Manny's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

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Manny’s Reef

Manny’s Reef

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Alright fellow reefers. I'm growing a little impatient now (just a little). The LFS owner hasn't given me any substantive updates. Tuesday of last week he said he was contacting the distributor. I didn't hear back from him. I contacted him today and he alleges he's texted and called with no reply. Says he'll try calling today if he doesn't receive a text by late afternoon. I'm trying not to be pushy. I really like the LFS owner. At the same time, I dropped over $10k at his store on this setup. I guess I kind of expected for him to go out of his way to make sure I get taken care of. Is that a "Karen" mentality?

My rush is this: my wife is expecting a baby. The baby will be here in four weeks and I will not allow the raucous of the LFS guys installing the tank while the wife and baby are recovering. I'd like my tank here before then because if not, then the LFS will have to hang onto it until late January early February. That's how long I predict it will take my wife to recover to a comfortable state.
 
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Manny’s Reef

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So you weren’t able to rearrange any of it? On the videos I’ve seen you were able to rearrange the limbs.
That is correct. The reef tree was modular. There is a rod I used as a base. I placed the four rocks to my own desire. However, the coral tree was/is one single piece. It's already been assembled and there is no rod.
 

ariellemermaid

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Best of luck! We’re building the same system. I wasn’t sure whether I needed to buy 2 return pumps or not. Turns out Red Sea includes fittings for both options but I bought 2 returns so that’s what we’re going with. Next up for us: aquascaping! We went with Marco rocks plus shelf, and some branch rock.

The delivery company in our case brought a semi and couldn’t get up the driveway. So the guy winged it a bit and long story short the sump got smashed in delivery. In our case we went with fishtanksdirect.com and they did drop the ball a bit because Red Sea requested something they missed, but ultimately they got it done and Red Sea sent us a new sump. We also made a late decision to replace the floor in the install location and Lowe’s screwed up the order, but 8 months later we’re finally on the last leg of this!
 
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Best of luck! We’re building the same system. I wasn’t sure whether I needed to buy 2 return pumps or not. Turns out Red Sea includes fittings for both options but I bought 2 returns so that’s what we’re going with. Next up for us: aquascaping! We went with Marco rocks plus shelf, and some branch rock.

The delivery company in our case brought a semi and couldn’t get up the driveway. So the guy winged it a bit and long story short the sump got smashed in delivery. In our case we went with fishtanksdirect.com and they did drop the ball a bit because Red Sea requested something they missed, but ultimately they got it done and Red Sea sent us a new sump. We also made a late decision to replace the floor in the install location and Lowe’s screwed up the order, but 8 months later we’re finally on the last leg of this!
Hey! Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience. I'm glad you redid the floors. With a tank this size, it really is now or never. I replaced mine with tile before the install. Couldn't be happier with it. I completely renovated a sitting room to turn it into a lounge for relaxing.
 
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Manny’s Reef

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The LFS owner texted me a screenshot of his conversation with his distributor. The distributor's reply went along the lines of, "I was flying when you sent me the first message. I forgot to reply. Let's just blame it on the airplane. I'll get Manny's tank shipped out tomorrow." This was yesterday.

Being positive. Sounds like my tank should be on its way soon, if not already.
 
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I've got two of these being made right now. I was quoted 8 week turnaround time. Should make for a really nice water changing setup. The company reached out to me and informed me that my home town actually has a distributor so I don't have to pay shipping.

I placed an order for another DOS, neptune optical sensors, and a couple of solenoids.


It's getting real.
 

ariellemermaid

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I've got two of these being made right now. I was quoted 8 week turnaround time. Should make for a really nice water changing setup. The company reached out to me and informed me that my home town actually has a distributor so I don't have to pay shipping.

I placed an order for another DOS, neptune optical sensors, and a couple of solenoids.


It's getting real.
Nice find; local distribution is key. Wish I’d had time to look into that before I bought 2 more large brutes. Not worth it to me to me to make the change at this point though.

Hopefully everything comes together quickly; at least you have your baby and your wife has hers ;). I will add that the tank install took 2 guys with a hand truck less than an hour while I quickly put the rest of the cabinet together, so I wouldn’t worry too much about crazy hustle and bustle for just getting the tank switched out. I did the plumbing myself in like 20 minutes; even though it was my first time, it just snaps together. So they really shouldn’t have to be in the house very long at all unless you’re having them do aquascaping and filling too.
 
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Nice find; local distribution is key. Wish I’d had time to look into that before I bought 2 more large brutes. Not worth it to me to me to make the change at this point though.

Hopefully everything comes together quickly; at least you have your baby and your wife has hers ;). I will add that the tank install took 2 guys with a hand truck less than an hour while I quickly put the rest of the cabinet together, so I wouldn’t worry too much about crazy hustle and bustle for just getting the tank switched out. I did the plumbing myself in like 20 minutes; even though it was my first time, it just snaps together. So they really shouldn’t have to be in the house very long at all unless you’re having them do aquascaping and filling too.
They're not doing aquascaping but they are bringing and filling with RO water. I wanted it done quick so had them take care of that. I don't like the salt they use so I'll mix the salt myself.
 
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I've got two of these being made right now. I was quoted 8 week turnaround time. Should make for a really nice water changing setup. The company reached out to me and informed me that my home town actually has a distributor so I don't have to pay shipping.

I placed an order for another DOS, neptune optical sensors, and a couple of solenoids.


It's getting real.
Well poop. Plastic molding company contacted me and said they had incorrect container in mind. They were thinking I was after a horizontal bin instead a vertical one. They do not manufacture the vertical one here locally. They sent me a quote to have them shipped from WA. Cost almost as much to ship via freight as the units themselves. However, even at $727 with freight, it is still cheaper than going to my local tractor supply and paying $$760 for two of them. I don't understand why they same units cost so much at tractor supply.

There is another local custom molding place that a fellow R2R member, and a local, told me about. I requested a quote from them yesterday. After I receive the quote, I will go with the cheapest. I placed an order with BRS for a reef octopus varios pump for the mixing station. The black friday deal was a decent deal so I took advantage of the price.
 
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Here are some pictures of the floor job. We went with tile thinking about long term benefits for the tank.
There was a divider between the two living rooms. I took this down considering a peninsula tank with an external fish room. We changed the location of the tank to share a wall with the garage. Here, it will be easier to access the water mixing station, which will share a wall with a bathroom sink. This was simply a better placement.
You can see some of the carnage from the 300 gallon breaking.
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blaxsun

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Good luck with the new tank (and the new addition!) I've had a new Red sea 750XXL running for about 7 months, so if you ever want to pick my brain - just drop me a PM. If you're looking for a controller cabinet I recommend Adaptive Reef.
 
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This first living room is going to be more of a lounge. I ordered some furniture to match the quality of the fish tank hoping that anyone who visits can find the lounge every soothing.

CE4E7566-D585-4FAC-B467-2615E6354CBC.jpeg
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I’ve got some assembling to do with these sofas. You can’t help but love the smell of fresh leather.
 
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Good luck with the new tank (and the new addition!) I've had a new Red sea 750XXL running for about 7 months, so if you ever want to pick my brain - just drop me a PM. If you're looking for a controller cabinet I recommend Adaptive Reef.
Thank you. I may have to pick your brain in the future. And I agree with the adaptive reef recommendation. I actually already purchased one for this build.
 

ariellemermaid

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Good luck with the new tank (and the new addition!) I've had a new Red sea 750XXL running for about 7 months, so if you ever want to pick my brain - just drop me a PM. If you're looking for a controller cabinet I recommend Adaptive Reef.
Nice recommendation! Definitely a clean solution especially dealing with the cords. I decided to cut the tank’s crate up and just got done with that this afternoon. So I’ll have boards on the left and right to screw stuff onto and keep the back completely open. Then cable ties to keep everything neat.

Not as sleek, but it’ll give me twice the mounting space for just $5 in paint. Looking at that board now, I guess I could cut a few more strips a few inches wide and mount those on the back. I’ll have to think about that.
 

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There is a lot of good wood with the crate to do just that. I did want to drill any hokes into the stand which is why I opted for the cabinet.

Command strips and velcro ties make it way easier with cable management.
 

piranhaman00

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Can’t believe people still buy these with all the failures! Good luck :)
 

ariellemermaid

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Can’t believe people still buy these with all the failures! Good luck :)
Well you’re being a bit of a wet blanket on a new build thread. You mean the tank itself? I know there have been issues with the cabinet buckling in the middle but that was supposed to be fixed with the brace. This tank is currently on version 3 and personally I take it as a good sign that Red Sea has continually improved it over time.

There is a lot of good wood with the crate to do just that. I did want to drill any hokes into the stand which is why I opted for the cabinet.

Command strips and velcro ties make it way easier with cable management.
I was ok with 4 screws on each side to hold the board, but now I’m planning to build in a space with sawed off cabinet pieces. How does the adaptive reef piece get secured in the cabinet? I’m thinking to just use furniture straps designed to prevent kids from pulling bookcases etc. onto themselves. That way just a few small screws and as a plus, the whole box can super easily be removed for major hardware changes.
 

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The controller cabinet just slides in (I placed some 1.5” felt coasters under the bottom in the corners to make it smoother). I believe the controller board can just mount to the side with screws or left to stand on it’s own.
 

Kayanarka

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Why not make the RO yourself? With that big white storage tank your getting it be easy to let it run half a day for two or three days. I would not trust someone else's RO for that quantity, I would want some fresh filters.

I would also suggest not mixing the salt I side the tank. It can be hard to dissolve it all that way and you could end up with pockets of salt all over.

Finally I would fill the tank with tap water or your RO waste water for leak checking before filling with your final salt water, just incase you have a leak that requires draining, and also to wash away any last bit of manufacturing and shipping chemicals.

Sorry if I am overstepping here, I think you may have been doing this longer then me, these are just the thoughts I had when you said LFS was bringing RO water.

Full disclosure my first tank was filled with the saltwater from the LFS that had been in it for years already. My second tank I filled myself with homemade RO/DI mixed with salt in 5 gallon buckets, heated and aerated for 24 hours.
 

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