Noob Sea Reeefer 625xxl

[NoobReeefer]

Well i got big plans for this so i may as well document it

BRS Black Friday 2018 was epic

-Red Sea 625xxl
custom diy metal stand
80lbs caribsea special grade arag-alive sand
100ish lbs of pukani
2 maxspect gyre xf280's

-Aquatic life 61" T5 LED hybrid fixture
2 ATI blue plus
1 ATI actinic
1 ATI coral plus
3 kessil a360x (not yet purchased)
kessil h60 fuge light (not yet purchased)

-Synergy TS44 sump red and white
vertex omega 200i skimmer
vertex rx-c 6d calcium reactor (2little fish reborn/zeomag magnesium, carbon doser regulator)
vertex 2L reactor (carbon)
reef octopus varios 8 return pump
4 brightwell aquatics bio bricks (not yet purchased)
-I will convert the plumbing over to standard and build a manifold to run 3 reactors off the return pump. I will use 1" red sch40 pvc, sch80 fittings and cpex ball valves with a spear true union check valve

Apex controller
neptune dos for automatic daily water changes
hanna dkh checker
hanna low range phosphate
2 500 watt finnex deluxe titanium heater (not yet purchased)

water station
hw marine salt
brs rodi 6 stage 150gpd
2 40 gallon tamco vertical storage tanks
rossmont 3200 riser pump

 

[NoobReeefer]

lets see if i can figure out how to post some pictures of my mixing station i recently completed, i built the stand with scrap wood lying around
tamco 40g vertical tanks
rossmont riser 3200 pump
all 3/4 sch40 pvc with true union valves

some pictures of my mixing station i recently completed, i built the stand with scrap wood lying around
tamco 40g vertical tanks
rossmont riser 3200 pump
all 3/4 sch40 pvc with true union valves

 

[NoobReeefer]

my happy shelf

 

[NoobReeefer]

i bought all the metal to build the stand yesterday and today i got everything except the legs cut and prepped for welding. hopefully tomorrow ill have some time to work on it.
I'm using 2x2'" 1/8" wall square tubing for the legs and top, 1x3" 1/8" wall rectangle tubing for the bottom and cross braces. the whole front of the stand is going to be open, no doors or braces. ill use the top, back and bottom panels of the red sea stand and use the rest of the panels on a display for all the electronic controllers. after its all welded up ill sand blast it and spray it with a marine grade epoxy

 

[NoobReeefer]

i built my rock scape then separated the structures by layers in a trash can separated by egg crate. i bleached all the rock for 2-3 weeks with 1g bleach to 10g water, then hosed them off really good and let them dry out for a couple days. right now they are in fresh water soaking for a couple days and after that ill start curing them in saltwater with a pump and heater. they will probably cure for a couple months at least until i get everything else ready

 

[miPapareef]

Wow! Welcome to R2R.

I’ll definitely be following along.

 

[SPR1968]

Great pictures and following along and welcome to R2R as well!

 

[jp_75]

sharp start!

 

[NoobReeefer]

i spent a couple hours on the stand today. i got a piece of 3/4" mdf plyboard for the work bench. wood obviously isn't the best surface to weld on but whatever its cheap and really flat. its been a couple years since touched my welder so some of the welds look like dog **** but i got good penetration and I'm grinding them flush anyways so whatever. i got ahead of myself and forgot the plumbing comes down the back of the stand so ill have to cut a section out and box it in to make room for the plumbing.

 

[marito09]

Cant wait for more updates. I have a question for you. On the synergy sump did you have to order a particular way. I have the same tank and wanted to upgrade to that one.

 

[NoobReeefer]

Cant wait for more updates. I have a question for you. On the synergy sump did you have to order a particular way. I have the same tank and wanted to upgrade to that one.

I didn’t order it any specific way, you have a left to right or right to left option and an option to add heater holders and probe holders. I went left to right and added both holder options. I received an email yesterday saying it was finished and awaiting shipment then today on FB synergy did a walk around video of the exact sump I had build so I bet that’s mine

 

[infinite0180]

Nice! Following along

 

[NoobReeefer]

i got the top and bottom finished and got all the legs cut to size. I need an extra set of hands to keep the legs square while i tack em up so i gotta wait for my room mate to get home from work. I also found an oil based paint at home depot thats made for metal and light industrail applications so I'm going to sand the stand and just put a couple coats of that on instead of sand blasting and marine epoxy, its much cheaper and less labor.
heres a pic of the remedy i came up with to fix my goof from last night. hopefully theres enough room now for the plumbing to come down cause its gonna be a ***** to cut that piece out.

 

[NoobReeefer]

ill be honest....i didn't really plan any of this very extensively, i just kinda winged it and bought a bunch of cool stuff...so far the heaters i bought won't fit in my sump, the media reactor i got for carbon is HUGE lol and according to the brs calculator i only need like 1.5 cups of carbon, then today i was measuring the extra space under my stand and i can barely fit the calcium reactor in there next to the sump so now the only place to put all my electronic controllers is on the wall above the side of the tank (the tank is going in a corner) I'm kinda bummed cause i was looking forward to making a super cool looking display for all that stuff, oh well less labor and $$.
only thing i got done today was getting the pukani in salt water to start the curing process. im going to order some inverts in the next week or 2 and start their QT so they will be ready by the time the tank gets wet

 

[NoobReeefer]

Stand is finished. It turned out pretty nice...tomorrow I’ll get it all sanded and painted.

 

[infinite0180]

Stand is finished. It turned out pretty nice...tomorrow I’ll get it all sanded and painted.

What are you planning to put between the stand and tank?

 

[NoobReeefer]

What are you planning to put between the stand and tank?

I’m going to use the top, bottom and back of the Red Sea stand

 

[NoobReeefer]

I got all the mil scale sanded off and decided to tweek out last night so I put bondo over the visible welds because I didn’t fill em in enough to blend out with a flapper disc. I coulda put another bead of weld and blended it in but I was tired of grinding and blending welds. I used a high build primer over the bondo so today I’ll wet sand those areas and it should be good to go. I’ll make a little make shift spray booth in my garage with some painters plastic and hopefully get a coat of paint on it today. I went with an industrial grade oil base DTM (directly to metal) in gloss black. Ive used this product quite a bit on metal cabinets and it lays down really nice and produces a glass finish if you spray it properly. I’m going to spray as many coats as I can with 1 gallon but unfortunately it requires a 24 hour recoat time so this is going to be a couple day process.
My sump will be delivered this Thursday and I have no idea when the tank will arrive but once it does I can get the stand, sump and tank in place then start on the plumbing.

 

[NoobReeefer]

What a chore this is turning into lol. I’ve sprayed it twice so far and between my blown out spray tips and the cold weather I got runs both times. So I went and got a new spray tip and an additive to speed up drying time, I wet sanded all the runs out again and hosed it off in my driveway now it’s drying out. Tomorrow morning I’m going to bring it in the house for 5-6 hours to warm it up and put the can of paint in a bucket with hot water to warm it up as well then get it sprayed one last time. If I get runs again I’m gonna sand em out and roll it instead of spraying it. I want my garage back.

 

[NoobReeefer]

Got the stand sprayed again. It’s good this time. Also unboxed a bunch of goodies and put some stuff together and kind of got an idea how I’m gonna lay everything out. I’ll let the stand dry for 48 hours then bring everything in the house and start getting it all together.