High Tide Aquatics

Cousteau's Bay - My RSM250

ibaj

ibaj

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From what I understand, it's an absolute requirement that I begin a tank journal to be a member of BAR. With that in mind, I will begin chronicling the setup of my Red Sea MAX 250. I received the aquarium on January 22, so there is very little to show so far. As I mentioned in my welcome thread, I'm interested in soft corals, squishes, and anemones. I'm also fond of firefish, percula clowns, gobies, and blue hippo tangs.

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Tomorrow, I intend to install my Aqueon ProFlex Modular sump (Model 1) and a secondary protein skimmer. As I do that work tomorrow, I'll be sure to take pictures.
 
Awesome, these tank journals are always fun to follow and to write about. The RSM setups are really nice. You should try to make it out to our club meetings this year! We have one in a couple weeks, Feb. 9, and a regional frag swap in March. :)
 
JAR, It's just starting the cycle, so I wasn't going to add anything or do any water changes until the cycle is complete.
 
Today I got my Aqueon ProFlex Modular sump in and installed it. The hardest part of the whole thing was getting the siphon flow from my RSM to match the return flow from the pump. Originally, I just ran the siphon directly into the sump without any valve.

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To be able to adjust the flow (and perform maintenance), I installed a ball valve going into the sump (rather than adjusting the pumps flow).

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It's all done now and fits really nicely in the stand.

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Tomorrow I'll add some live sand to the refugium and eventually add some macro algae there (although, I'm not sure when is a good time to add that).
 
It's looking good. I'm not entirely sure about the macro algae but I think it would be added once the tank has finished cycling.
 
What sand are you using? If it is a caribsea brand, the black is a pumice and is too sharp for sandsiifting creatures. I highly recommend that you not use it.
 
I would be concerned about the composition of the black portion. If it's fine (ok) then use it. But if not, then I would get it out. Just my 2 cent...
Good luck
 
Things are going well in my tank. The nitrogen cycle has already completed, somewhat surprisingly. I've been watching the levels for a week and everything has been steady. In preparation for starting to stock the tank, I went ahead and picked up a Cleaner Crew today at Neptunes.

They hooked me up with the following:
  • Turbo Snail x 5
  • Nassarius Snail x 3
  • Banded Trochus Snail x 15
  • Emerald Crab x 2
    Peppermint Shrimp x 3
    Sand Sifting Sea Star
    Bicolor Blenny


 
I picked up some more corals from of CJ over at NCRC and at Aquatic Collection after the BAR talk Saturday. The tank is getting a fair amount of LPS now!

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I also did my first water change today, made sure that the params and temp was where I wanted it before hand. Thanks for all the guidance so far!

Pink Zipper Zoas:
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Red Hornet Zoas:
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Blue Hornet Zoas:
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Hammer / Anchor Coral:
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Green Star Polyp:
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Plate Coral, Orange - Short Tentacle:
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Chili Pepper Montipora:
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Looking Great! Coming along fast.

Be careful with that Green Star Polyp. They look great, but tend to grow like weeds and take over.
You might want to put it on its own rock.
 
My new LED retrofit came in yesterday and I got it all hooked up and working my stock hood. Here's the FTS now:

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You might notice a couple of new inhabitants in there. I picked up a Flame Angelfish and Blue Hippo Tang on Friday. I'm going to keep a close eye on both of those two because I know Angelfish can start eating my polpys and the Tang is susceptible to disease.

I setup a quarantine Aquarium out of my old Nano cube from 5 years ago just in case anything goes wrong with the fish. Pretty much everything in it was shot or seized, so I replaced most of the gear in it. Nothing pricey, just the bare minimum for a FO tank.
 
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