrasse & I really like it. It's got bright colors & is always swimming in & out of the rock work. He doesn't bother anyone.

reefsr4me: did you remember to calibrate your TDS monitor? Your TDS reading of 196 on your tapwater is not good for your tank, you probably realize that already, tho. I'm sorry, I don't remember if you have, or are, installing an ro/di system?

donna53w · #**303** 01/07/2008, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mbdave
Hey people,
How would you all like to start our own IRC chat room (RSM chat) I think it would be cool we could have meetings, trade ideas, all that in full discussion???? I used to do IRC chat for fish often and really enjoyed it, would like to start again.

What cha think???
Dave

I would love that!! Can it be done????????

Reefmack · #**304** 01/07/2008, 06:50 PM

Fishy Something - the horses are nice! I hope the tail rot continues ti improve & disappear soon. On the clowns that sounds reasonable. I guess we need Rue to raise some!

reefsr4me - I don't know if 196 TDS is excessively high for tap water or not. Maybe others can comment. My tap water is 56-58, but I have very low water hardness in my area. good luck with the goby - sounds like a good trade to me!

Fishy Something · #**305** 01/07/2008, 06:54 PM

reefsr4me - my tap water TDS reading is 26, but I think that is exceptionally low.

Reefmack · #**306** 01/07/2008, 07:05 PM

I should have looked to see if there was another page before posting......

I went through 2 Royal Grammas in 2 days - mine and all those at the lfs died of unknown causes. I think Laurent may have also had one die??? On the UK RSM thread at least one owner lost one. I'm not sure what it is with the Royal Grammas - if it's indicative of a problem with them or just coincidence. Beautiful fish though.

mbdave - nice idea on the chat. What about the chat available on Michael's site? I set up and ran a couple IRC chat rooms myself & finally quit - too many idiots and perverts kept coming into what I tried to keep as a clean, family style chat room. i always though it disgusting when I'd see a person listed as being in a bible chat, while at the same time in a Hitler Youth Group chat, and then stopping in my room to type filthy comments. I got tired of giving them the boot, blocking them, and just decided to give it all up rather than get aggravated by it. IRC chat has left a bad taste in my mouth.

stephensturman · #**307** 01/07/2008, 08:44 PM

well my carpet anemone decided to move over night and now i cant find it!

chris- did u get your fixture>?

Y-DesygnGuy · #**308** 01/07/2008, 08:47 PM

Ugggg Its 6:45pm and still no UPS, ive called 4 times now! The latest *cough* bs *cough* info I was given was it could be as late as 11:59pm before it gets here! Like I want the package left out over night in front of my house! I don't know if I am upset at UPS or the people who sent it, or if I should just let it go for one day.... *sigh*

Y-DesygnGuy · #**309** 01/07/2008, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by stephensturman
well my carpet anemone decided to move over night and now i cant find it!

chris- did u get your fixture>?

Ack did it really? I bought the other one from Ryan I will get it sometime this week from him.

NO!! I have not gotten the fixture yet!!! Grrr!

stephensturman · #**310** 01/07/2008, 08:55 PM

ya he moved and i cant find him anywere and i even looked in the back from seeing i believe it was rue's pictures and no luck. that little basterd better come back out.

it will probably show up at like 8 o'clock like mine always does ups has been busy as hell from everyone getting rid of there inventory for end of year to write it off of there taxs. atleast that was what my ups driver said!

reefsr4me · #**311** 01/07/2008, 09:36 PM

My TDS meter is calibrated correctly, and just to be sure, I went outside to the hose bib and got a 176, and inside, where the water goes through a whole house filter and water softner, the reading was 200?

On another note, The goby is going crazy sifting my substrate, but he is making a giant sand storm! he is so crazy with sifting, he is picking it up about 2 inches, and then depositing it, when he drops it, the dust particles are floating off and staying suspended. I even siphoned the sand with my water change, and got a lot out, but he is making a mess of clouding the water and putting it on my plate coral and Lobophyllia.

stephensturman · #**312** 01/07/2008, 09:51 PM

ok my mini anemone decided to show back up on the other side of the tank lol!

doubleduece · #**313** 01/07/2008, 10:22 PM

Reefmack Thanks for posting my pick. I havent mastered that yet, I need more practice. Yes that is a ehimn canister, I believe it is a 2235. I felt like the Rsm stock filtration was a little inadequate, but thats just me.

yDesygnGuy Love the tank. Is that a neon green trachy at the botton center...

doubleduece · #**314** 01/07/2008, 10:29 PM

reefsr4me My goby was crazy like that too. A sand sifting machine he was. I think thats why I put the ehimn in my tank, everytime I looked at the tank there he was sifting sand a stirring up dust. Lost him a few months ago, dont know why he seemed to be eating, every time I dropped mysyis in there he would swim up and gobble them up... I thought about getting another, but now I have a fungia, so maybe gonna go another route..

Y-DesygnGuy · #**315** 01/07/2008, 11:01 PM

doubleduece --Thanks! Yes it is by the way, it has gotten huge!

stephensturman -- Awesome im glad it did!

Ok so the fixture showed up at 7:48pm woohoo! I rushed to tear it apart like a kid on christmas!

So it had a big gouge in the box when I got it, a little concerned, but they actually packed it quite well. It was a box inside a box with bubble wrap.

I can see why the ballast has got to go! Look at how small it is, it hardly weighs anything. It also has a hard time kicking the MH, I had to try several times. I will be ordering a new ballast first thing in the morning!

I actually like the look of the fixture itself. It is slim and sleek so it some what fits the RSM.

Yes I did take the bubble wrap out before turning it on

Here it is turned on all, all the lights, it blinded me!

So first thing tomorrow morning I will checking to see what it looks like on the tank. If it passes the "coolness" text then I will order a new Phoenix 14000k bulb and a new ballast right away! I cant wait to see the shimmer, woohoo! Not to bad for $159.00 with a little more cash it will be pretty nice I think and still less money than the name brand ones.

I will give you my impression of it tomorrow on the tank with new pics then!

Have a great night!

NaCl+H2O Fish · #**316** 01/07/2008, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Reefmack
I went through 2 Royal Grammas in 2 days - mine and all those at the lfs died of unknown causes. I think Laurent may have also had one die??? On the UK RSM thread at least one owner lost one. I'm not sure what it is with the Royal Grammas - if it's indicative of a problem with them or just coincidence. Beautiful fish though.

Reefmack -

Really sorry to hear about your Royal Grammas!

When I first ventured into keeping a saltwater aquarium in 1967 in Sacramento, CA, at age 14... It was my desire to keep a 'Royal Gramma', 'Percula Clown' and 'Pearly Jawfish' that inspired me!

At the time I had to have a 'custom' plexiglass aquarium built for me that used Under Gravel filters with crushed oyster shell substrate, bleached coral decor and outside box filters!

My fish were all wild collected, but were very happy to eat 'Tetra Marin Flake'...

The beautiful 'Basslet' Royal Gramma is a very hardy fish in an aquarium so I am surprised by your loss!

reefsr4me - My cities water utility TDS is 139 mg/l and after my homes softener the Red Sea test kit for Calcium is 0 ppm...
Does the Hanna TDS1 seem like a good instrument?

stephensturman - New optical prescription needed?

Happy your MINI-NEM reappeared!

donna53w - Did you receive your shipment today????

1 day to ro/di production!

Regards to All,
Kent

reefsr4me · #**317** 01/07/2008, 11:28 PM

Kent, the TDS1 seems to be a good unit for the money. My RO/DI is scheduled for delivery on the 10th!

stephensturman · #**318** 01/07/2008, 11:46 PM

chris- looks real good if u keep it i am going to order one asap!

NaCl+H2O Fish · #**319** 01/07/2008, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by reefsr4me
Kent, the TDS1 seems to be a good unit for the money. My RO/DI is scheduled for delivery on the 10th!

Thanks reefsr4me - It seemed like a good unit....

I am now wondering if it is REALLY necessary to test the output of my new RO/DI if you think about it? The TDS meter WILL verify that it has produced 0 TDS? Duh! Isn't that why we invested in it????

Fishy Something · #**320** 01/08/2008, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by NaCl+H2O Fish
I am now wondering if it is REALLY necessary to test the output of my new RO/DI if you think about it? The TDS meter WILL verify that it has produced 0 TDS? Duh! Isn't that why we invested in it????

The value in a TDS meter as I see it is to tell you when to change your cartridges on your unit. You can be pretty comfortable that initially (and for quite a while) you will get a zero TDS reading, but without the TDS meter you will not know when your water quality is slipping.

My RO/DI unit has a built in incoming & outgoing TDS meter on it so I always get a pretty good idea at both ends.

James

LaurentSeattle · #**321** 01/08/2008, 12:19 AM

Yes, I lost one too.

Beautiful fish, was eating Cyclop-Eaze and Mysis and was looking healthy.

But got sick when I tried to boost Magnesium levels in the tank... And ultimately died because of bad husbandry and I do not feel good about it...

Reefmack · #**322** 01/08/2008, 08:13 AM

Y-DesygnGuy - the new fixture looks a lot like the layout of the Current Orbit. The major physical difference appears to be that the Orbit has more moonlights and an internal ballast. Looks pretty good and the price was great, even with getting a new ballast.

NaCl - I'm not sure what's with the grammas. The ones I lost were several months ago, The first was near death after a 15 minute drive back from the lfs, and the replacement died a day later, and I never took that second one back for credit/replacement. It bothered me that I'd messed up acclimating or something, until I found out a week later that the lfs lost the whole tank full - over 20 of them. Probably transport stress, or wild caught with cyanide, from which fish usually never recover from. I think it messes up their organs and while they may eat, eventually die anyway.

I have two TDS1 meters and they both read exactly the same. I agree - they are good to let you know when the filters, DI or membrane may need to be replaced. Reefsr4me - strange that you'd get a higher TDS after going through the home filter/softener - I'm not sure what would cause that. Maybe your softener resin isn't being regenerated or you managed to catch it right after it went through it's regeneration with salt? Just guessing.

Y-DesygnGuy · #**323** 01/08/2008, 10:33 AM

Well... I mounted the fixture this morning and have it all working nicely. I am VERY torn on the look of things. Granted I haven't put all the wires away yet but I just don't know how I feel about the look of the fixture and open top.

So here are some before and afters with the stock hood vrs the new fixture.
Stock hood.

New fixture

Stock hood

New fixture

Here is one with all the lights on moonlights, auctinics, mh

Just the MH and I think the moonlights

So I am really really torn on the look. I very much liked the look of the RSM solid complete package look. Now it sorta looks pieced together and I honestly do not know what to do. I need my girlfriend to get home from work and give me her opinion of course our styles and taste are completely different, so who knows. If I do decide to ditch it, I think I will drop the money on the NanoCustoms HQI upgrade... Uggg $500 for that and only $160 for this...
What do you all think? Keep it? Ditch it?

Rue · #**324** 01/08/2008, 10:33 AM

Stephen: Glad your 'nem is back in sight!

Y-DesygnGuy: Nice tanks!

Reefmack: NICE pics!

I've never been a chat fan...but for those of you who are, I don't see the point of starting another chat room when we have the one on the RSM site available...just choose a time and everyone meet there!

Picked up a brand-new, in the box, nano-Tunze power-head yesterday 'used'. Saved me $20. It's for emergencies...or for the frag tank...which ever comes first...

...and while I was picking up the powerhead, I put my name down to get a naked cat!

Can't resist them after all...but no rush...the 'momma' is only 5 months old at the moment...and I'm after a calico kitten...so it could be a long time!!! But like winning a lottery...won't happen if you don't buy a ticket!

Now I'm off to ask how many boxer crabs I can stuff into the RSM!

Rue · #**325** 01/08/2008, 10:34 AM

Oh wait...you posted before me!

I like the RSM hood better...much better...but that's just me...