Brenguns Redseamax 250

[Brengun]

Tank update time! Water perameters not too bad. Had rising phosphates but a skimmer clean and water change fixed it. Calcium and gravity was a bit high so added a bit more freshwater. Evaporation must have been a little more than I thought.
Got a couple more corals a few days ago. Jury's out on if they are going to survive or not, they arent so easy this time.
Got a gorgonian I think its called. It was going not too bad.

It kept falling over in the current so I tried my first putty job to get it to sit on a rock. Stuffed the first go up as the putty hardened quicker than I could get it settled but I got the second lot done ok. Gorgonian is still currently sulking tho. Hope he comes good.

Also another tricky one to keep is a goniopora. Its starting to cheer up a little so fingers crossed it comes out nicely.

Not so hard but it sure did enough sulking is an anchor coral

The pulsing xenia finally came good and is loving my tank now. Pulsed like crazy when the lull comes in my current setting.

Toadstool is as good as gold now. Found one of those sneaky manjano anemones under his rock today. I got rid of it all I hope.

Got a bit of pesky algae on one of the xmas tree rocks but Bennys been onto it.

Shes still a fattie. Are those stretch marks?

Got two of those three anemones off that xmas tree rock now. Got them settled on a rock of their own and keeping a careful eye on them to make sure they arent pest manjano one or they are adios.

One still on the rock.

Coraliimorphs looking great. Just how big are these going to grow?

Side view of a little one.

Blastomussa is so healthy its getting embarrassing.

Couple of xmas tree worm piccies.

Full up to date tank shot.

 

[Mooo]

OH Bren, That's coming along very nicely...Love it...Brilliant !!! A real credit to your aquatic skills...

 

[Brengun]

Marine tank update 10-2-11

Woohoo I went crazy and bought more coral so the whole tank has had a bit of a makeover.

Most of it was from a certain green bubble tip anemone now appropriately named 'Trouble'. He inflated, walked, floated and in general was a pain in the proverbial until now. I 'think' he has settled around the back of the rocks but still close enough to the side to see him. While all the movement was on I had to keep moving corals out of his way so the tanks had a makeover. For some, hopefully for even better positions. I still have the wave maker turned off just in case 'trouble' decides to go walkabout again.

My one and only porcelain crab made a beeline for him and is in love. That anemone was supposed to be for future anemone shrimp but I had forgotten about the crab liking anemone as well. The photo doesn't really show a 'green' anemone but hopefully he will colour up as he settles?

Got two Fungia which look pretty cool. They don't appear to be moving so maybe they like their positions?

I also got a little Elegance coral who has settled in well right from the start.

The purple/lime Favites rock is settling pretty well I think. Haven't read up much on it yet.

Ok now I need some ID help. I bought the beginners 4 frag pack but I didn't find anything written on the bags so some sleuthing is called for...

Is this a brain coral?

This one looks like an upside-down pair of pants lol. Is it a Montepora encrusting purple or maybe a Heliopora coerulea?

The last couple I am not sure on either. Is this maybe some sort of zooanthis?

This one I sat up half the night trying to id this photo. Its only about 2cm max in size.

Then this morning it came out like this! Where the heck was it hiding all that in that tiny little rock?

Good news for the gorgonian. After I took his putty off he cheered up and looks quite good now. You can see his extensions on the right beside the green acropora who also looks not too bad. He seems to be a slow one 'greeny' does.

The goniopora seems to be doing well too although its really hard to get the pale green colour in the photos due to the high lighting.

Yippee! Strom got his beloved cowry shell back to clean. All is well in his world.

 

[Big-B]

Your tank is coming along quite well and looks beautiful :yes:

 

[Mooo]

Beautiful Brenda. I love watching this tank evolving, as you know )

 

[Brengun]

Tank update 18th Feb 2011. (BTW mods, we need a marine photo section set up.)

 

[Stan]

WOW! Awesome thread! Thanks for sharing your tank progress! :clap:
You have got my wheels spinning on starting a small reef tank.. :dk:

 

[bigbird]

:clap: absolutely brilliant. well done. cheers and hats off.....jk :thumbup:

 

[Brengun]

It really doesn't seem that difficult. I only use a prepared salt mix. I keep an eye on the skimmer output and whatever amount it skims off I add back in prepared water. I like the output fairly wet so its a liter or so a day.

With the deep sand bed and only one pooping fish I don't seem to need to do a lot of big water changes at all. I think I have done two wc since I started the tank and they weren't even big ones.

I did discover there is only an inch or so the water level can drop before the skimmer really isn't working properly so it is good to top up the tank every couple of days.

Also, its pretty bad to forget to turn the chiller back on for 2 days. 30C or 88F and the leather corals really spat the dummy and showed their displeasure by oozing slimy stuff and bleaching a bit.

I also found you need to keep changing the carbon monthly or so. It is a different carbon to freshwater and will not leach stuff back into the water, it just becomes inert.

You also need to replace the phosban every several weeks or so or that algae will return pretty darned quick.

On the whole its quite easy keeping a marine tank except I keep drooling over the marine tank and get behind in my pleco tanks water changes. Its a bad influence marine. :yes:

 

[Brengun]

Total mayhem atm. Had an algae attack and wondered why. Checked phosphates and they were 0.88 omg!
The strom snail was no where to be seen and I think he has died somewhere under the 56kg of sand. Did 20% waterchanges daily (man I am going thru the salt mix), and added new carbon and rowaphos in bags in the filtration area. The rowaphos doesnt seem to be doing a thing back there so I have ordered a phosphate reactor.

A week later and I still can't find that snails body, grrrrrrr. I moved the front left ledge out, just leaving the bit with the two little baby anemones on it. No snail under the sand there either. Phosphates atm 0.41 and getting better with not so much algae but still a long road ahead to get it nicely down to practically zero. Nitrates are unreadable, calcium 480 so not bad there. Ph high 8.1 to 8.3 depending on the time of day the test is done.

On one of the stinking hot days lately and due to the slimy walls from the phosphates, my wavemaker decided to take a little slide down my glass and blew the stuffings out of the corals. Popped quite a few of the bubble corals bubbles. Have remounted the wavemaker now and is staying where I put it.

The anemone with the crab decided he didnt like his spot around the back of the right side and went walkabout last night so I had to move out everything there. He seems to have come over the right ledge and down under the top front ledge in the middle and settled there now. He's not that attractive (was supposed to be a green bubble tip but was supplied with this beast when they ran outa stock) so I will just leave him under there. Shame not to see the crab so much now. I might have to get another one.

 

[Brengun]

 

[Charlie_Kilo]

Have to say thats a nice looking tank. Do the Redseamax tanks live up to the price tag??

 

[Brengun]

OTM the prices are coming down on the RSM250 and there is a RSM500 due out in Australia quite soon.
There were intitially some teething problems when the 250 first came out with the skimmer not lasting or performing quite as well as it should. RSM did replace some under warranty and seem to be putting in the better one as standard now.

I have found it quite adaptable and have added an extra wavemaker to mine, and hung a phosphate reactor on the back no problems.

I also drilled a hole into the skimmer and added an airline tube to drain the contents into a drum at the bottom so I don't have to be emptying the skimmer box all the time.
Yeah I know, I am lazy.

 

[Brengun]

Ooh you gotta have patience. I got halfway through this post and accidentally clicked the box and closed it. Does any one else every have my trouble?
Ok, scene one take 2.
The elegance coral has been relocated to the bottom shelf in the middle up off the sand. He was getting constantly buried from my yellow headed sleeper gobi who moved in a few weeks ago. I moved the toadstool to the bottom left and the gobi does sift sand all over it but it is clever and just tilts its head over so the sand falls off.

I also got a little blue tang who spends his time between hanging out with the gobi or biting algae off the back wall with blenny.

Oh btw I got my phosphate reactor and my phosphates are well under control now. No more pesky algae, well at least not so much anyway.
I will get a photo of how I installed it into the redseamax hood.

 

[Brengun]

As promised a side shot! New coral up there. Will post its pics later.

Full tank shot (got a couple new corals actually)

Here is how I adapted a phosphate reactor onto the redseamax tank. I cut a hole in it and the reactor hangs on the ledge. Intake and output tubes go into the filter section and are attached to a powerhead pump. The reactor is absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to all to clear off phosphates.

 

[Brengun]

New corals
A green horn encrusting coral. Its quite an emerald green but tricky to catch it right on camera.

Closeup (I am told it will sting anything it touches which is why its stuck right up the top right of the tank.)

Green trachyphyllia which makes your eyes go funny if you look too close.

A green corallimorph

and a red cynarina desharayensis, all from Petcity in Brisvegas.

I also got two sexy shrimp.

and a green mandarin dragonet which is doing quite well I think.

 

[Brengun]

I got a couple of little frags from coralcrazy. Took 2 days with expresspost but they arrived good as gold!
I had to putty this little pink birds nest down twice as blenny just wouldn't stop sitting on it.

This green one looks good enough to lick.

My duncan coral has decided to make lots of baby polps under the main heads.

I was actually trying to take a photo of the pink coral but the blenny wouldn't move away.

The porcelain crab has gotten sick and tired of chasing the two sexy shrimp so now he lets them share part of his anemone.

 

[Tener ds]

some great pics there bren,out of intrest have much time a week do u spend looking after u tank?ive always thourght marine tanks take a lot of looking after.looks great tho.

 

[Brengun]

I am fast discovering if I do not wipe down the front and side walls of algae almost daily, it goes hard and is jolly hard to shift. I am kinda lazy on hard work so I just have to remember to do it often.

Also discovered because its only a 3ft tank I need to keep those waterchanges up and I need to do it every 4th day to keep the corals happy or nitrates and phosphates can really spiral out of control.

Apart from that it is spending all my time looking at it and taking pics and going over it with a magnifying glass to see all the microfauna takes the real time.
My pleco tanks often don't get a dead on weekly water change, more like 11 days now cause I am behind with them from looking at the marine tank.

 

[Brengun]

Remember those 3 free anemones that came in free on Christmas tree rock from Pet City? Updated pics, they are still only about 1 -2cm but sitting still and behaving themselves.