A few years ago I decided I wanted a reef tank in my office. I’ve had reef tanks at home for a few years now and as I spend the majority of my life at work thought why not have what I love with me all day. I work 7 days a week and long hours as it is my own business. I sourced a Reefer 425XL and got it all setup and running only to run into disaster after disaster. First of all the room gets far too warm in the summer as it is so poorly insulated and is south facing and has loads of windows. I stupidly placed the tank just out of my line of sight from my desk which was really silly as I couldn’t see it at all. I also had 2 anemone disasters with them wandering into my gyres killing almost everything in the tank both times and then leading to a huge GHA outbreak too. The tank was just doomed. The plan for this new tank is SPS with a bare bottom and high flow.
This is my old 425XL Reefer
Last year during our first lockdown here in Scotland to make some money I decided to sell the entire system. We organised aircon for the office, got a new carpet and made it a nicer place to be in general. I then decided I wanted to try again but this time placement was the most important part. I did some measuring and decided that a Reefer 300XL would pretty much look like a continuation of my desk and managed to obtain one.
This entire build is being funded by selling some music equipment I have stock piled over years of being in a band. When we bought the business in 2017 sadly I had to leave the band as I just didn't have the time. I have been very fortunate to have bought a few drum kits over the years that have skyrocketed in value.
Since then cash flow has been incredibly tight so the project went on the back burner as I bought equipment as and when I could afford it. The greatest part of this time was how much planning I could get done. The project has grown arms and legs and has now turned into a far throw from a standard Reefer 300XL. I decided that I didn’t want to be restricted by the size of the cabinet and off the shelf sump. I had already struggled with equipment placement on the 425XL. Looking at the tank placement I thought why not plumb it through the wall beside it and run a remote sump which could be far larger than the stock sump and open my options up massively for equipment choice and ease of maintenance not to mention how much quieter it would make the tank in general within the office. This led to problem number 1 which was how to amend the Reefer plumbing to work with a remote sump but leave the original pipework untouched so the tank could always go back to being a standard Reefer with all original parts and sump. I started with looking at how I attach standard 25mm and 32mm pipework of my own to the pipes on the Reefer through the bottom of the weir. I found on the internet somewhere a guy that had used other Redsea fittings to do this.
Worked an absolute treat although when it comes to gluing I will need to use loads of glue to ensure a nice tight fit. I then started making the pipework up to get from the tank and through the wall.
None of these pipes are glued yet and still need clipped and held in place as they look like they are sagging in the photos.
I had to have the tank it position to plan where the holes where going to be which led to moving the tank out of the way to get the positioning correct to drill.
With these holes drilled I then put the tank back only to remember I still had to put a hole in the wall as a cable pass through for the lights, tank heater and a second apex temp probe for in the tank. So out came the tank again and this is when I also decided to cover the underside of the tank with white vinyl as this was the point that I finally decided I wanted to go bare bottom and wanted the illusion of sand.
Tank could then go into its final position for fitting the lights and getting them perfectly aligned.
Then the project took a bigger step than planned. I decided to get the room where the sump was going refloored in waterproof vinyl and have it fitted up the skirting boards and a dam created at the door so if I ever had a flood it would be 100% contained.
It was now time to get my custom sump into place.
More of my story and progress to come along...
This is my old 425XL Reefer
Last year during our first lockdown here in Scotland to make some money I decided to sell the entire system. We organised aircon for the office, got a new carpet and made it a nicer place to be in general. I then decided I wanted to try again but this time placement was the most important part. I did some measuring and decided that a Reefer 300XL would pretty much look like a continuation of my desk and managed to obtain one.
This entire build is being funded by selling some music equipment I have stock piled over years of being in a band. When we bought the business in 2017 sadly I had to leave the band as I just didn't have the time. I have been very fortunate to have bought a few drum kits over the years that have skyrocketed in value.
Since then cash flow has been incredibly tight so the project went on the back burner as I bought equipment as and when I could afford it. The greatest part of this time was how much planning I could get done. The project has grown arms and legs and has now turned into a far throw from a standard Reefer 300XL. I decided that I didn’t want to be restricted by the size of the cabinet and off the shelf sump. I had already struggled with equipment placement on the 425XL. Looking at the tank placement I thought why not plumb it through the wall beside it and run a remote sump which could be far larger than the stock sump and open my options up massively for equipment choice and ease of maintenance not to mention how much quieter it would make the tank in general within the office. This led to problem number 1 which was how to amend the Reefer plumbing to work with a remote sump but leave the original pipework untouched so the tank could always go back to being a standard Reefer with all original parts and sump. I started with looking at how I attach standard 25mm and 32mm pipework of my own to the pipes on the Reefer through the bottom of the weir. I found on the internet somewhere a guy that had used other Redsea fittings to do this.
Worked an absolute treat although when it comes to gluing I will need to use loads of glue to ensure a nice tight fit. I then started making the pipework up to get from the tank and through the wall.
None of these pipes are glued yet and still need clipped and held in place as they look like they are sagging in the photos.
I had to have the tank it position to plan where the holes where going to be which led to moving the tank out of the way to get the positioning correct to drill.
With these holes drilled I then put the tank back only to remember I still had to put a hole in the wall as a cable pass through for the lights, tank heater and a second apex temp probe for in the tank. So out came the tank again and this is when I also decided to cover the underside of the tank with white vinyl as this was the point that I finally decided I wanted to go bare bottom and wanted the illusion of sand.
Tank could then go into its final position for fitting the lights and getting them perfectly aligned.
Then the project took a bigger step than planned. I decided to get the room where the sump was going refloored in waterproof vinyl and have it fitted up the skirting boards and a dam created at the door so if I ever had a flood it would be 100% contained.
It was now time to get my custom sump into place.
More of my story and progress to come along...
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