Mike's Red Sea Reefer 525 XL build

[mta_morrow]

Hello all. I have my new tank arriving in a day or 2 so since I am snowed in, in our new home in Bluffton / Hilton Head today, I figured I might as well get this started. I started my 1st tank, an IM30L in Oct of 2015. In Nov of 17 I shut it down to make this move for my job. pic before shut down is below.

Now I have an entire room in the house dedicated to this build an I am stoked! Fortunately I have a wife of 26 years who enjoys the" looking at it" part of the hobby!
I will start off with a list of equipment I either already have and will reuse or what I have recently purchased.

RSR 525 XL - black
2 Maxspect XF250 gyre w controller and battery backup
Jebao DCS9000 and battery backup
Aqualink T1
vividcreativeaquatics ultimate return, Y with 3/4" random flow nozzles nozzles
reefcleaner rock 80lb
aquamax tonga shelf 50lb
aquamax rubble rock 10lb
ADJ PC-100A power strip
Kleen water 200 gpd upgrade kit for RODI
Aquatic life booster pump
Aquamaxx coneS C0-1,
AquaMaxx FR-M internal reactor
IM desktop reactor used for rowaphos
Tunze care magnet 0220.020
via aqua 500w titanium heater
via aqua 200w titanium heater
Carib sea dry aragonite special grade sand 80lb
Tunze ATO
Seneye
Skimz macro algae reactor MBR 127 (converted to a scrubber/reactor)
maxspect razorX 300 watt with ICV6
Octo Aquatics adjustable skimmer stand and heater holder

Current stock list:
1 tailspot blenny
2 captive bred oscellaris clowns
3 blue chromis
2 wheelers gobies w pistol
3 azure damsels
1 purple firefish
3 zebra barred dartfish
2 red striped cardinals
1 pink spot goby
1 royal gramma
1 coral beauty
1 melanarus wrasse
1 flametail blenny
1 tomini tang
1 male blue throat trigger
1 diamond spot goby
Inverts:
2 RBTA
3 rock flower nems
1 Long Tentacle Anemone
1 H Magnifica anemone
6” deresa clam
1 skunk cleaner
nerite snails
nassarius snails
cerith snails
dwarf cerith snails
blue legged hermits
red legged hermits
2 Pistol shrimp
1 anemone crab
1 purple short spines urchin
1 tiger conch
6 porcelain crabs

Please feel free to make any comments or suggestions, or ask me why I chose what I did.

Pics and more to come very shortly from my phone. Its way to easy to use tapatalk for that!

Prior tank I had up and running for 2 years.
This was my 1st ever tank, an IM30L

 

[kevyg]

Beautiful tank, can't wait to see what you can do with the new setup!

 

[mta_morrow]

Since I have moved to an area where power outages and hurricanes happen, I used 285,000 Marriott Rewards points to get this:

I still have to do some final assembly, but at least it’s here. I was pretty happy to find out that this house is already setup for a whole house generator. Flip a switch, plug it in, and it will power up the main panel through a whole house surge protector as well.

 

[mta_morrow]

Beautiful tank, can't wait to see what you can do with the new setup!

Thanks kevyg!

 

[mta_morrow]

When I shut down my tank I sold all my fish and rose bubble to one person. They all got along so well for 2 years. I had a rose bubble that hosted my OC, a 3 1/2” royal gramma, a flametail blenny, and a purple firefish.

I was also fortunate to have a friend from my local reef club come to my house and take my corals and mini maxi to his home and keep them for me until this tank is up and ready. In return for his efforts I’m going to pay his gas for him and his wife to come down to HH and bring my corals. Free room and board and all the fresh seafood they can eat!

 

[mta_morrow]

Here is where the new tank is going to be setup. I have my empty IM30L sitting there now. I still have to get 2, 20amp GFI circuits installed for the new setup. Hope to get this done soon!

 

[mta_morrow]

50lbs tonga plate and 10lbs of rubble (branch, plate, and rock) still cookin!

50lbs of reefcleaners rock. 30lb more coming tomorrow.

I bought more rock than I will need. I wanted to have plenty of good pieces to work with. The rest will go in the sump for a refugium.

 

[mta_morrow]

I scored this huge barnacle cluster at a beach shop a couple weeks ago. I’m planning on using it to cover the overflow box. I hope it works out and looks good!

 

[mta_morrow]

This is Eli. He will be my #1 fan and helper throughout this build!

 

[mta_morrow]

This will be my fish and coral “stuff” storage closet. It’s about 2 1/2 ft from where the left side of the tank will be. I removed 2 shelves and move 1 of them up to make room for a small storage rack and a 32 gallon brute that I will use for my RODI Top off via my Tunze ATO.

 

[chefjpaul]

Nice.
Looking forward to this build

 

[revhtree]

Congrats!

 

[mta_morrow]

Current mixing station. Temporary of course!

 

[Lazys Coral House]

This is going to be awesme! Subscribed

 

[goatcorals]

A great start. Who needs Marriott points when you can have a generator! Following.

 

[kellyj]

Following along. Brings back good memories of when I started out. Not sure how much help Eli is going to be, he looks pretty lazy to me.

 

[mta_morrow]

This is going to be awesme! Subscribed

A great start. Who needs Marriott points when you can have a generator! Following.

Following along. Brings back good memories of when I started out. Not sure how much help Eli is going to be, he looks pretty lazy to me.

Awesome to wake up, be snowed in, in Hilton head, and see 3 of my OHIO REEF friends!

Thanks for tagging along guys, this is gonna be fun!

 

[mta_morrow]

Here is 50lbs of Aquamaxx Tonga shelf, and 10 lbs of Aquamaxx rubble (branch, shelf, and rock mix). The rubble is in the upper right.

 

[mta_morrow]

And 50 lbs of reefcleaners rock up front. 30 more lbs coming tomorrow.

 

[mta_morrow]

I decided to buy more rock than needed in order to have lots of good pieces to choose from. And since I will be using a skimmer and algae scrubber for nutrient export, I will use what’s left of the sump for a refugium and put some of the leftover rock in there.