Our new Red Sea Reefer 525XL build

andyg1960 · Nov 4, 2017

Hello everyone. Thought I would document the build of our brand new Red Sea Reefer 525XL Deluxe. Been on this forum for a while, had a 55g reef tank in NJ for several years. Even with hang on back everything, plus a canister filter, it did very well. We moved to NC this past summer, and did not bring that tank. I knew I wanted a larger, more "state of the art" tank, and i did not think it would be fair to the inhabitants to make the move, they probably would not have done well. So, that entire setup is now in a pediatricians room in NJ. We are settled enough in our new home, so time to go bigger and better. The tank/stand was delivered last week, and today I got the stand built. It was very easy, took about 2 hours. Pretty much done by one person (me), my wife helped to move it around, it gets heavy fast. Here are some initial photos of the stand build. Still have to adjust the hinges a hit, but other than that, stand is done.
Next step will be entice a few guys over to help carry the tank from the garage to the stand. Probably offer some beer, but not till tis moved. Don't want them to drop the darn thing!

Daniel@R2R · Nov 7, 2017

Cool! Looking forward to seeing this one take off!

andyg1960 · Nov 7, 2017

mdbannister said:
Cool! Looking forward to seeing this one take off!

Thanks! Ive conned 3 friends into coming over tomorrow to help me get the tank and sump into the house. Also conned my wife into letting me remove the ceiling light that was hanging in the sight line of the tank. Hopefully we can make some good progress now

Daniel@R2R · Nov 8, 2017

andyg1960 said:
Thanks! Ive conned 3 friends into coming over tomorrow to help me get the tank and sump into the house. Also conned my wife into letting me remove the ceiling light that was hanging in the sight line of the tank. Hopefully we can make some good progress now

You, my friend, are an artist at conning!

andyg1960 · Nov 8, 2017

Cons successful

. Its on the stand, sump in place. The light mounts that Red Sea provided for the AI lights dont require the tank to be drilled at the top, so i guess they have modified the mounting bracket as I saw some folks were getting drilled tanks for light mounting. Sorry about the glare in the photos I have to try to figure out how to make that less prominent. Next step I guess is to start designing the aquascape.

andyg1960 · Nov 16, 2017

Working on the rockscape...

andyg1960 · Nov 19, 2017

Well, clearly not @Broadfield worthy, but i built this simple structure inside the right side door of my reefer 525xl cabinet. Its in preparation for my Apex stuff that im hoping to get on Black Friday for maybe 10% off. Going to mount to the top ( and maybe the vertical front ). Top lifts up to hide cabling underneath.

Broadfield · Nov 19, 2017

Looking good broski!

Ammocan · Nov 19, 2017

Nice! I am watching this one. I like the scape. Have any thoughts on a return pump? Skimmer? Plumbing and other stuff?

andyg1960 · Nov 20, 2017

Ammocan said:
Nice! I am watching this one. I like the scape. Have any thoughts on a return pump? Skimmer? Plumbing and other stuff?

Return pump is the Reef Octopus Varios 6. Skimmer is the Skimz Monster SM 202. Also adding a BRS dual carbon and GFO reactor. Somewhere down the line i plan to use a media reactor as a refugium. For plumbing, stock Red Sea.