Show Off and Discuss Your Red Sea Reefer Series

[Fringe09]

Fringe -- thanks for chiming in. Glad I'm not the only one outside their comfort zone doing this! I swear the guys at Lowes see me coming & want to hide, due to the ridiculous(!) questions I come up having just moved into a house of my own. The saltwater mix station is scaring me too, even though a bunch of people have literally spelled out their set-ups down to the last washer. Maybe having actual parts in front of me to put together will seem less terrifying than trying to figure it all out on a computer screen. We shall see!

But thank you -- I needed to know there was at least one other non-DIY-er on here

Skip the computer screen. I think it will take longer. Use good old paper and pencil. Here is my drawing and the real thing. The real thing is just a little different on purpose. Having the parts in your hand is very helpful.

 

[nanchil]

Same here... I don't know the ABCD of DIY ... ... I got the 525 XL three months back ... Collected all the equipments ... still sitting in my living room ... Scared to start the project ... Have to bite the bullet and start somewhere ... Good luck ...

I'm about to pull the trigger & actually order the 525XL, but am having a moment of panic about all of the plumbing, electrical work & general home-improvement-type stuff you guys are all doing to make these set-ups as amazing as they are

The more I read, the more I see a lot of engineers, fabricators, actual plumbers & electricians, and DIY home-remodelers. And, well, I'm NONE of those!

I can save you if you're bleeding out in the ER or have a heart attack in front of me, but home improvement stuff ain't my thang.

Am I asking for disaster by embarking on this adventure? There is TONS of amazing information on here about how you all have tackled these projects, but I'm wondering if that, plus advice from LFS will be enough to get me through?

Realizing I should have started the reef BEFORE getting divorced and losing my "I can build or fix anything, just give me an hour" guy

 

[Giraffe0621]

Skip the computer screen. I think it will take longer. Use good old paper and pencil. Here is my drawing and the real thing. The real thing is just a little different on purpose. Having the parts in your hand is very helpful.

hah, I didn't mean I was drafting blueprints on my computer (you're the computer dude, NOT me!) -- I meant I've been reading everything about plumbing online, not sitting with any pieces of PVC in my hands. I think it will make more sense when I can actually see the male/female threads, how things fit (or don't), etc. I haven't purchased anything yet, so this entire tank exists purely online. Makes it a little harder to get my head around! Thanks for the diagram/visual though -- will bookmark & save for later

 

[Giraffe0621]

Same here... I don't know the ABCD of DIY ... ... I got the 525 XL three months back ... Collected all the equipments ... still sitting in my living room ... Scared to start the project ... Have to bite the bullet and start somewhere ... Good luck ...

HAH! Non-DIY'ers are crawling out of the rock-work now. THANK YOU guys for the reassurance -- I'm sure all of our tanks will look fabulous. Just have to have the courage to start!
A

 

[emvanburen]

Giraffe
A lot of this stuff is a big puzzle. With the internet you can get almost any part now pretty easily - but not right away. So if you are going for "it works" vs "it's a working work of art" you are probably still getting lots of stuff from lowes and HD. Then there is a bit of figuring out the sequence of parts to get from a 3/4" pump output to - say - your 1" pvc pipe. There are bushings and fittings etc and you can get from a to b a number of different ways. So I buy a lot of cheap parts and return the ones I don't use. Clear primer was new to me this year and a godsend. Could not find at store but amazon provides! The mixing station is a great learning place - if you mess something up just start over. It's only pvc!

 

[emvanburen]

And the brs cepex valves come with unions and slip and threaded connections. They are awesome.

 

[drawman]

I changed the ATO to a refugium the other night. It's actually doing good and the drilling of the glass was easier than I thought. I have never drilled glass before and was really nervous about it. I feel comfortable now could probably even drill something bigger.

I'm curious how is your pipe supported?

 

[Shoob1e]

Those of us with 250s what are you putting in sumps to help with nitrate, no refug

 

[Yokahammy]

Have a lighting question for my reefer 450 I just ordered. I'm looking at going with T5 lighting and was wondering if the ATI 48 inch 8x54w dimmable sun power T5 high-output fixture would be big enough for that tank? I ask this because I'm not sure if it matters that the T5 fixture is only 48 inches long and the tank is almost 60 inches long.

 

[Giraffe0621]

Giraffe
A lot of this stuff is a big puzzle. With the internet you can get almost any part now pretty easily - but not right away. So if you are going for "it works" vs "it's a working work of art" you are probably still getting lots of stuff from lowes and HD. Then there is a bit of figuring out the sequence of parts to get from a 3/4" pump output to - say - your 1" pvc pipe. There are bushings and fittings etc and you can get from a to b a number of different ways. So I buy a lot of cheap parts and return the ones I don't use. Clear primer was new to me this year and a godsend. Could not find at store but amazon provides! The mixing station is a great learning place - if you mess something up just start over. It's only pvc!

I thought an RO/DI & mixing station would be a good place to start. PVC piping sounds like the cheapest part of this entire reef idea.

Ok, now off to look up whatever the heck "Bushings" are

 

[sithrico]

I'm curious how is your pipe supported?

I haven't put the supports on the top of the cabinet as of yet. I have a pretty tight fit so nothing is even moving. Once I really start the pump up on 3 or so I will have to add the brackets. I know how risk taking, I don't see a need for the brackets yet.

 

[ReefingwithO]

Fringe -- thanks for chiming in. Glad I'm not the only one outside their comfort zone doing this! I swear the guys at Lowes see me coming & want to hide, due to the ridiculous(!) questions I come up having just moved into a house of my own. The saltwater mix station is scaring me too, even though a bunch of people have literally spelled out their set-ups down to the last washer. Maybe having actual parts in front of me to put together will seem less terrifying than trying to figure it all out on a computer screen. We shall see!

But thank you -- I needed to know there was at least one other non-DIY-er on here

I was in the same boat as your guys, I actually learned about plumbing, electrical and all that other stuff while working on my reefer 350. The first manifold was bad but it worked, with better planning the second one came out better.

Just order more than you need and send them back when your done.

I actually fixed my kitchen sink yesterday so the feeding skills are being tacken back to regular life.

 

[Pandy]

I run an 80w over my 525, fits absolutely perfectly. A 54w would work, but you would lose some light coverage over the ends.

Have a lighting question for my reefer 450 I just ordered. I'm looking at going with T5 lighting and was wondering if the ATI 48 inch 8x54w dimmable sun power T5 high-output fixture would be big enough for that tank? I ask this because I'm not sure if it matters that the T5 fixture is only 48 inches long and the tank is almost 60 inches long.

 

[jasonamyers]

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Did you have any issue with water coming out of your reactor on the input? I've go two orings but water is still leaking... you mentioned tightening it I'll try harder

 

[Mystikal]

Recently picked up some water tanks and made a AWC station with a 40 gal ATO tank.

I used the T to connect both tanks, and allow the option for the Gravity Fed ATO unit to be connected. The ATO uses hard poly tubing similar to the line that most fridges uses, then connects down and back to the original float valve.

The AWC unit is being controlled by the Kore 5th doser. It's in the testing phase, and currently doing 5gals of water ever week(7days). I was able to simply measure this by having a 5 gal bucket for the waste water. It has been spot on for the last two weeks. So far, it has been an easy process. Still need to paint the stand and do a little adjustments.

 

[pelphrey]

Did you have any issue with water coming out of your reactor on the input? I've go two orings but water is still leaking... you mentioned tightening it I'll try harder

I had a leak on the output. I took the top off and twisted the nut a small amount and that fixed the leak. I'm working on a video now better explaining how I setup that reactor.

 

[Reefltx]

I run an 80w over my 525, fits absolutely perfectly. A 54w would work, but you would lose some light coverage over the ends.

It will work, unless you want sps end to end. I have 4 bulbs 36" hybrid over my 350 and getting 300 par on the center sand bed and roughly 100-150 on the each ends with the fixture being 6" above the water.

 

[pelphrey]

When I first installed the AquaMaxx reactor I had plans to run GFO/Carbon. Since I got the ATS online I don't want to run any GFO and my carbon usage has gone down. I decided to pull the pond matrix out of the media bag and place it in the reactor. I do also have pond matrix in the drain section of the sump -

Decided to build a light mount out of 8020. As a comparison this is a picture of the Kessils on the A Series Mounts -

The long span is 48", I went with 48" to reduce the shipping costs. There is a 11" piece mounted to the long span with that Tee'd off into a 18" span for light mounting. This is all series 10. I used the Kessil 90's to mount the lights to the 8020 -

I painted a board white on the top, this section can be seen on the opening of the Red Sea Reefer stand. Drilled some holes and bolted the 8020 bracket to the board. Took a hacksaw to cut the bolts down.

Not the best side by side but it gives you an idea -

Final result -

Had a small piece of rubble rock laying in my cabinet, was to lazy to take it into the garage and put it in my bucket of rock so I dropped it into the tank. Crazy to see how white the rock once was compared to the background and the current color of my rock work.

 

[SlvrZ]

I decided to build my ATS with different lights and a smaller foot print as where it was originally made it a chore when cleaning the return pump. I just need to polish the edges and drill for the plumbing and ready to go. I built this one with that black corner over flow that is supporting the old ATS lol

 

[pelphrey]