Build and Progress of my RSM Nano Tank - Page 19

Reefmack · #**451** 10/25/2007, 07:59 AM

Magick88. I just sent you a PM with information on the place with the lowest price I could find when I got my RSM. Over $100 cheaper than your quote - delivered price. I think the outfit is in Texas though so you'd probably still get stuck with the tax. Plus, the tanks are shipped direct from RSM so you'd be sure to get a tank with all the upgrades in place (unlike buying from an lfs).

Laurent - if you ever find an easy way to remove small patches of algae from beween coral polyps and in small crevices please let me know - then go patent it and get rich! Even the toothbrush doesn't work on it at times, and as you said a scissors just lets it grow back. I'm waiting for my order for Stop Hair Algae to arrive - applied with a hypodermic needle type applicator, and supposedly reef safe if not applied directly to corals. I have a few little patches of HA in some holes in my rock I want to try it on. And I have a small rock with yellow polyps that is constantly being overgrown with HA. I'm about ready to take it out, but I may try the treatment on it before giving up on it. I wish there was a small tool that could hold onto the hair algae and grip it well enough to pull it off. I'm not sure if a needle nose pliers would work or not - I haven't tried that yet.

BTW - great news that Lucy has recovered!

LaurentSeattle · #**452** 10/25/2007, 10:23 AM

Magick88: I got my RSM at the same place than ReefMack. Some others have been able to get an even better deal lokking on eBay.

ReefMack: Patents are evil! Please let everybody know about this "Stop Hair Algae" product once you have tried it out.

rsmreefer · #**453** 10/25/2007, 11:50 AM

Magick88: I bought my RSM online at www.superfishstore.com at the time it was the best price I could find.

LaurentSeattle: Great thread. And your tank is looking great.

Reefmack · #**454** 10/25/2007, 12:22 PM

rsmreefer - that's where I got mine back in April. The price went up a bit, but as far as I know it's still the best price. By the way, Welcome to Reef Central!

Laurent - I'll let you know on the algae eradicator.

LaurentSeattle · #**455** 10/25/2007, 08:23 PM

Month 4 - Week 17 - Day 119 - Thursday October 25th - Around 6pm

- Tank started Friday June 29 '07: Ajusted the timeline above... Way off, I know... Sorry.

- The Green Polyps are doing quite well tonight. It seems like new polyps are growing on the back side.

- Xenia growth continues to be amazing: all stalks are in the process of splitting... except for the two that just finished to do so!

- All fishes are doing good, except Segolene the Firefish who is still very picky, but has eaten some brine shrimps tonight and just a bit Red Sea Marine Gro earlier this morning. I am a bit concerned, the fish is very slim compared to pictures I have seen online and in my books. I have to feed more so that this guy is eating something while the others (Lucy, the yellow wrasse and Lucy-Wannabe, the gramma) are getting fat... I am currently cleaning the white pad after each feeding and this catches some of the excess.

- Added a few drops of Red Sea Buffer to fight the permanent drop of ALK and will measure ALK a bit later tonight.

- And BAU: Topped-off, glass cleaning, and white pad rinsing...

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RsmReefer:
Welcome to RC and thanks for choosing this thread for your first post! Hopefully someone will show the "Welcome" animated banner for you.

Thanks for the link... But RC policies prohibit posting commercial links... And that's why ReefMack sent the same info using a private message.

Racktacular · #**456** 10/25/2007, 09:19 PM

WOW, that is a great price for the 34 gallon RSM. Isn't the typical price of the 34 gallon RSM over $1,000?

LaurentSeattle · #**457** 10/25/2007, 11:07 PM

Still Thursday... At 9pm

= Tested water:

ALK: 8.8
NO3, PO4: Both zero.
I will probably do yet another alk adjustment tomorrow. Little by little, I will reach the 9.0 target... Hopefully.

= Algae is growing fast on the glass. Overfeeding? Maybe.

= A quick update on the GDEsquire skimmer mod:

- Yesterday night, I widen a bit the little hole in the lid of the collection cup to make sure that the air pipe was not blocked.
- Let it run overnight and all day today with the lid open to make sure that closing the lid does not block the air pipe.

No luck: No change in skimming performance and no change with bubbles. I really do not understand why this does not work for me.

That said, the mod makes the skimmer almost totally silent, killing for good the suction noise.

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Racktacular: the RSM average selling price is not that high, I believe...

Magick88 · #**458** 10/26/2007, 02:50 AM

Hello everybody,

thank you for the buying info, and Reefmac, thank you for PM, too...

Indeed, superfishstore has the best price, although + tax for me...

BTW, I didn't realize that prices on RSMs are going up - wi'll buy for investement ;-)

Thank you again for quick response and welcome - I hope to be RSM reefer myself, soon

Cheers,

Magick

rsmreefer · #**459** 10/26/2007, 06:32 AM

LaurentSeattle, Reefmack: Thanks for the welcome. Sorry for posting the link. My bad.

Reefmack · #**460** 10/26/2007, 07:16 AM

Magick88, rsmreefer - you can get some good information on the RSM at rsmreefers.com

It's a nice website created for us by an RSM owner, MAXreefer, and has many of our tanks listed with pictures, information, mods, etc. It's grown a lot in a short time and has become international now. It's not a forum, and it's not affiliated with RSM - just a good site to see several RSMs that have been set up and get a lot of owner information on their tanks.

There's also a RSM "Club" thread on Reef Central with owners sharing information, solving problems, etc.:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...1#post11055621

New RSM owners are always welcome.

LaurentSeattle · #**461** 10/26/2007, 07:25 PM

Month 4 - Week 18 - Day 120 - Friday October 26th - Around 5pm

- Just the usual routine tonight... (Removed algae, topoff, white pad, etc)

- But I wanted to post my very first good picture of my little Fromia sea star...

Canon Rebel XT. Manual Settings at 1/10th using a tripod.

Reefmack · #**462** 10/26/2007, 08:57 PM

Laurent - do you know the aperture, ISO and focal length used on that shot? I haven't had much time to mess with my Rebel and the 60mm lens yet - just some quick shots here & there.

LaurentSeattle · #**463** 10/26/2007, 09:10 PM

Et voila pour ReefMack...

Aperture: f/20
Shutter speed: 1/10
ISO: 800
Focal length: 30mm

Post-process (in Aperture):
Green channel corrected down
Exposure a bit up
Contrast a bit up

Reefmack · #**464** 10/26/2007, 09:17 PM

Thanks Laurent! I just posted in the club thread one of the better pics that I've taken recently. I want to try some things when I get a chance with different ISO and aperture settings. Wish I had more time to practice.

JB23 · #**465** 10/26/2007, 10:23 PM

Laurent;
You can't imagine how valuable your RSM posts have contributed to the salt water experience! My Max, set-up on the stand & ready to Go tommorrow, & if successful, will be do to your efforts.
Anyway, one last request! How about one photo of YOU, next to your beautiful RSM! I really feel viewing your posts for so long now, that many on this site would like a pic of you, IMO.
Congrats on Your Contribution to RSM & Reef Central.
Jerry
Jerry

LaurentSeattle · #**466** 10/27/2007, 10:12 AM

Thanks Jerry... but I'll keep this thread on-topic. (tank pics only)

LaurentSeattle · #**467** 10/27/2007, 01:27 PM

Month 4 - Week 18 - Day 121 - Saturday October 27th - Around Noon

Today...

- I did a small water change (2.5 gallons)

- Removed the white pad

- Fed the fish a bit more generously than usual.

All that because I am leaving for the weekend and won't be back until Monday morning.

Also tested ALK again and got a 8.2 reading. After searching these forums and this thread:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...e&pagenumber=1

I think I will dosing a bit Magnesium. I will research a bit more before doing so.

Thanks all for visiting! Next update on Monday night.

Reefmack · #**468** 10/27/2007, 02:25 PM

Hi Laurent. I'd previously seen the post on magnesium killing off bryopsis and thought it was very interesting. If you try it let me know.

LaurentSeattle · #**469** 10/30/2007, 11:13 PM

Month 4 - Week 18 - Day 124 - Tuesday October 30th - Around 9pm

- Bad news... Yesterday, I have not been able to see the firefish and today it is still nowhere in sight. Today, the skimmer has been working overtime producing a lot of foam and the water was dirty, with the dreaded greasy surface film. Therefore, I believe the firefish did not acclimate and died yesterday. I have looked everywhere but could not find anything. I manually skimmed the surface, made a little (1.5g) water change, and cleant the mechanical filters twice...

- The Gramma is hiding almost all the time and does not seem so happy. However, Lucy, the yellow wrasse and the Rainford's Goby are doing just fine.

- The picture is mixed for corals: Some zoanthids are doing well and multipying while others stay closed and slowly decay. Blue stripped mushrooms are splitting again. Yumas are ok. Xenias are pumping and budding like crazy. Green Star Polyps are now fully opened and new polyps are popping.

- Pest algae last "pockets of resistance" are indeed resisting... No improvement since quite a while. Bryopis seems to gained some ground again.

- The Magnesium additive has been ordered online and should arrive Friday but I will wait a bit until this "crisis" is over before dosing.

LaurentSeattle · #**470** 10/31/2007, 03:49 PM

Month 4 - Week 18 - Day 125 - Wednesday October 31st - Around 1pm

- Still no firefish in sight. I will have to admit that this little guy has died...

- The Gramma now behaves normally.

More tonight...

Reefmack · #**471** 10/31/2007, 06:17 PM

Maybe the firefish got intimidated while you were gone and is in a hole in the rock you can't see? Don't give up yet.

Rosseau · #**472** 10/31/2007, 11:41 PM

I had a firefish jump to his death - is this possible in your setup?

LaurentSeattle · #**473** 11/01/2007, 12:30 AM

Late night update...

Thanks Reefmack and Rosseau for your encouraging notes but still no news from the firefish. I looked everywhere, inside the tank, the filtration chambers and even below the couch near the tank. I have not modified the hood of my RSM so an esacpe would have been impossible but I looked around anyway...

Nothing.

Therefore I tried to mitigate the possible spike of Amonia or Nitrites with yet another cleaning of mechanical filters and a small 1 gallon water change and then tested the water one hour later:

NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4: All zero
pH: 8.3
ALK: 8.2 - Still low!
Ca: Not tested

The one gallon water change allows me to quickly remove a significant amount of detritus without having to stop water circulation or filtration.

Skimming has almost stopped compared to Monday.

- Losses so far:

= One peppermint shrimp that just disappeared.
= One Astrea snail,
= 4 or more little snails, some of them eaten by the shrimp,
= One rock of 50-60 zoanthid small polyps lost to zoa pox,
= One colony of 6-10 zoa polyps infected by the zoa pox on the nearby rock,
= One colony of 10-12 zoa polyps overwhelmed by algae (bryopsis)
= The firefish, who never acclimated and was not eating very much.

Reefmack · #**474** 11/01/2007, 06:22 AM

Laurent - I received that Stop Hair Algae stuff last Saturday, delivered right after my water change, so I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I did remove the little 3 inch piece of yellow polyps that had been overgrown with hair algae again - just too much to salvage it with a toothgbrush again, and it only had a couple polyps left on it. I still wonder why some small pieces of rock are so prone to growing algae, while neighboring small rocks show no sign of it at all. It must have something to do with the hardness and/or porosity of the specific rock itself.

You had a really nice zoa rock, with bright green and red polyps on it - you haven't lost that one have you? I hope not.

Sorry about the firefish - I would think by now you'd have seen some sign of it.

Hodge · #**475** 11/01/2007, 10:14 AM

Sorry to hear about your firefish. Mine has gotten a bit shy since adding a blenny. It has to compete for food now, which it doesn't seem to like.

How are you actually removing your hair algae??. Do you just get in there with a toothbrush and scrub?? and then do your small water changes.
I tried that last night on hair algae on two rocks and made a serious storm of detritus/algae floating around. Do you ever take individual rocks out and scrub them?? I tried that with one small rock in my siphoned water bucket and it worked ok.