Setting Up The Red Sea Max This Week!!

[fraggalrock]

Happy To Be Here!! cant wait! but I will confess the Coward in me has thought of turning it into Freshwater like I did with my BioCube!

[intarsiabox]

Welcome to Canreef! The Max has everything you need built in for an awsome reef tank it would be a waste of technology to turn it into a FW tank. I have kept FW tanks my whole life and still have a 55g in my daughters room but once I went to salt water I never turned back! Just add an aragonite sand bed (if you want), fill it with salt water and start cycling. I'm sure someone near you has some live rock they could sell you at a good price. Just take your time and don't get stressed about the cycling process, all new tanks go through it. What I like best about SW is that new creatures show up all the time, even a tank with just live rock in it is interesting. So overcome your fear and you won't regret it!

[fraggalrock]

No Idea as to what to put in there yet but I love mushrooms and bubble coral the tank has been sitting in my living room for weeks and I hae finally decided to start unpacking items. I will take a pic of Max as soon as I put water in it.I think I will do a test run with regular water first just to get used to how things all work.I had a few growing pains with the BioCube and now it is a fresh water tank LOL but my Angels Love it and I am happy with the way it looks,so now on to Reef I Go!!

[mandarin man]

I believe you have RSM 34gallon. It is best to replace the stock skimmer witht the tunze 9002 (stock skimmer does not work).

[scherzo]

I started not too long ago with a 29 gallon biocube.. it isn't as hard as you may think.. as long as you take your time...

I will be doing the same with a 90 gallon that i have (converting from fresh to salt..)

I'm probably going to get the sand in with some LR and just let it sit for a few months.. then once you get used to it.. you'll (I'll) add more and more...

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by fraggalrock

No Idea as to what to put in there yet but I love mushrooms and bubble coral the tank has been sitting in my living room for weeks and I hae finally decided to start unpacking items. I will take a pic of Max as soon as I put water in it.I think I will do a test run with regular water first just to get used to how things all work.I had a few growing pains with the BioCube and now it is a fresh water tank LOL but my Angels Love it and I am happy with the way it looks,so now on to Reef I Go!!

There is no problem adding freshwater first, if you don't add any livestock you can add the salt directly to the tank when you are ready. A few notes on this however is I would start by adding RO/DI water right from the start, get a refractometer to measure salinity (JL's sells a vertex model for under $50) and buy a good quality salt. There is much debate on what salt is best but I have heard great things about DD salt and if you get a brand with all the right parameters you won't have to start dosing supplements.

While I have to agree that the tunze 9002 is a great skimmer I wouldn't consider it necessary to change out the stock skimmer if you do regular water changes. Many people run without a skimmer at all with proper husbandry and the stock skimmer works fairly well but yes, there are better skimmers.

[Snaz]

Good luck with the RSM. Just go slow and you will be fine.

You realize that squirrel picture might cause nightmares for some people? I for one will never be able to get that image out of my brain pan.

[fiorano]

take your time and do lots of research every step of the way