A Red Sea Max 250 for Luscious Luke!!!

Well, I finally convinced myself of going for the new RSM250 and its amazing.  Got the boxes home, opened them all up, assembled everything, leak tested it, and moved it in to place.  Got the 80 pounds of live Caribbean reef sand in it and filled it on up.  Picked up about 85 pounds of live rock including a massive 52 pound piece from Norman about three weeks ago.  You should have seen my arms and legs shaking as I tried not to crush his star fish while pulling it out of the 250 gallon monster in his living room.
Got the rock, sand and water set up and began cycling it with a big ole gulf coast shrimp while I went on vacation for a week and a half.  Got home and the the tank had cycled nicely with a good amount of algae all over the place.  The "ugly phase" sure was in full effect.
Did my water change, tested perameters several times and got everything dialed in.
Week 3 of cycle
Received a huge shipment of clean up crew in the mail, courtesy of Blue Life USA in L.A.  Thanks to Carl and Eric for hooking me up.
Got all 17 bags of critters into the tank including (excuse the spelling) two Bristle Stars, about 50 red leg crabs, 25 Nasarius Snails, 5 emerald crabs, 30 margarita snails, and a few more little critters that I forgot about.
I know I have probably way more clean up crew than is recommended, but they were free, so I will probably be looking for a few good homes for my over stock in a few days.  About a third of the tank is already clean.  These guys are fast.
I will have current pictures to come and more progression pictures after that.

 

Pics

 

Sweet, what mods if ay did you do?

 

congrats! and that has to be the BIGGEST clownfish I've ever seen! Also when you decide to thin down you CUC let me know. I'm about to be moving our tanks and I'm sure I'm going to lose a bunch of snails and crabs and stuff.

 

I forgot, I also have about 25 large sized Mexican Turbo snails that came with the shipment.  Woke up this moring to find almost all of my algae has been consumed.  It might be time to find these house cleaners a new new dirty home to clean.  They may run out of algae in the next week or so.
Let me know if you might want a few things.

 

No tank mods yet, but I did remove the latches on the RSM cabinet and replaced them with some pneumatic cabinet door brakes so that my little girl doesnt slam the doors.  The doors close very quietly now.
I'm thinking about adding a chiller before summer kicks in.  Between the three pump motors and the six T5 lights, the water cooling fan in the back may not be able to keep up with my cooling needs.  I would like something more automatic as well.  I hate having to monitor my tank temps every few hours during the day.

 

Unplug the heater and see what your temp stays at. It shouldnt get too hot under there. Austin has one and i dont think he has heat problems.

 

It's not the heater, it's definitely the three big pumps and the six T5's.

 

Well try fans and maybe switch the pumps out for something with same flow less heat exchange.

raffle grabber

 

Maybe, just by freak chance, I'll win a chiller at Frag Fest. Haha. Wouldnt that be a great day?!?

 

Hope in don't win it an I can make it out alive

raffle grabber

 

Yes, I had to buy a chiller for my tank. With the closed top, it's a heat trap, but there's hardly any evaporation. I don't have to worry about regulating temperatures and can keep my house on whatever temp I want without worrying about the aquarium. I don't need a heater for it even in the coldest winter months.

 

What are the specs on your chiller, Austin?

 

Luke, I got this chiller in the 1/10 size. It cools the aquarium down perfectly. No need to go any larger really.
[url2='http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Arctica_Titanium_Chiller_1_4_HP_Less_with_a_Built_In_Controller-JBJ_Lighting-JB1111-FICHINQCBC-vi.html':3jx66so1]http://www.marinedepot.com/JBJ_Arctica_Titanium_Chiller_1_4_HP_Less_with_a_Built_In_Controller-JBJ_Lighting-JB1111-FICHINQCBC-vi.html[/url2:3jx66so1]

 

Here it is guys and girls.  Got all four of my fish transfered over and they all seem to be doing great.  They seem to love the extra space.  Pistol shrimp and goby wasted no time and started digging holes immidiately. 
 
Tank is still a bit too hot so I have a JBJ Arctica Titanium 1/10 HP chiller on the way.  My house is too warm for the water cooling fans to keep up with the pump and light heat on its own.  Gonna position the chiller in the cabinet with the exhaust pointed right out the big back hole and add a fan inside the cabinet to pull cool air in from the little ports that are on the bottom of the cabinet just behid the doors.  Should be enough air movement to do the trick.
 
Corals are still in the process of adjusting, most have already come back out.  Just waiting for a few things to start spreading so that I can get the rocks that they are attached to moved out of the way and more permanent looking, not to mention, my turbo snails keep knocking stuff over.  I hate the look of awkwardly placed frags.  I wish there were ways to talk coral into attaching themselves right away, but I didnt have any luck.  I offered to feed them a steak dinner if they would just hurry up and attach. They didnt go for that.
 

 

Looks great

 

Picked up a little one inch Eiblii Pygmy Angel fish today.  Waiting for him to come out in the light for his first close up picture.  Will have one tomorrow.  I hope he likes the food I feed because I don't wat him eating my coral. 
Any suggestions?

 

I agree, just watch him closely and try to find a good angel food that contains high quantities of sponges. I believe there is a good frozen food around in the cubes, but can't remember the name, something like angel delight or something like that. Maybe someone else can give the correct name.

 

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this little guy behaves and I don't have to send him back to the fish orphanage.  So far he is just pecking at rocks and hasnt touched any of my corals yet. 
Not sure if he will like any of my current coral, based on what I've read, I don't think I have anything he likes yet, so we will see.  I do plan on getting a Maxima clam soon, but may hold off until I can get this guys used to eating Rods Food and the pellets that I alternate with.