RedSea 525 G2 - Back in the Game!

Rskiba

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So it has been about 6 years since our last saltwater tank which was an AIO 40 gallon aquarium. We had it in a Condo that we were renting at the time. All was fine and the tank was doing well. About a year in, our landlord stopped by (we were very good renters, paid rent on time, no issue or damage to the property), saw the tank and completely freaked out! Long story short, we broke down the tank and sold everything! We were done with fish and coral, at least until we had our own place.

Fast forward to today, we now have been in our custom built house for a little over 4 years and am ready to give it a go again. I spent months researching and re-learning saltwater all over again. So many things have changed in the hobby in the time we were "out" that we are sort of glad we sold everything. It gave us a new slate to start with and also we weren't limited on the size/type of tank. I wanted to document this build from the start but got overzealous the last month and worked on the tank without sitting down at the keyboard. Needless to say, we will start with the tank being filled this past weekend and include an equipment list:

RedSea Reefer 525 G2 & Stand (White) Chose this color stand because our prior black stand showed every drop of dried saltwater :)
Red Sea LED 160 (2)
Neptune COR20 return Pump
RedSea RSK600 skimmer
RedSea Reefmat 1200
Nyos Reactor for bio-media (more on this in a later post)
Neptune WAV powerheads (3)
Avast Vibe Reactor for Zeovit (Another coming thread)
Neptune COR15 for Avast Reactor
Neptune ATK (ATO)
Neptune Trident (not connected - in the box)

If I left something out I will edit it later but this is pretty much the "list" for the build. Tank was filled over this past weekend October 1-2, 2022. It was a lengthy process as I can only make about 30 gallons of RO/DI water, add salt, wait and then pump into the tank at a time. Approximately, 150 gallon system, less rock and sand displacement - took about 5 "garbage cans" of RO/DI over 2 days!

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We have the system up and running with the Algae Barn Turbo 900 bacteria starter onboard along with their NitroCycle additive. Tonight I will run water tests for the first time to see how things are progressing on the cycle. Algae Barn claims 5 days - we'll see....

First struggle of the tank has been around the RedSea G2 gate valve. It sure is sensitive! Yikes!! I think I am starting to get the hang of it now and the sump return chamber has 6" of water as recommended and the overflow box water level is just below the emergency drain. I originally had too much water in the system and struggled to get things stabilized. We will see if I finally got it adjusted after fiddling for two days.

I think the next post should talk about the rock scape and how we accomplished this look. Hopefully this is interesting to someone else looking to get a similar RedSea tank or some of the equipment I am using. I should also mention that my narrative alternates between "I" and "WE" as my wife is also a Reefer and we are doing this together!
 

Peace River

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Very nice tank! Congratulations on the new adventure!!!
 
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Rskiba

Rskiba

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Thanks all! I did test water last night for Nitrite and Ammonia....no where near close to ready. LOL

Next post will be on the rockwork construction.

IMG_2995.jpg
 
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Rskiba

Rskiba

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This is the first tank I have done with dry sand and dry rock. I always wondered how people got really cool looking live rock with caves, negative space and other cool features that just seemed to "fit" their tanks perfectly. Then I found the YouTube videos on HNSA using dry rock. I think most of those cases that I saw really weren't "live rock" but most likely may have been dry rock sculpted and matured. I had no idea how I would do this or what that meant but after thinking about the negative space idea, it made perfect sense. I watched the BRS vids that were done on the subject and decided, this did not look too hard. Hey -- I can crack some rocks!

Next thing I knew, I had Marco dry rock on the way along with some shelf rock pieces. I ordered a chisel from Lowe's and was ready! Once the rock arrived, I unboxed everything onto the table in my garage and let it sit for a few days as I looked at the pieces and picked ones that appeared to have potential.

My wife and I took about a week to create the finished product once we actually started to create the aquascape. It wasn't really difficult. We basically built the entire thing before we glued anything together with the CA glue. One note here, as we had a piece mocked up dry, we took it apart and tried to remember how it fit back together as we glued. In a few areas we know that the mocked up trial piece wasn't exactly how it turned out after gluing! Things changed but honestly it felt like we found a "better" way to fit some pieces together.

Once the CA gluing was done, then we used the coral epoxy to strengthen and solidify the pieces into one. We made three pieces that are not all three connected so that we can remove them in case some reasons requires a partial rock change or cleaning. All of this was done with the recommendations of Ryan's video here:



If you have any questions or want more info, leave a comment and I can hopefully explain better ;)

Next up - cycling & Zeovit......
 
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Rskiba

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Tank finally reads 0 ammonia and about 10 nitrates. First two fish are on order, probably wont be here until the week of 10/17. Coming from Dr. Reef as recommended for quarantined fish. Took part in the WWC Live sale this past weekend and got a few mushrooms and Zoas. Those are slated to arrive 10/19. Here is a pic of the tank this morning with the lights on as I adjusted them down in intensity. I will be checking with a PAR meter later this week and getting them dialed in.
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Rskiba

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I will be putting a post together here on the starting water chemistry and some thought on the Zeovit system along with Algae Barn's cycling kit.
 
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Rskiba

Rskiba

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It's been a few weeks since I last updated here. The tank finished its cycle and Ammonia was at zero with 2-5 ppm Nitrates. I have added a few coral frags - very small and mostly mushrooms & zoas. The first two fish are in the tank and params are still within safe. They are Black Ice Clowns and are still adjusting (been about 5 days). Eating is spotty as they really like live brine but hoping to transition them to dry and frozen.

Now it is time to leave things alone as far as any more additions. Plan is to make sure the tank is stable and water params are consistent. Fingers crossed! I will try to get some pictures soon!
 

robertjules1981

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Looks awesome! I’m considering the same tank for my first venture into saltwater ( I have 3 planted freshwater) how do you like it? Did you have to give up sump space for the reefmat?
 
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Rskiba

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I think this is the ideal size tank for my wife and I. It fits the location where we have it perfectly. We are not running into it or cannot navigate the room because of its size. I love the Reefmat as I don't have to clean filter socks every day or every other day! Since the G2 sumps allow the filter sock tray to be removed, the Reefmat really doesn't take up any "extra" room. I will try to get some pictures of under the cabinet soon.

Did have one setback....I lost one of my clowns since the tank does not have a top. He must have gotten spooked and decided to end it all sometime during the night. That is changing going forward. I am considering ordering a ClearView lid as soon as they get back to me on some questions I had sent over via email. Go ahead and DM me if you want to talk about something in more detail. I do like the RedSea product line and think it works as advertised :)

--Rob
 
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Rskiba

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Here are a few pics of the sump area and the other side of the stand. I do have an Avast Vibe plumbed for the Zeovit reactor and the Trident on a shelf from Printed Reef. The two DOS units are on the RedSea slide out board which makes tubing connections and maintenance of the pump heads much easier. I have not yet started dosing but it is all there ready to go when I am ready for it. Also, a pic of the Neptune control board layout on the side of the tank. Again, it was designed for access and could have been on the other side of the tank but that would have made it much tighter to work on. One thing that I do know, if maintenance and access are not easy, then I simply wont be inclined to do the work.

I have the 10 gallon ATO sitting on the left side of the tank outside the stand (again so I can fill it easily). There is also a CO2 scrubber plumbed and mounted on that side as well. I don't have pics of those but can if someone really cares to see them :)

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--Rob
 
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Struggle

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Hi Rskiba,
We are currently researching tanks / setups and your posts have helped quite a bit. Is there anything that you would change on the RedSea system so far? We have FW tanks and never buy the kits due to the equipment not actually being what is required or pretty substandard. Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.
 
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Rskiba

Rskiba

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Hi Rskiba,
We are currently researching tanks / setups and your posts have helped quite a bit. Is there anything that you would change on the RedSea system so far? We have FW tanks and never buy the kits due to the equipment not actually being what is required or pretty substandard. Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.
The tank itself comes with everything you need - all the plumbing, stand and fitment for the sump. I did not use the RedSea ATO as I wanted to use the Neptune Apex ATK. I did use the RS skimmer as I did research and found it to be a good unit. Many people complain about the RS valve to control the return rate as not being accurate. I did not have that trouble after I played with it for a few days and understood the relationship going on between the valve and the return pump. You still will need a heater, which I did not skimp and bought titanium version because I have seen glass break/leak and ruin tanks! RS lights seem to be doing the job thus far, and were a good price as RS will discount items if you purchase the lights, skimmer and tank together. You can also get the dosing units but again, I am using Apex DOS units.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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