Ordered my Reefer 425XL today and Apex Control System!

[chinkle]

Really excited about purchase. Should be here on the 15th! Repurposed my Son's room finally. Couple of things have developed firstly my Wife is doing back flips! My new reef room/office is coming along nicely. Knocked a hole in the wall, put in some sliding barn doors, put in a ceiling fan, working on the crown molding and flooring. This is the culmination of a 15 year dream and now that my kids are gone it's definitely happening. I'm new to saltwater but have been an aquarium (freshwater) junkie my whole like and have always wanted to dive into Saltwater reef keeping.

So my config so far is the 425XL, no protein skimmer, went with the Reefmat and an algae scrubber instead. Would like some feedback on this! I did go ahead with the new Apex control system, 1 Red Sea wave pump with controller, 1 Neptune intelligent return pump (1500 gph), Radion XR 15 Lights (2) and the quad dosing station from Neptune. Would like some feedback on this...I still have time to change my mind!

The beauty of my location is I have a long wall right behind the ladder and a small closet right in the corner and a window right inside to the left. I have a guest bathroom about 20 feet from the closet. I have enough room for 2 x 25 or maybe 30 gallon water bins and wondering would it be better to mount the reverse osmosis unit in the closet near the water bins or under the sink in the bathroom? I'm thinking under the counter would be better but that leaves me about a 20ft water line run up the wall and over to the closet where the water bins are. Is that too long and too much gravity for RO unit to over come? We have pretty good water pressure but thinking I would need to get a booster pump. any comments are welcome.

 

[Reef.]

Very jealous sounds great.

If you have good fresh air flow in the room then not having a skimmer shouldn’t be an issue, just remember to not turn everything on when you first setup the tank, your tank will have next to no nutrients, stripping what little there is out of the system will give you dinos.

Chances are you will need a booster either way, they are so valuable, they reduce the time it takes to make the water, makes your membrane more efficient, therefore prolonging the life of your resin.
My advice is to put the rodi where you want it, water changes are a pain at the best of times, set up the system now how you want it, you’ll thank yourself later for it, but unless your water pressure is very good, just buy the booster.

 

[Lavey29]

Congrats on a great tank choice and cool fish room build. Curious why no skimmer? Aside from what they remove from the tank they also provide aeration which comes in handy.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

The reef mat is 200 microns and an algae scrubber pulls Nitrates and Phosphate out of your system. There is a bunch more stuff in the water column that neither of those two addresses. I understand that maybe you got this no protein skimmer thing because you do not use one in freshwater, but...
if you don't, I see many water changes in your future. I run skimmers in all my tanks, even my 6g nano. I am not saying you can't do it. It is doable, but why put yourself through extra work unless you have a good reason. I would also have a refugium over an algae scrubber. you have more control over your exports. In a scrubber, if your nutrient level get too low and you turn it off, you will have die off. in a fuge if you want to reduce your nutrient export you just pull out handful of macro.

 

[blaxsun]

Agree with the above - definitely reconsider a skimmer.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Really excited about purchase. Should be here on the 15th! Repurposed my Son's room finally. Couple of things have developed firstly my Wife is doing back flips! My new reef room/office is coming along nicely. Knocked a hole in the wall, put in some sliding barn doors, put in a ceiling fan, working on the crown molding and flooring. This is the culmination of a 15 year dream and now that my kids are gone it's definitely happening. I'm new to saltwater but have been an aquarium (freshwater) junkie my whole like and have always wanted to dive into Saltwater reef keeping.

So my config so far is the 425XL, no protein skimmer, went with the Reefmat and an algae scrubber instead. Would like some feedback on this! I did go ahead with the new Apex control system, 1 Red Sea wave pump with controller, 1 Neptune intelligent return pump (1500 gph), Radion XR 15 Lights (2) and the quad dosing station from Neptune. Would like some feedback on this...I still have time to change my mind!

The beauty of my location is I have a long wall right behind the ladder and a small closet right in the corner and a window right inside to the left. I have a guest bathroom about 20 feet from the closet. I have enough room for 2 x 25 or maybe 30 gallon water bins and wondering would it be better to mount the reverse osmosis unit in the closet near the water bins or under the sink in the bathroom? I'm thinking under the counter would be better but that leaves me about a 20ft water line run up the wall and over to the closet where the water bins are. Is that too long and too much gravity for RO unit to over come? We have pretty good water pressure but thinking I would need to get a booster pump. any comments are welcome.

Woot woot! Welcome to R2R! I don’t think 20’ of output line is too much for the RO so long as you have ample water pressure going in.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Wohoo!! Congrats!! I think you’ll love the Apex!!

 

[Dr. Phil]

Congrats on the buy! It sounds like this will be fun! Welcome to the club.

 

[chinkle]

Very jealous sounds great.

If you have good fresh air flow in the room then not having a skimmer shouldn’t be an issue, just remember to not turn everything on when you first setup the tank, your tank will have next to no nutrients, stripping what little there is out of the system will give you dinos.

Chances are you will need a booster either way, they are so valuable, they reduce the time it takes to make the water, makes your membrane more efficient, therefore prolonging the life of your resin.
My advice is to put the rodi where you want it, water changes are a pain at the best of times, set up the system now how you want it, you’ll thank yourself later for it, but unless your water pressure is very good, just buy the booster.

thank you this is helpful. I think I will mount it in the closet which will be much easier to see and get to.

 

[chinkle]

The reef mat is 200 microns and an algae scrubber pulls Nitrates and Phosphate out of your system. There is a bunch more stuff in the water column that neither of those two addresses. I understand that maybe you got this no protein skimmer thing because you do not use one in freshwater, but...
if you don't, I see many water changes in your future. I run skimmers in all my tanks, even my 6g nano. I am not saying you can't do it. It is doable, but why put yourself through extra work unless you have a good reason. I would also have a refugium over an algae scrubber. you have more control over your exports. In a scrubber, if your nutrient level get too low and you turn it off, you will have die off. in a fuge if you want to reduce your nutrient export you just pull out handful of macro.

OK thanks! Help me understand better. I have a refugium ready sump and like the idea but I thought an algae scrubber was essentially the same thing? Both use algae cultures to remove impurities right? It seemed the algae scrubber provided a more controlled setting. What skimmer do you use? So many to choose from

 

[chinkle]

...also I'm setting up an auto water change and auto mixing station in my closet with the goal of doing 15-20% weekly.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

OK thanks! Help me understand better. I have a refugium ready sump and like the idea but I thought an algae scrubber was essentially the same thing? Both use algae cultures to remove impurities right? It seemed the algae scrubber provided a more controlled setting. What skimmer do you use? So many to choose from

With an algae scrubber, the concept is growing algae in a light confined space, therefore if and when your nutrients get too low you shut or shorten the photo period of the cycle. Let's say you have a bunch of algae growing in there when you reduce the photo period, the algae is going to produce CO2, raising your PH, also if the cycle becomes too short algae will die off creating more nutrients and possible other issues for your tank. Plus there is the whole thing that most scrubbers just grow nuisance anyway, which how is that contained just to the scrubber? Where as a refugium can grow macro algae and also be a refuge for things like copepods, which are beneficial to your tank overall. If you nutrients get too low with a refugium you just take out a handful of macro, simple as that.
I do feel scrubbers have there place, in systems where you are never going to reduce your nutrients. But then I still use them in conjunction with a fuge.
As far as water changes at a 15-20% weekly level that is probably going to be too much.

 

[Rovert]

wondering would it be better to mount the reverse osmosis unit in the closet near the water bins or under the sink in the bathroom? I'm thinking under the counter would be better but that leaves me about a 20ft water line run up the wall and over to the closet where the water bins are. Is that too long and too much gravity for RO unit to over come? We have pretty good water pressure but thinking I would need to get a booster pump. any comments are welcome.

In the closet because:
1) You have lots of other plumbing bits under the sink that get in the way of reaching in to use the RO/DI unit (or changing media!) and the filter will interfere with any plumbing repairs that you may one day need to do.
2) Street water pressure is higher on the incoming side to address any length of hose to get the incoming water to the filer. If it made it from the pump to your sink all the way from the well or street, another 20 feet won't make a difference.

 

[chinkle]

perfect! The front restroom right next to my reef room is the closet pipe to the main. So far so good. I have a good path from the sink up through the attic and back down to the closet. Putting Life proof flooring down which they claim is water proof.