AJ's Reefer 525XL Upgrade

[ajanicki10]

Recently upgraded from my 40 gallon breeder hand me down to the RedSea Reefer 525xl. This was a planned upgrade for over a year and pulled the trigger this January.

Equipment List:
2 Ecotech XR30 Radions (1 gen3, 1 gen 4)
1 Ecotech MP40 Vortech
1 Ecotech M1 Vectra
Quantum Nyos 120 Skimmer
2 Litt Fishes Phosban Reactor
Smart ATO
10 gal Emerald Trigger Systems ATO Reservoir
Jebao Dosing Pump
Innovative Marine algae grazer and frozen food dispenser

Seeded sump with rock from old setup along with marine pure filter block to additional biological filtration capacity. Using the marine pure block also to raise the skimmer higher to adjust the water level more than the dials can manipulate. Still working through the update. Loved reading the Reefer thread to be prepared for new tank and its challenges. I have my trigger systems ato topping off the stock red sea ato reservoir, which will give me a few days cushion in case water is ever too low in the trigger. Havent set up dosing pump yet, but plan to get it setup with in the next week or so.

Hope you enjoy the progress. It has been a rewarding switch over the last month. Cant wait to continue to improve the setup as new ideas come in.

Old tank

New tank

Dry aquascape

Filled and cycling

First week after cycling

Current photo

 

[ksfulk]

Nice looking tank! Love the fish selection! Do you think 2 radions is going to be enough to light the whole tank? Whats the coral stocking plans? Love the 525xL builds!

 

[ajanicki10]

Nice looking tank! Love the fish selection! Do you think 2 radions is going to be enough to light the whole tank? Whats the coral stocking plans? Love the 525xL builds!

I do think it should be enough. If I had more rock across the middle, I would be more concerned I wasn't getting full coverage. With them being divided, I feel as though I have sufficient coverage for all the coral growing surfaces.

For coral, I have couple LPS (hammer, frogspawn, chalice, and lobo), zoas, mushrooms and I just ordered some acropora to see how they would fare. I am setting up the aquaforest 1,2,3 this weekend to help maintain my water parameters.

 

[Cherub]

Very nice, I'm looking at this same tank for my next build. Do you think 3 Hydra 26 HD would be enough light? It was that or the Kessil A360w but I hear they aren't great for SPS.