DeepBlue - Reefer 525 XL Build

[Jason Bretzke]

Our 60gal cube reef bottom glass broke six month ago…
It was tragic situation but luckily, USAA was awesome and took care of us….

Over the last six months, we finished our basement and added 700 square feet for our great room (aka Aquarium and TV room).

The goal is to setup an SPS reef tank for Stephanie, Charlotte, and I to enjoy over the upcoming years. I am an Ocean Engineer / Navy Diver and I travel quite often for work. Mywife is an assistant principal for a local high school and we have three your old. So she doesn’t have much time for aquarium maintenance when I am gone. That all said, this tank will be fully automated (or at least as automated as I can make it).

Here are the details -

Equipment (Updated 04/20/2020):

Reefer 525XL (Black)
Apex Neptune Controller (2016)
ATK Version 2
Three FMMs (Flowmeters, Opticals, and Leak Detection)
LSM and Four Lunar Lights
Four DOS Pumps
Trident
COR20
Three Nano Powerheads for Sump
AquaMax Carbon/GFO Reactor
Two MP40 Vortechs
Three Radion G4 Pros
T5 Hybrid
Kessil H160 for Refugium
Redsea RSK600 Skimmer
Finnex Heaters 500 watt and 300 watt
Caribsea Life Rock (140lbs)
Caribsea Live Sand (100lbs)
Live Rock from the 60 Cube
Tons of Plumbing from BRS (Love those guys)

Dosing:

ESV Two Part
NOPOX
MAG
Acropower
NEONITRO

Current Fish Load (as of 10/19/2020):

1 Purple Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Sailfin Tang
2 Blue Tang
2 Black Saddleback Clowns
1 Yellow Stripe Marron
1 Six line
6 Anthias
1 Yellow Watchmen
1 Cleaner Wrasse

Maybe a flame angel coming soon

Current Photo (03/01/2021):

Current Photo (10/19/2020):

Current Photo (08/18/2020):

Current Photo (04/20/2020):

Build Photos:

More to come!!!!!!

 

[dantimdad]

Nice room!

Sorry to hear about the 60 it was beautiful!

 

[Jason Bretzke]

It was bummer. Sounded like a round was shot off in the house when the bottom glass cracked. I literally jumped off the couch

 

[Devaji]

nice tank an equipment! boy you went high end...always a hard pill to swallow at once.

you setting up a AWC system? if you have room that sounds like it would be a great solution for you and for family.

 

[Jason Bretzke]

nice tank an equipment! boy you went high end...always a hard pill to swallow at once.

you setting up a AWC system? if you have room that sounds like it would be a great solution for you and for family.

I didn’t really want to go high end but USAA gave us a pretty good check and we finished the basement ourselves for $12k and the quotes we received were between $25k and $30k. And this is my dream tank, so momma let indulge a little.

Yes on the AWS. When we finished the basement I ran four 1/4 tubing lines back to the unfinished area where I have two trash cans for ATO and AWS. I will take a few pics tonight.

 

[Devaji]

@Jason Bretzke I hear great things about USAA my GF banks there and we just changed out auto insurance there. so far they have been great.

nice job on the basement. we are redoing a house house stated out as a leveling the floor then turned in to a compete gut even new floor joists, floor plumping electrical pretty much everything.

but they good news is I now have space for a 2nd tank! a peninsula. wish me luck convening her we need another tank in the house...haha

on a side note what does a navy diver do?

 

[Jason Bretzke]

I looked at the peninsula reefer tanks too. But wanted to save some space.

I might be addicted to apex fusion.... checking it all the time lol

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Here is the unfinished part of the basement with the ATO and AWS containers

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Tonight I added a float switch to the RSK 600 skimmer to let me know if the cup,is full

 

[Devaji]

man it looks like you are on your way to a very successful tank.

 

[Jason Bretzke]

I am getting some diatoms now. Which I know is normal but since I saw in noticed that, I checked my TDS on my RODI unit and I am getting 4 which is weird because I just replaced my cartridges and my DI resin.

any suggestions of should I replace everything again?

 

[Hallowhead]

I am getting some diatoms now. Which I know is normal but since I saw in noticed that, I checked my TDS on my RODI unit and I am getting 4 which is weird because I just replaced my cartridges and my DI resin.

any suggestions of should I replace everything again?

Check what's before the membrane and what's after so we can see how effective the membrane is

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Check what's before the membrane and what's after so we can see how effective the membrane is

The before reading gives me 24, or ERR, sometimes just says HM. After the membrane is showing 4 now. However, in the past, it has always been 0 especially after changing out everything. With the ERR and HM readings, maybe my TDS sensors are going bad. The RODI unit is 4 years old

i guess 4 isn’t to bad but would prefer 0

 

[Hallowhead]

The before reading gives me 24, or ERR, sometimes just says HM. After the membrane is showing 4 now. However, in the past, it has always been 0 especially after changing out everything. With the ERR and HM readings, maybe my TDS sensors are going bad. The RODI unit is 4 years old

i guess 4 isn’t to bad but would prefer 0

Have you ever thought to add a DI stage after the membrane??

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Have you ever thought to add a DI stage after the membrane??

My DI is after the membrane if I am not mistaken. I will look when I get home.

I have an AquaFX Barracuda (I usually get spectrapure but got a good deal on this one’

 

[Jason Bretzke]

I replaced my DI resin and now all is well...

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Not that I don’t want to speed money or waste money but....

currently I have two radion xr30 gen 4 pro lights. My goal is to have some sps. Is two enough or shoud I bite the bullet and get a third one

 

[Jason Bretzke]

If the tank were six ft long I would 100% agree that I need three radiona but at 5ft long I’m on the fence

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Is two MP40s enough for flow?

 

[Jason Bretzke]

Added some fish and my anemones back into the system

Pair of yellow stripe marroons
2 Yellow tangs
2 Purple dartfish
1 Orchid dottyback
2 Cleaner Shrimp

oh...

and Dory!!! The 2 year old baby girl insisted...