Mike's Red Sea Max S500 (135G)

Mike In Perth

New member
Hi there fellow Reefers,

I having been reading the forums on and off for the last 2 years, I have been able to better educate myself on the dark art of reefing, due in no small part to all of the generous subscribers that have contributed to Reef Central.
It is the fellow reefers that make this great hobby even more enjoyable.
Thanks to all for making me realise how much I have missed this great hobby.

I got back into the Marine aquarium hobby by accident in early January of this year (2015). There is a bit more to how I got back into the game, but that is a different story. Best told over a beer.
Needless to say, I wasn't that happy with the setup I had previously and I decided to do a bit of homework in relation to what was available here in Perth (Western Australia).

We have a few Local Fish Shops (LFS), but only a handful that specialise in the marine environment.
Whatever route I decided to travel down, I had to ensure approval from the minister of war and finance was in place before pulling the trigger.

After a couple of weeks of hunting around, I stumbled upon a display tank held in one of the LFS. It was a Red Sea Max S400. A vibrant reef that houses numerous soft corals, anemones, and the usual must haves (Clowns, Tangs, Blenny's etc) that grabbed my eye.
Whilst the contents of the tank were fantastic, the realist in me knew that if I could get to half of the setup in the display tank, I would be as happy as Larry.

The tank presented very well physically, and the all in one concept caught my eye. Previously, I had stayed away from the complete plug and play systems, as there were always too many compromises between them and a custom build. However the Red Sea Max S range looked to be the best of both worlds with a great display tank as well as a hidden sump, and coming with a good bunch of kit standard that closed the gap in relation to my perceived compromises that I stated above.

Not a bad base to start from I thought.
I grabbed a brochure and headed off to trawl the interwebs, you-tube and forums.
I wanted to make an informed, educated and rational purchase on my new tank.
I passed the blueprints to the boss for pre-approval and her input.
Once cabinet had sat and passed the necessary regulations on ownership, I started building the justification for making the purchase.
These systems are not cheap. So I did my best due diligence to ensure I was tracking down the right path.
A week later (Clearly that disease we all suffer from "œPaitence") wore me down;

I shot down to the LFS that I previously saw the Red Sea Max S400 and ordered the Max S 500 in Pearl White.
A completely justified impulse buy #Winning!

Now the waiting game began"¦"¦"¦.

The tank arrived in less than two weeks (March 2015), and I was blown away by the quality of the packaging that supports the tank and ancillaries in transit.
I drew on my third dan black belt in woodwork and my purple belt in DIY, and took to disassembling the crate.
My wife said I looked like Wiley Coyote trying to open an ACME crate!!!!!
There is nothing harder in this hobby, than waiting to get a look at all our goodies.
I unfortunately did not take any pictures during the unpack / construction phase of my build. Rookie error "“ Apologies!

I got the tank built and setup within our main living room.
The product is very well put together; I cannot fault it from that point of view.
I will say that the instructions could be slightly better labelled or include more detailed illustrations.
During this period of construction, I would suggest keeping all minors out of earshot, as there could be the odd bit of language thrown about that would make a sailor blush!

After a week, the tank was complete.
No additional screws, nuts, bolts or pipe work! I am very happy with the appearance of the system as a whole. I felt like I had climbed Everest, it was a good feeling to be starting off my marine adventure again.

I got the system running using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt and RO water. I also placed a sand substrate (Cannot remember the name) into the tank four days later, approximately 30KGs (66 Lbs) of sand was used.
It gives me about an inch of coverage across the tank. I was mindful of the weight of the live rock sitting on the glass, as the tank is quite deep. But on the other hand, I didn't want a substrate too deep. We have all heard of tank crash stories that potentially point to a build up of chemicals within the substrate.

I sat "œpatiently" waiting for the tank to cycle, and killed time by trawling through the various threads on Reef Central and watching videos on you-tube.

On day Eight, I decided to start using the lights on the system.
I wanted to initiate the lighting exposure, so I could gauge potential evaporation levels and thus adjust my Fresh Water Automatic Top Off (ATO) and light timer settings. Two simultaneous jobs that would keep me busy, and unavailable to visit my wife's parents.

My tank parameters were all tracking along nicely. The tank had just started to come down from the cycling spike. I was happy, the wife was happy and the kids were pestering me to get 3 "œNemo's and Great White Shark" from the LFS. Clearly there was a slight disappointment coming to the both of them, but I would break the news to them gently another day, and continued on with my tinkering.

I noticed that two lights within both the front and back panels were not firing when I switched the lighting on. I spent the better part of two days fault finding the system.
This included trying different bulbs, checking wiring, playing with the light timers within the control box, checking the switches within the hood panel, etc"¦"¦
This was to cause the first headache, and the second colourful spray *Insert batch of sailor filth here!


I shot down to the LFS that I purchased the system through and we set about finding what the issue was. There was a bit of toing and froing, but three weeks later I had a brand new set of lights delivered to me via Red Sea. It turns out there was a ballast issue with a batch of the lights for the 500 series tanks.
Customer service via the LFS was not award winning, but it certainly wasn't the worst I had ever received.

Going back to day 10.
I got home from work; I had, had an average day and to be fair I needed the escape from the last 14 hours. I was looking forward to losing myself in setting up the ATO on my tank. I filled the ATO holding tank on the rear of the display with 30 Litres of RO (7G)And set about adjusting the float valve settings and flow rate.
Whilst playing with the float valve, I noticed a leak coming from the inlet pipework (Main sump pipe and Overflow) above the sump and nearest to the rear wall of the tank cabinet. I hunted around for about ten minutes to find the source of the leak.

Hmmmm not good news!!!!!

The outlet of the ATO holding tank was leaking. I initially believed the leak to be an ill-fitting hose or connector, but alas it was a larger issue. I bodged up a deflector using some laminated paper and directed the unwanted ATO water into the sump and away from the back of the cabinet and carpet below.
I would have to decommission the ATO until I could find the exact problem and remedy. I was not in the right frame of mind to tackle this task now.

Three days after the disappointment of the ATO leak, the tribe and I return home to a very wet living room and my wife's best Tom Hanks
"œHouston we have a problem!"

There is nothing better than cleaning up, mopping up, and raiding the beach towel cupboard to soak up approximately 200 Litres (52G) of salt water in the living room on a Sunday evening, in fact it is even better when you have two nuclear powered sons (7&4) hovering around asking the 9 million questions that pop into their heads that relate to the current situation before us all, oh and also wanting to know when dinner would be ready!

Culprit = A black plastic toothed cir-clip (Technical term) had failed on the main return line. This cir-clip sat on the main return hose at the base of the hose, on the outlet of the main return pump in the sump return chamber.
My sump was pumped dry, as was all the contents of the tank down to the safety shut off limit.

I am not sure if it was vibration from the pump or operator error that had been the root cause to the event, but whatever it was, I would not let it reoccur. I visited my local Bunnings (www.bunnings.com.au) and grabbed some stainless worm driven hose clamps. When in doubt use a bigger hammer is my mantra, so the use of the stainless hose clamps over the plastic cir-clip eased my mind a touch.

It did nothing to defuse the tension between myself and the boss!

Damge = Carpet and underlay within the living room Gooooooooone!!!!!!!!!!,
Our chocolate brown leather lounge suite
Once all the carpet had been removed over the next couple of days, we allowed the living room to dry.

As a side note for all others living in Australia, our insurance covered the failure and all the remediation works within the living room, with no excess charge. Salt water is also classed at grey water, and as such their policy is to remove the carpet and replace rather than drying it. Health reasons.

The wife's displeasure was immense! Guess who got a complimentary night on the couch"¦"¦


I set about fixing the ATO leak on the back of the tank, as we had to move the tank to allow the carpet guys to remove everything else that was to be cleaned or replaced.

The good news is I found the issue, the not so good news is that the screw cap / connector that exits the ATO holding tank had not been sealed correctly along the bottom half of the pipe during the tank construction. I tried sealing the connector from the outside, but as soon as I would wind the adaptor plate onto the connector it would foul the cured silicone and the leak would start again. Very frustrating.

I will insert images to support this post, so you may see what exactly I am talking about. I can honestly say my desire and my patience was starting to wear thin at his point.

We repositioned the tank in the informal dining room. It is the common congregation area within our house as it is part of the kitchen
(Open plan layout), Plus there are tiles on the floor and no carpet"¦"¦
You can see who decided on the new location of the tank, and there was no re-course of the above mentioned decision.

Truth be told, the new location is actually better than in the living room.

Skip forward Four months and I have a cycled tank with some live rock and a few fish. Clowns, Yellow Tang, Hippo / Blue Tang, Goby Sand-shifters) and a few soft corals. Life is good.

I had been having issues with Hair Green Algae (HGA) and a diatom outbreak on my live rock. But other than that, the tank was tracking along, I have had the usual issues with high nitrates and phosphates and I was suggested a nitrate reactor and a phosphate reactor by the LFS. I duly obliged and set the systems up in my sump.

The numbers came down and I was happy.


I tried, most likely a bit too early to introduce a Bubble Tip Anemone (BTA) for my clowns to nest in (May 2015). But alas the BTA lasted about three weeks and then shuffled off this mortal coil! I tried a second BTA, but the outcome was the same. I am unsure as to why this is. My water specs were bang on, and I was having the water tested at the LFS to ensure I wasn't smoking crack and hallucinating my numbers. It all came up normal. I even requested a copper test and it came back negative.

So the decision is to stay away from anemone's for the foreseeable future.
As much as I love them, I understand that they are a finite resource, and to be fair to my environmental conscience, until I know what caused their demise I will remain BTA free.


I was invited to the LFS that I bought my tank from to attend a presentation that was being delivered by Red Sea in early July.
I was requested to attend and to voice my situation with the rep. As I had become a little frustrated with the support I was getting from the LFS. There had been a bit of passing the buck, and I was starting to feel that there was no support for what I was going through.

I pulled out all my data relating to the trails and tribulations I had been through with my system, set the reminder in my phone and preceded to plot my plan of attack. I got to the LFS and took up my position. I wasn't going to initiate an ambush, but I wanted to see the whites of his eyes"¦"¦. Just Joking, dramatic effect!


What happened was completely unexpected.
The presentation was a big eye opener for me; the knowledge of the Red Sea product by this particular individual was top notch.
Now, I am not a Red Sea groupie by any stretch of the imagination, but I will support the product that I was using, and having a bit of success with, so please don't destroy me within this thread for the below.

The most important thing that stood out during the presentation was that not once was a competitor's brand, product or methodology questioned, critiqued or rubbished.
There was no "œI would suggest switching to Red Sea" or any such upsell. It was refreshing to see. The mantra repeated was "œWhatever works for you, keep doing it" and "œIf you feel like trying something else, give us a go".
There was even a bit of support for a couple of pump manufacturers.

After the presentation, I got some one on one time with the Red Sea rep. The LFS staff member introduced me and ran..... I guess they were expecting the worst.

I must be honest here, but any frustration I had built up over the last couple of months was thrown out the door five minutes into the presentation,
so there was emotion in the conversation I was now having.

The outcome?

After less than 5 minutes of discussion,
I was offered a new tank. I was speechless.
Customer service, something that has declined a bit in Australia over the last ten years was staring me in the face. I was expecting a long-winded saga on repairing the tank, and getting other parties to look into what was wrong with the tank to ensure there was a valid claim etc. I truly believed that I was sitting in the too hard basket.

Heck, I even offered to get the LFS out to repair the tank. I was met with a courteous "œIts all right mate, we'll sort this".
My personal details were taken.
I presented all the information on the tank (Serial numbers etc).
I was then given a NO3PO4 Algae Testing Kit, A Trace Elements Testing Kit
(Ca, Mg, Kh), some No3 Po4 (NOPOX Dosing) and a large tub of Coral Salt Pro for my troubles. You could've blown me over with a feather"¦"¦.. I wasn't after free goodies; I just wanted my tank to work.
I was instructed to deal direct with Red Sea, and if I had any other issues with the tank or equipment to give them a call.

I must admit, that I don't do shout outs or naming of business's and shops as a general rule, but after getting the okay from the gentleman himself, I would like to say a big thank you to;

Mr Aiden Anderson-Barr,
Sales Manager for Red Sea
(Asia Pacific & The Middle East)

I am now in the process of waiting for the delivery of my new tank.
The kids and I shall slowly breakdown our current system and start from scratch with the new tank in the coming weeks.
This will mean storing our fish in another tank, with the live rock and corals that we do have.
I will update this thread with all the information on the changeover and initial setup (Mark II). There will be lots of photos taken, and I will attach them in due course.

Until then guys, Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing my reefing experience with you all over the coming months and years.


Tank Equipment

Red Sea Max S500 (White)
10 x T5 54 Watt lights with Night LEDs)
C-Skim 1800 Protein Skimmer
Tunze 6105 Powerhead (in tank)
300W Heater (In sump)
¾ HP Chiller
Little Fishes Nitrate Reactor
Little Fishes Phosphate Reactor
Tunze Glass Cleaning Tool (Best invention ever!)
 
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