Jared's Redsea reefer 240 build

[Jaredtexas]

Hello everyone! starting the build of the 240, received the aquarium yesterday... long story short i noticed i slight ding in the crate but after taking the crate apart i didn't even notice the picture below. It had some stiff cardboard and Styrofoam around the bottom so it hid it well. I guess i was looking for a large crack originally. Long story short i put the stand together like it said then when it was time for the tank, we suctioned cupped her up and moved her into the house and right before we put it on the tank that's when one of my friends noticed the chip.

I am going to let bulk reef supply and red sea know today but hopefully it wont take long to get a replacement.. shoot i am tempted just to repair it myself to not have to deal with it but i know that's not the smartest idea.

enough of the sad stuff

here is the build list

REEFER 3XL 900
3 ecotech g5 pro lights
2 vectra L2 return pumps
2 ecotech MP60
TUNZE auto top off
Apex controller
Regal 300SSS 12" Space Saving Protein Skimmer
7 Stage PRO Plus 200 GPD Water Saver RO/DI System
H160 Tuna Flora LED Algae Grow Light for refugium
Marco dry rock and aqua cultured live rock.

I have Aragonite Special Grade Dry Sand but this is an SPS dominant system so i am trying to convince myself to use it... I see a ton of successful sps keepers with a shallow sand bed these days and i know the wife would love it but.... i am still at a loss on what to do.

Well that's my first update i hope you guys enjoy the ride.

-Jared

 

[Reefer58]

Hello! I’m sorry about the tank but hopefully it won’t take long for the new replacement . Keep us posted!

 

[Jaredtexas]

Update # 2

So redsea was on top of the game and since we live so close to the place they ship the aquariums from we received a replacement within two days! how's that for customer service?

Put everything together per instructions... this threw me for a loop. So there is two returns pipes in the overflow and two drains with one being shorter than the other which gets a much larger diameter pipe around it for a silent operation i am assuming. Well i put it together how the diagram showed but what I didn't realize is they switched the view on me only one time during the entire instructions lol... so i had the two drains backwards, which is important because the correct drain has to be connected to the valve in the sump to control overflow height.

What happened was the drain was super loud and the valve was not controlling anything. I looked at the instructions and realized the blow out of the drawing switched from front view to back view and all i had to do was switch the pipes! easy right? NO. All four pipes in the back actually go completely through the bulkhead instead of just sticking in the bulkhead like normal. Well I forgot that little detail and had to drain the overflow in order to get a good grip on the short pipe to actually unscrew it.... for the love of god i unscrewed it and water poured all into the cabinet instead of down the drain like i figured it would.

so 10 gallons on the floor later and numerous towels, i got those switched and it worked perfect. To the engineer who designed that...… I am not mad you did that i am mad you didn't at least put those pipes over the sump to catch the water... which would be a smart idea if something came loose in general.

Aquascape

I spent a solid 2 hours on this and decided to go with a very minimal look with two separate islands. One which stretches past halfway in the tank and one that is more bolder like and i kept them short so that sps has a lot of room to grow. Seems like we have realized it is not necessary to put liverock all the way up into the water column so i am trying a new approach.

I loved the way it turned out and am very excited to see how it looks in a few years. This is what's so great being in a forum to be able to go back and look. Maybe tank of the month one day, my goals are set very high with this tank.

Ecotech

I Absolutely love how far the xr30 has come and i love the new to me quiet drive pumps. I have two MP60's on this tank and they are just monsters. The ecotech L2 return pumps are really cool and having all this technology into one app and everything working together is just so cool. Now if you guys could get your dosing pumps back in stock i would be forever grateful.

Apex

I love to some extent how far the apex has come in terms of functionality and app design but the quality of everything to be frank is pretty garbage. I hope this unit last awhile but reading the reviews on the energy bars i do not have a lot of faith in this product.. I hope I get lucky but time will tell.

Why on earth Ecotech has not made a controller i am not sure because they would kill it.

Final Thoughts

So i put some live rock from an established system and seeded some coralline algae and a couple bottles of turbo start and we are getting up and running! I turned the protein skimmer off which was recommended. Did anyone else do this for the full four days it recommends? Seems like a hot minute to be without a skimmer. I thought that bacteria were hydrophilic via there cellular membrane which in theory should make them immune to skimming?

since I added the turbo start and live rock from an established system we purchased a few fish and the food and organic matter breaking down is all I am really worried about at this point.

happy reefing

-Jared

 

[Susan Edwards]

Love your set up. I have the exact same tank, started in October as well. Looking forward to seeing you progress. You can add pics at full size. Makes it easier for us to see

 

[Jaredtexas]

Tanks doing amazing! Sps frags are growing great, I am going to get some new tank shots as the reef is now about 4 months old. Here is a shot from the side of the aquarium this morning.
Where did the water go? : )

 

[Jaredtexas]

I like to take picture of the corals to see there growth rate in a month or so and today I was photo bombed by a purple tang who thinks he always starving

 

[mstgkillr]

Any chance you could post pictures of your return pumps? I assume they both fit... I am trying decide between two M2s or two L2s. What speed are you running the L2s at?