Whip’s Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 Hybrid Bare Bottom Build

[Alberta79]

Just sold my reefer 350 last week. Finishing the basement with the perfect spot for a 625 xxl with a fish room behind it. Stumbled across this thread and has given me some awesome ideas. Being my second tank and all that I have learned I am eager to get started and making my dream tank. Your tank looks awesome. Thank you for sharing with us.

 

[Whip]

04/01/20 will be one year...

So it’s hard to admit failure and saying failure is an opportunity to learn is lame, but in an effort to be honest/transparent and help the community, I will exercise full disclosure and share with you a year of really painful reefing... actually “reefing” would require some sort of coral... let’s just say a year of really painful water keeping,

Honestly, this tank is nowhere close to where it should be. I know I have been spouting off that I am “taking it slow”, “slow is good”, “I’m following the BRS/WWC 4 Month Cycle” (times two), and “it’s all about stability”, blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it is better to be lucky than good, but this tank has been painful. In all my other tanks, this has been the most difficult... by a factor of 10!

So where do I start? I went lightless for nine months! That is ridiculous! Seriously. I couldn’t make a decision on lights. Lame. Well...while waiting for a decision on lights, I had time to make more mistakes...

Because I had a giant, stale volume of water, I figured I’d just dump a bunch of pods in there so at least there would be one living organism in there. After paying for an extra addition on Algae Barn’s barn, I figured my pod population was large enough to sustain my long time mandarin fish. I transferred him in and he starved. Sad. I knew better.

So, again, I have been staring at a giant box of water for way to long. I added some PetCo fish. No quarantine. Why quarantine? I never have in all my other tanks. Boom. All fish died of Velvet or Ich. Mark Wahlberg (a Flame Hawkfish) survived... he was the “lone survivor”. I lost two Snowflake Clowns, a Harlequin Tusk, a Blue Jaw Trigger, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Neon Dottyback. Why I purchased a Neon Dottyback and Six Line Wrasse? I’ll never know.

So... I removed Mark Wahlberg and went FOWLR for 84 days. I know everyone says 76 days, but I added on because I have become accustomed to punishing myself for amusement.

So in the meantime, I finally bought lights. In my mind, I had just let my tank “cycle” for eight flipp’in months, so I was totally going to bypass the “ugly stage”. To create a diverse bacterial population, I had thrown in every bacteria know to man... matter of fact, I am surprised that man did not climb out of the primordial ooze I had made over the last eight months. Regardless, I turned on the lights and my rocks turned into a chia pet. Every square inch of rock looked like the hair of those freaky troll dolls. I dosed Vibrant and Macrobacter 7 and it helped. I bought 50 Trochus snails and it helped. Sadly, the tank still looked horrendous.

Well, time to try fish again. Let’s get those “utilitarian” fish. On PetCo’s dollar per gallon sale, I bought so many 20 gallon fish tanks, my wife thought I was the Governor from the Walking Dead. I had four QT tanks up and running and was cycling PetCo Tangs (Purple, Yellow, and Powder Blue) through copper treatment like a boss.

I don’t know why I never ordered fish online... ever, but I discovered pre-quarantined fish (Blotched Anthia, two Orange Storm Clowns, a Blonde Naso, and a Yellow Eye Kole)... now that is EASY! Tragically, I can’t hide a stack of quarantine tanks in the garage and I look like an idiot whenever my wife walks by them.

Regardless, my quarantined PetCo fish are doing great and my pre-quarantined fish have been welcomed into the fold. So what’s next?

Dinos! Of course! Why not? My water lacked phosphate and nitrate. I was lightly stocked, feeding sparely, and had my auto water change was rolling perfectly. I was ripe for a dino attack. I blew it off of my rocks twice a day. It wasn’t going anywhere. It sucked. Finally, I went three days dark and stopped AWC’s. So far so good.

So what will this tank throw at me next? Hopefully something I can manage as this tank has really tested my resolve. I shared all the bad with you because I don’t think people share enough of the failures. I’ll admit... I didn’t want to share them, but it feels good to let people know the truth. If this story did anything, I hope it shows you all that resolve and perseverance is what it takes to make it through the hard times of reefing. This hobby is a challenge. Be ready to be challenged!

Happy reefing!

 

[NY_Caveman]

The important thing is you are keeping at it! My first year of the tank had an Alkalinity spike, a weird salinity spike and an unexpected move. Had a lot of losses, but still loving it every day.

 

[TexAgReefer]

04/01/20 will be one year...

So it’s hard to admit failure and saying failure is an opportunity to learn is lame, but in an effort to be honest/transparent and help the community, I will exercise full disclosure and share with you a year of really painful reefing... actually “reefing” would require some sort of coral... let’s just say a year of really painful water keeping,

Honestly, this tank is nowhere close to where it should be. I know I have been spouting off that I am “taking it slow”, “slow is good”, “I’m following the BRS/WWC 4 Month Cycle” (times two), and “it’s all about stability”, blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it is better to be lucky than good, but this tank has been painful. In all my other tanks, this has been the most difficult... by a factor of 10!

So where do I start? I went lightless for nine months! That is ridiculous! Seriously. I couldn’t make a decision on lights. Lame. Well...while waiting for a decision on lights, I had time to make more mistakes...

Because I had a giant, stale volume of water, I figured I’d just dump a bunch of pods in there so at least there would be one living organism in there. After paying for an extra addition on Algae Barn’s barn, I figured my pod population was large enough to sustain my long time mandarin fish. I transferred him in and he starved. Sad. I knew better.

So, again, I have been staring at a giant box of water for way to long. I added some PetCo fish. No quarantine. Why quarantine? I never have in all my other tanks. Boom. All fish died of Velvet or Ich. Mark Wahlberg (a Flame Hawkfish) survived... he was the “lone survivor”. I lost two Snowflake Clowns, a Harlequin Tusk, a Blue Jaw Trigger, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Neon Dottyback. Why I purchased a Neon Dottyback and Six Line Wrasse? I’ll never know.

So... I removed Mark Wahlberg and went FOWLR for 84 days. I know everyone says 76 days, but I added on because I have become accustomed to punishing myself for amusement.

So in the meantime, I finally bought lights. In my mind, I had just let my tank “cycle” for eight flipp’in months, so I was totally going to bypass the “ugly stage”. To create a diverse bacterial population, I had thrown in every bacteria know to man... matter of fact, I am surprised that man did not climb out of the primordial ooze I had made over the last eight months. Regardless, I turned on the lights and my rocks turned into a chia pet. Every square inch of rock looked like the hair of those freaky troll dolls. I dosed Vibrant and Macrobacter 7 and it helped. I bought 50 Trochus snails and it helped. Sadly, the tank still looked horrendous.

Well, time to try fish again. Let’s get those “utilitarian” fish. On PetCo’s dollar per gallon sale, I bought so many 20 gallon fish tanks, my wife thought I was the Governor from the Walking Dead. I had four QT tanks up and running and was cycling PetCo Tangs (Purple, Yellow, and Powder Blue) through copper treatment like a boss.

I don’t know why I never ordered fish online... ever, but I discovered pre-quarantined fish (Blotched Anthia, two Orange Storm Clowns, a Blonde Naso, and a Yellow Eye Kole)... now that is EASY! Tragically, I can’t hide a stack of quarantine tanks in the garage and I look like an idiot whenever my wife walks by them.

Regardless, my quarantined PetCo fish are doing great and my pre-quarantined fish have been welcomed into the fold. So what’s next?

Dinos! Of course! Why not? My water lacked phosphate and nitrate. I was lightly stocked, feeding sparely, and had my auto water change was rolling perfectly. I was ripe for a dino attack. I blew it off of my rocks twice a day. It wasn’t going anywhere. It sucked. Finally, I went three days dark and stopped AWC’s. So far so good.

So what will this tank throw at me next? Hopefully something I can manage as this tank has really tested my resolve. I shared all the bad with you because I don’t think people share enough of the failures. I’ll admit... I didn’t want to share them, but it feels good to let people know the truth. If this story did anything, I hope it shows you all that resolve and perseverance is what it takes to make it through the hard times of reefing. This hobby is a challenge. Be ready to be challenged!

Happy reefing!

Thanks for sharing! Agree that few people share this side of it. It’s not fun nor is it as inspiring as a wall to wall coral tank... But for new reefers reading this, setting reasonable expectations and understanding that even experienced reefers deal with this will go a long way into helping them stick it out.

Year 1 sucked, but I’d be willing to bet years 2+ are going to be a lot more fun and something to be very proud of!

 

[DS204]

Really nice update, the good along with the bad. Sorry to hear of your bad news. Happens to the best of us, inevitably. Appreciate you taking the time to write this post along with your sense of humour. We could all use a little laughter these days. Stay safe.

 

[JBulk09]

Wow this is going to be a work of art

 

[Blutspitze]

Thanks very much for the update! Sorry that things have been rough on you, though. It's far too easy to make dumb and simple mistakes, that's for sure, but hopefully it'll all be good from here on!

 

[Alberta79]

04/01/20 will be one year...

So it’s hard to admit failure and saying failure is an opportunity to learn is lame, but in an effort to be honest/transparent and help the community, I will exercise full disclosure and share with you a year of really painful reefing... actually “reefing” would require some sort of coral... let’s just say a year of really painful water keeping,

Honestly, this tank is nowhere close to where it should be. I know I have been spouting off that I am “taking it slow”, “slow is good”, “I’m following the BRS/WWC 4 Month Cycle” (times two), and “it’s all about stability”, blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it is better to be lucky than good, but this tank has been painful. In all my other tanks, this has been the most difficult... by a factor of 10!

So where do I start? I went lightless for nine months! That is ridiculous! Seriously. I couldn’t make a decision on lights. Lame. Well...while waiting for a decision on lights, I had time to make more mistakes...

Because I had a giant, stale volume of water, I figured I’d just dump a bunch of pods in there so at least there would be one living organism in there. After paying for an extra addition on Algae Barn’s barn, I figured my pod population was large enough to sustain my long time mandarin fish. I transferred him in and he starved. Sad. I knew better.

So, again, I have been staring at a giant box of water for way to long. I added some PetCo fish. No quarantine. Why quarantine? I never have in all my other tanks. Boom. All fish died of Velvet or Ich. Mark Wahlberg (a Flame Hawkfish) survived... he was the “lone survivor”. I lost two Snowflake Clowns, a Harlequin Tusk, a Blue Jaw Trigger, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Neon Dottyback. Why I purchased a Neon Dottyback and Six Line Wrasse? I’ll never know.

So... I removed Mark Wahlberg and went FOWLR for 84 days. I know everyone says 76 days, but I added on because I have become accustomed to punishing myself for amusement.

So in the meantime, I finally bought lights. In my mind, I had just let my tank “cycle” for eight flipp’in months, so I was totally going to bypass the “ugly stage”. To create a diverse bacterial population, I had thrown in every bacteria know to man... matter of fact, I am surprised that man did not climb out of the primordial ooze I had made over the last eight months. Regardless, I turned on the lights and my rocks turned into a chia pet. Every square inch of rock looked like the hair of those freaky troll dolls. I dosed Vibrant and Macrobacter 7 and it helped. I bought 50 Trochus snails and it helped. Sadly, the tank still looked horrendous.

Well, time to try fish again. Let’s get those “utilitarian” fish. On PetCo’s dollar per gallon sale, I bought so many 20 gallon fish tanks, my wife thought I was the Governor from the Walking Dead. I had four QT tanks up and running and was cycling PetCo Tangs (Purple, Yellow, and Powder Blue) through copper treatment like a boss.

I don’t know why I never ordered fish online... ever, but I discovered pre-quarantined fish (Blotched Anthia, two Orange Storm Clowns, a Blonde Naso, and a Yellow Eye Kole)... now that is EASY! Tragically, I can’t hide a stack of quarantine tanks in the garage and I look like an idiot whenever my wife walks by them.

Regardless, my quarantined PetCo fish are doing great and my pre-quarantined fish have been welcomed into the fold. So what’s next?

Dinos! Of course! Why not? My water lacked phosphate and nitrate. I was lightly stocked, feeding sparely, and had my auto water change was rolling perfectly. I was ripe for a dino attack. I blew it off of my rocks twice a day. It wasn’t going anywhere. It sucked. Finally, I went three days dark and stopped AWC’s. So far so good.

So what will this tank throw at me next? Hopefully something I can manage as this tank has really tested my resolve. I shared all the bad with you because I don’t think people share enough of the failures. I’ll admit... I didn’t want to share them, but it feels good to let people know the truth. If this story did anything, I hope it shows you all that resolve and perseverance is what it takes to make it through the hard times of reefing. This hobby is a challenge. Be ready to be challenged!

Happy reefing!

Well IMO better to go through all that in the first year. Imagine dealing with all those problems with a fully stocked tank? Hick ups are one thing but way worse when your losing coral and fish plus dealing with the problems. Cant wait to see your tank a year from now! Going to be epic.

 

[ReefChef19]

04/01/20 will be one year...

So it’s hard to admit failure and saying failure is an opportunity to learn is lame, but in an effort to be honest/transparent and help the community, I will exercise full disclosure and share with you a year of really painful reefing... actually “reefing” would require some sort of coral... let’s just say a year of really painful water keeping,

Honestly, this tank is nowhere close to where it should be. I know I have been spouting off that I am “taking it slow”, “slow is good”, “I’m following the BRS/WWC 4 Month Cycle” (times two), and “it’s all about stability”, blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it is better to be lucky than good, but this tank has been painful. In all my other tanks, this has been the most difficult... by a factor of 10!

So where do I start? I went lightless for nine months! That is ridiculous! Seriously. I couldn’t make a decision on lights. Lame. Well...while waiting for a decision on lights, I had time to make more mistakes...

Because I had a giant, stale volume of water, I figured I’d just dump a bunch of pods in there so at least there would be one living organism in there. After paying for an extra addition on Algae Barn’s barn, I figured my pod population was large enough to sustain my long time mandarin fish. I transferred him in and he starved. Sad. I knew better.

So, again, I have been staring at a giant box of water for way to long. I added some PetCo fish. No quarantine. Why quarantine? I never have in all my other tanks. Boom. All fish died of Velvet or Ich. Mark Wahlberg (a Flame Hawkfish) survived... he was the “lone survivor”. I lost two Snowflake Clowns, a Harlequin Tusk, a Blue Jaw Trigger, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Neon Dottyback. Why I purchased a Neon Dottyback and Six Line Wrasse? I’ll never know.

So... I removed Mark Wahlberg and went FOWLR for 84 days. I know everyone says 76 days, but I added on because I have become accustomed to punishing myself for amusement.

So in the meantime, I finally bought lights. In my mind, I had just let my tank “cycle” for eight flipp’in months, so I was totally going to bypass the “ugly stage”. To create a diverse bacterial population, I had thrown in every bacteria know to man... matter of fact, I am surprised that man did not climb out of the primordial ooze I had made over the last eight months. Regardless, I turned on the lights and my rocks turned into a chia pet. Every square inch of rock looked like the hair of those freaky troll dolls. I dosed Vibrant and Macrobacter 7 and it helped. I bought 50 Trochus snails and it helped. Sadly, the tank still looked horrendous.

Well, time to try fish again. Let’s get those “utilitarian” fish. On PetCo’s dollar per gallon sale, I bought so many 20 gallon fish tanks, my wife thought I was the Governor from the Walking Dead. I had four QT tanks up and running and was cycling PetCo Tangs (Purple, Yellow, and Powder Blue) through copper treatment like a boss.

I don’t know why I never ordered fish online... ever, but I discovered pre-quarantined fish (Blotched Anthia, two Orange Storm Clowns, a Blonde Naso, and a Yellow Eye Kole)... now that is EASY! Tragically, I can’t hide a stack of quarantine tanks in the garage and I look like an idiot whenever my wife walks by them.

Regardless, my quarantined PetCo fish are doing great and my pre-quarantined fish have been welcomed into the fold. So what’s next?

Dinos! Of course! Why not? My water lacked phosphate and nitrate. I was lightly stocked, feeding sparely, and had my auto water change was rolling perfectly. I was ripe for a dino attack. I blew it off of my rocks twice a day. It wasn’t going anywhere. It sucked. Finally, I went three days dark and stopped AWC’s. So far so good.

So what will this tank throw at me next? Hopefully something I can manage as this tank has really tested my resolve. I shared all the bad with you because I don’t think people share enough of the failures. I’ll admit... I didn’t want to share them, but it feels good to let people know the truth. If this story did anything, I hope it shows you all that resolve and perseverance is what it takes to make it through the hard times of reefing. This hobby is a challenge. Be ready to be challenged!

Happy reefing!

I apologize im so late seeing this. It's just by chance that I did, because I was coming back to your tank for reference as I have done many times. I was taking a look because I remembered you placing your skimmer in your return section, and I was thinking about doing the same thing or switching to an external skimmer. I would like to turn the entire skimmer section into a refugium. I had even been thinking of buying another sump.

I hope this all turns around for you, because I truly believe you will have a beautiful tank once you get through all the rain! You have definitely put a lot of work and thought into setting it up for longevity. I can't wait to see it really start taking off for you. Good luck

 

[Jeffreyda]

Sorry for recent challenges. You have a beautiful build. You are inspiring my own 625 xxl build. Regarding your UV plumbing, where do you have your output returning to? If to the return area of your sump are you concerned at all about recycling sterilized water back through your UV? Also, have you considered adding a 2nd return pump for redundancy/backup? Curious, how that would impact your plumbing design. One final question, what flow rate are you returning to your display. Many thanks for all you are giving back to the reefing community.

 

[Manose]

04/01/20 will be one year...

So it’s hard to admit failure and saying failure is an opportunity to learn is lame, but in an effort to be honest/transparent and help the community, I will exercise full disclosure and share with you a year of really painful reefing... actually “reefing” would require some sort of coral... let’s just say a year of really painful water keeping,

Honestly, this tank is nowhere close to where it should be. I know I have been spouting off that I am “taking it slow”, “slow is good”, “I’m following the BRS/WWC 4 Month Cycle” (times two), and “it’s all about stability”, blah, blah, blah.

I don’t know if ignorance is bliss or if it is better to be lucky than good, but this tank has been painful. In all my other tanks, this has been the most difficult... by a factor of 10!

So where do I start? I went lightless for nine months! That is ridiculous! Seriously. I couldn’t make a decision on lights. Lame. Well...while waiting for a decision on lights, I had time to make more mistakes...

Because I had a giant, stale volume of water, I figured I’d just dump a bunch of pods in there so at least there would be one living organism in there. After paying for an extra addition on Algae Barn’s barn, I figured my pod population was large enough to sustain my long time mandarin fish. I transferred him in and he starved. Sad. I knew better.

So, again, I have been staring at a giant box of water for way to long. I added some PetCo fish. No quarantine. Why quarantine? I never have in all my other tanks. Boom. All fish died of Velvet or Ich. Mark Wahlberg (a Flame Hawkfish) survived... he was the “lone survivor”. I lost two Snowflake Clowns, a Harlequin Tusk, a Blue Jaw Trigger, a Six Line Wrasse, and a Neon Dottyback. Why I purchased a Neon Dottyback and Six Line Wrasse? I’ll never know.

So... I removed Mark Wahlberg and went FOWLR for 84 days. I know everyone says 76 days, but I added on because I have become accustomed to punishing myself for amusement.

So in the meantime, I finally bought lights. In my mind, I had just let my tank “cycle” for eight flipp’in months, so I was totally going to bypass the “ugly stage”. To create a diverse bacterial population, I had thrown in every bacteria know to man... matter of fact, I am surprised that man did not climb out of the primordial ooze I had made over the last eight months. Regardless, I turned on the lights and my rocks turned into a chia pet. Every square inch of rock looked like the hair of those freaky troll dolls. I dosed Vibrant and Macrobacter 7 and it helped. I bought 50 Trochus snails and it helped. Sadly, the tank still looked horrendous.

Well, time to try fish again. Let’s get those “utilitarian” fish. On PetCo’s dollar per gallon sale, I bought so many 20 gallon fish tanks, my wife thought I was the Governor from the Walking Dead. I had four QT tanks up and running and was cycling PetCo Tangs (Purple, Yellow, and Powder Blue) through copper treatment like a boss.

I don’t know why I never ordered fish online... ever, but I discovered pre-quarantined fish (Blotched Anthia, two Orange Storm Clowns, a Blonde Naso, and a Yellow Eye Kole)... now that is EASY! Tragically, I can’t hide a stack of quarantine tanks in the garage and I look like an idiot whenever my wife walks by them.

Regardless, my quarantined PetCo fish are doing great and my pre-quarantined fish have been welcomed into the fold. So what’s next?

Dinos! Of course! Why not? My water lacked phosphate and nitrate. I was lightly stocked, feeding sparely, and had my auto water change was rolling perfectly. I was ripe for a dino attack. I blew it off of my rocks twice a day. It wasn’t going anywhere. It sucked. Finally, I went three days dark and stopped AWC’s. So far so good.

So what will this tank throw at me next? Hopefully something I can manage as this tank has really tested my resolve. I shared all the bad with you because I don’t think people share enough of the failures. I’ll admit... I didn’t want to share them, but it feels good to let people know the truth. If this story did anything, I hope it shows you all that resolve and perseverance is what it takes to make it through the hard times of reefing. This hobby is a challenge. Be ready to be challenged!

Happy reefing!

Your build helped me make the right decision on some various plumbing and wiring issues.
I feel for you and what you have went through, you have shown the determination and control to overcome issues that would have made many people just stop entirely.
This will be one of the best tanks on this site because of your willingness to overcome all the adversities thrown at you.

 

[Whip]

Sorry for recent challenges. You have a beautiful build. You are inspiring my own 625 xxl build. Regarding your UV plumbing, where do you have your output returning to? If to the return area of your sump are you concerned at all about recycling sterilized water back through your UV? Also, have you considered adding a 2nd return pump for redundancy/backup? Curious, how that would impact your plumbing design. One final question, what flow rate are you returning to your display. Many thanks for all you are giving back to the reefing community.

Jeffreyda,

The UV outputs to the overflow area of the sump. It still isn’t as ideal as having the DT in the loop, but it’s close as I get some mixing of non-sterilized DT water in the mix.

Second return pump?!? Haha. I, literally, just bought one as a spare a few weeks ago! In the beginning of my build, I wanted a second return pump for redundancy. I could do it, but it wouldn’t look clean and that bothered me. In the end, I chose form over function. This is typically not a wise route to take, but I had plans to always have a spare on-hand. Swapping a pump is cake.

NOTE: For those of you planning to run your UV in algae kill mode, the Various 8 is a big pump, but getting it to provide 500GPH to the DT and 943GPH to the UV is a stretch. Luckily, I have mine set for protozoa (157GPH) and the Various 8 can do that easily. I was planning on putting an ATS on the header, but that needs 500GPH... there is zero chance my pump would power UV + DT + ATS; that ain’t happening... but a plan was hatched (see below).

Anyway, the other day I was hanging out looking at my sump area and an idea came to mind... what if I hooked my second pump up to one of my header outlets? It would power my UV and ATS and my other pump would feed the DT. I would just close the valve to the header to isolate it from the system and create two independent systems. Now... all this does is give me the horsepower to run UV, ATS, and DT at the same time; it does NOT provide “true redundancy”. To bake my cake and to eat it too, I would have to install a check valve on my DT pump... meaning, if it failed, I would close my UV and ATS valves off of the header, open the header isolation valve, and the water from this pump will hit the check valve and go to the DT. That’s the theory anyway...

 

[Whip]

Well IMO better to go through all that in the first year. Imagine dealing with all those problems with a fully stocked tank? Hick ups are one thing but way worse when your losing coral and fish plus dealing with the problems. Cant wait to see your tank a year from now! Going to be epic.

Alberta79 (and all others),

Thanks for all the encouraging words. I agree with you 100%... better to happen now than when the tank is fully stocked!!!

To that end, I hit that one year mark on April 1st and everything just smoothed out... creepy-like. It’s strange. The tank has settled out and actually been easy to care for. Crystal cleat water, stable parameters, no algae, and no dino’s. It’s freaking me out a bit.

Anyway, I’ll get some full tank shots up to share my joy!

 

[DS204]

Jeffreyda,

The UV outputs to the overflow area of the sump. It still isn’t as ideal as having the DT in the loop, but it’s close as I get some mixing of non-sterilized DT water in the mix

Hello!! Been following your thread for a while and using some of your ideas for inspiration. Adding a 25w UV to my system in the coming weeks, just getting my plumbing parts and ducks in a row. One of things I considered as well was trying to output the sterilized water to the display, but it would ruin the clean look of the Red Sea tank that I love so much by having a hose hang over the back wall. The manufacturer also recommended that the UV output be plumbed directly to the display but this just didn't seem like the way I had envisioned the look of my tank. Perhaps it will change in the future, but for now I am planning to feed the UV with a separate pump (slow flow for parasite control) and then outputting the sterilized water to the section of the sump that normally carries the sponge filter. Am I reading your reply correctly in that, it is how you did it also?

My theory is that if you output to the return section or to that sponge section, the natural flow dynamics of the sump is already going to carry the sterilized water in that direction, thus eventually making it to the display where we want it.

Wondering if you share the same insight. Cheers!

 

[Whip]

Hello!! Been following your thread for a while and using some of your ideas for inspiration. Adding a 25w UV to my system in the coming weeks, just getting my plumbing parts and ducks in a row. One of things I considered as well was trying to output the sterilized water to the display, but it would ruin the clean look of the Red Sea tank that I love so much by having a hose hang over the back wall. The manufacturer also recommended that the UV output be plumbed directly to the display but this just didn't seem like the way I had envisioned the look of my tank. Perhaps it will change in the future, but for now I am planning to feed the UV with a separate pump (slow flow for parasite control) and then outputting the sterilized water to the section of the sump that normally carries the sponge filter. Am I reading your reply correctly in that, it is how you did it also?

My theory is that if you output to the return section or to that sponge section, the natural flow dynamics of the sump is already going to carry the sterilized water in that direction, thus eventually making it to the display where we want it.

Wondering if you share the same insight. Cheers!

OCDean,

Your idea is pretty slick. I see what you mean.

What chamber are you planning on feeding your UV from? I am asking, because I like your idea!

Maybe one of these days, they will make a reef-safe dye that is UV sensitive. You put the dye in your DT and see how long it takes to go through the UV. Until then...

 

[Whip]

I am just tying up a loose end and finished my Maxspect cable management program. I had ran these cable trays up the back during the initial build, but I finished the project and ran them across the top. They work nicely.

 

[DesertReefer51]

Regarding the method of returning sterilized water back into the DT directly but not having a visible pipe in the DT, why not plumb in a wye pipe with the UV following the flow of the rerurn line? The purpose of a wye is combine the flow of an alternate source with the main flow. Due to the design of the wye there will not be any flow conflict and the return flow will slightly draw the UV flow due to a pressure difference.
Add a valve between the UV and the wye and control can be achieved even more so.
This is how I was going to handle mine when the time comes to add a sterilizer. I already plumbed the wye with a valve.

Just an idea.

1" Sch 40 PVC Wye Soc 475-010 | Schedule 40 PVC Wyes

Lowest prices for 1" Sch 40 PVC Wye Soc 475-010! Order from PVC Fittings Online.

www.pvcfittingsonline.com

 

[ThatDPTguy]

I am fairly lazy/busy (not good in this hobby) and I absolutely hate going down to the LFS and getting buckets of RODI water. I figured acknowledging my laziness is the first step in making an effort to combat it. In doing so, I needed to design and construct a saltwater mixing station.

This system accomplishes the following:

• Upper Tank RODI Fill
• Upper to Lower Tank RODI Gravity Transfer
• Lower Tank Saltwater In-Tank Recirculation
• Upper Tank RODI Gavity Bucket Fill
• Lower Tank Saltwater Gravity Bucket Fill
• Upper Tank RODI Pump to Tank via Hose
• Lower Saltwater Pump to Tank via Hose

All of this is powered by a Pan World 50X.

Now (because my laziness knows no bounds) the next step is to run tubing from the garage (where the mixing station is located) to the den (where the tank is located). This is about 60 feet. I plan to set up a Neptune DOS and run black tubing (old saltwater removal/disposal) and white tubing (new saltwater feed). Since I’m in the attic, I’ll run some blue tubing (RODI feed), but I don’t plan on hooking that up yet as I’m nervous about live-feeding RODI top off.

I already have holes in the wall from my wall-mounted TV, so I’ll just repurpose them for the tubing feeds.

Love the feed. I'll be building a water mixing station soon enough. Any pictures on building this stand for the tanks? Your set up is exactly what I've envisioned.

 

[Whip]

Love the feed. I'll be building a water mixing station soon enough. Any pictures on building this stand for the tanks? Your set up is exactly what I've envisioned.

I am glad you like the mixing station. It has been used heavily since the photo and still looks and functions perfectly. I have automated it since.

I don’t have any photos of the mixing station build (which is a bummer) as I built it almost one year prior to buying the reef tank. I actually had the vessels around one or two years before I built the stand. Man, time flies!

Anyway, I can tell you it was EASY. I made it out of 2X4 and skinned it in 5/8 MDF. It is way overbuilt. I also anchored it into the wall. I park my car right in front of it, so planting some lag screws into the wall seemed like cheap insurance!

Let me know if you need any details and I can offer suggestions.

 

[ThatDPTguy]

I am glad you like the mixing station. It has been used heavily since the photo and still looks and functions perfectly. I have automated it since.

I don’t have any photos of the mixing station build (which is a bummer) as I built it almost one year prior to buying the reef tank. I actually had the vessels around one or two years before I built the stand. Man, time flies!

Anyway, I can tell you it was EASY. I made it out of 2X4 and skinned it in 5/8 MDF. It is way overbuilt. I also anchored it into the wall. I park my Lexus right in front of it, so planting some lag screws into the wall seemed like cheap insurance!

Let me know if you need any details and I can offer suggestions.

Nice. I appreciate the reply. I over engineer everything so I understand. My long term plans are to automate water changes but this is the first step. Forgive me if you already posted it but where did you get the RODI tanks? I like that they're square and fit well with your organization in your garage. Thanks!