Hermit and Wife's Ultimate Tank Giveaway Tank

[jasonamyers]

Recently, I got beyond lucky and won the Partner Ultimate Tank Giveaway! I just wanted to become a partner to support our awesome forums and never dreamed I would win. You can see more about becoming a partner member and what the giveaway was at R2R Partner Member 2017 (Ultimate Tank Giveaway).

Like my last tank, I wanna share the build process and the development of the tank. However, because of how I got the tank, I'd really love to get input from the Reef2Reef community on what you'd like to see done with it. So the community that made this possible can share in its ups and downs. There are going to be some changes from the giveaway equipment list to suit my home, and I'll share those as soon as they are confirmed.

Equipment List from the giveaway:

• Red Sea Tank
• Skimmer
• ATI PowerModule Hybrid Light
• AquaSD Livestock
• MP40 PowerHeads - 2
• Macro's Rocks

Equipment to move from my current second tank:

• Apex Jr (Maybe?)
• RedSea Reef Care System

Decisions to make:

• Return Pump
• Apex Controller Upgrade?
• Lighting mounts
• Sand
• Livestock (Fish and Corals - We'll pick these once we know the exact tank etc)
• Mods

I'm so grateful to this community's leaders, members, and sponsors.

 

[NVTE]

Congrats on winning tank and equipment.
IMO use whatever equipments you have in hand that working for you.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Congrats on the win!! Following to watch this progress!

 

[jasonamyers]

Picked up the Neptune ATK and MPR today along with some Finnex Heaters while they are on sale.

 

[rainmaker]

Congrats on the win glad it went to a fellow mtrc member

 

[jasonamyers]

Picked up a few goodies from my LFS Aquatic Critter today! New Apex and WMX!

Also got in the Finex Heaters and MPR.

 

[rainmaker]

Were they having Good Friday sale at critter today?

 

[jasonamyers]

10% off everything in the store

 

[rainmaker]

Is it all weekend

 

[jasonamyers]

Is it all weekend

Was today only I believe.

 

[jasonamyers]

Yesterday was Awesome! So much new stuff showed up at the house! First, the tank arrived! I didn't have space for the 525 in the giveaway, and I really didn't wanna take down my 425 that just reached the 8th-month mark for the extra foot. (blasphemy I know) Thankfully, the sponsors who provided the giveaways helped me right size everything down to another space I had in my house. So the ultimate giveaway tank is a Red Sea Reefer 250!

I was so excited, I stayed up last night putting it together!

We also got in the light, but I've not figured out how to mount it just yet. (not sure about suspending it from the ceiling)

Pretty sure that light is going to be awesome, I've watched a few videos of them on youtube and they look great. This will be my first T5s please share some any help you can like bulb choices etc. My other tank is lit with Kessil AP700s.
Finally, I got a few more goodies as well including the ATK and ATI power module. I also got the Red Sea Reef Mature program. I used it on the last tank, and I was pretty happy with it.

All that is left to arrive is the powerheads, sand, rocks, and skimmer! I need to figure out what kinda of sand I wanna try in this new tank, so I'm totally open to options there as well.

 

[jasonamyers]

I’m still trying to figure out how to mount the lights; however, today ecotech shipped me a box!!!

Ignore that Radion it was an accident it appears. But my MP40s are here! Just need some rocks and a skimmer!!! So close to getting this bad boy wet!

 

[boozeman27]

Cool! Congrats and following!

 

[jasonamyers]

The wife let me put a few holes in the ceiling and my dad came out and help me hang the light properly today. Our ceiling joists ran pretty much exactly equidistant away from where I wanted them. We put a few cross 2x4 board just above the ceiling dry wall, and between the joists. We screwed those into the joists, and we screwed the ATI mounts through the ceiling into those cross boards. It was quite an adventure. I’m super happy with the results though!

With it mounted, I went ahead and ordered from bulbs for the light as BRS was having their group buy this weekend. I got 4 ATI Blue+, 2 ATI Coral+, 1 ATI Purple+, and 1 ATI True Actinic.

As soon as the skimmer and rocks get here, I’m ready to get some water in this awesome setup!

 

[Dsnakes]

Awesome! Congrats on the lucky ticket as well I had been watching that drawing in anticipation This is going to be an awesome setup. I can't wait to see how that light works for you.

 

[tdileo]

Very nice and congrats!

 

[jasonamyers]

Thank you. I’m excited to put it all together! @revhtree has been so helpful to get everything right sized and matched to the tank. It’s smaller (I needed it to be), but it’s still truly the Ultimate Giveaway tank thanks to all the sponsors and reef2reef staff.

 

[rcmike]

That's awesome! Glad you won it.

 

[jasonamyers]

Started getting things mounted under the cabinet. I used one of prebuilt shelf boards from Home Depot secured it to the stand with 8 Velcro command strips. I had done this same thing on my 425xl a year ago.

Just need rocks and a skimmer and we can get this tank wet!

 

[powers2001]

Lucky dog!!

I have a RSR 250 as well.