- Joined
- Jan 20, 2017
- Messages
- 36
- Reaction score
- 25
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.
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.
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:
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.
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)
- 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
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
- 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).
- DD ClariSea SK3000 Filter
- EcoTech Vortechs (2x MP10s)
- 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)
- Apex DOS units (2x)
- Apex ATK
- Apex 1Link (powered by the APC UPS)
Last edited: