ZW RedSea 300XL G2

[Zach W]

Hi everybody! After almost 3 years without a reef tank I am happy to say I am back at it again! After much deliberation I decided on the new Red Sea 300XL G2. It’s definitely not the biggest tank in the word but it fits perfectly in the space and is wife approved which is the biggest hurdle I had to overcome! I am planning on this being an SPS/LPS dominant tank and my equipment is listed below:
Red Sea 300 XL G2
Neptune Sky
Neptune COR15
Neptune Apex A3
Neptune ATK
ReefMat 500
2x Reefwave 25
2x Finnex 300W Heaters
Bubble Magnus Curve 5 Elite

I am also in process of building a mixing station in the basement directly below the tank which will use two 32 gallon brute containers and an upgraded 4 stage 150GPD which is now 6 stage. The RODI brute will serve at the ATO as well as on demand RODI for whatever I need. As for the saltwater container, I will be running AWC with the DOS at ~1GPD and the volume will be monitored with a 35” Neptune LLS.

I have also been playing around with rock structure for the last couple weeks and I believe I have come up with something I am pleased with but I won’t be fully sure until I get it in the tank.

This weekend we are expecting 12”+ of snow so it’s the perfect time to stay inside and getting the tank up and running! I want to give a shout out to my local LFS, Love The Reef in Wilmington, MA for helping me get everything together! If you’re in the greater Boston area you should check them out for sure!

I will be posting some updates as I get things built and rolling this weekend, thanks!

 

[Matty Ice]

I have a similar setup. Do you plan on using the pmup to pump up from the basement?

 

[Zach W]

I have a similar setup. Do you plan on using the pmup to pump up from the basement?

That’s my current plan, the brutes are ~3’ off the ground so it’s less than 10’ vertical up into the sump and the pmup claims it can handle 14’ head pressure. We will see!

 

[Typhon]

Nice start so far. Why did you decide on using the LLS instead of optic sensors or float switches. I am getting ready to DIY AWC with my DOS too, but planning on using float switches.

 

[Matty Ice]

Also curious...how do you plan on running the tubing and wires from the basement up to the main floor?

 

[Zach W]

@Typhon Thanks! I haven’t fully decided to be honest. I’ve got two optical switches and a float valve in the rodi brute for more fail safes but I wanted to test out the LLS as well. I figure the saltwater brute is better for that because it’s less risky if it doesn’t work. If it works well I will eventually replace the two optical sensors in the rodi container and free up a FMM port.

 

[Zach W]

Also curious...how do you plan on running the tubing and wires from the basement up to the main floor?

I will post some updates when I actually do it but I am going to put a cord pass through in the wall behind the tank and then run the RODI lines through that and then down into the basement. The basement is unfinished so I have that advantage luckily

 

[Zach W]

Trying to garner some opinions on two rock scape options. I am partial to one variation and my wife likes the other. Im curious on how others feel about it!
Variation #1

Variation #2

 

[Matty Ice]

Hmm I can't see the videos.

 

[Zach W]

Hmm I can't see the videos.

Strange, maybe a mobile vs computer thing? I can see them on my computer but my phone was having issues

 

[Zach W]

I’m making slow progress with getting things put together. I made the mistake of setting up my sump before mounting equipment in the stand which drastically cut down the amount of space I had to work with. That being said, I installed the cable pass through to run lines down to my basement, currently just an Ethernet running to my apex.

I ran the cable down the staircase to the basement for two main reasons: (1) the wall is fully insulated, and (2) I didn’t want to have to drill through the subfloor. Once I have everything in place I will put a cable raceway to hide everything and put the appropriate wall plates on.
I have also mounted most everything I have so far in the cabinet, but I am waiting on my cord organization shipment to come in still

Last update and the most stressful portion was getting my scape in place. Lifting large epoxied rock structures up and over the tank had my heart rate up for sure. But I got everything in and secured in a place I like!

Next steps are for me to get my sand rinsed and in and then plan on filling on filling it up tomorrow!

 

[Matty Ice]

Wow great job!

 

[Zach W]

Late update, but I got the tank filled and everything up and running yesterday! I ended up rinsing the sand which I know a lot of people argue for and against but I don't want to deal with any potential clouding that could come from unrinsed sand. I ended up using about 60lbs to get ~1.5-2" sand depth.

Once water was in I started to add salt and got my heaters and pumps running. I am using tropic marine pro reef salt at least to start and will see how that goes moving forward. I also went ahead and installed motion activated led strips that work great! Improves the visibility so much in the sump area!

The final thing I did was to add Dr. Tim's Bacteria and dosed ammonia up to ~2ppm. I have not started my skimmer yet or set up the ATK but I plan on giving that a go today after I get home from work. I also should be receiving my cable organization stuff today so I can take a stab at cleaning up the cords in the stand.

The hardest part for me so far has been trying to understand how to use the Apex, and to get everything setup properly. My last tank had no automation or direct monitoring so this is a whole new world for me that will definitely take time to get used to. I have some confusion with alarms and code lines I didn't understand but I think that came back to me not understanding what I was looking at in the dashboard and running tasks to set up the same thing multiple times. I believe I have gotten that sorted out now and am starting to digest how the code works and what it is telling me.

 

[TheSharksDen]

Nice looking setup! That’s a lot of media balls.

If you reach out to Neptune they will help set you up and even screen share to get you going, Carlos helped me. Here is link I used for a step by step video setup ()

Good luck, I look forward to seeing it go!

 

[Zach W]

Nice looking setup! That’s a lot of media balls.

If you reach out to Neptune they will help set you up and even screen share to get you going, Carlos helped me. Here is link I used for a step by step video setup ()

Good luck, I look forward to seeing it go!

Thanks! Its one box of marinepure media balls that sorta rolled all over the place when I added them, figured it doesnt hurt to have some more place for biological filtration

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Looking nice and good luck w the system. Not many of us xl300 reefers lol

 

[Zach W]

Looking nice and good luck w the system. Not many of us xl300 reefers lol

Thanks! There has definitely been a learning curve after a couple year hiatus from reefing and I am new to the RedSea tanks but everything is coming back pretty quickly. I am very pleased with the new G2 tanks and the build quality so far, also the tank is dead silent which is great!

 

[TheSharksDen]

Thanks! Its one box of marinepure media balls that sorta rolled all over the place when I added them, figured it doesnt hurt to have some more place for biological filtration

I used those in my last tank as well. I think I only had like 4-5, maybe I didn’t have enough.

once your apex is up and running its super easy. The computer is easier to use it on IMO.

 

[Zach W]

Making small progress in the cabinet as my tank is cycling away. Tried to organize some cables to clean up the mess of cables. Still not great but definitely a step in the right direction

My skimmer has been going pretty crazy while breaking in. Skimmer cup drain is just open and flowing back into the tank until it calms down.
I have noticed that my Hanna salinity checker gives me about a 1 degree lower temperature than my apex probe so I ordered a calibrated thermometer with high accuracy to validate the temperature and then will calibrate the temp probe accordingly. Still need to calibrate the pH probe but will get around to that one of these days

 

[Matty Ice]

Looking good. I let my skimmer run the same way while I was cycling. My thoughts were it was helping the break in period