My First Red Sea Reefer Build XXL 625

[Shanel]

Setup my Shrimp Tank on the left stand and a biocube 16 on the right stand. Installed 2 battery backups in-between the side cabinets and the main cabinet. Installed 2 120v outlets to power the backups. Installed an apex jr on the shrimp tank and put some temporary lighting to start growing nannochloropsis. Added a uv light, protein skimmer, intank media box and refugium light to the biocube. Bought 34lb deco rock for the biocube. Going to cement rocks together later and whatever is left is going into my xxl 625 sump.

 

[DiefsReef]

Wow this tank setup is awesome. Very clean and well thought out.

 

[Shanel]

Here are the latest updates to the biocube. Made the reef into one piece. Used Florida Deco Rock and Life Rock. Glued them together with AquaMaxx Reef Welder. In the tank I put, Purple Back Pseudochromis he's a little terror. He has calmed down some since he was put in the tank. I put a Green Clown Goby and a Neon Goby in as well. They seem to do well. All 3 fish come out to eat at the same time and get all excited when they see the feeding tube. I have a few blue leg hermit crabs, Scarlett hermit crabs and a large orange and emerald leg hermit crab. I put a few cerith snails and nassarius snails. I had a Mexican Turbo Snail but the big hermit ate it.

 

[Shanel]

Here's the update on the Reefer. I added 5 Blue-Green Chromis but one died. 2 Purple Firefish, Red Firefish, Green Clown Goby, Sixline Wrasse, 1 more Ocellaris Clownfish, 2 Hi Fin Red Banded Goby, 1 (Aurora) Orange Banded Goby, Neon Goby, 4 PJ Cardinals, 2 Green Pistol Shrimp & 1 Randalls Pistol Shrimp. I haven't seen 2 of the Red Firefish or the 2 Red Fairy Wrasse i put in the tank. Hopefully they are just hiding. Started getting coral in this week. I have 2 more orders coming but this is what I have so far.

 

[Shanel]

I have added a cleaner wrasse, royal gramma and 2 Banggai cardinalfish. I haven't seen 2 of the Red Firefish or the 2 Red Fairy Wrasse so I think they didn't make it. The cleaner wrasse is always dancing around and when you come up to the tank it likes to come right up to the glass where you are. The six-line seems happy he's always doing laps around the rock work. He didn't like the cleaner wrasse at first but now he leaves him alone. The royal gramma seems shy still hiding under the rock work and just poking his head out to feed. The aurora Goby actually jumped out through the opening where the afs is located. Thankfully I heard the splashing and found him on the net. Put him back in right away. Hopefully he doesn't do that again. Went a little crazy with buying coral. Started placing coral on the rock work. This weekend I will be doing the same. Going to split some to start growing them on frag plugs. Here a list of what have.

Zoas / Palys
• Scrambled Eggs
• Mandarin
• Mandarin
• Mandarin
• Orange Oxide
• Blonde Blue Eyed *******
• Dragon Eyes
• Yoda
• Red People Eater
• My Clementine
• Captain Jerks
• Cat's Eye
• Gatorade
• Blondies
• Purple Rain
• Rasta & Jason Fox Tiger Combo
• Jason Fox Tiger
• Blue Magic
• Captain America & Gatorade Combo
• Devil's Armor & Not Sure Combo
• Mean Green
• Firefly
• Red Bull
• Bubblegum Pinks
• Eagle Eye
• Green Bay Packers
• Metallic Pinks
• Pinwheel
• Watermelon
• Lightning Bug
• Cornbred's Rainbow Hornet
• Cornbred's Paradise
• Cornbred's Superman
• Cornbred's Punk Rocker
• Cornbred's Blanka
• Cornbred's Flaming Bam Bam
• Cornbred's Lemon Head
• Cornbred's Limeade
• Cornbred's Blonde Hair Blue Eyed *****
• Red Zoanthid Colony
• Watermelon & Radioactive Zoanthid Colony
• Golden Eye / Green Lash Watermelon Colony
• Radioactive Dragon / Yellow Lash Watermelon Colony
• Cartoons Colony
• Mohican Sun Zoa Polyp Colony
• Orange Face Zoa Colony
• Miami Hurricane Zoa Colony
• Fruit Loops
• Ring of Fire
• Rastafarian
• Angel Eyes
• Utter Chaos
• Cornbred Rainbow Infusion
• LA Lakers
• Armor of God
• Blonde Blue Eyed *******
• Candy Apple Reds
• Blue Hornets
• Solar Flare
• Zombie Eye
• Xmen Palythoa Mini Colony
• Golden Eye Zoanthids
• Radioactive Rainbow Eyes, Dragon Eyes & Blue Eye Girls Colony
• WWC Bob Marley Mini Colony
• Kedd Red Mini Colony
• Cornbred Punk Rocker Mini Colony
• Armageddon Mini Colony
• Ice Fire Mini Colony
• Super Saiyan Mini Colony
• Xtreme Reef Ice Man Mini Colony
• Fruit Loop Mini Colony
• Cornbred's Green Bay Packers Mini Colony

Leptoseris
• Jack O Lantern Lepto
• Klepto Lepto

Cyphastrea
• Meteorite Cyphastrea
• Jason Fox Bling Bling Cyphastrea

Misc Polyps
• Fireworks Clove Polyps
• Green Star Polyp
• Branching Green Star Polyp

Psammocora
• Yellow Sun Psammocora

Mushrooms
• Flame Rhodactis Mushroom
• Superman Rhodactis Mushroom
• Orange Mushroom
• Citrus Rhodactis Mushroom
• Red Spot Discosoma Mushroom
• Burning Picasso Mushroom
• Superman Rhodactis Mushroom
• Cornbred's Sun Beam Mushroom
• Cornbred's Mahalo Rainbow Mushroom
• Cornbred's Candy Crush Mushroom
• Gold and Yellow Rhodactis Mushroom
• Ricordea Mushroom
• Jokers Hairy Mushroom
• Golden Gonzalez
• Red Deadpool

Acropora
• RRC Pink Cadillac Acropora
• Rommels watermelon Acropora
• Pink Goblin Tabling Acropora
• Cornbred's Rainbow Passion Aka Walt Disney
• Purple Acropora?

Acan
• Candy Cane Acan
• Grapelicious Acan
• Ruby Micromussa
• Dark Matter Micro Lord
• Miami Sunset Micro Lord
• Rainbow Micro Lord
• Grape Ape Micro Lord
• Rainbow Acan
• Green Stripe Acan
• Green Acan
• Purple & Gold Acan
• Rainbow Ultra Acan
• Rainbow Skittles Acan
• Cotton Candy Ultra Acan
• Green Eye Ultra Acan
• Red Acan
• Teal & Gold Acan
• Ultra Welsoni Acan Colony
• Pink Acan Colony
• Mean Green Acan Colony
• Bubblegum Colony
• Red Mix Colony
• Teal Stripe Colony
• Gold & Teal Acan
• Ultra Gold Stripe Acan
• Purple Rainbow Acan Colony

Chalice
• DR Evil Chalice
• Pink Eye Blue Chalice
• Blue Raspberry Chalice

Montipora
• Superman Encrusting Montipora
• Cornbred's Cherry Tree Montipora
• Tyree Sunset Montipora
• Tyree Mystic Sunset Montipora
• Reef Raft Tropic Thunder Montipora
• Montipora Brown/Yellow Dots ?

Favia
• Cornbred's Free Fall Favia
• Tyree Favia Speciosa
• Spicy Lemon Favia
• Yellow/Green & Black Favia
• Mixed Red War Coral

Brain Coral
• Red And Lime Maze Brain
• Purple/Green Ultra Maze Brain

Echinata
• Ahhhmazing Echinata
• Cornbred's Northern Lights Echinata

Digitata
• Forrest Fire Digitata
• Firestorm Digitata ?
• blue with yellow polyp Digitata ?

Stylocoeniella
• Burning Banana Stylocoeniella
• Green Goblin Stylocoeniella

 

[Shanel]

Added a few more frags to the reef. Still more to go.

 

[fishguy242]

JUST WOW..all that high tec,filtration system,really going to show..
All them corals..just going to multiply and grow like weeds..
Beautiful collection!!!...

 

[Shanel]

Thanks, one of the mushrooms dislodged from the rock and went rouge. Hope I can fine him.

 

[fishguy242]

eh..new colony...

 

[ajtomase]

I'm super excited about this build. The Red Sea Reefer XXL 625. Tried to track all the progress as best as I could.

Day 1:
Modifying the filter
It's an AquaMaxx AF-1 Automatic Filter Roller. First thing is the 4 rods that hold it together are extremely brittle. There are some thicker rods they sent me after the first ones broke. I found the filter leaks between the seams. To counteract this I siliconed all the pieces together. After that I replaced the inlet fitting with a 1in bulkhead fitting. I took an inlet screen and super glued a piece of plastic to the end. I found just having it open as it comes from the factory, it blows the paper on the bottom up and then unfiltered water goes around the paper. I had to cut the ends of the nut on the bulkhead fitting so the paper guides could be removed and reinstalled. I found there was water flowing around the sides of the paper on the vertical ends to counteract this I used silicone tape to decrease the contact points between the paper and the walls. This is the same filter I use on my freshwater tank.

Modifying the sump
I had to split the pump chamber in half to get the filter roller installed. There was not enough space where the factory plumbing went to. I drilled a 50mm hole between the filter roller chamber and the factory water inlet chamber. Next I cut and siliconed an extension over the refugium chambed for my fuge lights. The glass was too thick and the lights would not fit.

Leveling the tank
I removed the floors of the cabinet and started the process of getting everything level. After adjusting and readjusting I finally got all the angles level.

Day 2:
Installing the plumbing.
I purchased the return fittings for the smaller reefer tanks part number 42221. Bought some metric to 1in adapters. I can't remember exactly the metric size it was. All the bulkheads have the same size fittings. So the red sea return fittings fit both of the drains as well. Next I plumbed the filter roller with 2 unions and a gate valve to regulate the flow. After that i plumbed the emergency drain. So I had to compromise in this situation. To get the plumbing out of the way I actually created sort of a p-trap. Not really what I had intended but sacrifice is part of life. Besides if all goes well there won't be water in there but when something does fail ( and it will) its easy enough to pull out the pipe and drain it after the problem is fixed. Next i plumbed the return. I used an aquastation dc12000 pump with wave maker controller. I have used these pumps on my last tank and I'm using one without the wave maker turned off on my freshwater tank to drive the waterfalls. They are quiet and have served me well. Knock on wood. I used the georg fischer check valve and added a hose bib. Now I'm stuck on the uv sterilizer. I can't get a straight answer on if the aqua Ultraviolet 35 watt will fit. I'm planning on putting on the left side stand wall. There is 24 inches of space to mount something there. The body of the sterilizer is 20 inches. Nobody can tell me what the overall length is with the electrical connector installed. So no more plumbing until the problem is resolved.

The weekend is coming up and more work to do.

What made you choose the 625 over the 750? I'm on the fence between the two for my first tank.

 

[Shanel]

Space was the deciding factor. Would love to go bigger. Just didn't have the room.

 

[dvgyfresh]

This is like the most organized and beautiful tank I’ve seen. Jealous af! Haha

 

[Shanel]

This is like the most organized and beautiful tank I’ve seen. Jealous af! Haha

Thanks,
This is what it looks like now. I changed lighting and powerheads.