EddieJ's Red Sea 425xl Build

EddieJ · Jan 7, 2018

After being out the hobby for a couple of years, I found that saltwater never really seems to leave the blood. Around a year ago, I setup my old 24 JBJ along with a Fluval Evo 13.5 in the living room. Prior to that I had a 90 gallon which I started in the hobby with and upgraded that to a 210 gallon. The 210 was setup to run Zeovit from the start will all dry rock "aquascaped" to the hilt. Well, that proved to be such a nightmare for me. Algae, Dino's, aptasia etc.... It never really settled in and just couldn't get it dialed in and able to make coral grow happily. My 90 was started with all live rock and fuge, and that was my first tank in the hobby.It was very enjoyable and could grow LPS/SPS like nobody's business. So I am going to start this one with live rock. Unfortunately Tampa Bay Saltwater has his live rock business on hold, so I think I will talk with Gulfview and see what we can put together. At this point I am not sure if I am going to to bare bottomed or with sand. I have had sand in all my tanks to this point, but on this build I am going to go pretty much all SPS. So with that in mind, I might start off without the sand and if I hate the look, I can add sand at a later point. Figured with the sand, I can definitely crank the flow. So here we go! Guess it was my Christmas gift to myself.

Equipment purchased at this point:

Red Sea Reefer 425XL in Black
Profilux 4 with 4 head Doser 2.1
2 Mitra LX7 LED lights

Still to purchase:

Nyos Quantum 160 for the foam maker
Tunze Stream 3 powerhead (will add a second when needed). They are large, so have to think about that when I add the rock to hide them.
Artfully Acrylic lid

Still to decide:

Return Pump
How I am going to setup a fuge
Reactors?

The tank should be arriving this week. This tank will be in my basement next to my bar so I need to finish out the wall and install an electrical outlet.

So for now, the brains of system have arrived and are setup on my Coral QT/Frag tank for now.

Brew12 · Jan 8, 2018

Thats some nice equipment, good luck with the setup!

EddieJ · Jan 9, 2018

Brew12 said:
Thats some nice equipment, good luck with the setup!

Thanks Brew!

EddieJ · Jan 9, 2018

Well this is NOT good news. The tank was supposed to be delivered this week, but as luck would have it..

Major FAIL on the freight company's part. As you can see, first off the tank just sat in Grand Prairie TX for 3 days. Then it is finally dispatched up here to Ohio. Can't make it , turned back around to Grand Prairie TX to be "re-pallet-ed" per the Customer service rep with the freight company. I can already guess what shape this will arrive in. I should call Marine Depot to have them queue up the Red Sea distributor to get another one on it's way as I can just about guarantee this shipment is pretty busted up. I am not taking delivery if there is even an ounce of damage to any of the boxes. Oh well, what fun would it be if everything in this hobby went smoothly!!

revhtree · Jan 9, 2018

Dang sorry!

EddieJ · Jan 9, 2018

Well after seeing the mishap on the tank shipping at work today, I come home to a present on the porch.

Now I have to decide if I am going to hang them or go with the Flex Mount system from GHL.

EddieJ · Jan 12, 2018

Good news is that the tank arrived safe and sound after 11 days in the freight company’s hands.

No damage whatsoever.. Now the physical work of getting this into the basement..

jp_75 · Jan 12, 2018

Can’t wait to see some progress! Gonna buy same size really soon

Brew12 · Jan 12, 2018

EddieJ said:
Good news is that the tank arrived safe and sound after 11 days in the freight company’s hands.

No damage whatsoever.. Now the physical work of getting this into the basement..

Fantastic! Good luck with that!

EddieJ · Jan 16, 2018

Ok, little more forward progress over the weekend. I decided on my return pump after much deliberation, going back and forth between tried and true AC pumps or newfangled DC pumps.. Read about a bunch of failures with DC return pumps..

A Varios DC 6 showed up on the front porch

I was also able to run the electrical circuit to the tank location. Next to the outlet I also installed a low voltage pass thru as the Profilux 4 will be located on the other side of the wall.

Got the stand built and moved the tank in from the garage.

Now the fun will begin....

Plumbing and electrical..

EddieJ · Jan 25, 2018

Little update on the SLOW build progression..

Received my skimmer today and I will say it's as nice as everyone has said. Great fit and finish and looks like a piece of art. To bad it's mission is to pull out stinky junk!!!
Also worked on getting my lights mounted. I went with the Giesemann Vervve mounts that I saw @dangros use with his Mitras. Like the orientation much better than the GHL mounts. Only bad thing is that I will need one replaced as the cast aluminum on the one arm is not at the correct 90 degree angle so it tilts the light up. You can see that on the right Mitra. I have also decided to go with a Pax Bellum ARID N18 for my macro algae. Put a deposit down on one as they are being built to order these days.

Clayton Jessup · Jan 25, 2018

Very nice looking set up I must say Eddie J

EddieJ · Jan 26, 2018

Clayton Jessup said:
Very nice looking set up I must say Eddie J

Thanks Clayton

oneilwiz · Jan 26, 2018

Sweet setup, you surely will stay in that man cave now, bar + Reef Tank. Great choice on your equipment. Tagging along sir.

EddieJ · Jan 26, 2018

oneilwiz said:
Sweet setup, you surely will stay in that man cave now, bar + Reef Tank. Great choice on your equipment. Tagging along sir.

Yup, nothing better than a cold one and sipping some whiskey watching colored sticks grow!! Well, hope I can make sticks grow in this setup anyways.. Can always just drown my sorrows as well..

dangros · Jan 27, 2018

Nice work! I love the rimless tank. In hindsight, I would have gone in that direction.

EddieJ · Feb 7, 2018

Little bit of an update,

I did a freshwater fill test this weekend to check that the tank is level and test out the plumbing. For now I am using a clear vinyl hose for the return. I do plan on building out a hard pipe version at some point, just no real reason at the moment other than when I get my Pax Bellum algae reactor I plan to plumb that off the return. I have on order some plastic clamps so I used zip ties (which leak a little bit ) for the test. The test went well and the tank is level on both axis.

Installed my cabinet lighting over the weekend as well.

I have started filling the tank with saltwater as it's time to get this thing fired up. Next job is getting the electrical wires all sorted and routed nicely along with getting the Profilux setup on this tank. The Profilix has been running on my Coral/Invert QT for now so I can get my learn on to the GHL way of doing things. In tank circulation pumps (Tunze 6150 (Stream 3) and 6095) should be here today so that completes the water moving stuff. Still need to order some items from GHL such as a breakout box and cables for the Varios and Tunzes, as I definitely want to control them off the Profilux.

Items currently on order:

Artfully Acrylic Lid
Skimmer stand
Pax Bellum ARID N18 algae reactor
6 small Blue/Green Chromis ordered from Live Aquaria arriving tomorrow to start their journey thru TTM and QT.
90lbs of live rock ordered from Tampa Bay Saltwater which should fly over sometime after the 20th. Was glad that Richard got back in the boat after being laid up for a bit.

So it won't be too long now!!