Intro and Build All In One Red Sea 650

[dkelley]

Holla! My name is Dave, I reside in Arizona and not only am I new around here but new to this hobby all together.

I‘m in this because my 16 year old son decided this was something he wanted to do. I’ve been pretty hands off until he needed some help. I had fresh water tanks all growing up but having had anything in probably 30 years. I’ve always wanted a salt water tank but they aren’t easy so I never tried. Well, I’ve been on this forum a ton reading through things in order to oversee things are going as planned. He’s been a good steward and only has a pair of clown fish in the 75g tank. He’s hit his bumps so far but his budget is pretty low so he’s going slow.

with all of that said, my wife takes him down to the LFS (<— it’s almost like I know what I’m talking about or belong here or something) and they had a tank there running with fish and corral in it with a sign on it that said Red Sea Reefer Peninsula 650 $500. Needless to say my wife regrets sending me a pic. I drove down and the shop is going to tear it down and replace it with the G2. Apparently Red Sea wants them to run G2 tanks.

I plunk down my $500 bucks and that’s history, like a few days ago history. The tank is still up and running at the shop. I think they are tearing it down next week.

So that’s where I stand at the moment. Honestly nothing exciting and I don’t even have a plan yet other than where it will live. I was going to build out the reef-pi setup I found on here because I’m in IT and have some experience but after looking at used prices I think I’m just going to go with the Apex system used. I grabbed an IceCap K1 skimmer off the used table while I was there and a clearance IceCap Gyre 2K and controller. I’ll add another 2K to it. That’s it. I’ll probably do a Reefmat and some Chaeto in a refuge.

Fish are a side note, I like tangs a lot, actually I like a lot of things but super interested in polyps/LPS so that’s the high point for me. The wife too and let’s face it, she has to enjoy it to I suppose.

With that said this will be a slow build. Very slow. I’ll order 125lbs of rock and try to build a couple awesome acquascapes like the dude from the BRS videos So that will take a bit. Also I’ll start shopping the sale threads for pieces of the system, I plan to automate everything I can from the start to make my life easy. Auto water changes, ATO, DOS, Trident, etc. so who know when the real build will happen but there will be small updates along the way. I’m probably going to do a 2-3 month fish free cycle as well so there will be a gap coming up after I attempt the rock builds.

Overall I’m in zero hurry, didn’t even plan to buy this at the moment but I’m excited.

 

[Fish_wiz2]

Incredible jump start to you and your sons new hobby! You're going to love a peninsula tank.

My one advice is if the LFS is an authorized red sea dealer, to get a new o-ring kit for the plumbing. I have moved 2 used red sea reefers and the o-rings have given out both times. This is so common my LFS that is a red sea dealer carries them, even they have experienced the same issue.

 

[death-by-reef]

Nice man!! GL

 

[dkelley]

Incredible jump start to you and your sons new hobby! You're going to love a peninsula tank.

My one advice is if the LFS is an authorized red sea dealer, to get a new o-ring kit for the plumbing. I have moved 2 used red sea reefers and the o-rings have given out both times. This is so common my LFS that is a red sea dealer carries them, even they have experienced the same issue.

Thanks! I will 100% but an O-ring kit before I assemble it at home.

 

[dkelley]

Probably time I give an update on this.

Like I said earlier this will be a slow build for a couple of reasons. First, I'm going on vacation at the end of May and I don't want to leave the new livestock with our house sitter this early. It's my second vacation of the year and I won't have another until next January so I'll have a good amount of time to get this tank established.

The other reason is, I'm still trying to figure out my plan. Well, I might actually have it figured out now, mostly.

I plan to attempt to get to an ULM (ultra low maintenance) tank. So I will automate everything I possibly can. I plan to setup daily 2g water changes on the thing and mix up 15 gallons a week in a 15g barrel I have that will hide nicely next to the tank and not be seen. I'll dos what is needed based on testing and time with more testing. I also am not planning to have SPS in the tank. I won't say that there never will be but there are plenty of softy and LPS that I like a lot so that should keep me busy for the first couple years.

So the progress so far is this:

Tank is in the house from the LFS and I spent the entire weekend last weekend cleaning it and setting up a second RODI system close to this tank where I can fill/drain this on the daily water changes. I also changed all six hinges on the cabinet due to rust. It's ready to go!

Yesterday I received 130lbs of Marco rock and spent last night building out an aquascape with loads of flat areas for coral and some islands for the invasive types I want to keep. I'm not with this, I will do more this evening and when complete I will mortar the whole thing together for a permanent setup.

I purchased an Apex El used and the ATK kit from the same guy. I also have two Neptune Dos that will assist with daily chores. My LFS had an Icecap 2K Gyre on clearance which I purchased and on this site I purchased a 4K with controller so now I have two Icecap Gyres and two controllers. I plan to add two more Gyres.

Right now:

Immediately I will work on the aquascape. I imagine it will be complete by the end of the weekend. One I put that in the tank I currently have 80lbs of Caribs Open direct sand I will lay out and start filling the tank.

I am planning to give Dr. Tim's a shot for cycling but it's pretty spendy for a tank my size so maybe I'll hit up an LFS and do something out of one of the fridges. My son used something like that (fritz maybe?) and it worked well. I can just ghost feed or dos ammonia as we go. I don't plan to cycle with a fish and I plan for the cycle to be a few months long. It should be more than ready when I return from vacation. I'll also not run any lights on the tank during the cycle, maybe even longer because I haven't figured out what lights I want yet and the fish should be fine with ambient light, lots of natural light in that room. I will also cover the tank sides with Kraft paper for the three months. No light means no algae so here's to hoping!

The Future:

The master plan for me ultimately will be a Reefmat 1200 from Red Sea, I already have a large Icecap Skimmer, a refigium with Chaeto (pods, lot and lots of pods), a UV and that's it. Hopefully that'll be enough to keep this tank happy with proper dosing and a couple gallons of water changes a day.

All of those things above will be introduced at different times, I want a self sustaining pod population int he tank so the refugium and pods will be introduced roughly when the first livestock go in. Then I'll let that be the only filtration for awhile, add in the filter roller maybe close tot he same time for detritus/big stuff. Then just keep adding fish over time so the beneficial bacteria has a chance to catch up, I'll add more.

Fish List:

Feel free to chime in here because I haven't settled on a fish list at all. I really wanted a Nash Tang but it doesn't look like that's healthy in a 140 tank.

I think I want a goby/pistol shrimp pair because that's just kind of cool.
Mandarin Goby (should have more pods than he/she can handle by a long shot.
Hippo Tang
Foxface
......maybe some of the safer angels???
Clowns because


That's it for now. I am extremely happy to take advice or to be sent on researching some or all of my current decisions. I'll keep adding as things progress.

 

[dkelley]

New stuff for the tank and it's coming along nicely!

The tank is full right now and the aqua scape is sitting in there nicely. I didn't make it to tall because I have my hopes set on a couple tangs that could use the fire space above. There's still 30% of the tank left above the rocks. I think that was a good amount. the sand still needs to be smoothed out a bit more as well but I will do the finishing touches soon enough.

I have also added in the Reefmat 1200 and all of the fun electronics I picked up used on this forum. I'm actually trying to fully automate on a budget so mostly used but a used Reefmat is difficult to come by so I just purchased it so I could figure out the sump layout for the refugium. I will add the roll at a later date when fish enter the tank.

For the electronics, I still have a bit more I need to add and I need to mount the losers on the sides of the cabinet. One loser will dose a two part while the other one will handle the daily auto water changes.

That's it for now, I will start my cycle but again, I won't put any fish in until after a vacation I have planned in May. I will get the refugium started with copepods before the vacation and hopefully a nice colony of copepods will get established for the long run on there with no fish around to eat them for a couple months.

I'll add more as things progress.

 

[SPR1968]

Very nice, I love the aquascape design!

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Congrats and welcome! We’re in Arizona as well. Good number of fish stores here, like Kona Reef (photo above) great stores. Looking forward to the progress.

 

[dkelley]

Very nice, I love the aquascape design!

Thank you!

 

[dkelley]

Congrats and welcome! We’re in Arizona as well. Good number of fish stores here, like Kona Reef (photo above) great stores. Looking forward to the progress.

The wife, son, and I have been traveling around looking at the various east side stores. So far I do like my local Kona, but also like LE Corals and AZ Reef Monster a lot. We’ve been to lots of them, it’s surprising how many are available really.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

The wife, son, and I have been traveling around looking at the various east side stores. So far I do like my local Kona, but also like LE Corals and AZ Reef Monster a lot. We’ve been to lots of them, it’s surprising how many are available really.

Agreed! LE Corals is my go-to. Never a shortage of coral frags. Both them and Monsters keep pristine conditions. The way I like to keep my tank.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

New stuff for the tank and it's coming along nicely!

The tank is full right now and the aqua scape is sitting in there nicely. I didn't make it to tall because I have my hopes set on a couple tangs that could use the fire space above. There's still 30% of the tank left above the rocks. I think that was a good amount. the sand still needs to be smoothed out a bit more as well but I will do the finishing touches soon enough.

I have also added in the Reefmat 1200 and all of the fun electronics I picked up used on this forum. I'm actually trying to fully automate on a budget so mostly used but a used Reefmat is difficult to come by so I just purchased it so I could figure out the sump layout for the refugium. I will add the roll at a later date when fish enter the tank.

For the electronics, I still have a bit more I need to add and I need to mount the losers on the sides of the cabinet. One loser will dose a two part while the other one will handle the daily auto water changes.

That's it for now, I will start my cycle but again, I won't put any fish in until after a vacation I have planned in May. I will get the refugium started with copepods before the vacation and hopefully a nice colony of copepods will get established for the long run on there with no fish around to eat them for a couple months.

I'll add more as things progress.

Love the way your tank looks!!

 

[dkelley]

Love the way your tank looks!!

Thank you! It's a work in progress.

 

[dkelley]

Update, the tank is cycling now. I threw in about $85 Wirth of Dr. Tim's One and Only last Tuesday and some of the Dr Tim's amonia and the amonia reading is still pretty high, no change in 6 days. I figured it would have done something by now. Hopefully it does. I should have went with Fritz, I've used it in the [ast on my kids 75g tank and my little Coral QT tank and it was super fast. Dr. Tim's says it should take about 10 days so I guess we will see what happens in the next four days. I'm not confident it'll change.

I'm not loading this tank up anytime soon so it's not a huge deal however, I do want to throw cheat and pods in so they can build a colony out for a few months all on their own. That should result in a giant sustainable colony in the refugium and main display rocks.

 

[Real McCoy]

I wanted to know how that tank was going.I also am in Chandler. I would love to connect and brainstorm.

 

[dkelley]

This tank is actually gone. It sprung a big leak last week like many of the Red Sea tanks do so it has been replaced.

The new tank is a smaller zero edge tank.

 

[Real McCoy]

This tank is actually gone. It sprung a big leak last week like many of the Red Sea tanks do so it has been replaced.

The new tank is a smaller zero edge tank.

Uhhh, did you get it from only fins in Chandler? I was curious as to why so cheap. I have a 300xl complete system for sale.1.5 year old. No issues at all. I heard the 750 were notorious for it. I'm hoping to sell locally so whoever purchases it can still keep in touch with me for the warranty. I just ordered an 850g2 from Kona. I also have 2 Reefwaves 45 for sale. I know Red Sea puts a bad taste in your mouth but if interested you can look at mine. Thanks for responding. I may have to remove a med sailfin if your interested as well.