One Man's Trash.. My Reefer 425XL

[ReefLab]

I have Radions xr30 that I will move over to the 425, still looking for one more mount kit for the Radions. I thought about hanging it from the ceiling, but I couldn’t put myself to put holes in a brand new house...

The only issue I might run into with this rimless tank, cats! We have two of them... they’ve never tried to get on top of the tank, but I can only bet they would try now with this ultra clear glass!hahaha I’ll buy the netting that’s for this tank.

I will also set up a underwater camera this fall to live stream my tank while I’m working!

Haha we have three cats. I was thinking of ordering a clear view lid. They look much nicer than the DIY Red Sea ones and have a feeding door. The Red Sea one comes out to like $100 anyways so you’re not spending that much more on the custom lid
Be sure to make a build thread!

 

[bsr2430]

Trust me! I will!

You have a link to the custom lid? I would love to look at something else than the cheap DIY that has negative feedback...

 

[ReefLab]

Trust me! I will!

You have a link to the custom lid? I would love to look at something else than the cheap DIY that has negative feedback...

Here you go

 

[bsr2430]

Here you go

For an extra $100, I will buy this! Great setup!
Thanks again!

 

[ReefLab]

Not too much progress lately.. deliveries for random things coming in.
How much longer until this is done?! 12 days so far... they say reefing takes patience ..

 

[bsr2430]

Love that test kit!

 

[ReefLab]

I knew plumbing wasn't the easiest thing.. but man I have a newfound respect for plumbers.. took a few days of laboring over how to design the sump.. making sure I'd have room for everything. Spilled over half a can of PVC primer all over my balcony.. the wind picked it up. You can see some of the splatter on the Upper part of the manifold. Oh well.

Overall, I'm happy with the results. Really want to attempt the triton method cause water changes are not fun at all. Just not sure if I can work out a way to get a big enough fuge in this sump.

Thanks for following along those that are! Happy to answer any questions if you have any.

 

[blstravler]

I knew plumbing wasn't the easiest thing.. but man I have a newfound respect for plumbers.. took a few days of laboring over how to design the sump.. making sure I'd have room for everything. Spilled over half a can of PVC primer all over my balcony.. the wind picked it up. You can see some of the splatter on the Upper part of the manifold. Oh well.

Overall, I'm happy with the results. Really want to attempt the triton method cause water changes are not fun at all. Just not sure if I can work out a way to get a big enough fuge in this sump.

Thanks for following along those that are! Happy to answer any questions if you have any.

I have a 425xl and I’m very jealous of your plumbing!

 

[ReefLab]

I have a 425xl and I’m very jealous of your plumbing!

Thank! I’m gutting the sump in a few weeks and changing the plumbing a bit so I can run Triton. Can’t wait!

 

[jp_75]

yep! wish i could do plumbing like you....really good start!
waiting for more

 

[ReefLab]

Pic of my quarantine set up. 2 10 gallon tanks with aqua clear filter filters and heats. Fluval 3.0 Marine and Reef light (love the controllability). Had a few problems with the Eheim heater kicking the tank temp up to 83 . Realized you need to calibrate them so I did that but also bought an ink bird just to be safe.

I wish I took a picture of the coral dip after I was done but man SO many little flatworms, small black worms and a little aptasia I scrubbed off. I cut the frag plugs they came with off and put new ones on. They'll live in the QT for at least a month and get at least one more dip before they go in my DT.

Baby watchman goby and fire fish in the seperate fish QT. Not sure if I want to treat copper or just keep an eye on them for a month or so.. any advice? Something less dramatic?

Blue tip hammer

Frogspawn

Indo Gold Hammer

 

[foxt]

You need to be really careful about cross-contamination with your QT tanks that close together. Especially if you are going to dose copper in one and keep corals or inverts in the other, stuff like that. Salt spray and aerosol transmission has a way of transporting stuff between tanks that close together.

 

[ReefLab]

You need to be really careful about cross-contamination with your QT tanks that close together. Especially if you are going to dose copper in one and keep corals or inverts in the other, stuff like that. Salt spray and aerosol transmission has a way of transporting stuff between tanks that close together.

Thanks! I read a little about cross contamination. Not a perfect solution, but I used my Dremel to custom cut acrylic sheets to fit the top. Added benefit is minimal evaporation. Of course I'll keep one closed while working on the other. Hopefully I dont run into any issues

 

[ReefLab]

Really happy with the placement of the tank in my house (pic one). Corals still going through QT. Got this amazing elegance coral from Tidal Gardens along with a few others. You can see my pom pom crab hiding out under the elegance (hopefully it doesn't sting it with its "pom poms.")
Having trouble staying patient with all my coral and fish in QT but once the first batch gets through it'll be fun adding more every so often.

 

[AMReef]

Good job! its coming along great

 

[Skynyrd Fish]

Looking great.

 

[strange33w]

Nice build. Following along.

 

[ReefLab]

Good job! its coming along great

Looking great.

Nice build. Following along.

thanks all. Appreciate the encouragement

 

[Phil D.]

So I only used the air shims to temporarily jack up the tank. I placed wood under the feet of the tank and then removed the air shims.

I have a Red Sea E-260 that due to the floor being slightly off, the front is 1/16th lower than the back. I was wondering how to fix it when I saw your air shims!! So do you put a piece of wood under each foot or along the whole front?

 

[ReefLab]

I have a Red Sea E-260 that due to the floor being slightly off, the front is 1/16th lower than the back. I was wondering how to fix it when I saw your air shims!! So do you put a piece of wood under each foot or along the whole front?

mine had the opposite problem so i put 1/4” stock poplar across the entire back row and shims on the sides to make sure every foot had contact

with only 1/16” I’d probably just use composite shims under each foot. The nice thing about the air shims is you can level it perfectly with air shims and then place the composite shims right then. Especially in the front don’t use wood because you’ll spill eventually and it could degrade the shim.

glad you found it useful, I know I was pretty stoked when I found those