Second times the charm! (I hope) — RedSea Reefer-S 850 G2

[Arisbel]

Taking this one slow, but going all out with love and attention to detail with this new RedSea Reefer-S 850 G2 tank.

Absolutely love it. Gorgeous is an understatement.

I was surprised with myself for going once again with RedSea after my previous 525 XL from them ended up leaking thru the silicone at the bottom… of all places. It was a disaster and I quit the hobby for a good year. Now I’m back and more ambitious than ever becuase let’s be honest, the reefing bug will bite you eventually one way or another. Hopefully you lot can follow my progress and check out the cool things I have planned for this beauty.

 

[Arisbel]

Now the first thing I laid out in terms of blinking was this 57-watt AQUA UV sterilizer. I was inspired by its placement location by Top Shelf Aquatics from their YouTube video showcasing their Reefer-S 1000 build. I really like it! As for the color, I should’ve gone with black body, but I was under the impression the tanks interior was going to be white so that was an oversight on my part. Regardless, I’m still happy and it doesn’t look too bad!

 

[Av8tor2]

NICE. Building mine too. And doing the same thing with the UV. I am just resting mine on the floor of the cabinet.

What are you doing with the massive power cord and blast?

 

[Arisbel]

After I laid out the UV, the next couple of days were spent laying out the manifold. For this manifold, I wanted LOTS of gate valves; You never know when you might need them, and if you do them right, you don’t have to worry too much about flow pressure loss due to all the turns. You can prevent that by adding aprecision gate valve before a sharp turn such as a T or 90° Elbow to act as a wall. To achieve that, I found it best to position the gate valves where I knew I wouldn’t have to fight for space in the future to use them. This is the design I came up with at the time.

 

[Arisbel]

NICE. Building mine too. And doing the same thing with the UV. I am just resting mine on the floor of the cabinet.

Thank you! Yeah I found it to be a nice place!
EDIT: forgot to answer the question lol. I actually just tucked it into the back of the cabinet and secured it with a sticky cable management clip to make sure it stands up so that a possible leak doesn’t get to it.

 

[Arisbel]

On to the trickiest addition and the most complicated plumbing I’ve personally ever done… not that that’s saying much since this is my first plumbing work, but regardless, it was hard and I’m sure a seasoned plumber would struggle as I did. This Pax Bellum algae reactor was particularly difficult due to its height. It couldn’t go in the sumps becuase it would be a nightmare to pull out for maintenance every few weeks, and I struggled to find a good spot for it but I think I figured it out. As you can see I placed it next to the UV sterilizer and connected it to a gate valve using hard plumbing with a quick disconnect fitting that comes with the Pax Bellum so I could easily slide it out for maintenance without ripping my hair out every time. I also put soft paddings on the acrylic feet so it wouldn’t damage the plywood panel it’s on.

 

[Arisbel]

For the slide out panel, I decided to make it Ecotech centric and put my Versa’s, MP40 controllers (not Vectras), and the battery backup. No cable management just yet.

 

[Arisbel]

Bought these cool directional lights from Amazon. They’re from Govee and you could do all sorts of cool light tracks. I decided to make mine look as though the battery backup (is going to be at the bottom left) is feeding power to the versa’s. Another cool thing these lights can do is set schedules for on/off times and can even do gradients if you want a PC build type look for your tank like I do.

 

[Arisbel]

Cable management featuring the one and only Mr. Chili went smoothly for the MP40’s. They may seem like they’re on the same levels, but they’re not. Intercepting flow is not good for my future aquascape hehe.

 

[Arisbel]

from here I spent a week and a half perfecting my plumbing setup to the best of what my 24 year old brain could think of and I have to say, I’m quite happy with how it’s turning out. In the back I have placed an Aquamaxx T-1 calcium reactor and a space saving INT-150 skimmer from Reef Octopus purely for ozone purposes.

Btw, the Pax Bellum’s return was also designed to be easy to disconnect and I tested it multiple times just to make sure… it also makes the area look very sophisticated, so it’s a win-win when You’re also concerned about aesthetics.

 

[Arisbel]

So here’s a video of the whole sump area. If you notice some parts missing (like the aforementioned precision gate valves and one SPEARS ball valve), it’s becuase they haven’t arrived yet mainly due to gate valves (the ones that look good) being out of stock and hard to find.

 

[Arisbel]

Aaaand here’s where I am now! Aquascaping. Even tho I haven’t touched the cables in the sump, I couldn’t wait and added sand and rocks becuase I should’ve been smarter and started my cycle the day I got the tank. Better late than never!

 

[Mattgee87]

Nice build! I must say you are a brave man going with RS again.

 

[Arisbel]

Nice build! I must say you are a brave man going with RS again.

Haha thanks. I must say this new one seems so sturdy and it’s double euro bracing and aluminum stand take away so much of my worries. I feel like this tank was literally built different in the best way.

 

[Mattgee87]

Haha thanks. I must say this new one seems so sturdy and it’s double euro bracing and aluminum stand take away so much of my worries. I feel like this tank was literally built different in the best way.

Yea, I would suspect your tank will last along time. I think they have fixed the issue but only time will tell.

 

[Arisbel]

I’m planning on strapping it to the back very neatly with wire

NICE. Building mine too. And doing the same thing with the UV. I am just resting mine on the floor of the cabinet.

What are you doing with the massive power cord and blast?

management tracks.

 

[bluetang_2000]

looks really good! following as I am also considering buy a S-850.

 

[Redbeardz]

Very nice build!! I took a few Ideas from that same TSA video myself!!

 

[Arisbel]

looks really good! following as I am also considering buy a S-850.

Thank you!!

 

[Arisbel]

Very nice build!! I took a few Ideas from that same TSA video myself!!

Yeah it was nice