One Man's Trash.. My Reefer 425XL

[Phil D.]

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

Ok, I'm a dummy, composite?

 

[mta_morrow]

Thanks! Yeah, I can see it being too small for an ATO already. Problem is it seems too small for a refugium also (1.5% of tank volume) so it's kind of useless.. I filled it up yesterday. I'll post some pics in a little while. Took some finagling to get the downflow tuned right. Do you have to tune it at every water change? That seems like a pain. ? Whats your workflow with that valve?



Thanks!


I sure hope so. Thank you!

As far as using the ATO for a refugium, @SuncrestReef is the grand master of conversion! He has it highly detailed in his build thread if you are interested. I have the 525xl and live it. Great score on the tank and you both have done an awesome job from the beginning! Following along!

 

[SuncrestReef]

As far as using the ATO for a refugium, @SuncrestReef is the grand master of conversion! He has it highly detailed in his build thread if you are interested. I have the 525xl and live it. Great score on the tank and you both have done an awesome job from the beginning! Following along!

Thanks for mentioning my refugium conversion! Here’s a link to how I did it:

Build Thread - SuncrestReef's Red Sea Reefer XL 425 build

The water cleared up nicely within 12 hours, so I added the Dr. Tim's bacteria and ammonium chloride solution today to begin cycling!

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ReefLab]

Ok, I'm a dummy, composite?

Haha they’re just shims made of a more water resistant material
Your local hardware store should have them

 

[ReefLab]

As far as using the ATO for a refugium, @SuncrestReef is the grand master of conversion! He has it highly detailed in his build thread if you are interested. I have the 525xl and live it. Great score on the tank and you both have done an awesome job from the beginning! Following along!

Thanks for mentioning my refugium conversion! Here’s a link to how I did it:

Build Thread - SuncrestReef's Red Sea Reefer XL 425 build

The water cleared up nicely within 12 hours, so I added the Dr. Tim's bacteria and ammonium chloride solution today to begin cycling!

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks for dropping the link. Your build is so clean. Mine looks clean here but lots of mistakes were made lol

I actually totally gutted the sump. I ripped out all of the baffles and installed new ones to get a Refugium that’s ~15% of total volume
I’ll post how it looks later

 

[ReefLab]

sump is a mess at the moment. But you can see all the baffles were ripped out and replaced with these. Huge refugium volume.

wasn’t easy at all to get those baffles out but I’m glad it’s done!

 

[ReefLab]

Great working with @cromag27 to customize my reefer. The custom ATO fits perfectly and gives me at least a week of top off. Next step is getting corals out of quarantine and dialing in my GHL for triton!

refugium light is the UFO by Growstar ran on a smart switch.

 

[ReefLab]

Caught my first coral splitting today after the lights went off. Pretty exciting!!
Weird that I haven’t noticed a drop in alkalinity in about two weeks though.. rock solid at 7.05 testing at the same time everyday with Hanna checker. PO4 is high (>.7) and NO3 at about 15ppm. Any cause for concern? Other parameters I should check in on?

 

[ReefLab]

Quick video of the tank. The green algae was much worse but after adding the Macro algae in the fuge, gfo, and a clean up crew, it is slowly receding from the rocks.

anyone have any advice on the elegance? It seems to be folding over itself but flow is quite low.. concerned about being able to raise flow for when I add some SPS

 

[Peach02]

Looking awsome mate

 

[ReefLab]

Looking awsome mate

Thanks for following along!

 

[ReefLab]

Got my lid from artfully acrylic a month or two ago. I went with the one piece classic lid which I recommend. The “feed doors” are a bit lackluster and just blocks of acrylic that rest on the lid. Otherwise great quality and very clean work.

 

[ReefLab]

Stoked with my orders from Aqua SD & Tidal Gardens. A bunch of Acans, Motni, Favia and a torch (all firsts for me). Cant wait for them to come out of QT and get them in the tank!

Cotton Candy acan lord left and Looney Tunes acan lord right

Blacklight torch

 

[ReefLab]

Been battling Dino’s in my DT. But looking forward to a live aquaria order coming in tomorrow. Fish room ready to get QT started!

 

[ReefLab]

Red Head Solon fairy wrasse out of quarantine! His name is Solo. Ugly Dinos still growing on the sand but im gutting the sump.. again.. to try and install some better mechanical filtration and UV.
excited for a big project next week when all my shipments get here!

 

[ReefLab]

Added a loc line ball valve on my return so i could get back pressure to feed my manifold since I recently added UV. Also upgraded my pump.

Speaking of UV.. my sandbed has never been so clear!! still a bit of green cyano on the rocks but night and day to what it was before. Why didn't i get UV sooner!

 

[ReefLab]

Got a little tooo much time on my hands during this lockdown lol.

Redid the sump.. again..
clarisea 3000 and aqua UV 25watt installed.

 

[ReefLab]

Lots of coral in the sand while I figure out where theyre going to go.
A marineland magnum filter helps clear the water up fast after cleaning off the sandbed! Definitely would recommend it.

 

[ReefLab]

Got a little tooo much time on my hands during this lockdown lol.

Redid the sump.. again..
clarisea 3000 and aqua UV 25watt installed.

Got a little nervous about how I mounted my UV so I flipped it.. Noticed a water line on the quartz sleeve when i took it out so i would not mount it how it was in my first photo. This way makes sure that very little if any air gets trapped.

 

[BighohoReef]

I'm happy to see this tank get revived! Similar case with our 100g Waterbox in relatively poor shape when we got it. Was able to get it back in to tip top shape! Lots of goodness in this thread... I'll keep following for some good advice