undermind's Reefer XL 425 (v3) - Heavy DIY

[undermind]

Plumbing

I'll touch on how my tank, sump, ATO, AWC and waste water systems are plumbed.

I'm using the stock RSR plumbing in the stand. I see people commonly complain about the Reefer plumbing. Lots of comments on noise, gate valve complaints, etc. I have pretty much zero issues with the stock plumbing. Most complaints I've seen have come from owners of the v2 plumbing, so perhaps the v3 is improved? I'm not sure how. I believe it's largely the same components.

With the v3 RSR plumbing, the return pipe is routed to the front (closest) right corner of the wet side cabinet. I did have gurgling for several days after initial setup. But after several tiny, tiny adjustments, it is absolutely dead silent. And it's required no adjustments in 3 months.

Water flow:
Return from overflow > Filter sock chamber (2 filter cups, 2 filter socks – stock RSR setup) > Refugium > Skimmer chamber > Bubble Wall > Return chamber with COR15 pump. Plumbed back up to tank output via vinyl hose.

AWC:
I'm using the Smart AWC Touch for auto water change. This system is stellar when it comes to it's simplicity. Controlled by high and low optical sensors. Easy to control water change volume. I'm currently running 2.5% total volume water changes every other day.

Sensors are installed in the return pump area, and this is also where the waste and new saltwater pull and replace from. These lines (I believe 3/8") route through the back of the cabinet, through the wall, directly into fish room.

ATO:
The ATO is incorporated into the Smart AWC Touch. The ATO is function uses the AWC high sensor to detect when topoffs are needed. As most know, ATO function is paused during water changes.

Issue: One big issue I've had with the Smart AWC Touch is that the brain has failed me 3 times. Only the ATO port fails. The ones I've had fail have done it within a few weeks. I'd move on to another option but they just keep shipping me new units for free. My current version has been running strong for about 3x as long as the others. I haven't heard of this happening to others, or in any reviews.

Fish Room:
There are 3 x 20g long tanks in the fish room that handle ATO, Salt Mix, and Waste Water duties. The Smart AWC Touch feeds each of these through the plumbing that routes through the wall. The ATO tank has a MJ12 that feeds the salt mix tank and is controlled by a American DJ rack power switch. The salt mix tank is stirred by 2 MJ12's creating a circular motion. The waste water tank has a high powered sump pump plumbed to 1 1/2" pipe that routes out of the fish room through a wall, into my furnace room, and up and out of the house to the outside. The sump pump moves a full tank in about 8 or 9 seconds.

The entire process is fully automatic, aside from adding new salt. I generally just keep the salt mix tank full by adding new salt and water every few days. I could go 1.5 weeks or so without doing anything essentially, following the current AWC program I'm on.

Here's a quick vid showing the RO/DI water moving from the ATO tank to the salt mix tank, while the waste water tank is draining:



RO/DI:
The RO/DI unit is mounted to the wall in the fish room. It's fed from under the kitchen sink upstairs. It travels through the floor into the area above the ceiling tiles in the basement and through another wall to get there. I have a splitter route off after the RO portion for drinking water, which has its own storage tank. Very very cool since our old pipes create some pretty unpleasant drinking water. The DI water goes to the ATO tank (drilled with float switch).

 

[NY_Caveman]

Plumbing

I'll touch on how my tank, sump, ATO, AWC and waste water systems are plumbed.

I'm using the stock RSR plumbing in the stand. I see people commonly complain about the Reefer plumbing. Lots of comments on noise, gate valve complaints, etc. I have pretty much zero issues with the stock plumbing. Most complaints I've seen have come from owners of the v2 plumbing, so perhaps the v3 is improved? I'm not sure how. I believe it's largely the same components.

With the v3 RSR plumbing, the return pipe is routed to the front (closest) right corner of the wet side cabinet. I did have gurgling for several days after initial setup. But after several tiny, tiny adjustments, it is absolutely dead silent. And it's required no adjustments in 3 months.

Water flow:
Return from overflow > Filter sock chamber (2 filter cups, 2 filter socks – stock RSR setup) > Refugium > Skimmer chamber > Bubble Wall > Return chamber with COR15 pump. Plumbed back up to tank output via vinyl hose.

AWC:
I'm using the Smart AWC Touch for auto water change. This system is stellar when it comes to it's simplicity. Controlled by high and low optical sensors. Easy to control water change volume. I'm currently running 2.5% total volume water changes every other day.

Sensors are installed in the return pump area, and this is also where the waste and new saltwater pull and replace from. These lines (I believe 3/8") route through the back of the cabinet, through the wall, directly into fish room.

ATO:
The ATO is incorporated into the Smart AWC Touch. The ATO is function uses the AWC high sensor to detect when topoffs are needed. As most know, ATO function is paused during water changes.

Issue: One big issue I've had with the Smart AWC Touch is that the brain has failed me 3 times. Only the ATO port fails. The ones I've had fail have done it within a few weeks. I'd move on to another option but they just keep shipping me new units for free. My current version has been running strong for about 3x as long as the others. I haven't heard of this happening to others, or in any reviews.

Fish Room:
There are 3 x 20g long tanks in the fish room that handle ATO, Salt Mix, and Waste Water duties. The Smart AWC Touch feeds each of these through the plumbing that routes through the wall. The ATO tank has a MJ12 that feeds the salt mix tank and is controlled by a American DJ rack power switch. The salt mix tank is stirred by 2 MJ12's creating a circular motion. The waste water tank has a high powered sump pump plumbed to 1 1/2" pipe that routes out of the fish room through a wall, into my furnace room, and up and out of the house to the outside. The sump pump moves a full tank in about 8 or 9 seconds.

The entire process is fully automatic, aside from adding new salt. I generally just keep the salt mix tank full by adding new salt and water every few days. I could go 1.5 weeks or so without doing anything essentially, following the current AWC program I'm on.

Here's a quick vid showing the RO/DI water moving from the ATO tank to the salt mix tank, while the waste water tank is draining:



RO/DI:
The RO/DI unit is mounted to the wall in the fish room. It's fed from under the kitchen sink upstairs. It travels through the floor into the area above the ceiling tiles in the basement and through another wall to get there. I have a splitter route off after the RO portion for drinking water, which has its own storage tank. Very very cool since our old pipes create some pretty unpleasant drinking water. The DI water goes to the ATO tank (drilled with float switch).

Very cool!

 

[Sato]

Following your thread also starting my build after my renovation. Is it quiet or do u suggest building a manifold

 

[undermind]

Following your thread also starting my build after my renovation. Is it quiet or do u suggest building a manifold

Mine is dead quiet.

I had considered doing a manifold but I just don't have enough equipment needing flow to warrant the effort. Plus, I would want a bigger return pump. Right now I find that the COR15 is ideal running between 70-90%

 

[undermind]

Cable Management

I'll start getting into livestock and stuff after this, but just wanted to touch on cable management since it's one of my fave parts of this setups. I've never liked sumps that have a tangled birdnest of wires hanging over them. Honestly, I just hate seeing wires period (just ask my wife).

The simplest way to manage the cables in the wet side cabinet was to use J-channel cable raceways. I screwed in sections J-channel high up along the top edge of the cabinet walls. You can see them here:

You practically have to lie down on the floor to even see the raceways, the way the cabinet trim is. And the great thing is that you can easily take wires in and out of the channels as much as you like. So maintenance is breezy. It's a better setup than zip ties or velcro cable wraps, like I'd be inclined to use in a permanent placement situation. I left gaps in the channel where I needed cords to drop down, like behind the media reactor in the image above.


Dry Side

On the dry side, I installed panels inspired by Broadfield's Red Sea build thread (thank you!). It was his early version before it got super tricked out. Understanding the layout of the cabinets, it makes loads of sense to build panels exactly this way.

This setup works great. So much so that I can't imagine not having it, and could see something like this being included in Red Sea's packaging. It could be optional. Anyhow, the very top stationary panel is screwed into place permanently. The middle panel is hinged and opens upward to access what's behind. And lastly the bottom panel uses neodymium magnets to hold it in place and can be removed as well for better access. There is obviously a crudely cut window in the bottom panel that shows quick visual levels on my dosing fluids.

And here's the rat's nest. Sigh.

I originally started securing all the cables with screws, zip ties, etc. Then I had to backtrack and re-route one. It occurred to me how stupid it actually is to permanently mount ANY cables behind the panels. As much as I like neatness, it would be a major headache to do any sort of maintenance if things were mounted. My last tank was neatly managed in that way, and I hated it. While key equipment is permanently mounted – like the Apex modules, dosing pumps, power strips, etc. – all cables are loose for easy tracing/replacement. And of course this mess is totally hidden when the panels are closed.

And lastly, a full cabinet shot:

Thanks for reading!

 

[undermind]

Can't help but show these dorky little cabinet upgrades...

Motion triggered cabinet light:
I installed a motion trigger on the back of the cabinet, positioned to trigger when either cabinet door is opened. It provides power to led lights that are hidden on the ceiling of the dry and wet side cabinets. It's all hardwired (no batteries). In this video the light isn't super obvious because the display lights are on, but it's quite bright inside. Love this upgrade.


Hidden Flashlight:
Another upgrade that gets high marks in the eye rolling department is my hidden magnet-mounted flashlight. I've got a magnet attached to the ceiling of the dry side, where a metal flashlight lives. It's on the far right side so I can blindly reach and always grab it instantly. Use it all the time.



Peace!

 

[undermind]

Thoughts on the algae dusting I'm seeing?

I've currently got some light dusting of algae that forms quite quickly. For example, if I clean the glass, it will be dusted again within a couple hours. It's light brown and comes off super easy. Clouds the water a bit when wiped away. There's a light coating on the rocks but the cleanup crew does a pretty job taking care of it. Nitrate stays between 0-1 and phosphate always zero. Red Sea tests for both.

The tank finished cycling Jan 21. So I'm about 3 months post-cycle. I assume this is a little ugly phase / brown phase; which I haven't had at all yet. So far, I've only needed to wipe the glass every week and a half, and it was light even then.

There are a few other factors, if it's not just an unavoidable ugly phase:

• I carbon dosed with vodka for about 2 months. This was due to the nitrate being quite high still, a month after the cycle ended. It came down from 20+ to zero while carbon dosing in a 2 month span. However, I think that the vodka dosing probably had nothing to do with the lowering levels. The reduction was steady, and probably due to the refugium or perhaps was totally natural.
• My Chaeto has died back to mostly nothing. My chaeto grew like wildfire in the beginning. It went from tennis ball to basketball in about 2 weeks. It remained that way until about a month ago, no surprise right when the nitrates hit zero. Around the same time, I was starting to see a hair type algae growing on the outer surface of the chaeto ball, which was manually removed every few days.
  
• One of my Radium MH bulbs died. I'm not sure of the life on the other one. I'm replacing both ASAP.

The above events roughly coincided with the onset of the algae dusting in the display.

My thought is to try to do nothing. I say try because doing nothing seems to be the hardest thing to implement. I think I'd like to clean up the refugium and start it over with a new chaeto ball. This time, I will keep it trimmed to a tennis ball / grapefruit size. While nitrates and phosphates are at zero on the test kits, I'd rather feed chaeto than algae in the display with what is undetectable. This is something I'd like to do regardless of the algae situation, as the refugium seems to be in a state of confusion at the moment, and the macro that's there is continually clogging the overflow into the skimmer area.

OK I'm shutting up now - thanks!

 

[undermind]

Is it just me or is he giving off a real "Patrick" vibe here?

 

[Viking_Reefing]

The panels on the dry side came out great. I’ve planned to make something similar to broadfields as well and seeing how good your go came out pushed me over the edge.
Not to mention my jumble of cables on the dry side is even worse [emoji58]

 

[AlexKintner]

I'm using the stock RSR plumbing in the stand. I see people commonly complain about the Reefer plumbing. Lots of comments on noise, gate valve complaints, etc. I have pretty much zero issues with the stock plumbing. Most complaints I've seen have come from owners of the v2 plumbing, so perhaps the v3 is improved? I'm not sure how. I believe it's largely the same components.

With the v3 RSR plumbing, the return pipe is routed to the front (closest) right corner of the wet side cabinet. I did have gurgling for several days after initial setup. But after several tiny, tiny adjustments, it is absolutely dead silent. And it's required no adjustments in 3 months.

Very glad I came across your build… particularly this plumbing bit. I’m in the ‘pre-build anxiety’ phase of a Reefer 350 mixed setup, and one of the things I’ve been agonizing over is ‘stock vs hard’ plumbing. Still not sure which way I’ll go, but I’m glad to hear it’s possible to achieve good quiet flow with stock v3 components.

 

[Twodogsnnc]

Cable Management

I'll start getting into livestock and stuff after this, but just wanted to touch on cable management since it's one of my fave parts of this setups. I've never liked sumps that have a tangled birdnest of wires hanging over them. Honestly, I just hate seeing wires period (just ask my wife).

The simplest way to manage the cables in the wet side cabinet was to use J-channel cable raceways. I screwed in sections J-channel high up along the top edge of the cabinet walls. You can see them here:

You practically have to lie down on the floor to even see the raceways, the way the cabinet trim is. And the great thing is that you can easily take wires in and out of the channels as much as you like. So maintenance is breezy. It's a better setup than zip ties or velcro cable wraps, like I'd be inclined to use in a permanent placement situation. I left gaps in the channel where I needed cords to drop down, like behind the media reactor in the image above.


Dry Side

On the dry side, I installed panels inspired by Broadfield's Red Sea build thread (thank you!). It was his early version before it got super tricked out. Understanding the layout of the cabinets, it makes loads of sense to build panels exactly this way.

This setup works great. So much so that I can't imagine not having it, and could see something like this being included in Red Sea's packaging. It could be optional. Anyhow, the very top stationary panel is screwed into place permanently. The middle panel is hinged and opens upward to access what's behind. And lastly the bottom panel uses neodymium magnets to hold it in place and can be removed as well for better access. There is obviously a crudely cut window in the bottom panel that shows quick visual levels on my dosing fluids.

And here's the rat's nest. Sigh.

I originally started securing all the cables with screws, zip ties, etc. Then I had to backtrack and re-route one. It occurred to me how stupid it actually is to permanently mount ANY cables behind the panels. As much as I like neatness, it would be a major headache to do any sort of maintenance if things were mounted. My last tank was neatly managed in that way, and I hated it. While key equipment is permanently mounted – like the Apex modules, dosing pumps, power strips, etc. – all cables are loose for easy tracing/replacement. And of course this mess is totally hidden when the panels are closed.

And lastly, a full cabinet shot:

Thanks for reading!

Where do you have your ato sensors mounted? Thanks.

 

[undermind]

Where do you have your ato sensors mounted? Thanks.

Apologies, I overlooked this. The sensors are mounted in the return chamber, on the nearest panel. They're hidden pretty well from view (and from view in the posted pictures above). They're just beyond the return pipes you see in the pics

 

[undermind]

[Outdated] Update:

Here's a little video showing livestock. Be sure to check out my next post below, as I'm now fallow and have a few issues I'm dealing with

 

[undermind]

Gone Fallow Update (and a couple questions)

Since I think it's best to share the highs and lows, I'm sharing a low. I've had fantastic results from the tank through the first 6 months or so, but have run into a serious bout with some fierce fish diseases over the last couple months.

I've removed all fish and have them in quarantine now. I've battled what appears to be several fish diseases, and have now established a permanent QT regime that will be used for all new fish. I've never been hit with fish diseases like this in 24 years doing saltwater. As I understand it, some of these current active strains are pretty nasty.

Now that I'm fallow of fish in the reef tank, I have a couple questions/concerns:

• Amphipods are going crazy: I've worked to ensure I've got a good population of pods available, but now without fish, they're running the show! They're everywhere, day and night.
  
  My main concern with them is that I'm wondering if they're bothering my zoas.
  
  Several of my zoas (seems to be my Spiderman and Blue Hornet that are most sensitive) are pretty much closed up all the time now. It was a gradual progression of them being closed sometimes, to now being closed all the time. This progression is in-line with the proliferation of amphipods. I can imagine with as big as the larger pods are, that these smaller zoas aren't enjoying being crawled upon all day.
  
  Any ideas to control the amphipods that don't involve fish?
  
  
• Flatworms are going crazy: It's not just pods. I have loads of flatworms that are multiplying. I think they're harmless as far as I can tell, and don't appear to be AEFW. Perhaps they are copepod-eating flatworms and are increasing due to the rise in pods. I'm less concerned with these, as I don't think they're bothering anything like I believe the amphipods are. I can only see them on the glass.
  
  
• When to feed? I've been feeding Reef Roids about 2x per week, and spot feeding the Fire Shrimp LRS 3x per week.
  
  I still have a CUC in the tank (approximately 15 hermits, a few snails, and 2 sand sifting conches) in addition to a Fire Shrimp.
  
  Do these feedings sound reasonable? The Fire Shrimp is my main concern, as it doesn't scavenge like the CUC does.

Thanks!

 

[BeMoto]

Sorry wrong thread

 

[Cayreefer]

Hey bro planning to buy a used gen 1 425. Just checking if anyone managed to have one that lasted them years. Yours ever split?