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Well we would have loved to bring you more on the highly coveted RSM250 but when we returned to our LFS to take more pics and do another tour of the kit, the all in one set up had been sold within two days. This fourth part will have to be our final installment of the RSM250 in the wild until we see one set up and growing some animals. So far we’ve given Red Sea a free ride on the RSM250 but when evaluating the lighting and canopy we came across our first major complaint with the system. The lighting unit holds 6 T5 bulbs in a common hammertone reflector and we speak for many reefers who would have rather seen 4 T5 bulbs each with their own individual reflector. The light output would probably be the same but with reduced heat to the system and decreased power consumption. To manage the heat Red Sea bumped up the included dual fan assembly which is fully removable for cleaning or replacement. Finally, the hood includes a single timer but now there are two power switches so that the white and actinic lights can be independently controlled. Although it might be minor, the lighting also now has a user accessible fuse. It would suck to have the entire lighting out of order because some obscure little 10 cent fuse had blown but was inaccessible. And yes the canopy does include some moonlights.
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This thing has 9 Comments
Why oh why didn’t they use a digital readout for the timer?
Yeah you know with all the tricks they threw at this thing, the clunky analog timer could really benefit from a digital upgrade and controlling each lighting circuit independently.
Regarding the light switches, the comment made is actually incorrect. The 2 switches are (1)for the 8x LED Moonlights, and (2)for the dual water cooling fans situated at the back fo the hood. Regarding temperature, the M250 actually runs pretty cool and heat is not an issue. Generally it runs around +2/+3C above ambient temp. In addition to the water cooling fans, there are 4 fans situated in the hood to cool the ballasts. Long term testing has proven these to be highly effective.
And finally, regarding the timer: we originally planned to use a digital timer. However we elected to give this even longer term testing as we wanted to take no chances with quality. The German Grasslin analogue timer we are using is extremely reliable and although more costly, was preferred because of its proven record. It carries out the same function as a digital version.
For some reason the original reply I made, ragrding the lamps & reflectors did not post so I’ll re-try:
We worked extensively with a specialist lighting company while developing the Max 250 in order to ensure the aquarium was easily capable of growing even the most demanding sps corals. Using individual reflectors would have meant using a maximum of 4 lamps. The work we did with the lighting consultants showed that in the case of the M250, there was approx a 5% increase in efficacy using individual reflectors with 4 lamps, than by using 4 lamps with a universal reflector. We therefore have opted to use 6 lamps with a universal reflector, which they also worked on with us. The result is 40%+ more light than had we gone for the 4 lamp individual reflector option.
There is some youtube footage of a couple of our long term Max 250 test tanks showing both sps and soft/lps coral growth.
Thanks for the input Steve, I really had to do my walkaround of the RSM250 in about an hour so I got a couple details wrong. I look forward to seeing this set up in action.
No worries, and we really appreciate the time you spent on our product Jake. There’s a lot to take in, so it’s not surprising a couple of details needed correcting. Thanks for doing a great job on it so far. Any help I can give, just drop me a line.
My Red Sea Max 250 has arrived. Its been two days and the temperature of the tank water is staying at a constant 88 degrees. I have the fans running and the ambient room temp is around 78 degrees. I don’t understand why the temperature is so high? I have another tank in the same room and it is running at 82. I’ve ordered a chiller unit to install but was not expecting the lights to bring up the temperature by 6 D. I have the day light fixtures on for 6 hours and will increase by two hours every other day. By the time I have the lights on for 12 hours it would fry any living thing in the tank. I even turned off the heater switch thinking maybe I received a faulty heater still at 88.
Its really valuable having the manufacturer comment on reviews like this – for any one looking to invest in the unit gets some great insight into the lighting units. I have found the YouTube video reviews also help for those looking to buy a 250.