Wacky Red Sea Reefer 525xl Build

[wackyreefer]

Oh no!
Any word on replacement?
How long have you had your tank for? I took delivery in March and am worried if I spring leaks later on when I fill it I might find something like this!!

First reply is not good and not what I was hoping for. Red Sea have responded with:

• The hairline cracks within the glass. I am happy to say these are not cracks they are glass striations which are normal
• The external “hairline crack: is also not a rack, it is a small exterior scratch only and the depth is not a concern.
• The very small chip is less the 5% of the thickness of the glass, and is caused when cutting the glass, and will not cause any structural issue at all.

All three areas identified in the pictures are cosmetic only. They will have no effect on the structural integrity, the strength of the sump and the sump will not leak. These tiny imperfections are within our Quality Control guidelines.
Therefore please go ahead and set up your aquarium with confidence.

I completely disagree with this. You can clearly see a crack running from the impact point (round chip) on the last photo I posted. This is not "scratch" or only "cosmetic".
"These tiny imperfections are within our Quality Control guidelines." this is quite concerning.

I have responded and asked Red Sea to again review the last photo and they have responded saying it's been escalated to one of their directors. Fingers crossed this gets sorted out.

 

[wackyreefer]

Update 1: So after first being told that the Red Sea egineers don't believe it's a crack but rather a scratch, then by my request escalated to senior engineers at their Head Office, they now agree it's a manufacturing fracture that got past their QC.

They say the sump can be used with no issues however they will ship me a replacement sump from their factory in China. The catch is, it has to be manufactured and shipped (not air - due to it being glass) and will take 6-8 weeks to arrive.

The positive is I can set it up with the cracked sump and just switch them out in 8 weeks.
I guess even though I had to push back little, they did in the end put the customer first which is great.

 

[wackyreefer]

Update 2: So made a template to design and build my aquascape on and used AquaForest StoneFix to glue the base rocks together.

Now, I know many people will say this is a boring aquascape but personally it's my preference because:
1) I wanted it to be a fish haven with lots of hiding space in case of unplanned aggression.
2) I wanted lots of space to grow larger colonies of SPS and wasn't keen on a design with large arches and mostly negative space.

Not trying to win any awards with the aquascape and just want to enjoy it and have a happy healthy population of fish. I am also not building a complete rock wall leaning on the back of the glass as I will be removing the black vinyl from the back of the Red Sea Reefer creating the impression of floating.

I then continued to put small rubble pieces in the joins of the base pieces to cover up the joins. (I didn't take a photo of that )

 

[wackyreefer]

Update 3:

Received the Aquatic Life 48" G2 fixture and the AI hanging kit.
The hanging kit that comes with the Aquatic Life fixture is pretty simple and not pretty. Therefor I kind of combined it with the AI hanging kit, using the roof mount and covers from the AI kit with the wires from the Aquatic Life fixture:

Re-aligned and re-measured to make sure it's sitting nicely. Very happy with the fixture.
Just need to shorten the wires when thank is set up and done.

 

[wackyreefer]

Update 4 (and last of today):
Managed to get some help to get the display on the stand. I with the help of the wife removed the black vinyl from the back (left the part covering overflow to prevent algae growth) as we liked that look.

Don't worry about light fixture wires. Have wire management adhesives on the way in post and will post here how I cleaned that up.

Then got going on trying to rebuild the aquascape in the tank. 1 out of 5 rock foundations cemented with Aquaforest Stonefix came undone but most held. I kind of changed the scape a bit in the process but happy with the outcome.
Whipped up some more fresh StoneFix and just cemented a few touch points to ensure the structure doesn't easily come down but can be quite easily broken apart by hand in future.

Really happy with how it came out. A few caves and ledges and lots of place for smaller fish to hide when feeling threatened.

That's a wrap for today.

 

[Futuretotm]

Excellent aquascape, I really want to play around with Marco rocks and create my own, especially the arches and caves.
I will be going with TBS for LR and am not sure how mine will come out, I'll be happy if its half as good as yours.

Am glad that you got your replacement sump, perhaps the current one you could use for a frag tank or plump it into this system (you have space behind that wall?)

 

[wackyreefer]

Excellent aquascape, I really want to play around with Marco rocks and create my own, especially the arches and caves.
I will be going with TBS for LR and am not sure how mine will come out, I'll be happy if its half as good as yours.

Am glad that you got your replacement sump, perhaps the current one you could use for a frag tank or plump it into this system (you have space behind that wall?)

Thanks! Yea while I am no good at it, I can tell you it's a fun process. The frustrating part comes in when you realise there are 20 good options on how to to stack and cement them but you forgot how to get it back to how you liked it when you dry tested it

Not sure actually. Was thinking I might donate it to someone less fortunate doing a custom tank. They can always attempt to repair it. The wall behind is my office which I unfortunately cannot turn into a fish room. Perhaps that is ultimately the plan when I retire one day...

 

[wackyreefer]

So things are coming along nicely. Filled it up which took about 2 days

Running some old Jebao power heads temporarily (excuse the wiring for now) until the new ones arrive, surprised as they are moving quite a bit of water together anyway:

Light test (excuse the iphone photos - will be charging DSLR soon):

All 4 bulbs fired up, quite a bit of light coming from these things even before adding LED's

Cycling the dead prawn method as I am not in a rush. No testable ammonia yet so will wait it out.

 

[wackyreefer]

Well an update is long overdue. I have been hesitant to post and delay it a little longer for several reasons:

1. Due to COVID there is no brand new APEX units for sale in NZ. There is a major shortage world-wide according to the supplier and we might get some units in next months (maybe ;Blackeye). Due to this, I have been holding off on the calcium reactor as I wanted the calcium reactor to run via a PM2 module and a additional PH probe on the APEX. Dosing manually is a pain right now but I am trying to avoid buying a dosing pump to only use it for a month.
2. Also due to COVID I have been unable to source LED light fixtures. Both Radion (XR15 and XR30) and AI Hydra (32 and 64) models have been sold out at the sole distributor in NZ for the past 2 months. Luckily this changed 2 days ago and I have 3 x Hydra 32 White being shipped to me right now as we speak. I will put another update on once they have arrived.
3. My refugium was set up with some chaeto and has been working too well. After all the reading I thought the Red Sea Reefer v3 sump refugium section would be too small to work as a proper refugium and boy was I wrong (and all those posts as well ;Bookworm). It's bottomed out both my nitrate and phosphate indefinitely and created a bit of a dino problem. I have since reduced the size of my chaeto by a lot and have resorted to dosing nitrate and phosphate. Slowly but surely it looks like the dino's are going away (fingers crossed).

So the tank cycled nicely and I have had zero problems with nutrients. I have added the following livestock to the tank:

• 2 Onyx ocellaris clowns
• 2 Pajama cardinals
• Banded goby
• Small hippo tang
• Medium sized Sailfin tang
• 8 mexican turbo snails
• 1 peppermint shrimp (which i haven't seen for a while)
• 2 ' Goniopora' frags (lumo green and pink)
• torch coral frag
• Acanthastrea frag (red and black/blue)
• About 8 different SPS frags

I have added the following equipment since the last update:

• 2 Maxspect Gyre 350's
• Jebao 36w UV sterlizer
• Par38 LED for the refugium

I have hidden the wavemaker wires nicely and still need to hide the light fixture wires once I receive the cable management clips in the post.

I am feeding twice a day. In the morning I feed a mix of 1) Vitalis Platinum Flake food 2) Aquaforest Marine Mix S 3) Aquaforest Colour UP. In the evening I feel a cube of frozen brine or community mix. I also put a sheet of algae in the clip daily for the tangs.

Tank:

My banded goby is having a great time cleaning my sand and throwing it all over the rockwork and my zoa frags on the sand bed

Sump:

(yes I know it's not super flashy in terms of plumbing but its working well)

So right now the SPS frags are coloring up really nicely even though they are only under 4x T5 bulbs and while dosing manually twice a day. I have been able to get the alkanity (8.3) and calcium (430) relatively stable considering I am dosing manually for the time being via Aquaforest products. I will try and get some more close ups of the coral over the next update or two.

Thanks for taking the time to read.
I will put out another update once I get the lights in and the cable management sorted.

 

[Futuretotm]

Looks really nice!
Quick question, do you plan to add more fish? I see that you've added tangs already.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Looks nice. Glad you got everything running in a weird time to set it up! I just moved my Red Sea 450 (pretty much replaced by the 525, just a little more narrow) into my new place and it is always stressful.

How are the fish getting along?

 

[wackyreefer]

Looks really nice!
Quick question, do you plan to add more fish? I see that you've added tangs already.

Thank you! Good question.
Yes I do plan to but I will keep keeping it all down to non-aggressive species for the most part. I really don't like aggression in a confined space.
I plan to add the following still: Flasher wrasse, blue headed wrasse, leopard wrasse and maybe (just maybe) a Bristle tooth tang. Now will I have issues with the bristle tooth? Not sure.
The sailfin tang is medium sized and super relaxed. It's actually a big softy and is not in any sense aggresive. It has zero issues when I added the pajama cardinals.
The juvenile hippo in my opinion is too small to really be concerned about. He is about 7-10cm big. At first when I added him he would race up to the clowns but never actually touch them. Never hurt them. He did this for a few days. Now a month on it's like he thinks he is a clown and part of the crew. He tends to hang out with him and no longer does that behavior.
I don't think I will have issues adding more fish, especially while he is still small.

 

[wackyreefer]

Looks nice. Glad you got everything running in a weird time to set it up! I just moved my Red Sea 450 (pretty much replaced by the 525, just a little more narrow) into my new place and it is always stressful.

How are the fish getting along?

Thanks!
Wow yea, I can imagine a tank move is a stressful process. Glad you are safely through it. Just saw your build thread and will definitely be following. Your tank looks amazing! ;Drool

The fish are all getting along very well. Like I mentioned above a few seconds ago, the sailfin is a big baby and the hippo is too small to really be a menace. So far so good

 

[wackyreefer]

So I am currently playing with flow on these 2 Gyre 350's. They move a massive amount of water and sadly also sand ;Blackeye.
I had them running on 30% pulse but got the feeling it might not be enough flow for the SPS. I have since put it on 50% OGC v2 and it's moving quite a bit of water. I will have to monitor it and see. Would be nice to hear from someone with a similar set up.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Thanks!
Wow yea, I can imagine a tank move is a stressful process. Glad you are safely through it. Just saw your build thread and will definitely be following. Your tank looks amazing! ;Drool

The fish are all getting along very well. Like I mentioned above a few seconds ago, the sailfin is a big baby and the hippo is too small to really be a menace. So far so good

Thanks for following. I think its a good idea to look at what others do with a similar sized tank and play off what worked for them and what didn't. I'll be following yours as well.

 

[wackyreefer]

Small update:

So recently I had some power trips and realized it's when we turn on the heat pump/ac. This made me realize that what I thought was an unused block of power plugs on it's own circuit actually had the heat pump hard wired into it.

So I had a electrician over and have installed a brand new 20amp dedicated circuit for the tank with a RCD. Since then, no more power trips, problem solved. Cost a few bucks but gives me some peace of mind, especially around the RCD too. ;Smug

I also have received the 3 AI Hydra 32's and will do an update on that and the challenges I had to get it set up once I have been able to tidy up the wiring.

 

[wackyreefer]

So I guess an update is well over due. Since my last:

1. Received my hydra 32's
2. Built a water changing station which is making a massive difference. It's making water changes super easy.
3. Bought tons of SPS frags including a Sunset Mili which is doing great.
4. Bought a Lubbocks Fairy Wrasse
5. Set up a Jebao DP-4 dosing pump dosing Aquaforest Component 123.

Tank is doing really well. Coraline algae starting to pop up everywhere. Parameters are quite stable as I am doing daily testing and tweaking of the dosing pump.

Water changing station:
I have no space inside so this little nook at back of house felt fitting. Also excuse, this was my very first time plumbing anything. Also bought clear primer but received Aquablue and just decided to go with it. So lots of youtube and googling on how to glue pvc later...:

*Ignore the 2nd DI stage standing on left. I added this to ensure water is silicate free but also allows me to determine if first DI stage is getting exhausted and needs replacement. I was waiting for mounting bracket which has arrived in post since. I just need to mount it.

LEDS all set up and wires tidied up:

Full shot:

At this stage all SPS frags too small to photograph but as they grow out I will. Lots more space to put frags and will be doing so over the coming weeks. Current SPS frags:

1. Blue stylo
2. Red purple digi
3. Pink birds nest
4. Lumo green deep water
5. Dark purple acro with green polyps
6. Pink Stylo
7. Sunset Mili
8. Blue Staghorn
9. Yellow(white) acro with purple polyps (Still dark purple frag at this stage - as I received it but I have seen mother colony)
10. White'ish acro with royal blue tips. (crazy polyp extension)

Other coral:

1. Lumo green Goni
2. Bright pink goni
3. White and green favia
4. Purple and green torch
5. several zoa frags including dragons breath.

I have sent an ICP test to MarinLab in Poland. Due to COVID it's been stuck for about 1.5 weeks now. I hope it arrives safely and I get some insights as to what my water quality is looking like.