alabella1
Valuable Member
Hey everyone. So I'm a bit of a newb - had the tank in my home since 3/6. The tank however is not new, nor is it new to me. This Red Sea Max 250 has been in my office where I work as long as I have so over 10 years. I recently inherited/brought it home because they no longer wanted to pay for the upkeep. One of my coworkers is an expert reefer and has been coaching me along the way.
It came to my home with all stock equipment, a Artica chiller and an Aqua 15w UV filter. My boss gave me the BRS 5 stage RODI for making my water. It also came with all the sand, rock and livestock which included 2 clowns, 3 pajama cardinals, 16-17 green bubble nems, 1 pink or rainbow bubble nem and 1 white/green bubble nem. Existing corals included a bunch of red mushrooms, a miami hurricane chalice, a pink tipped hammer and a few tyree toadstools (the mama and 3 babies) The move went well, but we did find some issues and things that needed repair/replacement.
The T5s were failing (only 2 worked) the UV didn't work and the skimmer also did not work.
I removed the T5s and replaced with the Steve's LEDs retrofit kit for the RSM250. I replaced the skimmer with a oem replacement, but later dumped that in favor of a Tunze 9004 and after trying a new bulb in the UV and seeing that was not the issue, ripped and replaced that unit with a AquaUltraviolet Advantage 2000+ Inline 3/4" Barb - 15 Watt Aquarium UV Sterilizer.
Due to a water leak in our office, the stand was very badly damaged and I found a guy selling the exact one for $100 in Queens, so I went and picked that up. We got to talking and I found he was interested in trading some frags he had for some of my nems.
On 4/3 we emptied the tank again and swapped the stand. At this time I pulled 11 nems for trade and got 22 frags in return.
Everything was going peachy, we added a cleanup crew in early march and a bunch of fish, lost a couple (lawnmower blenny, mccosker's flasher, 1 banggai card, a damsel, a green mandarin and a royal gramma) but we are now up to the following: 2 clowns, 2 pajama cards, 1 banggai card, 1 orchid dottyback, 1 green chromis and 1 orange spotted shrimp goby (who i added with a tiger pistol shrimp which I have not seen or heard from since adding). The dead fish we are blaming on the shrimp but again, we cannot find him. I tried to trap him and I tried to search for him when we emptied the tank on 4/3 but no dice. I added a Pavona, some kryptonite canes, 2 florida ricordia, 1 electric mint disco, 1 digi, 1 monti and a ton of zoas.
So about a week or two after the last move I started noticing red slime. I was told it should or could go away on it's own, but it didn't. It spread like wildfire and was damaging some of my coral so it was time to take action with some chemiclean and lights out. Did all that last Thursday, water change and some cleanup on Saturday and now today things are looking pretty decent.
So, going forward I'm watching my levels, watching for the cyano to come back and I'd love to intro some more cleanup crew/fish to the mix.
I was originally planning on a 2 female 1 male flasher wrasse setup but I'm rethinking that as I'm looking for more variety and color. I'd love a tomini tang who can snack on the hair algae im seeing everywhere. I'm thinking of maybe a different kind of wrasse, melenarus maybe? Def. want to try the lawnmower blenny again. 50/50 on another goby, one that's more of a sand sifter - maybe a banded sleeper. For cleanup was leaning toward some nerite and trochus which i've heard maybe eat cyano. I want to add a tuxedo urchin and maybe a fire shrimp. Anything else you all can recommend?
Here are some pix - 1. Office pre move 2. Home post move. 3. Post empty, relocate to new stand, cyano early stage. 4 and 5. Today everything seems healthy and happy.
It came to my home with all stock equipment, a Artica chiller and an Aqua 15w UV filter. My boss gave me the BRS 5 stage RODI for making my water. It also came with all the sand, rock and livestock which included 2 clowns, 3 pajama cardinals, 16-17 green bubble nems, 1 pink or rainbow bubble nem and 1 white/green bubble nem. Existing corals included a bunch of red mushrooms, a miami hurricane chalice, a pink tipped hammer and a few tyree toadstools (the mama and 3 babies) The move went well, but we did find some issues and things that needed repair/replacement.
The T5s were failing (only 2 worked) the UV didn't work and the skimmer also did not work.
I removed the T5s and replaced with the Steve's LEDs retrofit kit for the RSM250. I replaced the skimmer with a oem replacement, but later dumped that in favor of a Tunze 9004 and after trying a new bulb in the UV and seeing that was not the issue, ripped and replaced that unit with a AquaUltraviolet Advantage 2000+ Inline 3/4" Barb - 15 Watt Aquarium UV Sterilizer.
Due to a water leak in our office, the stand was very badly damaged and I found a guy selling the exact one for $100 in Queens, so I went and picked that up. We got to talking and I found he was interested in trading some frags he had for some of my nems.
On 4/3 we emptied the tank again and swapped the stand. At this time I pulled 11 nems for trade and got 22 frags in return.
Everything was going peachy, we added a cleanup crew in early march and a bunch of fish, lost a couple (lawnmower blenny, mccosker's flasher, 1 banggai card, a damsel, a green mandarin and a royal gramma) but we are now up to the following: 2 clowns, 2 pajama cards, 1 banggai card, 1 orchid dottyback, 1 green chromis and 1 orange spotted shrimp goby (who i added with a tiger pistol shrimp which I have not seen or heard from since adding). The dead fish we are blaming on the shrimp but again, we cannot find him. I tried to trap him and I tried to search for him when we emptied the tank on 4/3 but no dice. I added a Pavona, some kryptonite canes, 2 florida ricordia, 1 electric mint disco, 1 digi, 1 monti and a ton of zoas.
So about a week or two after the last move I started noticing red slime. I was told it should or could go away on it's own, but it didn't. It spread like wildfire and was damaging some of my coral so it was time to take action with some chemiclean and lights out. Did all that last Thursday, water change and some cleanup on Saturday and now today things are looking pretty decent.
So, going forward I'm watching my levels, watching for the cyano to come back and I'd love to intro some more cleanup crew/fish to the mix.
I was originally planning on a 2 female 1 male flasher wrasse setup but I'm rethinking that as I'm looking for more variety and color. I'd love a tomini tang who can snack on the hair algae im seeing everywhere. I'm thinking of maybe a different kind of wrasse, melenarus maybe? Def. want to try the lawnmower blenny again. 50/50 on another goby, one that's more of a sand sifter - maybe a banded sleeper. For cleanup was leaning toward some nerite and trochus which i've heard maybe eat cyano. I want to add a tuxedo urchin and maybe a fire shrimp. Anything else you all can recommend?
Here are some pix - 1. Office pre move 2. Home post move. 3. Post empty, relocate to new stand, cyano early stage. 4 and 5. Today everything seems healthy and happy.
