Help Starting With The Rsm 250 Reef System

[zak786]

Help starting with Red Sea Max 250

Hi all, I have been keeping a freshwater tropical tank for half a year and am making the move to a reef tank now.

After a lot of research I have bought over the internet a black cabinet RSM 250 which will be here in 2 weeks for about £1250.00 which I know is expensive and many people will say that for the same money I could buy a different make or a custom setup but I really love the look, the quality and the cabinet and their integrated setup. Also the convenience of reasonable quality all in one. I looked at many other makes and since I am useless at any form of DIY stuff a customisation project seemed impossible for me. So this one seemed the best choice for me.

I want as low a maintenance setup as possible and having read Nightfox's review it sealed the decision for me.

My questions are as follows: Do I need an extra pump in there for water movement ? Has anyone here modified the tank for improvements ? If so who would you recommend in the middlesex/west london area who could do this for me ?

I want to go for overkill with the maximum amount of live rock (is it possible to over do it with the live rock ?) that I can put in there for natural filtration. Would you recommend a UV filter and Ozonizer instead of the chiller plumbing ? Can I fit it all in this tank ?

I need some advice on how to set up the tank too.

This is a list of the livestock I will be adding and the list is in chronological order of how I will be setting it up.

Water - obviously
Fiji Live rock
Soft Corals - Toadstool Leather coral x 1, Nobbly Mushroom Green x 1 and red x 1, Long tentacle toadstool leather coral
Fire cleaner shrimp x 2
Scarlet leg hermit crab x 2
percula clown x 2
yellow tang x 1
coral beauty x 1
small blue throat trigger x 1 (Its reef safe I believe, please dont tell me its too big (( )
or instead of the trigger maybe a majestic angel ?

I will obviously be careful in adding the livestock so as not to over load the filtration system so may even be a year before this list is finished.

Is the order of adding stuff correct ?

Also with live rock is it best to sit it on an egg crate or straight to the bottom of the tank. WHats better for cleaning ? I understand the egg crate then u can lift it and cleanunder neath it easily ?

ALso how often for the water change is 10% a month good enough when the tank is fully mature ? Or 5% every 2 weeks when fully mature ?

I have a python water changer fill no spill for water changes.. whats the best way to use this to fill the tank back up ? I am buying an RO so can I integrate this with the Python for filling up ?

I am really confused and worried about how is the best way to get the water changes done as I suffer from a bad back.

Anyone out there have any automatic way of doing water changes for a reef tank ? Plumbing is an option so I can maybe link the ro system into this ? Suggestions ?

Sorry maybe too many questions but I am excited

Thanks all

 

[SkiFletch]

Many questions but first off, to the salty boards

I dunno about modding tanks, but IME most of these all-in-one kits are lacking in flowrate. The Redsea might be an exception, but I doubt it. I'd look at something easy like a hydor koralia pump to add. That tank volume is similar to my own 65g tank and I've got a hydor koralia 3, a 1, and about 500gph off my sump return. Way more flow than in the redsea...

Well, UV and Ozone are external components, they don't take up room in the tank itself. I'm not terribly familiar with how they can/could be applied in this case. I'm a fan of both for overall reef health, but Ozone will be difficult to impliment in a tank with such a small filtration space. I wouldn't reccomend it in this instance. UV is a good preventative measure though.

As for LR, the only way you can have too much LR is if you have too little flow to go with it

Livestock:
Get ambitious, more corals than that
Tank dimensions and size aren't really enough for a yellow tang. Your only tang option would be Kole, Bristletooth, or Chevron tangs
Coral beauties are hit and miss as far as their "reefsafeness" goes. It's a calculated risk with any dwarf angel.
Dunno about the Trigger, but the Majestic Angel is definitely too large and not reef safe

As for aquascaping, you can do the egg-crate thing but IMO it's not really helpful for cleaning at all. Consider when you scape your rock how to make some good shapes. Always scape on a flat surface, not sand. Sand can settle over time and topple rockwork. Then consider using epoxy putty, or skewering rocks on carbon fiber or pvc rod to make some really cool shapes

Waterchanges depends a lot on your goals for the tank and the livestock. If you have hard corals, more frequent waterchanges will be required. Also if you have poor input water control and get algae blooms, you'll need more frequent waterhcanges. It's best to start with something like 20% bi-weekly or even weekly until you get a handle on your tank and it's chemistry.

I dunno about using a python for waterchanges. Obviously it's simple for draining the water, but usually to put water back in the tank you'd use a powerhead to pump water up to the tank from a bucket, bin, or similar. Will the RO water be stored near the tank? As long as you have your mixed saltwater tank near the display tank, you can just pump from there up to the display