First Reef Tank Journey - Red Sea Reefer 425XL

texasreefgirl

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Hey reefers!

I’m thrilled to start my first mixed reef tank and wanted to create this thread to document my journey. I think it’ll be awesome to look back on how far I’ve come while also learning from the community.

For my setup, I’m using a Red Sea Reefer 425XL, which has an 88-gallon display tank and a 24-gallon sump. Right now, I’m in the second day of cycling with Dr.Tims. I used 80 pounds of special grade dry sand for the substrate and about 80 pounds of Marco rock for the aquascape. For salt, I went with Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt. My filtration setup includes a Bubble Magus Curve 7 Elite Protein Skimmer and a Polylab Genesis Rock for some extra filtration.

I’m still deciding on lights and could use some advice. Do you think two Radion XR30s Blue would be overkill, or would two Radion XR15s Blue be enough? I’m also considering the Kessil AP9X, as I’ve read that one fixture might be sufficient for my tank size (47x23 inches). Is anyone here happy with their AP9X?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, especially from anyone with a similar tank size or experience with these lights. I’ll keep this thread updated with pictures and progress as the tank evolves.
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mjszos

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The scape looks great! I'm wondering how you're going to handle internal flow - I have a similar length tank coming in soon and haven't quite decided how I want to handle that.

Regarding lighting, the XR-15s claim to have a spread of 24" so with a 47" wide tank 2 of them on paper would be sufficient, however I think the better question is what kind of corals you'd like to keep? In my case, I will be running 2x XR-15s over a 48" tank with plans to supplement with 1 or 2 blade lights in the future.

Welcome to the hobby, kiss your wallet goodbye and enjoy the ride :)
 

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