Red Sea Max Owners Club

[JohnL]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...1#post10713771

[Titans]

Thanks for the response maxreefer. I'll give it a shot with the CUC and return the lighting schedule to normal once the job is done.

Originally posted by Tylt33
So I finally have my Red Sea Max assembled, live sand and rock in place. A few things I've noticed:

1. Bristle worms are absolutely disgusting.
2. Sea water smalls terrible when it begins to get moldy on a towel.

My roommate hates the airconditioner, and our house is getting up to about 90 degrees in the day. I need a chiller. Is there a chiller that is popular for our tank? I don't even know how they work, so I want something simple and easy to assemble. I hear I need a pump or something as well?

I'd search more on this thread but I have a satellite internet connection which reminds me of my 2400 baud modem that I had when I was 11.

Congrats on your purchase =) As for the chiller you would need at least a 1/15 but I personally went with a 1/10 because it was on sale for the same price as a 1/15 and will run much less and chill the water faster. Mine was a cheaper brand called Aqua Euro USA and it comes with a 1 year warranty but i'm sure there are much more reliable dependable brands out there. It will have to be placed in the open to allow adequate air circulation. My chiller recommends 2 feet in the front, back and sides and a ambient temp of less than 95 degrees so no putting it inside your stand or closet to hide it =/.

For the return pump another RSM reefer and I use a MaxiJet 1200 placed in the middle chamber between the heater compartment and skimmer (so essentially to the left of the skimmer in the skimmer chamber). The return flow from the chiller is dumped off into the heater chamber. This is how I have it setup due to suggestions from others in this this thread and it works great!!! Let me know if you need help...I was so lost and confused when I set mine up especially on learning that the pump actually pushes water to the chiller instead of pulling water from it =) Made a world of difference.

[Tylt33]

Another split! This thread is like coral!

[Titans]

Wow if this thread were stock I would be able to buy another RSM!!! Hehe

[Rue]

Wow! I posted on the old thread and I was shut out!!! Cool!

I keep my salinity at 1.026...and my day lights are on for 12 hours (8:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.)...and then the moonlights are on...

...I'm still attacking my cyanobacteria with a toothbrush...it's not worse at all, so I think constantly disturbing it is doing it in...albeit very slowly...

...I also brush the Astraea snails... Dunno if they appreciate it or not, but they're lookin' good!

I finally (*gulp*) worked up the nerve to change the carbon ... geez...what a pain in the derriere that is! But it needed doing...the old bag was digustingly dirty...

AND!!! I saw one of my green clown gobies this morning for the first time in 2 weeks (since I got them)...he looked quite healthy! So maybe I can stop worrying about the two of them...

[MAXreefer]

Originally posted by Rue
Wow! I posted on the old thread and I was shut out!!! Cool!


AND!!! I saw one of my green clown gobies this morning for the first time in 2 weeks (since I got them)...he looked quite healthy! So maybe I can stop worrying about the two of them...

I told you not to worry!!
I didn't see mine again for a couple days and because of the disaster I had I thought he didn't survive either but hey...Here he is sunbathing on the rocks when the MH lights are on

Michael

[Hodge]

Ok, I'm getting frustrated....nothing I do stops the powerheads from producing micro bubbles. I took everything out of the back tonight, cleaned the powerheads (clean) left out the carbon and bio bags...still bubbles.

tried with and without the white filter.
cut the black filter down.
ran without both filters
ran just one PH
adjusted water level up, down.

I can't figure where the bubbles come from other than the PH creating them?? I noticed tonight one PH is louder than the other, took it apart...again, looks fine, swapped PH same one louder so not a touching/vibration issue. Louder one does create more bubbles. Is there a replacement PH that would work in the stock location. Are these PH the same quality as the fans??

I don't dare play with the skimmer until I can figure this out. I don't think I have anything to skim yet anyways.

Ive read thru the UK forum (all 48 pages) and saw some others had the problem but no real solutions.

[LaurentSeattle]

Hodge:

My recommendation is to put two Hydor Flo on the output of each PH. This slows down the flow through the filtration chambers and significantly reduces bubbles. However, you will need to increase the flow inside the tank with an additional PH, such as Koralia #1 or #2.

Titans has posted a picture of that setup before the thread split. Check it out before it gets burried. Maybe Titans will comment on this too.

[josh&jana]

hey michaelaz

gday mate, ill try my best without pics for you,
first off dont look at the mounting instructions,( ha ha )
next, there are two blocks on the skimmer where the adjustable mounting bracket screws to, you will want to fit one of the long plastic screws through the mounting bracket, about 1/3 of the way down then screw the plastic hanging block to that leaving about 1/4 inch gap to fit over the glass, now there is another plastic long screw that will go through the block first then into one of the holes above the first screw. this one just holdes it in position, now get the two short plastic screws and mount the bracket to the skimmer. the plastic block that will be the hanger should be inbetween the two mounting blocks on the skimmer,
this will give you the right height within 1/4 of an inch.
oh and the second long screw that is put in place to hold the position of the mount block will have to be cut down as it is a tad long for the heater compartment and hits the other side.
if this has made any sense let me know, if not i will try and get my bro over here to take a pic of it for me and ill post it to you...

[saltyreeftank]

Hodge:

On my setup I did the same as LaurentSeattle suggested (Hydor Flo for each power head). A couple of things you might want to try.

1st thing I did was when I setup the tank I cut the Black sponge in half like everyone suggested. In the skimmer pump chamber I put the carbon. On top of the carbon I put one half of the black sponge. One top of that for now is the white filter pad.

2nd thing I did is with the second half of the black sponge I decided to put that piece into the chamber intended for the chiller, so far this has been working really well. With the second black piece of sponge it acts as a bubble diffuser. Or at least that is what I am hoping for at this point. Also with the carbon in the first section it is a lot easier to get out for cleaning.

[Reefmack]

Wow - another split! And a ton of new posts to catch up on. I must need to stay up all night to keep up with the other time zones posting!

Glalderman - my one zoa colony did basically disappear - not just close. There may have been a few "bumps" left, but that's it. Like I said a few have come back in that colony and I hope they spread again.

lumcrystal - whoever you are I don't think I'm sorry I missed your post. If the only reason you joined RC is to post sales ads, we don't need you around.

Titans - the tank will get ugly for a while - prepare yourself for it! Hopefully you won't get a major green algae outbreak after the brown diatom crud. If you start getting the green, I'd try to keep up with it and scrape it off with a toothbrush before it gets too bad. The CUC may not be able to keep up with it if it gets really bad. IMO I wouldn't worry about the CUC getting light - they don't need light like the corals do.

Tylt33 - Welcome! I know very well about how stinky the towels get that are used to wipe up saltwater. I learned pretty quickly not to just throw a wet towel in the cabinet. Mine never got moldy but they do start smelling bad pretty quickly. If I get one pretty damp now I thow it in the washer. How hot is your tank getting? Do you have the additional cooling fan in the back of the RSM? If your room is getting up to 90, the chiller is probably necessary.

Rue - you're cleaning your snails too? Sorry, but I'm sitting here laughing, trying to picture that! Do you brush them "on the run" or do you take them out for the snail maintenance? Yes - working in that pump area is a pain! But, after me getting in & out of that that power center a dozen times over the last couple weeks I no longer dread it as much as I used to, and I'm getting pretty adept at getting it closed now. Great news on the Goby! If you saw one then I'm guessing the other is still OK and has a better hiding place than the one you saw.

michaelaz/josh&jana - I'll have to admit that a pic should would be worth a thousand words in how Josh installed the Tunze skimmer I ended up hanging mine (for the brief time I had it in the tank before I lost the air screw in my rock) on the power cord side of the skimmer chamber, but I don't have the hood to deal with, and I don't think this location is possible with the RSM hood on I've been doing some reading of posts on the Tunze 9002, and it seems that you can run it with the water line marker an inch or so above the actual tank water level. Supposedly the pumps supplied in the US are a bit more powerful than the European pumps & the Tunze may skim a bit better if the skimmer is raised up a bit more than that marker on the skimmer.

By the way, I'm pretty happy with the Remora HOB skimmer - it seems to be pulling out some nice skimmate, and seems to be getting better as it breaks in more. Not huge quantities, but a lot more, and a lot darker than the stock skimmer did. michaelaz - I lowered the Remora cup a little more last night and that seemed to improve the skimmate - I think I only have about 1 - 1.5 inches of the cup showing now.

[michaelaz]

Josh, a picture really would worth a million words, if it helps any I am also in the concrete industry LOL.

[Hodge]

Thanks for the tips folks.

Laurent: I have a korilia #1 on order, I'll try to get 2 Hydor Flo's added to the shipment.

Salty: I'll try your filter arrangement .. I haven't tried that one yet. lol

[Titans]

Hodge - Hello. After installing the two hydor flo's the micro bubbles have decreased significantly but do not completely go away. I have mine setup as originally suggested by RSM's manual with the exception of taking out the white pad and cutting the black sponge in half. I also placed the carbon bag under the bio media bag to prevent it from rising and clogging the return pumps. I have tried putting the carbon bag in the skimmer chamber with the black sponge on top but this only created less flow and starved the return pumps.

That idea with the other black sponge half in the chiller chamber working as some kind of bubble difuser sounds good...I'm going to have to give that a try myself.

Oh just some food for thought...I cleaned my entire skimmer last weekend as well as the pump and ran it outside of the tank in a bucket of water for 30 minutes...after placing it back in it has tremendously increased my skimming performance. My cup is caked with black gunk and water. YUMMY!!!

[LaurentSeattle]

Titans:

I had a very bad algae bloom, mostly because I did not cure properly my LR. It is very hard to tell for a beginner whether or not LR is cured enough. At the same time, you want to preserve life that come with the rocks and you dont want to introduce decaying stuff.

Here is my advice based on recent experience:

Monitor daily the nitrates level: If they go very high (200ppm or more), die-off is happening and a massive algae bloom will inevitably happen. Do not wait for it to happen. Remove all the rocks that can be easily removed and cure them, then do a large water change - at least 10 gallons.

Repeat as needed...

[Thrillman]

Titans - I did the same thing with my skimmer. It went a week after my last water change without getting any foam into the cup! It seems to be preforming better but not great. If this continues may have to pop for a new skimmer....waiting for the final results of Reefmack & Josh&Jana.

[Thrillman]

I worked from home today, so was able to keep an eye on the tank for most fo day. I saw the funniest thing. I have to two cleaner shrimps that hang out on the left side of the tank together where my Flame Angel aslo hangs out. Anyway, twice today I've seen the FA "park" next to the shrimps who took turns latching on & cleaning him. I had never seen that before...pretty cool to watch!

[lpsluver]

Originally posted by Thrillman
I worked from home today, so was able to keep an eye on the tank for most fo day. I saw the funniest thing. I have to two cleaner shrimps that hang out on the left side of the tank together where my Flame Angel aslo hangs out. Anyway, twice today I've seen the FA "park" next to the shrimps who took turns latching on & cleaning him. I had never seen that before...pretty cool to watch!

It really is cool to see these types of things happen. Just the other night I got to see 2 things I never saw before. The first was one of my Maxima Clams spawned. It totally clouded up the tank. It went on for several hours. I was going to take pictures so you guys could see it but the camera battery was dead from all of the other tank pictures I took.

The second thing was my skimmer actually working Of course the spawning event so loaded the tank with goo that the bioload was at the critical mass point where these POS's seem to work.

Anyway...the spawning was cool!

[Thrillman]

Very cool lpsluver...it's really cool to see nature at work!

[Hodge]

I got 2 hydor flo's added to my order, should have it all tomorrow. It sucks living in the middle of nowhere. lol

As far as cycle goes, I'm starting to get algae similar to the pic's Titan has. I'm 2 weeks in and have only seen a marginal increase in Ammonia, followed by a small increase in Nitrite. Nitrates were low still as well when tested yesterday.

I do have another 15 lbs of rock going in tomorrow. I'm not sure what I should do other than treat it like a new start and see what happens with levels.

My water quality is good (ph, alk, salinity) should I be holding off any water changes until the cycle is complete??

All the life forms on the rock I have seem to be happy...small shrooms are growing, worms and bugs are scooting around.

[Reefmack]

Great experiences Thrillman and lpsluver. I keep wondering if my cleaner will ever be put to work, but if it's happened I haven't seen it. lps - I'll bet that would really get any skimmer working!

[Reefmack]

Hodge - I'd treat the new rock going in as starting a new cycle. Keep measuring the ammonia, nitrite & maybe the nitrate on occasion. When the ammonia & nitrite don't show up in the tests, you should have enough bacteria present to be converting all of the ammonia & nitrite to nitrates. I'm not sure about the water changes - I've seen some say no water changes till the cycle is complete, and vice versa. Maybe someone else has a good answer on that one.

[josh&jana]

hodge
i dont do water changes when cycling my tanks, i belive that the cycle goes quicker and you get a stronger bacteria base. providing the ammonia spike is not way off the chart, but rarely is these days with suppliers being more careful with how they handle stuff....

i would treat the new rock as another cycle but if your rock that is aready in there has cycled it may be able to handle the 15lb going in without to much fuss....

[josh&jana]

michaelaz
LOL. yeah mate ill try get my bro over here today and get a pic for you.
cool another concreter.

thrillman
that would be cool to watch, my LFS has a couple of blood shrimp for sale was thinking of getting some for the big tank when its been stocked for about 3 months, untill i saw the price of them $180 each.

how much do you guys pay for shrimps and stuff in general over there....

[josh&jana]

thrill man

on the skimmer, still getting it set just right, every day i have to turn the airdown, but i have been getting 50ml in the cup of brown liquid every day, trying turning the air down to get it skimming a bit drier, but only doing it in small moves each day.
ill keep you all posted....