My Red Sea 525XL Build Thread

Urbanknight · Jun 25, 2018

Well, this will probably be the world's shortest build thread. I was so excited to get the system home safely (saw two traffic accidents right in front of me), I forgot to take pictures! So, here's the boxes sitting on the floor.

Urbanknight · Jun 25, 2018

And This is 6 months later. Notice the green slimer and the wee green frag on top of the three prong rock in the center of pic.

Urbanknight · Jun 25, 2018

at the one year mark, note how the wee green frag has grown up and over onto a second limb of the rock! I have to get a FTS showing it today. I have also attached a closeup of that wee little frag from 3 weeks ago.

Urbanknight · Jun 26, 2018

And here's a FTS from today.

Urbanknight · Sep 4, 2018

Update: Removed sculpture from right side of tank and replaced it with live rock.

NY_Caveman · Sep 5, 2018

Urbanknight said:
Update: Removed sculpture from right side of tank and replaced it with live rock.

Wow looks very different. And very good.

Urbanknight · Sep 5, 2018

Thanks @NY_Caveman!

Urbanknight · Nov 18, 2018

Update: Let's talk about how foolish we can be at times. I lost our colonies before I realized the colossal flub I had made. I noticed that by sand bed suddenly got began to get a brown coating of some kind on it. Along with that, my glass would get covered with a similar substance. It looked more like dust than cyano. Using the ole turkey baster, I'd blow off the junk on the WAV and Gyro pumps. Blow off and stir the clumpy sand bed. 3 hours later, it was as if I had done nothing!

To make a long story short, cut to the point where I was scratching my head and looking at my 8 stage RO/DI. The labels that I so carefully placed on each stage announced that the last two chambers containing DI resin were last changed October 17, 2017! ;Sour Can you say leeched silicates and who knows what back into my DI RO/DI water! This was learning the hard way that sometimes resin color does not change! Mine did not so I sorta-kinda ignored it. Never again! :( With that....Here's a shot of my rearranged DT. It's a bit cloudy because that's new sand!

MichiganReefer · Nov 18, 2018

Ouch. Could have been much worse I guess. At least you did not have a full tank crash and lose everything. :)

That is very odd that the resin did not change from blue to brown though. I have owned multiple RO/DI systems over the years and never had that issue.

Urbanknight · Dec 13, 2018

Update. Tanks is a bit cloudy as I have just finished working in the sump. Getting ready for a 20% water change. Look what I found! After losing 4 colonies and several frags, I started looking in earnest to find a razor blade that I dropped in about four months ago. My last water analysis was high for heavy metals. Gee, I wonder why! My magnet super glued to the end of a of a 3 ft dowel worked out. NOTE TO SELF: Stay the heck away from the DT with razor blades! ;)