ksfulk's Red Sea Reefer 525xL

[ksfulk]

Lucky Duck!
Can't wait to see your new arrivals!

Not going to lie - Im a bit excited about this myself. They're still digging out from the recent storms, so I havent heard anything yet, but Im sure it will be great when it arrives.

Invariably I see folks posting about their Aluminum levels. Does the Triton result there concern you? Although it's higher than your set point, the results still show green. Any suspected source other than just trace from in the salt?

I have no experience in this regard. I just noticed it was higher than your set point so I thought I'd ask.

100% honesty - I dont care about the Al results. I realize that may sound crass, but its truth. I realize there are two strong connections to aluminum levels. 1.) I use a ceramic media that has lots of supporting evidence to suggest it allows Al into the water. So, based on previous experience coupled with the observations of others, I believe I know where the source of the metal is coming from. 2.) Based on experiements by our resident chemist, Dr. Holmes-Farley, high Al levels appear impact only certain corals - specifically leather corals - which I dont keep or plan to keep.

Knowing that, Im not concerned. When I was running my last tank, I had 3-4 MarinePure blocks in the sump and my levels were much higher and I saw no attributable impact. This particular block came from that tank, so Im even less inclined to worry, as some of that metal has already been extracted. Finally - this is only one data point. Its not a trend, its not even a line! I dont know what my Al levels were prior to this test, so I cant really make any reasonable conclusion based on this one test.

From the test, I can conclude that my Li is elevated because I use I/O salt, which has shown to contain and elevate Li levels over time. Im not sure where the deviation in the Barium (Ba) comes from, but its likely a mystery component from the KZ system of blue bottles that I use to manage nutrients in the tank. Nothing else look overtly out of line. You also have to realize that these tests compare your results to the limits and specs that Triton sets, not your own. So while my Calcium (Ca), for example, shows red at 390 mg/l, its only because their setpoint is at 440 mg/l and not at 405mg/l, which is what I target to maintain.

 

[ksfulk]

I pulled the styrofoam between the two 10 gallon observations tanks this evening to see how the wrasses would interact, as they wanted to murder each other when initially introduced. Bad news is that they seems to continue to want to murder one another. With the Mccoskers being so small, I worry that the exquisite and carpenters would hurt each other. I think I need to invest in at least one more wrasse. They get another round of prazi tomorrow - then they should be clear of all little bugs. It would be nice if I could source a C. cf cyanopleura - but Ive not had any luck with mail order and no one here has managed to order the right one yet I did have to talk myself out of picking up a whitecheek tang (Acanthurus japonicus) this weekend - the tank is too small and the tangs are just a bit too messy. It was hard to do, but I did. Might make the rounds this weekend and see if someone has a solon or another moderately tempered fairy wrasse. A rhomboid would be awesome, but I dont think its in the cards. Id love a naoko's wrasse as well, but again... not a likely this time around. Ive been watching Reefwise - another vendor on here - and they have some really nice livestock. Maybe I'll try them - I just dont know.... its such a slippery slope...

 

[TonapahNorth]

100% honesty - I dont care about the Al results.

Yeah that's what I expected. Your tank looks great so I wasn't sure if it mattered. This is one of those areas where, again, there is no particular formula and the results speak for themselves. Thanks for your reply. I am also going to be running the KZ system on my office setup, when I get water in it, which should be Monday.

 

[ksfulk]

Some days.... surprises show up

 

[ksfulk]

Moochers...

 

[Bob Escher]

Third tanks the charm, right?

When I sold my last system I thought I would get out of the big tanks for a while and relearn the appreciation of having a small 30-40 gallon tank. I was tired of all the extra maintenance of the 300+ gallon system and because I was hating the extra work, the results were less than stellar. So, I sold it all. The entire thing walked out of my life on Aug 4th. And here I am, making a new build thread, because my wife said something that made me question her sanity.

"Dont you think it looks kinda... sad... without a fish tank there?"

I'm pretty sure thats why I married her. She may not like the hobby or the financial shenannigans that surround it, but she knows what makes me happy, and she supports that as well. Anyhow, enough fluffy bunny backstory. I hit the forums hard, wanting to find something managable, something that I didnt have to plumb through the walls, and something that was a system I could have success with, but was still something I would have to "learn". The red sea reefer tanks really are slick, and Ive seen enough nice looking ones out there, that when I got the email from BRS saying that I was getting 10x points for any purchases that weekend - BAM! 525xL ordered!

Equipment List:
Tank: Red Sea Reefer 525xL - white
Lighting: *ATI 60" Sunpower 8x80w mostly Giesemann bulbs
Return Pump: Ecotech Vectra M1
Powerheads: *Neptune WAVs
Skimmer: Deltec 1456 DC
Calcium/Alk: BRS 2 part dosed with a *Neptune DOS pump (still debating on getting the DDR)
Nutrient Management System: KZ Zeovit, Vertex RX-Z 1.5 Zeolite Reactor, Vertex RX-U Reactor (Carbon), Starting 4 KZ system (Zeo - Bak, Start, Food & Lites)
Heaters: Finnex 500w digital thermometer & Eheim Jager 300w
Controller: *Neptune Apex Gold (or is it now classic? Whatever).
ATO: *Avast Marine ATO w/ peristalic pump (also picked up a Neptune PMUP and might use that with the Avast Sensors)
Rock: 90lbs of Pukani (been curing for about three months now) and 25lbs of Marco cherryscapes
Sand: 80lbs of Tropic Eden MesoFlakes (might need a little more - we'll see how it looks)
* equipment for previous build

Meanwhile, there was some work to be done in the basement. I wanted to fix the holes in the wall from where I had plumbing running through into the sump room, I wanted to get something better than carpet down for the tank to sit on and I wanted to fix some of the bad outlets that were on those walls. So, here comes a boatload of tools, a fair bit of fear and a tablet with youtube videos loaded on it. A million and a half trips to Home Depot, numerous curse words and a pair of ruined pants later - I had ripped out the old paneling, ripped out the water damaged (some old, some new, some wet and a bit of blue?) and put up new greenboard. I also cut out a section of carpet and laid tile on the cutout for some good foundation for the tank to stand on.

There was a bit of delay on the tank getting to my house, but on Monday, it finally showed up, and I was dang near giddy when it did. I got the stand unloaded (771 lbs on that pallet for anyone wanting to know) and into the basement for assembly. For those that are in Broadfield 's Red Sea Reefer thread, you saw my near heart attack moment on Monday night. I opened the stand boxes (2 boxes) and was perplexed. I ordered (and paid additional) for a white stand, but nearly all of the pieces in the box were black. I opened the other box (cabinet doors) and found all the pieces in that box to be white - I nearly cried because I figured I had been sent wrong box and would have to wait for new ones to arrive before assembling things. Made a quick call to Red Sea (who picked up on the first ring!) and spoke to someone about it. Seems like they have had numerous people want black interiors for their stands, and the new ones (not sure if its the new 525xLs or the new reefers in general) are being made like that to align with customer requests (and also likely to save them some money). Fine. Thats great... not like I planned all of the equipment and stuff to work with a white background :mad::mad::mad:

Anyhow, things are still in the works. I have most of the equipment needed to get this thing up and running, but Im waiting for the glue to dry on my plumbing before getting it all in place. Ihope by this weekend, things are wet and salty, but we'll see how that goes. More fun things to come... like my color scheme and the sump

What is the stand made of? Looking at one and my wife claimed it was fiberboard

 

[ksfulk]

What is the stand made of? Looking at one and my wife claimed it was fiberboard

Its heavier than fiberboard but there are no exposed edges for me to state exactly. The stand is coated in marine grade epoxy and a the edges are sealed as well. I havent drilled holes in it or anything, but there's likely chipboard or ply underneath.

 

[Bob Escher]

Thanks I'll presume that it is very sturdy than? That's my wife's biggest complaint waterbon the floor

 

[ksfulk]

Thanks I'll presume that it is very sturdy than? That's my wife's biggest complaint waterbon the floor

Its pretty sturdy - no shifting or deflection under the weight of the full tank. Mine is on tile over concrete flooring, so its a pretty solid base to begin with. The inside floor is lined in neoprene as well, to help keep the water off of the wood surface. You might get a better answer in the red sea reefer thread - plenty of people there have modded their stands therein and may have the info you're looking for But all in all, I would recommend these tanks and if I had to get another tank, I would likely buy another.

 

[Bob Escher]

Thanks much

 

[ksfulk]

Just got notifications that UPS has some packages awaiting my pickup after work! Should be another order from CherryCorals and another futile attempt to QT a pair of wrasses. Ive got my fingers crossed at this point, just hope this times the charm. I forgot to take a picture of it last night, but in anticipation of the newcomers, I moved the Carpenter's wrasse into the DT in an acclimation box. He seemed to be doing well - my only fear is that the box will come loose from the glass when the noon time flow is cranking through the tank. We'll see what it looks like when I get home. I'll have some more pictures up this evening.

 

[ksfulk]

Acans are in. Four nice multi headed frags - a rainbow, teal and red, purple and white and a great little micromussia that's red and white striped. Dipped them, remounted them and onto the frag rack they went. I also grabbed a nice granulosa frag that's also on the rack.

The carpenters wrasse is loose in the DT, while the exquisite and mccoskers are in the acclimation box to get released later today. I ordered another set of wrasses from LiveAquaria on Thursday and half of that order showed up yesterday. The wrasse (C. rubeus) came in looking good but pretty small (about 1.5"). Acclimated him to the newly vacated QT and waited about an hour before peeking in on him. I tossed a bit of spirulina bribe in the tank, which the little guy took to with a gusto, so I was pretty happy about that. We'll see how things go. The C. cf cyanopleura that didn't come is still listed as in stock on the website, so I'm a little grumpy about that.

I'm going to work on getting the new sump put in today. Plumbing is going to be interesting as the drains and return are on the opposite sides of where the Red Sea plumbing is located. Hopefully I don't botch it up too much.

 

[ksfulk]

Waiting for the plumbing to finish the curing so I can leak test it. Rewiring this is going to be a pain....

 

[ksfulk]

Preliminary leak check says no leaks. Powered up the vectra at 10% to check for major leaks, dumped in some more salt water and watched all of the joints. No issues. Bumped it to 50% with no issues. Let it run for 15 minutes - no leaks. Turned it on full bore - no leaks so far. Dialed in the drains with no issue (so much better than the Red Sea valve). No to paranoidedly check the tank ever ten minutes for the rest of the day!

Old sump:

Removed!

New plumbing:

Running!

 

[bpseal]

Great looking build... I am getting the 425XL next week and was wondering about plumbing sizes... is it all 3/4'' tubing, elbows and valves etc? Is the return at the back of the unit a threaded barb (i.e. thread x slip)? Thanks man!

 

[ksfulk]

Great looking build... I am getting the 425XL next week and was wondering about plumbing sizes... is it all 3/4'' tubing, elbows and valves etc? Is the return at the back of the unit a threaded barb (i.e. thread x slip)? Thanks man!

Unfortunately the answer is both yes and no. The plumbing that comes with the red sea setup is flexible tubing for the pump return to a barbed fitting, the drain pipes are not US standard size piping. The returns and drains are all at the bottom of the tank.

For my initial plumbing, I used a 3/4" threaded fitting wrapped in several (8-10) wraps of teflon tape. I am running a Vectra M1, so the output is 3/4" if you use the blue end caps, so I used all 3/4" plumbing for my manifold and return. For my newly done plumbing, I used 1" PVC, as the flow meters I wanted to use are 1" fittings. You can just use 3/4" -> 1" threaded to slip fitting to plumb the return, but you'll have to get additional fittings in order to plumb the drains with hard piping. I like the 1" piping better that the 3/4" just for the increase in flow throughout the system.

Check out the Red Sea Reefer Show Off thread for complete breakdowns of TONS of peoples tanks and their plumbing if you already havent done so. Lots of great bits to see there

 

[ksfulk]

Took care of some general maintenance today - 20 gallon water change, vacuumed the sand bed and cleaned up the pumps and put the heaters and probes all back into the sump.

Then I went out to the West Michigan coral swap and talked to some friends and looked around at a lot of coral. Didn't see a whole lot that I wanted, and since my frag racks are still pretty full, I only came home with two frags - an ORA Frogskin and a PC Superman. Two more sticks to cross off the list

I also picked up a small cucumber and a tailspot blenny as they were a good price and I haven't managed to source them locally. The cuke looked gross - but that's generally what they look like. The tailspot went into QT with the last set of fish I plan on adding to the tank - assuming they make it through without incident.

Cirrihilabrus rubeus
Cirrihilabrus cf cyanopleura
Cirrihilabrus pylei

I think I'm done tinkering with the sump - as soon as I get my FFM from BRS - which is still on backorder I did replace one of my aquablue azure with a tropic 6500, which I think makes the tank look a little less windex-y with the supplement of the reefbrites.

Pictures!

 

[ksfulk]

 

[ksfulk]

 

[ksfulk]

Not much going on right now - at least anything that's super exciting. I picked up a supplemental cleaning crew from @reefcleaners - which added about 80 snails to my decimated cleanup crew. Leopard wrasses are hard on snails! Mostly sand bed snails this time with 20 or so narssius snails, 30 dwarf ceriths and a few other larger snails. Hopefully they last longer than the last set.

Picked up a frag rack from the Alternative Reef, and was happy to see that the large frag station fit just where I wanted and once it's aged a bit, will look really cool floating on the back wall. I also picked up a pair of Random Flow Generating (RFG) locline nozzles from vivid creative aquatics (thanks @cromag08 for the suggestion!) and have them installed on my return. Pretty cool to see the flow pattern move and I hope that it breaks up the rather linear flow pattern that I had before. I'll post up a real review of them once I've seen them work for a few weeks.

And lastly - I have a battlebox coming tomorrow! I'm super excited to finally get some of @Battlecorals fine sps into my tank. Adam has been great to work with so far and I'm really excited to see what surprises are in my box - though I did ask for a Spainbow, since it's one of the named corals on my list of must haves.

Corals are growing quite a bit. My 2part demand has gone from 12mls a day to over 21mls a day in the past two weeks, and frags are really starting to lay down thick crusts. Once I get this box from Adam I'll be able to glue some more down and determine what kind of real estate I'll have left when it's all said and done. Only coral I've lost so far is an ATL Shades of Fall, and it's because it was dislodged from its rock and it fell into a hole in the pukani rock - never to be seen from again. It's ok though - I think I want a WWC Christmas Mirabilis instead