Seastar's Home Office RedSea 525xl Build

[seastar]

Current State of the Tank @ almost 1.5 years.

First - Thanks!
I would like to say I am super appreciative to all of you in this community that have helped me get this far, I wouldn't be here without you! Part of my goal in 2017 and beyond is to try to give back a little bit where I can too now that I have some more experience under my belt.

A little background:
I have had tanks off and on since the early 2000's, mostly freshwater African Cichlids, which had a nice pop of color and interesting enough personalities for a freshwater fish. As we all know though, salt water is where it's at! My father and some other family live in Hawaii and every couple of years or so I would get to travel out there and I was absolutely drawn to the amazing snorkeling that they have there and I knew one day I would have to get a salt water tank! I had a FOWLR tank for a couple years in the mid 2000's and finally started a full blown mixed reef tank in 2015. That has gone pretty well for the most part and I love the hobby so much that I am ready to upgrade!

My first mate:
My 2yr old son has already taken a huge interest in this hobby and I know it's something we can continue to enjoy together for years to come.

So without further ado...

Equipment List:
Tank: Red Sea Reefer 525xL (so, so pumped!)
Lighting: (3) Giesemann Vervve LED's
Return Pump: Ecotech Vectra L1
Powerheads: (2) Maxspect Gyre 250's (flow, Flow, FLOW!)
Skimmer: Skimz Monzter SM163 DC
Dosing: Neptune DOS + DDR
Reactors: (3) Avast! Marine MR5's (ROX 0.8 carbon, GFO, Biopellets) hard plumbed
Heaters: (2)Finnex 300w titanium
Controller: Neptune Apex Gold
Plumbing: I'll be doing blue on blue pvc hard plumbing
ATO: Initially the built in Reefer, maybe later back to my home built with Apex breakout box and float switches
PAR: Neptune PAR meter
Backup: Ecotech Battery Backup and a mobile generator

Mandatory (ok maybe that's a stretch) loot shot:

A little note on the lights, I haven't seen a ton of info on these so I am hoping I can have great success with these and share those stories with other reefers!

Delivery Day (this morning):

 

[helen ann]

Congrats to you and the lil' reefer!!!!
Following ...

 

[seastar]

Congrats to you and the lil' reefer!!!!
Following ...

Thanks!

 

[msderganc]

Looking great, I'll be interested to hear about the noise levels on the vectra and the Giesemann performance.

 

[seastar]

Looking great, I'll be interested to hear about the noise levels on the vectra and the Giesemann performance.

I'll definitely post that when I get there. I can say that I have the 4th Vervve over my new frag tank and I can't hear it over the gurgle of that system. The silent RedSea Reefer might be a different story though, especially with three of them, we'll see.

 

[seastar]

Speaking of noise, share the good with the bad. I had a float switch - I had a back up overflow drip-line planned - buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttt didn't install it so now I have what sounds like a jet plane in my house. Im in day 4 of 6 of the drying process. That's it the wood flooring can be salvaged.

Very, very costly mistake. :'( Please don't be the person that slacked on that like I did. I have a couple flood sensors on the way.

Luckily this little man saw the new tank this morning and was able to cheer me up!

 

[Broadfield]

Mandatory (ok maybe that's a stretch) loot shot:

Nice spread!

 

[seastar]

Nice spread!

Thank you sir! My guess is the hard plumbed reactors will (hopefully) look very familiar to you. I already ran into one issue with the Avast reactors having the in/out flow too close to each other for the 1/2 adaptors I order so I'm going to have to figure something out there.

 

[ksfulk]

Good looking build so far!

Will be interested to see what those Verves look like once they are all up and running.

 

[ws6kid]

Lots of awesome equipment. Sorry to hear about the leak. The life of a reefer

 

[seastar]

Lots of awesome equipment. Sorry to hear about the leak. The life of a reefer

My wife took one look at the new tank in the garage and quickly realized it was nearly double the size of the current one. Her first comment (very jokingly) was "if this thing leaks too you're a dead man".

I'll take that as she's still allowing it inside the house so that's a win!

 

[revhtree]

Oh man sorry about the flood! Keep plugging away as I know this is going to be a great build. Love your little helper!

 

[seastar]

Oh man sorry about the flood! Keep plugging away as I know this is going to be a great build. Love your little helper!

Much appreciated, it stinks but I also felt I should share so if other people have had it happen, despite their best intentions and planning, don't feel so bad. I was pretty hard on myself for it.

I'll let the little guy know there are people out there that are excited to see his enthusiasm! We got a new bleeding apple scoly and red fromia starfish in the frag tank today - his face or pure excitement was priceless.

 

[DLHDesign]

Great tank - I'm sure you'll love it!

I have two 130 Gyre's and an L1 in my 525XL. With that, the L1 is running around 80% (with several diversions in the manifold) and the Gyres peak out at 40%. That's almost too much flow in the tank. I don't think you'll have flow issues with two 150's. ;-)
Same with the heaters - I run 2x 300w and they run about 50% of the time. I keep a warm house, however. Three may be more than you need, but it's always good to have backups to your backup. ;-)
The Reefers can be super quite, for sure. But you'll have a love/hate relationship with your downspout gate valve. Unless they've changed them, it's got a bit of a "dead turn" when you switch directions. Eg; If you open it a bit then need to close it, you have to turn it back more than you might expect before it will engage the actual gate. Or perhaps that's just mine... :-|

Congrats again! Looking forward to watching the tank progress along.

 

[SergeantCoral]

Awesome!

 

[seastar]

Great tank - I'm sure you'll love it!

I have two 130 Gyre's and an L1 in my 525XL. With that, the L1 is running around 80% (with several diversions in the manifold) and the Gyres peak out at 40%. That's almost too much flow in the tank. I don't think you'll have flow issues with two 150's. ;-)
Same with the heaters - I run 2x 300w and they run about 50% of the time. I keep a warm house, however. Three may be more than you need, but it's always good to have backups to your backup. ;-)
The Reefers can be super quite, for sure. But you'll have a love/hate relationship with your downspout gate valve. Unless they've changed them, it's got a bit of a "dead turn" when you switch directions. Eg; If you open it a bit then need to close it, you have to turn it back more than you might expect before it will engage the actual gate. Or perhaps that's just mine... :-|

Congrats again! Looking forward to watching the tank progress along.

Good call on the heaters. I also live in Florida so I think that was a bit overkill. I'm going to run two. I really wanted to go with the M1 but ended up spending a bit more for the L1 because I am also planning a couple of diversions.

 

[g5flier]

Great system you put together, I've been following your thread! My 525xl Reefer is finally ready and I will pick it up next week. Thus my question...my LHS has said for $300 they will deliver it. My son in law has p/u truck so I can get it however wondering about he and I being able to move it. Can it easily be broken down enough so two people can move it? Thanks for the advise here!

 

[KJ]

Looking great

 

[DLHDesign]

Can it easily be broken down enough so two people can move it?

It took 4 people to (safely) move the tank out of my SUV and onto the stand. The stand took an hour or two to build (IIRC), so even if someone had delivered it, they would not likely have waited around to help lift up the tank. I'd suggest trying to find at least two more people to help lift it up once you've got the stand in place. All the other components (stand, sump, etc.) are all possible for two people to move, so as long as they will help you load it and you can find those others to help you move it inside, I wouldn't think the delivery is required per-se - not unless you have rough roads or the like and are worried about something getting shaken up...

 

[g5flier]

Thank you so much! Sounds like I better get some beer and pizza for my moving team!