Just set up a Red Sea Max 4 days ago...

congrats on the new tank! have you tried using a small fan blowing across the water surface? like a clip on? they work great and cost less than a chiller! Oh hey...where are the pics???????? and nope on the tang.....

 

hey man first of all welcome 3reef forum, okay i have been dealing with RSM almost 4 mounts now, i have blue hippo tank and CB and 6 line wrasse also false percula and bunch of coral and cleaning crew star fishes and shrimps..etc. i am still buying stuff its not full yet, that is good part having all in one it is so easy to taking care of. every week i do %10 WC and i use purple up and calcium and reef buffer. now on i feed my fish every other day with good food vitamin c and garlic soak brine shrimp and pellets and flake mix.b/c i have some nitrate 10ppm.an other issue we have temp. this RSM has strong lights and when the lights on temp goes up to 82 but i use AC and open the lid little bit, good chiller is around $350-400. i just bought ro/di system so i am broke. if you have any specific Q. about RSM i am here 24/7.

 

RSM actually comes with a fan for that, and it's always on. Also, I'll get pics when I can find my camera, though, it's nothing too exciting yet

@nybatu - Thanks for the information, though I am hesitant about keeping my hood open to cool it down, since I have cats, and also because my house tends to be really dusty. I want to keep as much dust from getting in as I can.

Today my temperature peaked at 82.7, and is currently down to 82.4. Would it be better to keep the temperature on the heater at 81 degrees to keep the fluctuation below 2 degrees, or just keep it down at ~80?

 

if you can do below 80 that good enough. like 78-79 just fine. my heater set to 78 but i turn that off b/c i use window ac and it stays 80-82, i guess for summer time just fine since ocean have that temp. mine is 80 now and it will be like this whole summer. but you live in CA so you should definitely get chiller.

 

Welcome to 3reef and to this expensive hobby. I started not long ago too, like 2 weeks ago, and yes, my tank is still cycling. I check my parameters like every 3-4 days since it's still cycling. I top off daily since I have a fan running all day long with open top. It keeps my temp around 77 - 80 degrees (without light). I am getting a MH light today, I cannot imagine how hot it's going to get. I live in So Cal too, so I know the heat situation. Where in So. Cal are you? I have been reading a lot like you have; this forum and ppl here rocks!

 

my tank stays around +/- 4 degrees of ambient temp, you can either cool down the room or get a chiller for the tank if you want to run with the full hood sealed really not a ton of options on it

 

Hey welcome to reef!! i have a 30 gal tank with a blue tang as well.. you can try it but you will go through a bib hastle trying to keep the ick away cause as soon as it realizes the tank is too small its starts to stress no matter how goog your water is

 

So how many PPM can I expect my ammonia to peak at? At current it's 0.25 PPM. Also, supposedly my lightening can sustain some SPS and LPS hard corals, but I want a second opinion on it - the lightening/ballast is as follows:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]2 x 55 watt T5 power compacts (1 watt-liter/4 watt-gallon)
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]10,000K/Actinic lighting
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Electronic ballast
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]High polish, textured aluminium reflector
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Blue LED moonlights
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Fan-cooled hood for extended life of electronic components
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]High transparency, polished lens[/FONT]

I also hear that hard corals require a chiller if temperatures are as high as they are in my tank - how accurate is this?

Still working on getting pictures up, btw.

 

As promised, here are a few pictures:

 

go buy a regular floaty thermometer, digitals are infamous for being inaccurate

just use it to confirm the water temp really is what it says it is