Stripervipers Redsea Max 650

[Striperviper]

It's up about two months now.

 

[Striperviper]

I'm too tired and other reasons Otherwise I'd give u the full story of where I'm at. But I'll update w many more posts and pictures of this tank. Needless to say I love the REDSEA.

 

[SPR1968]

Hi StriperViper

Looking good and will tag along!

 

[Zack K]

650! I thought the biggest they made was 550XL

 

[SPR1968]

650! I thought the biggest they made was 550XL

You might be thinking of the Reefer Series. This is the Max S Series and the biggest one they make. Oh and it's big!

 

[GoVols]

Looking good and will tag along!

+1

Lol, "The Three Omigos"

 

[SPR1968]

I hope they don't bring out a Red Sea Max S 1000! But then again....

 

[GoVols]

I hope they don't bring out a Red Sea Max S 1000! But then again....

Lol,

I'd love to see a S 1000 and drool while gazing into one

Could your imagine putting that stand frame together on that monster and the main display would take at least six guys to lift

 

[Striperviper]

I moved my 650 into my basement through a very tight stairway with just me and my cousin and it was horrible. We're both big guys and it was way more work than I imagined. I never saw one of these in person til I bought it 3 hours from my house so I was pretty much pot committed and there was no turning back. I love the tank so it was all worth it but I'm not looking forward to having to move it again.

 

[SPR1968]

I don't envy you at all doing that, your probably lucky you didn't hurt yourself, or worse drop it! Lol

But I can understand being committed. Until you feel the weight of the beast when first trying it you have no idea how heavy these are, or at least I didn't. I was quiet shocked.

Mine was brand new and I recall myself and my father trying to lift it first on our own and we thought, no way. In the end around 6 of us (including 3 women instructing!) lifted it onto the wooden pallet and dragged it along the floor on the pallet. At my door we had a towel on the floor and managed to put it on the towel and drag it along the floor. But the final lift....

Top tip as seen on ATM is to get a trolley and I think scissor jack. That's what I would do if I did it again, no hesitation.

Nice picture by the way. I like pictures. Is the tank ready yet and is that fish in ??

 

[Striperviper]

Yeah it's up and running. And yes the black tang is in there.

 

[Striperviper]

So a little of my story. I got the tank used for $2k plus I got three ai sols and a mp60 from the guy and gave him back the t5s for an additional $600. And he threw in a chiller. I got it up and running at the end of January. I did a fish cycle. Using three tangs. (Hippo, yellow, and lollipop). All went well. After about a month I added fish from a smaller tank I have (purple tang and borbonius) and a black tang from a friend who qted it for me. I had put a bunch of nice clowns in my qt and observed them for three weeks and they were super healthy. So all was going well. The tank came with a Magnus skimmer in place of the factory one. I purchased for fish from a lfs (Achilles, female flame wrasse, and a lineatus pair) and placed them in my qt and quickly watched them all begin to die off. Stupidly I also bought a bellus pair and a small blonde naso and put them in the qt. After I watched three of the four originals die I panicked and threw the female lineatus, bellus pair and naso in the display and boy did I pay dearly. The lineatus died that day and now my whole display has a nasty case of ich. All my fish are still alive a few are pretty banged up but alive and eating. So now I set up a 55 gallon hospital tank. I popped a few clowns in w live rock and special blend bacteria to jump the cycle. I'm going to put all my fish in there and treat w copper to cure the ich. I'm going to let the tank lay fallow for the 72 days to break the cycle. I weighed all my options and this is the only one that works for me (fingers crossed). While all this was going on I added three reactors (biopellets, gfo, and carbon) and a large media block to help w filtration because I have a black sand bed but a minimal amount of rock because I like the minimalist thing. I have some corals in there and at this past weekends swap grabbed a few more nice pieces. The crown is a beautiful bright orange acanthophelia that is quite large and eats like a champ. T

 

[Striperviper]

Also I purchased an artfully acrylic top which is beautiful. It looks great and fits perfectly. The feed doors do sink which is a pain and it's hard to get on and off for me because my ceiling is low. It's expensive but I feel it's worth the $ for the piece of mind of no jumping fish. I'm trying to only stock w nicer high end stuff. My fish wish list at this point is only a few things. A small male crosshatch. Lineatus and flame pairs and an Achilles. The tank has so much flow I put spin streams on the 4 rear pumps and a 90 degree elbow on the main return to keep my sand from blowing everywhere. I traded my mp60 for 2 mp40's. so there's no shortage of flow. I set it up w 3 ai sols but recently purchased a fourth and the hydra mounting hanging kit for a little more light. Of course I dropped my controller in the water this past weekend so I had to call ai direct because they're discontinued but they build them to order. Should have the controller and my new light rails by this weekend.

 

[Striperviper]

Two weekends ago I installed an emperor aquatics 40 watt uv light and got it running easily. I also got the Neptune apex and apex autofeeder but had major issues setting it up Because I'm terrible w computers. I actually had by boy here who does tank maintenance and installation and claims to be very Apex knowledgeable and he couldn't figure it out. Turns out it was some network issue and he's going to come fix it. Soon hopefully. Because I can tell u it sucks having a new fancy controller that doesn't work. I have my doser that was given to me by a fellow reefer and my four chamber reservoir. Just manually dosing at this point but I'll eventually get it up and running. To combat the ich in my display until I can get them into the hospital I've been using vitachem and fritz protoshield to keep the fish as healthy possible. I think it's helping. So that's my story so far.

 

[Striperviper]

My two acanthophelia

 

[Striperviper]

The orange one is super super bright orange. Like blaze or hunter orange and quite large. I love it. The little one is teal and orange. The pics as usual do them no justice. They eat like pigs. I also have a bunch of decent sps frags. And a ton of high ends Zoas. Hallucinations, hyper jubilees, bowsers, ect.

 

[Striperviper]

This pic isn't mine but they look this good or better. Rainbow incinerators. Paid $30 a polyp. Pricey for them but they look so good. Definitely one of my favorites. Have utter chaos, mandarins, fruit loops, Rastas, sonic flares, red and blue hornets, and a bunch of others.

 

[ws6kid]

Awesome tank. Those zoas are pretty hot.

 

[SPR1968]

Have you looked at any of the reef safe ich medications such as Polyp Lab Medic?

I did a bit of research after reading your thread, as you do.

I've not had need to use any of these as yet fortunately, but myself personally, I would use one of these methods in preference to emptying my tank of its occupants. I'm new to the hobby so don't have experience with the historic ways etc, not that there's anything wrong with them (silence Freddie! Lol) as they no doubt work.

PS. I quiet like the black sand - any chance of a photo of your fancy acrylic screen/top if you get chance ?

 

[GoVols]

any chance of a photo of your fancy acrylic screen/top if you get chance ?

Lol...
StriperV,
We gotta see that AA screen!