Start of a new RedSea 525 reefer

Silverfish

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So I’m not quite ready to proceed with this new build. I’m going to go all in on this thread. I find that some personal stuff makes it interesting. We have seen the fish stuff lots of times. I think it’s all the other stuff that makes it interesting.
So here goes. I hv to move. My mother in law is living with me now. My son graduated a year ago fm CC (surgical tech) my daughter in4th yr at UNCW. So I was looking forward to just my wife and I. You know some cold chillin’. Not happening. Four months before my son moves out my MIL moves in. Whoa does my condo get smaller awful quick. I want to make things clear though. She is great. Just.....
Well all hope is not lost. I’m now 3 weeks out fm closing on a new house. And guess what? I’m gonna set up a new Reefer 525!
Right now it’s at a friends house in storage. I hv been researching of course and making many purchases. Discussion on purchases to come later. I feel like I’m a little out ahead on this but the treason I’m doing it is for the Red Sea challenge. Why not? Gave me motivation to do this and many of the builds I hv read have been a great help. Time to give back.
So at this point I don’t hv much. Basically just opened and made sure it wasn’t busted in shipping. Stay tuned because I will do a complete journal on this and might show you a few Picts of
the house.
Thanks

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NoWaiAma

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So I’m not quite ready to proceed with this new build. I’m going to go all in on this thread. I find that some personal stuff makes it interesting. We have seen the fish stuff lots of times. I think it’s all the other stuff that makes it interesting.
So here goes. I hv to move. My mother in law is living with me now. My son graduated a year ago fm CC (surgical tech) my daughter in4th yr at UNCW. So I was looking forward to just my wife and I. You know some cold chillin’. Not happening. Four months before my son moves out my MIL moves in. Whoa does my condo get smaller awful quick. I want to make things clear though. She is great. Just.....
Well all hope is not lost. I’m now 3 weeks out fm closing on a new house. And guess what? I’m gonna set up a new Reefer 525!
Right now it’s at a friends house in storage. I hv been researching of course and making many purchases. Discussion on purchases to come later. I feel like I’m a little out ahead on this but the treason I’m doing it is for the Red Sea challenge. Why not? Gave me motivation to do this and many of the builds I hv read have been a great help. Time to give back.
So at this point I don’t hv much. Basically just opened and made sure it wasn’t busted in shipping. Stay tuned because I will do a complete journal on this and might show you a few Picts of
the house.
Thanks

3252E67B-5AB7-416B-A13B-FA1750081D9B.jpeg


DDA5E809-E4CD-46D9-A880-6BED0D82D10C.jpeg


5D76E2D2-52E4-434E-BC1E-2F9CA9811FA7.jpeg


75E426A1-8F18-435C-98BC-5D2E44F6503A.jpeg


B5707961-C51C-4793-B2D2-B8EB521F1B6F.jpeg


734D66C9-E2F4-44B9-AE76-B647A09410CF.jpeg


68A22BCE-4854-441B-B059-965DA088AC42.jpeg
All of that for one tank ? ;)
 
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Silverfish

Silverfish

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Hey all,
I’m going to restart build thread and thanks for being so patient. First of all I went from a condo that I lived in for 11 years to a new house. So I went fm simply cleaning the house to having about 7 projects a day! Sooo it’s been sloow going and that’s why the delay. Well of course that’s not the only reason for delay..... Let’s start with plumbing.
The only thing I can say for those who are attempting to hard plumb. Take your time! It seems daunting. Seems beyond your skill level .... but with a little patience and a lot of research you can get it done!
Ok a little something worth mentioning. Not much to build. Tank is super heavy so be aware that you will need help moving it. Cabinet door adjustment was a pain but at least redsea gives you the ability to use adjustable hinge screws. A little to the right on top, a little to the left on bottom and eventually you get them lined up.
So I really don’t want to get into the minutiae of every detail. You kind find that ad nauseum on you tube.
  • I chose to use schedule 80 grey piping. Some say over kill but I like the weight and feel.
  • Researched many many pictures of other sumps and plumbing and manifolds.
  • Drew my own picture of what would work best for my tank.
 
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Silverfish

Silverfish

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Hi,
I’m goin to get right back into the build. I hope I dont seem to abrupt.
Having a final specs drawing I made a tally of what I would need. I’m going to be real with you...planning is great but be prepared to make adjustments and runs to a plumbing store.
My son Andres was a super big help with this section of the build. It just helps to have another set of eyes on a project.
We started with the white corrugated plastic on the inside to brighten everything up. Also used a LED strip above to add additional light and its multi color for fun.
Next we started the plumbing. You have to put the sump in to get the feel for how long from elbow to elbow will be. From return pump up-elbow—manifold and then to your return pipe. This is where you want to have your reactors so you can get an idea of how far apart you can actually space your gate valves.
It’s important to remember that there are many ways of doing this. It’s fine and great to copy a style because you like it but feel free to adjust to make it your own. It’s kind of an organic process. What your idea is when you start may be a lot different from what you end up with. It’s ok. Own it. It’s yours.
I hope this thread will give a little help to those that need it and maybe a little amusement for those that don’t.
Tbc
 
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Silverfish

Silverfish

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E50A4666-FFE1-4E82-9893-70424ED8BF2E.jpeg 2342E71F-128D-497F-8987-BF92FCF42B72.jpeg Hi fish n coral people,
So the plumbing certainly didn’t go without a hitch. A couple of leaks and one big PITA. The reefer 525 parts are metric so trying to hard plumb American fixtures to the tank is difficult. To solve this I used 1/4 inch nylon tubing to make the final connection from manifold to return pipe. The problem is it was nearly impossible to get the tubing over the second barb on the fitting. Tried all the tricks. Hot water. Hairdryer. Finally got it on and ended up with a leak anyway. We must have stripped or misaligned the threads on redsea barbed fixture to return pipe. Also had 2 other leaks where I used threaded pipe. Yes I did use plumbers tape. Oh yea one more leak. Not quite a leak but water was squirting out of the return pump. Turns out we never glued the inside fitting.
As for the other leaks.... plumbers dope, sometimes called mud. A little of that on the threads and instant fix!
I’m going to keep adding a few pictures. Hope you find the thread a bit interesting and maybe a little helpful.
 

PerplexyHexy

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Hey all,
I’m going to restart build thread and thanks for being so patient. First of all I went from a condo that I lived in for 11 years to a new house. So I went fm simply cleaning the house to having about 7 projects a day! Sooo it’s been sloow going and that’s why the delay. Well of course that’s not the only reason for delay..... Let’s start with plumbing.
The only thing I can say for those who are attempting to hard plumb. Take your time! It seems daunting. Seems beyond your skill level .... but with a little patience and a lot of research you can get it done!
Ok a little something worth mentioning. Not much to build. Tank is super heavy so be aware that you will need help moving it. Cabinet door adjustment was a pain but at least redsea gives you the ability to use adjustable hinge screws. A little to the right on top, a little to the left on bottom and eventually you get them lined up.
So I really don’t want to get into the minutiae of every detail. You kind find that ad nauseum on you tube.
  • I chose to use schedule 80 grey piping. Some say over kill but I like the weight and feel.
  • Researched many many pictures of other sumps and plumbing and manifolds.
  • Drew my own picture of what would work best for my tank.

You drew everything on paper, like I did!!! Hhahahahhahahahahha!!! Thats awesome... My wife thought I was nuts... she would find drawings like that folded up in my pant pockets... Every now and then I stumble across an old drawn up idea in a drawer or in the garage somewhere... love it!!!!
 
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Silverfish

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Come plumb my tank. I am so overwhelmed when with the amazing writeups from @Broadfield and others. It just is so far outside of anything I’m familiar with.

That said.

Looks great !
I just wanted to say that I felt the same way but if you take it slow . One step at a time and I mean really take it slow...it won’t be as daunting. Thanks and certainly feel free to ask questions. Myself and everybody here would surely help in your endeavors.
 

SuncrestReef

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Looks good so far! I used a 3/4" threaded to 1" slip fitting to adapt to my Red Sea Reefer XL 425 return pipe along with a lot of teflon tape. No leaks.

Feel free to peruse my build thread for other plumbing ideas, including automatic water changes and converting the Red Sea ATO reservoir into a refugium.

Are you going to use a controller? What about lighting? Following along....
 
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Silverfish

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Looks good so far! I used a 3/4" threaded to 1" slip fitting to adapt to my Red Sea Reefer XL 425 return pipe along with a lot of teflon tape. No leaks.

Feel free to peruse my build thread for other plumbing ideas, including automatic water changes and converting the Red Sea ATO reservoir into a refugium.

Are you going to use a controller? What about lighting? Following along....
Thanks for the info. I would love to have refugium.....eventually. I feel a bit overwhelmed with everything. I need to slow it down a bit. Take a breather and let the tank settle in. I have work to do on this thread to catch everybody up but I will try my best.
 
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Silverfish

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I know some of this might be tedious so bear with me. Now for the dry side. Many options and ideas. Here’s what I did. Added a DJ control board and false back. Not a new idea but for now seems like a good idea. It cost me like 35$, 29D4CD11-232A-4D2F-979B-2BC95C198262.jpeg 9875B2E2-7869-496C-A589-713DFBD9C0ED.jpeg A607C73C-CC39-48A3-A61A-9C60F6E63BDB.jpeg 20EB9840-FE47-4D82-8D20-93486B1BEC85.jpeg so a cheap fix until I get a controller.
 
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Silverfish

Silverfish

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Ok. It’s been awhile so at this point I’ll try to make more relevant comments. I’ll put it in a ....this is what happened and this is what I’ve learned over past 6 months.

Big question 1. Live rock or dry live rock.
Simply put, live rock, aquaculture or not, contains a lot of diversity when it comes to living organisms. Honestly, a lot of fun. Discovering new critters, corals, sponges, crabs, shrimps, worms, snails..... aptasia.

Yea, lots of fun until you get an unwanted guest. You thought it was difficult before? Try eradicating vermetid snails, a planarian infestation or aptasia take over or mantis shrimp.

Most live rock is aquaculture in Florida. Used to be you could get live rock fm any number of pacific islands. Not so much anymore. I also believe Florida live rock does hv plenty of life but is not true reef rock. More like rock that has been cycling with reef life just starting and lots of algae. Typical of near shore environment in the keys.

The other choice is dry live rock such as Carib Sea. Definitely no undesirables! Also no life whatsoever. Tough choice, right?
Here’s what my experience has taught me and what other reefers are finding out.
It takes a whole lot of time to cycle “life” rock! So you fill the tank, add your rock, and bacteria...and wait for the cycle to begin. Problem is, without the microfauna and microbial life nothing happens. The cycling parameters read like normal. Ammonia first, presence of nitrites then nitrates. No ammonia...etc. Then parameters are good?

Right? Not so fast, Apparently, a cycle did occur but only enough to support the most minimal bio load.
Things move slow, diatoms at 5 months uglies at 6?
I’m just starting to see coralline algae.

You Will, get to where you need to be in order to have a successful tank. It’s important to see both sides and make an educated decision. Like everything else in reefing there are many opinions and it will be hard to get your decision there.

Do the research! Look at the variables of each type.....do a pro, cons. Go with your gut.
Either way, it’s gonna be work and in the end you will have a beautiful reef.

It is important to note, critters will come in on your frags. Some good some bad. Dipping corals like quarantine fish can be an important preventative step in keeping your tank disease free and unwanted creature free!
 
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