Matt's Red Sea Reefer 525xl build.

Candace Summers

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I haven't updated this in a while. Been busy with life:)

My return pump came in Friday. Went with a Sicce Syncra Silent 5.0. Seems very well built and I hope it gives me years of trouble free use.

I plumbed the return pump in with braided vinyl hose and clicker rings(or plastic ratcheting hose clamps if you prefer). Nothing fancy here at all. Just wanted it to work and not leak.
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I also decided to start filling the tank Saturday. 52 hours later and it's full of ro/di water!
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Does your tank have a basement under it? Mine does and I can notice a dip in the floor since filling.
 
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MTBake

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Does your tank have a basement under it? Mine does and I can notice a dip in the floor since filling.

Mine is in the basement;) So, no dip. It's on 8 or more inches of concrete if my memory serves me correctly. I jackhammered the floor like 18 years ago to add a bathroom. I seem to remember 8 inches of concrete while doing that job.

Can you add a support Jack or 2 under your tank? That would help with the dip. Might need to drain some water though to remove pressure from the floor before doing this.
 
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Been a while since I updated this.

Rock has been in for almost 2 weeks now. Added a raw shrimp to get the cycle kick started. Ammonia tested between 1 and 2 ppm. It dropped to 0 faster than I expected. 4 days was all it took. I added another raw shrimp to get the ammonia back up to between 1 and 2ppm. That dropped to 0 within 36 hours. I considered the tank cycled at this point and let it run for a week.

The first fish are in as of yesterday as well. 3 captive bred pajama cardinalfish. They're pretty small. The largest is only about a half inch long. They came from my favorite lfs as well.

I still need to come up with a hanging solution for lights. The ceiling joists run parallel with the front and back panels of the tank. I think I'm going to mount a piece of wood to those joists so I have something solid to mount to. Really didn't think this part through on the beginning. But it'll all work out well in the end.

Today's fts...
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And one of the new fish. They're very small yet. 2 were hiding when the pic was took. All 3 are eating well so far.
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Just got back from the lfs with a new tank mate:)

Yellow eye kole tang. He has been at my lfs for several months now and everytime I'm there, I kept thinking how nice and healthy he was looking. Well, I finally pulled the trigger as they had 15% off all in stock tangs:)

Here's Kelvin the Kole Tang
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I'll post up a couple pics once he's settled into his new home.
 
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Kelvin is in the tank. Already taking some LRS and Rod's foods. I need to get some nori though. Totally didn't even think of that while I was at the lfs. Any other foods I should look into for the kole tang?

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Got a little update today:)

All fish are still doing well. Eating and putting on weight. I might grab a couple test corals this weekend. This tank needs a bit of color. My lfs has some mushroom rocks I've been checking out the past few trips. I might have to grab one;) Along with a duncan coral. Those are one of my favorites:)

I'm still acquiring equipment for this tank as it runs. I got ahold of Adam at Battlecorals to ask about ca reactors. He happened to have one he was looking to sell. I went ahead and told him to send it my way:) I'll have a Deltec pf509 showing up sooner or later. The price was too good to pass up. Just hope it's easy to dial in. I'll post up some pics when it shows up. Going to order the regulator and bubble counter this weekend. I'm going to see what the local Airgas store has as far as bottles go. It'll be a few weeks till I get this all setup and running. Been super busy lately and I still have no coral in the tank.

I need to order a controller as well. Most likely going with Apex.

The tank is also starting to go through the ugly phase. Got diatoms pretty much everywhere. Also have soem.patches of green hair algae and cyano starting. Going to pick up some clean up crew this weekend the help out;)

A few pics;
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I tried to get the fish in the pic but this is right before lights out and they were already in there hiding spots for the night.
 
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The calcium reactor showed up today. Still need everything else to set it up though.

I've also been dealing with a bit of a cloudy water issue. Added some filter floss to the media cups that come with the tank. Should help as it appears to particles floating in the water.

I also have a second xf350 gyre on the way to work with the one I already have. Can't wait for that to show up:)

Ca reactor pics
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Let me know how that goes... I’m debating getting for my 525xl

I will, once it's up and running. Should be all setup within the next 2 weeks if everything goes smoothly. Hopefully sooner. The Deltec skimmer I have has been rock solid and I expect this to be a decent performer as well.
 
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So, I ordered another halide to go with the one I have. It was an open box from BRS. Decent price on it. However, the description was incorrect for the item received. Not thrilled with this. But I think I'm going to keep it so I can try out different bulbs. It was described as a single ended mogul reflector. I got a de hqi instead. Not ideal but I think i can work with this for now.

Description of what I ordered
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Pic of what I got
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LadyTang2

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Is that kp rock in there? Looking nice!

This looks so blue, is it really this blue in person?

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Is that kp rock in there? Looking nice!

This looks so blue, is it really this blue in person?

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That's Marco rocks. I have since added more rock. I'm also redoing the lighting on this tank. Just waiting for my new mh bulbs to show up. I really need to update this thread more often.

Here's some pics with the white balance fixed. Looks more like this in person.

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I finally took down my 40 breeder setup. The clownfish, ymg, and pistol shrimp are in the new tank.

Going to change up the lighting this weekend if time permits. Still working during the shutdown in my state and looks like I'm scheduled for this Sunday.

Here's a pic of the goby and his shrimp buddy acclimating.
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I'll post up some more pics this weekend.
 
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My kole tang chased my goby right out of the tank the day I added them. I got the goby back in the tank in time and all is well now. I added some bucket lids to the top of the tank until I can come up with a solution for jumpers. The goby seemed to favor the corners, so I simply placed bucket lids for the time being. The shrimp and goby are now happy in their new burrow under a large rock.

Most recent fts...
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Nicely done! Congrats first of all.
Did you by any chance get any rocks from the Keys/Gulf of mexico yet?
I was hoping to dive with TBS to get majority of my rock and a seed rock from the Keys.....
 

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Kole tangs are great reef fish. Other than nori and normal fish food, he will eat some of the muck off the glass and rocks. If you don't clean the glass regularly, you'll see mouth prints on the glass.
 

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WHAT'S UP MATT.. ;) :cool: got a few pages to catch up on...:)
BUT.....;Woot:cool:

............................................................
Happy Birthday GIF by Omer Studios
........... Frank ,from cary..:cool:
 
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