Andys Reefer 425xl mixed reef

[AndyB]

Hi All,

For my first post on Reef2Reef I thought I'd drop a write up of our Red Sea Reefer 425xl build. I got the reefing bug ages ago when I was single and renting a place, the tank was a simple small bowfront with regular water changes, but both unfortunately and fortunately a change in circumstances meant that the tank went to a friend (and I moved house from the coast closer to the city). I made a mental note to re-visit my reefing hobby in the future when things settled down.

Fast forwarding to now and I've settled down with my soon to be wife who rather fortunately likes diving and almost studied Marine biology (so she has an appreciation of my hobby). Our reef is about two years old now and has changed quite a bit along the way as I've learnt stuff from both Reef2Reef and from my own experiences.

The ultimate goal (which took two years to get to) was to setup something low maintenance and relatively automated as my work randomly sees me on the road / working away for a couple of weeks max.

Not only my needs for automation but whilst my partner enjoys the tank, she prefers more of a hands off approach to its upkeep (she hates cleaning the glass but doesn't seem to mind water testing .... strange).

Her water testing days are numbered as the Trident will take this over so she may pick up something else #to-be-negotiated.​

That said, firstly a list of the components ... I started off with the below bits and added more as time and needs went on, but waited for the new Apex to come out before I invested in a monitoring/control system.

• RedSea Reefer 425 xl
• EcoTech Radion XR15s (x3) & a ReefLink
• EcoTech Vectra L1 Return Pump (originally an M1 but this failed so I upgraded to an L1)
• Ecotech Vortechs (2x MP40s)
• Deltec 1456 Protein Skimmer
• DD Fluidised Media Reactor (running gac at the beginning)

Here in the UK the weather can be rather dynamic (we've had some fun storms followed by some really hot days) ... so the next batch of components came next:

• DD DC300 Chiller
• 1x APC SmartUPS (powering the Vectra L1 return pump and some Apex stuff)
• 2x EcoTech Battery Backups attached to the MP40's
• A new cabinet so that the equipment could be moved from the right hand cabinet to make space for the chiller

My attempts at refugium's worked for a time but I'm guessing that being rather slim on the rock I need more surface area for bacteria so over time I decided to convert the default ATO into a Siporax container, I removed the cheato from the baffled section of the sump and added a cheato reactor.

I did consider putting cheato in the converted ATO but I thought the ease of maintenance with a reactor made it more appealing and gave me a benefit of providing space for the Siporax ... so I picked up an:

• ITC ALR1 Algae Reactor

I learn't quickly that I needed something between the Siporax and Algae Reactor to capture detritus etc as both were getting a bit grubby so I bought another media reactor, changes are:

• Now, one reactor runs filter wool and is cabled inline between the left cabinet section to the right which has the chiller / algae reactor which returns it back into the left side straight into the converted ATO / Siporax container.
• The other reactor runs SeaChem Matrix.
• My Carbon has been moved from a reactor into media cups where the socks were.
• TMC Top off kit (which I later changed).

I learn't that cleaning filter socks was a pita so replaced them with the below.

• DD ClariSea SK3000 Filter

I thought I needed some more flow behind my rockwork so added two more PowerHeads, not sure if this was really needed but I was trying to solve a cyano issue that was instead resolved by changing my RODI, but my tang seems to like them so I don't mind.

• EcoTech Vortechs (2x MP10s)

My maintenance time allocation of water changes quickly ended as my partner realised I couldn't go to the fish shop and only come home with RODI water, so I had to start cutting the water changes down. This was around the same time as when the new Apex came out, so I picked up the below gadgets and started dosing the Triton magic:

• New Apex Controller (powered by the APC UPS)
• Two Apex Energy bars
• Apex Breakout box
• Apex Auto Feeder
• Apex Leak Detection and the wireless expansion for my Radions (though I don't use the latter at the moment as I rather like the ReefLink and having a separate controller)
• Some TMC dosers (2x 2 channel and 1x 3 channel)

My needs of remote management (or control freak, not sure which) meant that I quickly ended up swapping out the TMC dosers and auto top off for the Neptune equivalent.

• Apex DOS units (2x)
• Apex ATK
• Apex 1Link (powered by the APC UPS)

This was an interesting challenge as I'm not known for my diy skills, pictures to follow soon.

 

[AndyB]

Attached picture of the sump area, stock list, control cupboard and display to follow shortly.

 

[AndyB]

Stock list:

- Pair of mating Mandarin's
- Pair of mating skunk clown fish
- Pair of the common clown fish, though not laying eggs yet
- Copperband
- Blue tang
- Starry blenny
- Flame hawkfish
- Fire shrimp
- Cleaner shrimp
- Tiger Pistol Shrimp & randals goby pair
- Flame Angel
- A Wrasse
- Magnificent Foxface
- Misc hermits, star fish, conchs etc
- Various LPS & Softies, with a bit of SPS
- Maxima clam
- Three bubble tip anemones (homes to my clowns)
- Diamond Goby
- Fire Fish

 

[AndyB]

Display tank

 

[AndyB]

Clowning around

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks great @AndyB ! Welcome to R2R!

 

[AndyB]

Thanks for the warm welcome

 

[AndyB]

Pictures attached of the cabinet.

 

[AndyB]

Rather strangely noticed the other day that my pair of anemones were what looked like "synchronously spawning" (not the typical splitting that I usually see/hear)

They both came quite far out of their rock and over the course of ten minutes or so they released a cloudy substance into the water, they then went back into their rocks looking tired and showing a pouty face.

Unfortunately I didnt capture a video the first time round but I did the second.

Strange, anyone else see their nems spawn like this?