My piece of the Ocean (Reefer 250 Build)

[Rory's Reef]

After very long debates with myself I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Red Sea Reefer 250 to upgrade my current RSM 130D. Of course this also means starting my first ever build thread. Out of shear excitement of being able to start a build thread and share my progress with this amazing community I'm kicking off my thread a tad early .

So far I have ordered everything I believe I need (We'll see about that though) and it is starting to trickle in. However, so far this is my current planned set up.

Red Sea Reefer 250
Nanobox ATI Sunpower Hybrid (Two T5's/Four Arrays)
VorTech MP40WQD (2)
Neptune Apex Controller
Deltech SC 1351 Skimmer
Reef Octopus Varios-6 Return Pump
BRS Carbon & GFO Deluxe Reactor
40lbs of CaribSea Special Grade Sand
I'll be shooting for a minimalist aquascape with a mix of Marcos Key Largo and BRS Tonga Shelf Rock
And some various other tidbits...

From my current RSM 130D I'll be bringing over:
Tunze Osmolator ATO
Seneye
UPS Back-Up Battery
And of course some livestock



*Some of the items received

In true RSR fashion I will also be modifying the plumbing to hard pipe the return pump as well as turn the 2gal ATO reservoir into a small refugium so I can get my copepod population going to keep little Ryu here fat and happy .



Anyways, this is the beginning of what will hopefully be a very successful albeit slow reef tank build.

I'll be keeping this thread updated with pictures and what not as things progress.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

 

[MmmmBalf]

Great quality gear. Looking forward to seeing it come together.

 

[Armydogracing]

Very nice!

 

[Sage Robinson]

Looking forward to following along.

My RSR250 build: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/red-sea-reefer-250-tank-build.269691/#post-3239375

 

[revhtree]

Following!

 

[Rory's Reef]

Well I was hoping to have this all up tonight and start on the plumbing and modifications tomorrow, but it appears I got a defective cabinet side panel from Red Sea :mad:.

So this is my progress so far lol. I'll probably work a little more on measurements for plumbing and positioning of items underneath, but I believe I will be halted on any real progress until I get a new side panel .
*Sorry for the blurry photos

 

[Rory's Reef]

It's been a little bit since I've posted anything so I thought I would give a small update. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on the new panel to come from Red Sea, and this has pretty much halted my progression for now. I have been able to get some aquascaping done as well as get pretty far on the plumbing. However, I've been holding off on posting anything since nothing is really complete. Once I can get my tank set up which should be in the next couple of days (fingers crossed), I will be posting more.

For now I thought I'd post some updates of my new lighting fixture as I just received it today and I'm super stoked about it.
It's a NanoBox ATI 24" Sunpower LED/T5 Hybrid. It has four NanoBox V3.1 arrays consisting of 5 controllable channels (through a bluefish mini controller) as follows:
Channel 1 - 4 Royal Blues
Channel 2 - 2 Warm White & 1 Neutral White
Channel 3 - 2 Violet
Channel 4 - 1 Blue & 1 Cyan
Channel 5 - 2 Lime
*These numbers are per array, so x4 for the total

This will be supplemented by 2 ATI Coral Plus T5 bulbs during the midday lighting that will be controlled by the Apex.

 

[bknapp]

Nice equipment list, that is one sweet light.

 

[Rory's Reef]

Nice equipment list, that is one sweet light.

Thanks! I've been wanting to try an LED/T5 Hybrid for a while now.

 

[G-reef]

Man that ati fixture is nice!!

 

[Rory's Reef]

Man that ati fixture is nice!!

Dave over at NanoBox does an awesome job of customizing these fixtures. He does quality work for sure.

 

[pelphrey]

Great build so far, I've been running that return pump for a month or so now and I love it. It makes absolutely zero noise. Also you'll be glad you went with the two MP40's, I tried my MP10 on the reefer and couldn't get the wet and dry side to secure well enough on the sides or back of the tank. I am running one MP40 right now and don't feel like it is enough flow, I am not running sand in my tank. That ATI fixture looks great, looking forward to hearing your reviews on it!

 

[Rory's Reef]

Great build so far, I've been running that return pump for a month or so now and I love it. It makes absolutely zero noise. Also you'll be glad you went with the two MP40's, I tried my MP10 on the reefer and couldn't get the wet and dry side to secure well enough on the sides or back of the tank. I am running one MP40 right now and don't feel like it is enough flow, I am not running sand in my tank. That ATI fixture looks great, looking forward to hearing your reviews on it!

Thanks! I actually was going to go with the MP10's before I read they were only rated up to 10mm glass, the I figured it'll be nice to have that extra flow anyways. It's nice to hear I made the right choice .

 

[ws6kid]

Great equipment for sure. Looking forward to seeing it come together

 

[Rory's Reef]

Great equipment for sure. Looking forward to seeing it come together

Thanks!

 

[revhtree]

Looking good!

 

[Rory's Reef]

Looking good!

Thanks Rev!

Just found out my new part from Red Sea will be here today... so it's game on

 

[Rory's Reef]

Ok so I decided to take a break for a bit and thought I'd take the time to update. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.


And it's up (thanks to the wifey for the help)


Unfinished sump with so much potential


Done


But really the aquascaping felt like it was never going to work out :mad:






And finally...




More to come

 

[revhtree]

Scape is looking good!

 

[Rory's Reef]

Ugh I've been seriously slacking on the updates here. Between work, school, and the holidays my schedule has just not allowed the time to quite get my tank going. That and the simple fact that I broke a plumbing piece that I can only order from Red Sea has slowed down my progress for now . Oh well, I guess it just wouldn't be right if I didn't encounter some hiccups every now and then. Well here's where I've gotten so far...

Got the ATO drilled for the refugium conversion and a good start on the plumbing

Once I had a good layout for my plumbing it was time to get started on the equipment mounting and wiring


Ughhhh so many wires

Slowly but surely I can see things coming together

Little

by

little


*The wiring really does look better in person than it does in these pictures. For some reason it looks like a mess in these pictures

Soooo lets throw some water in

All this work led to this...


Still need to add the probes... but I'll do that once I get the new plumbing part and everything dialed in

So as it currently sits waiting for the piece. I also decided to place the MP40's on the back wall to hide them and I figured they would provide more than enough coverage. Now just to figure out a good place to prevent that sand from getting blown away from the front.


Oh and I decided to do things right and throw a 20amp GFI outlet in on it's own 20amp circuit. Wasn't the most fun, but 3 hours time was well worth it in order to have some piece of mind.


Well there it is! Please feel free to offer some suggestions or anything that you think may need some improvement. This is my first true build as my first tank is a RSM130D