Paul's Red Sea Reefer 425xl Build

PRock · Sep 29, 2019

So finally got around to trying to build the Red Sea mesh top kit for my tank. Seems it doesn't have the parts to bump out over might light mounts, *grumbles*. I probably should've figured that out BEFORE I got a possible jumper, so my new Wrasse friend is going to have to stay in the acclimation box for a bit while I wait for parts

Sorry lil guy.

PRock · Oct 3, 2019

Got the parts I needed to finish up the screen top and built it last night. It'll work, but not happy at all with the end result. It's partially my fault as when I measured everything I made it so it would have very narrow gaps, and didn't account for the size of the cables that run into the tank for the power heads and Seneye. I can just move the Seneye to the sump, so that isn't a huge deal, but I kinda need the power heads. So I'm on the market for a better top as a long term solution, but for now this'll keep my new Wrasse in the tank and off the floor. I already know she's a high jumper - saw her clear the rim of a 5 gal bucket from only about 2in of water while I was acclimating her.

While I was at it, I also replaced the return nozzle with some loc line and a pair of random flow generators. Now there's no longer a stream of water bouncing off the front glass from the return, and I can spread the flow around much better. Should've done this from the start!

PRock · Oct 7, 2019

And my ATO isn't working anymore? Return pump is blowing bubbles in the tank because it's sitting there with barely enough water in the return section, but the ATO tank is half full... guess the rumors about the Red Sea float were true...

DS204 · Oct 8, 2019

PRock said:
And my ATO isn't working anymore? Return pump is blowing bubbles in the tank because it's sitting there with barely enough water in the return section, but the ATO tank is half full... guess the rumors about the Red Sea float were true...

Shared a similar problem with the red sea ATO where it wasn't dumping the water fast enough. The instruction manual says to set the drip so that there's about 1 drop of water per second, but I found the sweet spot with mine was about 3-4 drops per second. I also read about a bunch of problems with the stock ATO, but I must admit now that we have it dialed in, it has been surprisingly reliable for the last 3 weeks. It hasn't skipped a beat, in fact.

Still planning to swap it out with a pump driven ATO, but in the meantime I was surprised with how well it worked - just gotta find that sweet spot!

PRock · Oct 8, 2019

Dean Smith said:
Shared a similar problem with the red sea ATO where it wasn't dumping the water fast enough. The instruction manual says to set the drip so that there's about 1 drop of water per second, but I found the sweet spot with mine was about 3-4 drops per second. I also read about a bunch of problems with the stock ATO, but I must admit now that we have it dialed in, it has been surprisingly reliable for the last 3 weeks. It hasn't skipped a beat, in fact.

Still planning to swap it out with a pump driven ATO, but in the meantime I was surprised with how well it worked - just gotta find that sweet spot!

Well, in this case it was working just fine for a good long while, but now it's not working at all. I haven't ripped it out to figure that out yet as I won't have time until this weekend, but for now I'm manually checking the water level every time I feed, and that ATO tank isn't dropping at all, even with the dial full open. The float's not opening for some reason

I'm about to install an AWC system anyhow, so I won't need to use the default float anymore, but just annoying that it's happened.

DS204 · Oct 9, 2019

PRock said:
Well, in this case it was working just fine for a good long while, but now it's not working at all. I haven't ripped it out to figure that out yet as I won't have time until this weekend, but for now I'm manually checking the water level every time I feed, and that ATO tank isn't dropping at all, even with the dial full open. The float's not opening for some reason

I'm about to install an AWC system anyhow, so I won't need to use the default float anymore, but just annoying that it's happened.

Oh weird. That's super strange. Someone on here once posted that a piece of lint or debris got stuck in the float, and they had to disassemble it to clean it. If you end up getting to that point maybe consider that.

Which AWC are you going to setup, out of curiosity? That's something that would interest me down the road - curious how you're going about it!

PRock · Oct 9, 2019

Dean Smith said:
Oh weird. That's super strange. Someone on here once posted that a piece of lint or debris got stuck in the float, and they had to disassemble it to clean it. If you end up getting to that point maybe consider that.

Which AWC are you going to setup, out of curiosity? That's something that would interest me down the road - curious how you're going about it!

I have had an AutoAqua AWC Smart Touch sitting in it's box for a few months I just haven't set it up because I don't have my water change station plumbed properly yet in the other room I was going to run the lines to. Considering that I'm having problems with the current ATO however, I'm going to pull out the Red Sea ATO tank this weekend replace it with a 5 gal bucket of RODI next to the tank and see if I can get the AWC setup in ATO only mode. If that doesn't work I also have a spare Tunze Osmolator Nano that worked beautifully in one of my early quarantine tanks I can try as a stop gap, but it's not intended for systems this large, so I'm not super sure how well that'll work. Eventually the room next to the tank is a utility room that has a water line and a drain, so I'm plumbing up a mixing station there if I can make it all fit. Then I'll have one pump in the sump to push water down the drain, one pump in the salt storage tank to replace the drained water, and one pump in the RODI tank to top off evap, all controlled by the AWC Smart Touch. Eventually

PRock · Oct 13, 2019

Pulled out the Red Sea ATO this afternoon and found my return pump sitting 2/3rds out of water again. *sigh* So put 4 gal of water back in the sump to fix that problem and then setup the Tunze Osmolator and a 5 gal bucket outside the stand that I can easily refill. That'll solve the ATO problem for now I think.

PRock · Oct 17, 2019

I'm starting to think I should've gotten the RSK 600 for my tank. The RSK 300 is constantly foaming through its vents, and opinions seem to be that's a sign that you're undersized for your bio load? I'm still tuning away, but I'm thinking I might have an RSK 300 for sale soon.

tbare89 · Jan 21, 2020

Have you tried raising the RSK 300 up an inch or two? You might be operating at too high of a water level. Give it a go.

PRock · Jan 22, 2020

tbare89 said:
Have you tried raising the RSK 300 up an inch or two? You might be operating at too high of a water level. Give it a go.

That was basically my problem. When pulling out my sponge filter between the skimmer and return chamber I accidentally raised the water level gate and had an inch of extra water in the skimmer chamber. When I fixed that the RSK 300 started behaving again. ;-)

PRock · Feb 7, 2020

So had a bit of a setback. Just before I went on a trip my return pump dies. Run around town looking for a replacement, end up coming home with a SeltzD 1200. Even thought it's only rated 400gph less than my SeltzD 1600, in reality it's WAY less flow, but it's something, and I had to get on a plane, so we'll make do and open up a trouble ticket.

Got back to a MASSIVE hair algae outbreak. Tried a few things, cut back on feeding, etc, but it kept spreading, and the Ulva in the refugium started dying, and that area started getting covered in hair algae too, even clogged up the skimmer intake. Said screw it, time for Vibrant, more CUC and a tang! Got some more hermits, a Sea Hare, and a Tomini Tang.

Between the hermits, Vibrant and the Sea Hare the algae is disappearing. My rocks aren't covered in long hairy fuzz anymore. Of course, if they keep this up I'll have to start adding some algae wafers or Nori sheets to feed the CUC!

Unfortunately the tang didn't take

Refused to eat pretty much anything I tried to give it, didn't really touch the algae on the rocks or the Nori or the Ulva I tried to give it, and after a few days it disappeared into the rock and suddenly I've got a ammonia spike.

Ripped apart the rock trying to find it, no joy. And of course, I couldn't put everything back the way I started, so I've got a new rockscape. Did a few water changes, spent some time scrubbing the sump, and decided I need to do some upgrades to do a better job keep the crap out of the sump. Ripped out the filter socks, replaced them with some Sera Crystal Clear filter media, but I'm really really thinking I should just get a Roller. Eyeballing the Clarisea SK-5000, but need to spend some time figuring out the plumbing, or if maybe someone else has something that'll pop into place instead. The Klir looks like a possibility with a 3D printed adapter, but I think ripping out the sock rack in my sump will give me room for the SK-5000 and a media reactor or two in place of the socks, which I think is a win overall.

In addition to all that, I picked up an AI Prime Fuge. Had a Kessil H80 over top of the refugium, but WOW does the Fuge light that place up. Noticed an almost immediate uptick in my PH believe it or not, so I'm now swinging from a daytime 8.2 to 8.1 at night, instead of dropping down under 8.0 like I had been. I'll be really curious to see how well this keeps up.

PRock · Feb 8, 2020

Got the ICP test results. My water changes apparently aren't keeping up with the Ca/Mg and other trace elements, they're all low or really low. I have like 3 corals, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe coraline is finally starting? But now know I need to start testing for those. Reefbot mebbie? But the big deal is that I have massive Silicon and Aluminum contamination. Going to have to get another test kit to test my RODI for Silicon, but no idea what might be causing the Aluminum? Currently in my sump I have Brightwell Aquatics XPortBio, Xport NO3 bricks and blocks, and XportPO4 blocks, ChemiPure Blue, my return pump, 2 Neotherm heaters, the RSK-300 Skimmer, a Seneye, and some Dr Tim's Waste Away Gel Pack. Any guesses? And I know the ChemiPure and the XportPO4 blocks were supposed to reduce Silicates, so I can't immagine how bad the Silicates must have been before...

PRock · Feb 12, 2020

I'm going to splurge and get myself a ReefBot. I'm trying to test the water each day to see where my levels are as I manually dose my way out of the hole I've dug for myself (including planning probably a 40-50% water change this weekend), but the idea of automated tests is just too attractive right now and the ReefBot at ~$900+test kits seems to be hands down the cheapest way to get there. Apex+Trident is close in price to measure Temp, PH, Salinity (unreliable), Ca, Mg, and DKH, but isn't really an option because well, you can't find a trident, and you're looking at a minimum of ~$1000 + Reagents. The GHL solution is REALLY attractive to me from a chemistry standpoint, adding K, Na, and NO3 on top of what the trident tests for, but is even more expensive requiring a KHDirector+IonDirector+2 GHL Pumps to do similar there... for ~$1700+reagents. The BIG benefit with going to either Neptune or GHL is that (for more money) you can automating your dosing a well to automatically dose your systems based on the automated testing. But I'm not there yet..

PRock · Feb 26, 2020

Well, I'm going to NOT recommend a Nyos Torq reactor. I got one from my LFS to run some rowaphos to try and help clear up my Silicate problem. And for the last few weeks, it's been working pretty well. If you're not familiar with the design, it's got a pump in the bottom of the base that pulls water in and pushes it up through the media - so far so good, pretty typical right? Well it pushes it out the top of the reactor so it cascades down the sides of the reactor and back into the sump. Kinda nifty looking design, pretty well reviewed, and the LFS had been running one on their system for a while without any problems. It was noisy as hell at first, but after about a week it "broke in" and quieted down. Tonight however, it tried to kill my tank. The top of the reactor vessel is basically just a push fitting to make things easy to fill. Down side to that - it's easy for water pressure to push it off. Tonight when I came down stairs I hear water splashing and there's a puddle around the base of my tank. Pull open the cabinet, and the Nyos is running, top push off in just the right direction to redirect the water flow into the side of the cabinet, outside of the sump, and onto the floor. Seems the top's sponge got clogged by the rowaphos and enough pressure built up that it popped off. So now I've got rowaphos all over the sump, and had water all over the floor. Back to the LFS this thing goes, not going to risk putting it back into the sump.

PRock · Mar 9, 2020

My Pistol Shrimp Lives! So a few months ago I picked up a pistol shrimp and a Yellow Watchman Goby for the tank, cuz well, they're symbiotic and very cool to watch everyone says. So spend time acclimating and then into the tank and... horror! My Vrolik's Wrasse goes after him like mad. Last I see of him, the Wrasse is chasing him through my rockwork and I keep hearing popping sounds as he fights for his life.... then I see my wrasse bashing his claw against the rocks and I was sure he was a gonner. But today... there he is shoveling away, claw all grown back, with one antenna on my watchman goby who's keeping an eye out for him

Yay!

PRock · Apr 6, 2020

Clarisea SK-3000 came in. Time to plan the modifications to the sump!

PRock · Apr 12, 2020

PRock said:
Clarisea SK-3000 came in. Time to plan the modifications to the sump!

For the search engines:

Red Sea Reefer XL 425 Clarisea SK-3000 Install

So this week, no freaking clue why, I've got a big ammonia spike. Everyone's alive, both the turbo snails are still alive, my big ******* Trocus snails are still kicking, I can find my big crabs, haven't really changed my feeding habits other than I picked up a different brand of Mysis, (but I can't imagine that would be it). Can't find the source, but the sump's a wreck so I decide I'm going to clean the sump during a water change and install the Clarisea. So with 40G of fresh saltwater, a shop vac, and my tools I got to work yesterday. However I'm a *******. I installed the SK-3000, after a bunch of fighting with the sump, but, I didn't take one picture, no video, nothing helpful to anyone else at all. Complete and total *******. So here's what I did:

Assemble the Clarisea! The SK-3000 was simple to assemble using the video they've posed online. The picture instructions they provide are too small to be very useful when looking at detail. MAKE SURE YOU PROPERLY SEAT THE MOTOR! If you don't you'll sheer the power cable as the thing tries to turn.
Gather what you need to do the install
- Utility Knife/Razor
- 2 short dowels to use as handles
- Fishing line - wrap the ends around the dowels to make a "garrote"
- Pipe Cutter (you're going to have to cut the primary drain to make this work)
- Platform to raise the ClariSea
When it came time to do the install I drained and cleaned my sump, pulled out most of the equipment.
Remove the filter sock holder "slides"
Oh, and this install assumes you're using the sump split about evenly with the adjustable Baffle in the V3 sump. If you've split the sump down where the filter socks are, Good luck, not sure how you're going to make that work.

So the drain section consists of 4 glass baffles - one separating the drain from the filter socks (B1), one splitting the 4 filter socks into two chambers (B2), and then 2 small one inch(ish) tall baffles capping the end of the filter sock chamber (inner B3/ outer B4). I'm pretty sure they're there for stability of the larger glass that's splitting the filter sock chambers, the plastic filter sock "mounts" over top of the glass baffles (there are actually 2 of them, and they're split along the top of B2), and a rail to change the size of the 2 central chambers that's along the front "inner" side of B2. All of this needs to come out. There are also glass "rails" that help support the sock mounts - those don't have to come out, and they make getting to some of the silicon that's holding B1 in a bit of a pain.

The obvious place to start is to remove the sock holder mounts. I used the utility knife to cut the silicone holding them in, first along the sides, then along the rails, then along the B1 and B2 from both sides. I tried to get as much of the silicone out of the corner where the pieces met as I could. I was able to get the utility knife actually into the joint along the rails, and cut that away completely. Then I cut through the join along B1, and was able to gently pry them off of B2 one at a time with the utility knife.
I then went after the front rail that's at the end of B2. It's not actually on the edge of B2, but stuck to the side of the edge, and at the bottom it's siliconed to both B2 and B3. I was able to cut through the silicone towards the top of B2, and then I used the fishing line and dowels to slice/pry the rest of the way down to the B2-B3 joint. Once there, I cut away as much silicon as I could, and pried the rail off the glass.
Now time for B4. Both of those had big globs of silicon in the bottom corners on the inside of the sock chamber. I cut as much of that away as I could, and then was able to get the fishing line down both sides of B4, the used the tip of the knife to loosen one side of the bottom silicon joint, got that loose enough to move, pushed it over a bit and cut through the rest of the bottom silicon joint and it was out.
B3 was a bit of a pain. It basically has that chamber separating rail that we removed on both sides. Spent a bunch of time cutting away the silicon and jimmying my knife tip into joints. The only one that I was able to really use the fish line on was the B2/B3 joint. Everywhere else I just had to fiddle the knife into position. And you want to be careful that when you're cutting the joint between B3 and the separating rail that you're trying to keep that you don't cut the rail or it's silicon. Eventually I got enough loose to push it back into the sock chamber and was able to cut the last bit of the bottom joint.
Here's where the trouble begins. B2 is a pain. Now that all of it's supports are gone, you'd think it would be straight forward right? 2 joints, between B2 and the bottom of the sump and B1/B2, straight, simple, no problems! I'll give it to Red Sea. Their tolerances are tight. I couldn't get the fishing line between B1 and B2. wasn't going to happen. So I spent a good long time slowly carving through the silicon, and testing to see if I had gotten enough to make it move. Was 85% of the way there when I went to try and test and POP! broken glass. WELL &@)#&$)&^@#$. Luckily I was wearing gloves and glasses and it was a clean break, so no need to run off to the ER. I didn't want to do that, but it happened. The side effect was that once the glass broke it was super simple to take the rest of it out. Shop vac came in handy here making sure I had all the glass out before I moved on.
B1. Oh dear god B1. So about the Red Sea tolerances? That baffle was perfectly sized. No gap at all between the glass for me to get anything between the sump walls and the baffle, and it's siliconed against the 2 glass rails that supported the filter sock mounts, so I can't get the fishing line cleanly down the sides from the top. I'm willing to bet that even without silicone it would've held water. I'm seriously impressed, and hate it all at once. I tried the Fishing line, tried the utility knife, even went and grabbed a razor. The razor BARELY got into some spots, but I couldn't get it to go all the way through, or all the way down on either side. I could get through the bottom, but that didn't really help because the sides weren't budging. Finally, I had to admit defeat. I went and got my rubber mallet. I'm sure you know what happened next. However, just like B2, the rest of B1 was surprisingly simple to remove once it was in pieces.
Shop Vac'd the hell out of the area to make sure I had everything out, then spent some time cleaning up the silicon, then Shop Vac'd again, to be safe.

Now here's the part you're probably actually waiting for - Installing the Clarisea! So you can't just put the SK-3000 in the sump and be done with it - it's too deep. The SK-3000 has a max water depth of about 8 inches, and my sump has a water depth of about 9.5 inches so I need to raise unit. The gotcha here is that while the Clarisea comes with mounting brackets, there isn't enough room in the Red Sea cabinet to actually use them. The sump fits inside with maybe a quarter inch clearance on either side, and the Clarisea mounts need more than that, so I had to have a platform. Luckily had been planning for this and had a pair of Brightwell XPort dimpled bricks waiting in the sump for this purpose. As for actually attaching it to your drain, if you'd like to rig your own plumbing solution, go for it. Doing your own plumbing rig will give you more room to work and futz with, but right now I'm under "stay at home" orders, so I decided to attach it directly to my drain plumbing as follows:

Put your platform in place and set your Clairsea down assembled next to the primary drain.
Mark the drain pipe where the intake pipe meets your drain pipe.
Cut your drain pipe just below that. I think I gave myself a bit more than a quarter of an inch.
Carefully fit the intake around your drain and thread it on to the Clarisea. It's a pain because it's a really tight squeeze. I spent at least 15 minutes trying different approaches before I was able to pull it off by almost crawling into the sump so I could get around both sides of the Clarisea, and un-hooking my drain from it's mount and fiddling it into place that way. I'm not a small guy, so this wasn't super easy. If I had done my own plumbing solution instead of attaching directly to the drain, this would've been tons easier. I might retrofit this later come to think of it.
Run your power cables, plug things in, and double check the motor.
Fill the sump back up, get all your equipment going, and you're done!

Now after all that, my ammonia problem is still there. 30 gallon water change, sump completely drained and cleaned, and my ammonia (NH3) is still showing 44ppb via my Seneye. So I pulled out my Red Sea kit, and I can't read the dang result. I'm not sure it it's at 0, or .2 or .4, I just can't judge the green. On the bight side, the roll is doing it's thing. It's pulling crap out of the water column and rolling itself up, so hopefully this gets better? For now I'm putting it Ammo-Lock and some Microbackter Clean to give my bacteria a boost and keeping the ammonia from getting toxic. If I don't see more improvement over the next two or three days, I'll do another big water change... Wish me luck!