Sophie's Reef: Red Sea Reefer XXL 625 Slow Start Build (Aus)

[mmorriso]

Hello from sunny Melbourne, Australia!

I've been keeping reefs for about 3 years and planted tanks for many years before that. I've recently moved house and inadvertently (More on that soon) upgraded my tank from a Reefer XL 525 to a Reefer XXL 625. I never really documented my first build so I'd like to take this opportunity to do so. First off, here's my Reefer XL 525 just before I shut it down:

Unfortunately, given the timing and manner of my move, I needed to sell all livestock in the tank as I needed to have the tank dry for almost 3 months.

While selling off parts of the tank, a more experienced reefer pointed out damage to some of the silicone. To my eyes, this looked "organic" rather than a typical seam split, so I wasn't very hopeful of a good outcome when I contacted Red Sea support. To my surprise, Red Sea offered an immediate tank replacement, however as there were no white Reefer XL 525's available, they offered a free upgrade to a Reefer XXL 625! I happily accepted.

My elation was short-lived however. I took delivery of the Reefer XXL 625 and it was immaculate. I got the stand and sump unboxed and engaged some movers to get the tank onto the stand. Unfortunately, the movers dropped the tank on my stairs and the tank was damaged beyond repair! I contacted the distributor and explained the situation. They offered a tank only replacement at a very reasonable price, however the catch is that I won't get it until April.

I did contact a few custom tank builders to see if they could "replicate" my tank. While they could do it faster (About 3 weeks) I didn't like the value proposition: The Reefer XXL 625 was 19mm glass all around, whereas the custom tanks would be thinner glass with a euro brace for more than 3 times the cost I'd pay for Red Sea to replace the tank. As I'd recently moved into an old house, I had a lot of other things to occupy me anyway during these hot summer months so didn't think the wait would be too bad.

Given this, I'm going to get my sump set up and run it as a miniature tank to commence the cycle, hence the "slow start". I think this is a bit unorthodox but I hope that it will help to speed me through my first year!

 

[mmorriso]

First order of business: Attach the light rack to the cabinet, as once even the sump is installed, the unit as a whole will be too difficult to move.

I run three Reefi LED Duo Extreme's and am extremely happy with them. I've tried almost every other major light fixture on the market and I like these the best, only occasionally missing the shimmer provided by ReefLED's or Kessil's. For those wondering, I have tried the ATI Straton's as well, I could just never get the colour right as compared to the results I achieved from the Reefi's. Here's proof:

Here's the same tank under an ATI Hybrid Powermodule. I really love this light and I still keep it on hand, T5's are just very expensive to run, especially in Australia as the bulbs are very pricey here:

To mount the units, I built a frame out of extruded aluminium (2040 profile) which I attach to the rear of the cabinet. I'd encourage everyone to consider this for a new tank, as aluminium extrusion is the most flexible mounting option in my opinion and you can ultimately accommodate any light fixture with it:

With that done, I can get on to the sump!

 

[mmorriso]

On to the sump: In order to accommodate my Innovitech filter roller, I need to:

- Remove the filter sock holders
- Re-locate the baffle such that it's adjacent to the refugium compartment

On my previous tank, when removing the filter sock holders and baffle, I never took the time to relocate the baffle. I regretted this and my macro algae grew into the filter chamber and made maintenance of the filter roller difficult, so I'd definitely recommend relocated the baffle rather than just removing it.

On filter rollers themselves: I'm quite happy with the Innovitech unit. I originally had a Clarisea unit and cannot recommend them at all, mine was nothing but trouble and I ultimately gave it away it annoyed me so much.

Here's the sump during modification:

For those wondering, you need to trim 6mm off the bottom of the baffle so that it can sit on top of the 6mm sheets that separate the filter chamber from the refugium section. This is good as you can then silicone the baffle to the strut that holds the cross-baffle you use to change the size of your refugium and skimmer chambers. You also need to slightly relocate the glass rails that are used to support the cup holder. You could probably get rid of them, I kept them around to brace the relocated baffle.

The finished product:

 

[mmorriso]

Filling the sump: After the physical modifications to the sump I was ready to fill it up!

My plan is to install my filter roller and my return pump and just use some soft tubing to run my return line up and over to the filter roller inlet.

I was really happy with my refugium on my last tank, so I wanted to re-establish that ecosystem. I decided to use miracle mud with a live sand cap:

My helpers. I don't know what it is with RO tubing but my cat makes it his mission to knock it out of the tub no matter how well I secure it. I've seen him try to swing from it using his mouth:

I used a mallet to break up a few Life Rocks, mostly just to inhibit the sand moving about while new and the substrate was ready. I added the dregs from a few bottles of bacteria I had lying around and a couple drops of ammonia and we're up and cycling!

 

[mmorriso]

Cycling the sump: I've had the sump cycling for just on a week now, fuelling it with ammonia drops. I picked up a pair of mocha clowns from the only fish store in my city that quarantines using TTM:

I've also added copepods, rotifers and isopods which I feed by dosing a plankton mix each day.

I have my 3 tunze echo chic lights over the refugium however I'm only running the single marine spectrum for a few hours a day at the moment as it's a bit early to be trying to encourage algae growth.

 

[mmorriso]

Monitoring (The sump): Not too much to report. I've set my Profilux back up, mostly just to keep an eye on salinity for me as I'm currently topping up by hand and it's a small volume of water. It's a little low but it's just fish and pods so I will raise that up shortly.

I have a KH Director that I've had in its box for almost a year that I will use this time as an opportunity to set up, I've also ordered a nice little cabinet to organise my more sophisticated electronics which will be a nice change from balancing them on top of an old salt bucket!

Otherwise everything is going well. I've got some nice plumbing and electronics projects planned, I'm just waiting on components to arrive.

I want to move away from my ultra reliable (But not ultra quiet!) Fluval SP4 pumps. I have one for my skimmer, one for my return and one spare. I am torn between Octo Varios and EcoTech Vectra.

Octo Varios seems to be reliable, have a 10v port for my Profilux and they are slightly cheaper considering everything that comes in the box. Their downside is that they don't have inbuilt battery backup supply capability (I can add that myself, but it's a small hassle) and they are not carried by as many shops in my area.

EcoTech Vectra seems to be slightly less reliable, don't have a 10v port (But do have an app) are more expensive given the need to add barbed fittings and strainer and my own float switches if required. However they are more powerful, are carried by every shop I've ever been to and have a nice inbuilt battery backup supply capability so I don't need to make DC power switchers myself.

If anyone has any opinions please let me know, I've looked at many threads but it mostly appears to be people liking what they already have.

 

[mmorriso]

Catching up: Apologies for not updating! The tank has been steady state until quite recently, but I've received my new display and have it up on the stand so it's time to re-start the journal

Firstly, where are we up to?

Here's the sump, which I've been added various macroalgae to:

There's chaetomorpha, sea lettuce and dragons breath in there along with a bunch of micro-fauna that I've managed to source. I'm happy with how it's going, although I think I might try and "plant" the sea lettuce.

Also, I've had time to get the KH Director up and running:

I was a little bit nervous about commencing the setup of the GHL products, as I'd heard that it was very tricky however my experience has been extremely pleasant and I really can't fault them. I was on the verge of trying out some Reef Factory equipment which seems to be being marketed heavily here in Australia at the moment, as they're more modern and appliance like, however I couldn't get a good understanding of what happens when the equipment is disconnected from the internet, being "app" based. As I live in an old house, I'm planning the tank around many modern conveniences not being available in a pinch so I chose to stick with GHL and am now happy I did!

Set up of the Profilux and KH Director was extremely straightforward, I just used the online written instructions and followed each simple step. I've found the measurements very accurate so far and found it useful as I established by Kalk dosing regimen.

 

[mmorriso]

Installation: Image of my hardscape prior to tank going onto the stand and wall of text:

I wasn't able to document the tank installation itself, as I was so paranoid about another drop and was also assisting directly. I possibly overengineered the work method but it worked out in the end so I'm happy I invested the effort.

To get the tank in this time, I was determined to avoid the stairs. I laid a layer of high density polyurethane rubber mat over my back lawn, from my driveway to a part of the decking in which I removed the trellis. I laid MDF sheets over the rubber mat, interleaved across the joins in the mat.

I got a contractor with a pneumatic scissor lift trolley, removed the tank from it's shipping package (But keeping it on the base it shipped with as the bulkheads are proud of the base) and onto the trolley. We then wheeled it across the path on the back lawn and then performed the first lift onto a dolly on my decking.

Using the dolly, we wheeled the tank inside and then it was a straight manual lift onto the tank stand. I got everyone a carbonated beverage and then sat back a decompressed!

All in all, I engaged 7 contractors to assist with the lift to make light work of the manual lift. Four people can easily lift a tank this size however my advice is to have twice as many as you need if you're performing complex lifts (Say, up a level onto decking) as the tank effectively needs to be passed through the aperture onto another team.

One thing I did that perhaps wasn't necessary was remove the light rack. I did this as I thought it might interfere with angling the tank to get the bulkheads into the cut-out into the sump. I think this probably wasn't necessary and the light rack can't be re-installed now that the tank is in situ, so I'll need to develop a top mount solution.

Here's the tank fill for those that are still with me:

My initial plan (When I thought the tank was going in in summer) was to fill with natural sea water, however winter produces a lot of run-off into the bay, so I typically don't use NSW during the wet months. I ended up just using barrels (and barrels) of artificial sea water.

 

[mmorriso]

Connecting the display to the sump: Once the tank had been filled up to the point that water was just trickling into the drain, I dropped in about 600W worth of heating and turned on the wave makers. I left the tank like that for about 2 days just to make sure the temperature, salinity and PH were as close to the system running in the sump as possible.

Once I was happy with things, I just connected my return pump (Which had previously been moving water from the "end" of the sump circuit to the "start") to the return line and we were all up and running! I added a bit of Fauna Marin Bacto Blend and Bacto Therapy, but I was pretty confident that the relatively mature sump would hold me in good stead:

I ran the system like that for another day before moving the clownfish into the display, along with a bunch more microfauna (Copepods and amphipods, with a stromatella snail managing to sneak in).

 

[mmorriso]

Initial steps to prepare for livestock: Now that the whole system was up, it was time to start preparing to house more livestock. I don't some early work in this regard:

- The sump had been cycled and running for nearly 6 months at this point
- The sump had a miracle mud base, live sand, a good deal of rock and a large bag of filter media
- The sump was full of various strains of macro-algae and micro-fauna
- Two clownfish had been living happily in the sump for nearly 5 months
- My filter sock roller and skimmer were installed and broken in

Given this, I wanted to bring my UV steriliser online and introduce a method of skeletal element maintenance before introducing additional fish and corals. Once again, the weather wasn't on my side. My initial plan was to install the large and unattractive UV unit outside and perform a lot of this work in the hot, dry summer. Instead it was the middle of a cold, wet winter and I wasn't keen to crawl under my house to perform the plumbing required. In the end I set it up behind the controls cabinet using soft tubing while I think about where the best situate it long term:

I didn't think it was worthwhile bringing my calcium reactor online at this point (and things were still pretty messy around the tank) so I broke out my old two-little fishies Kalk reactor.

This is a really solid unit. The main advantage is that it is powered purely by flow through a little sprinkler head on the downflow. The main drawback in my opinion being that it needs to be driven by periodic activation of impeller pump (i.e. Put it in series with your ATO) as it requires a fair bit of flow to mix and ensure ongoing saturation.

My preferred method would be constant low flow from a peristaltic pump but my old homemade stirrer hadn't survived the move. I think it's hard to maintain a very stable alk / calc level using this device but if you were happy to keep it within a "range", especially on a low demand tank, I think it's fine. Long term, kalk for me is really about PH maintenance rather than skeletal element supplementation

 

[mmorriso]

Current state: Here’s the tank as of today

I’m pretty happy with how it’s going, having the sump established has meant that the display itself hasn’t needed to go through an ugly phase and there’s already a base degree of stability so I’ve been able to add coral relatively quickly without issue.

 

[mmorriso]

Today was the first day in a while that I’ve been able to get the tool (Hammer drill and masonry bits) out and progress the tank.

Having taken the light rack down, I investigated a ceiling mount solution, however I couldn’t find a good mounting point and I wasn’t confident in the dry wall ceiling supporting my lights.

instead, I went with a heavy duty shelf bracket, drilled on the centre point of my tank:

It worked pretty well! I was able to decommission the Red Sea 160S’s (Great lights) and switch on the ReeFi’s!:

I installed my 4 Orphek OR3’s on the light rack as well, but it’ll be a while before I need them, I’d say.

 

[mmorriso]

I have been trying to get my PH up to 8.1-8.4 and remain stable. There are two ways to do this:

- Slowly increase the amount of Kalkwasser being added to the system, typically via a peristaltic pump through your stirrer
- Wear a white sock while re-arranging your dosing lines, which your cat thinks are mice. Your cat will latch onto your ankle causing you to knock over your stirrer and instantly dumping 250ml of saturated Kalk into the sump.

Can you guess which way I chose? An instantaneous .2 increase in PH:

We'll see the outcome over the next few days I imagine. Tank was cloudy for half an hour but things are back to normal for the evening:

 

[mmorriso]

I haven't really spoke about my livestock. As of this moment I have:

- 2 mocha clownfish
- 1 one spot foxface rabbitfish, the only inhabitant from my tank prior to the move
- 1 murderous purple tang
- 1 very nervous scopaz tang
- 1 whipfin fairy wrasse
- 1 rarely seen 8 line wrasse
- 1 potentially mythical blue throated fairy wrasse, spoken of but never sighted

- 5-8 trochus snails
- 5-8 turbo snails
- 2 sand sifting starfish

I don't really have plans to add more fish. Regal angelfish are my favourite fish but my zoas need to be much more well established before they could survive the predations of a regal angel.

Perhaps 3 or 5 cardinalfish? We'll see.

 

[whitcory]

Coming along nicely. I too have the 625. How have you organized your sump. I am thinking of developing a refugium down there. I like the tank and have had it for a year or so. Starting to settle in. How is your sump organized and coming along?

 

[mmorriso]

Thanks! I can't recommend a refugium in the second compartment of the sump highly enough.

I use the sump divider that comes the tank so that there are 4 compartments:

1: The first compartment is the downflow and where the ReefMat is installed.

2: The second (largest) compartment has the refugium. It has a mud base with a deep sand bed and some rock. I tried to grow a range of macro-algae's but chaeto easily out-competed all other strains. I use two Tunze eco-chic lights here, and submerse them just below the surface so there's no light bleed to create algae elsewhere in the sump.

When my female clown started hosting my bubble-tip anemone's, she became super aggressive to the male, so there's also a small clown living down in this chamber. There's actually a giant colony of glass-shrimp living in here too, which I only realised once I dropped a few pellets of food in for the clown the first time. There's at least 6 of them and they're larger than any I've seen in a shop. I assume they must have made their way in with the various macro-algae I sourced. Pretty cool.

3: The third compartment has my skimmer and any additional media I choose to run. I also install my probes here. I use a life-reef skimmer but I'd consider changing in the future. The pump for my UV loop and the intake for my alkalinity monitor are also in this compartment.

4: The fourth compartment is the return pump chamber. It's also the compartment I dose into.

I've never had any kind of algae issue in the display tank and I credit the mature sump / refugium for that.