AS-Reef 500G Display in 750G System

Hendrix

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Upgraded Restart Day 12
Just restarting & upgrading after 24 month exit. Going LED & Halide. Will try to share video, this is new to me. Would appreciate thoughts, feedback etc.

The 775 System Consists of:
- 500 Gallon Display - Bare Bottom
Starfire Glass 96”x40”x30”
Euro-Braced
The tank is built into a wall that separates (2) Rooms. It sticks out 3 dimensional in both rooms. 8” room wall is flush to the tank and dissects the 40” end sides. So I’m sticking out 16” to add the 3rd dimension. All enclosed custom stand and covers. One room has floors that are 18” lower. When you view the back side it offers a totally different look.
- 125 Gallon Refugium - Bare Bottom
- 40 Gallon Frag - soon
- 75 Gallon Sump - 2 Big socks used Fri night - Sunday night. Replaced with clean every week.
- 75 Gallon Fish Quarantine - Empty now

Display Front View:


Display Front Side View:


Display Back Side View


Display Back View:


Sump - $15.00 from US Plastic with Lid (Some imperfections in that so it got sold cheap). Lid not shown.



Rock Etc.
- Assorted Dead Clean Rock
Some New
Some Old, Acid washed and bleached 2 years ago.
- I’m less than half way up with rock. I’m leaving plenty of room for future growth.
- (4) Marine Pure Blocks large blocks 8x8x4
— 2 in Fug
— 2 Hidden in Tank
(I’m aware of Aluminum Theory here, used them in past with Poly Pad and had no issues).
- With the tank being 40” Front to back I will be able keep corals from getting close to glass. In the past I was usually 6” front and back glass.

Fishless Cycle with:
- Dr. Tims One and Only
- Ammonium Chloride
- 10 Days in to process
- Ammonia - Dropping
- Nitrites Rising
- Calcium 450
- Alk 10
- Salt 1.026
- Temp steady at 77.6
- Had lite phosphates, GFO in Sock, knocked it down.

Equipment:
- EcoTech Radion XR30 G5 Pro’s
- At 70% intensity I’m Getting:
- 315 Par on the top of the high rocks.
- 75 Par in lowest Corners
- 100-250 through the rest
Ran Halides & Blue Actinic in last go around.
- Kessel Algae light in Fug
- Abyzz 400 - Primary Return
Sump is 40’ of PVC Away feeding a
- Oceans Motion (6) Way and / or simple 1.5 Inch single return - True Unions on both to switch or share. The six way alternates the current through (6) Outlets (always 2 at same time) and rotating. (4) returns are high in corners of euro bracing. (2) go low to bottom. I have holes drilled to prevent back flow and 1.5 inch check valves on the primary and secondary main return lines.
Oceans Motion Video Here


- Redundant Return is plumbed but not purchased yet. Thinking Red Dragon, MRC or Dolphin. Old system had two old school big tank returns constant issues and replacements. This second pump will add more flow
- Reeflo ORCA 250 Skimmer
- Geo Calcium Reactor w/ Electronic Doser on large CO2 Tank.

Electrical:
(3) Redundant 20 Amp Breakers
(Redundant in my utility room with sump fug, reactors etc & 1 to tank with a 15 amp Back up)

Monitoring and Control:
- APEX (Redundant)
(1) New - Installed w/
PH
ORP
Conductivity
PM1 Module
- 2nd PH
- Temp in Fug
- Temp in Sump
- APEX Auto Feeder
- (2) EB32’s - 3rd Soon
- (1) Classic -
- APEX Par meter
- Advanced Leak Detector
- APEX Trident
- (2) BRS 600 Watt Titanium Heaters in Tank with their controller and controlled again by APEX
- (3) Finex 300 Watt heaters between Sump and Fug. May run just on their controllers in longer term.

Water:
- 7 Stage+ 150 GPD (2-75’s) (2) RO/(3) DI w/ 2 Filter, 2 Carbon, auto flush
(Not planned but using a box of extra I had)
With Booster Pump
- 200 Gallon Vertical Tank
- Multiple US plastic 50 Gallon Tanks
- 50 Gallon Mix Station
- Working on final mixing station design
- Planing for Automated water change
- 50 Gal per week

The Future Residents:
Planning from top top in levels
- SPS Dominant: Acro’s Stags, etc growing up
- Table Corals - growing in center comming from ends toward middle (front to back).
Planning for shadowing
- Montie’s in the corners - (I Know they grow)
I love them...
- LPS - A few
- Some Zoa’s in the seams
- fews Softies about below
- Green Star Polyps growing like grass on the bottom
I will also try to give it very different look from each room with Middle and bottom species.
- Most fish will be their for specific reasons:
- Tangs - Yellow school (7) Algae
- Hippo
- Naso & some other pretty no ich’y fish
- Wrasses for all they do
- Foxface
- File
- chromis school
- Clean Crew
- Will introduce POD’s & ACR Colorline
- Cheato in a section of fug

My thoughts:
- APEX has been simplified!
I’ll still need “Russ” - right?
- Fusion is Awesome!!
Is it Secure??
- 832 Energy Bars - thought I’d. Never buy one, until I did. I bought a2nd and will buy a 3rd when available. Great to trend and balance the power. They are pricey but I love the out let by outlet watt usage and alarms / notifications.
- Abyzz not using min set power - Alarm
- Heaters not using power alarm
- Status notification awesome
- Hearbeat - awesome
I travel several days a week and this level of monitoring, notification and alarms are great. The old methods were technical and troublesome. I have (8) wireless web cams with DLink app to visually see everything when traveling. It makes it easier to instruct wife kid, or chocolate lab to make adjustments.

The Abyzz - Very, Very, Very Pricey!
- It’s a beast!!
- Sits in sump
- Controllable - awesome!!
- Box of old leaky, bad seal pumps are dead to me!!!
- no noise
- no heat from pump itself
(I may have some stray electricity in sump from it?? Or Finex? - tomorrow’s isolation project).
- Also they need a few more how to videos

- G5 Pro LED’s & Mobius
- Lights would not stay in sync for the 1st week. New firmware came out & improved them.
- Mobius - it only does a few things but it not intuitive. A nice how to video is needed!!!
- I set it to the coral labs AB (I think) optimized for a coral I love - future top center. It’s difficult to find the sub settings of the pre program. I know it’s not at 100%, but can’t see it. Stumbled into a sub menu once and was so excited I hit the screen and couldn’t get back.
- My other complaint are power cord length and quality. All the connections suck. They are loose. The power into the power supply is loose. Abyzz has a lock on theirs (awesome, can’t fall out. The chord from power supply to light. You move it and it falls apart. Note to ecotech, water and electricity don’t mix well. (Gave feedback to them on this today). Luckily for the short cables I only had to pay $50.00 more today for 2 of my lights (crazy). How does a cable with crappy connections cost so much?? My cable need to run through wall. The other lights I zip tied and electrical taped them so they don’t come apart in wall.

I LOVE THE LIGHT COMING FROM THE UNITS!!

Please make sure you give these MFG’s the real feedback early on some of the short comings that should not come with a product people are spending 100’s to 1000’s on! My COVID sheltering time was great for catching up. I’m 42 years into this hobby and live it!!!

Note to MRC, heard good things about your pumps, most of your reseller links don’t work or they don’t have your product on their website! Their are no online ones listed.

I truly appreciate the You Tube videos from BRS, Mr Saltwater, Tidal Gardens & Reef Builder.

LFS - you need to get modern with inventory and ordering on your web sites. The big online guys make it easy!!
 
Last edited:
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Hendrix

Hendrix

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Upgraded Restart Day 12
Just restarting & upgrading after 24 month exit. Going LED & Halide. Will try to share video, this is new to me. Would appreciate thoughts, feedback etc.

The 775 System Consists of:
- 500 Gallon Display - Bare Bottom
Starfire Glass 96”x40”x30”
Euro-Braced
The tank is built into a wall that separates (2) Rooms. It sticks out 3 dimensional in both rooms. 8” room wall is flush to the tank and dissects the 40” end sides. So I’m sticking out 16” to add the 3rd dimension. All enclosed custom stand and covers. One room has floors that are 18” lower. When you view the back side it offers a totally different look.
- 125 Gallon Refugium - Bare Bottom
- 40 Gallon Frag - soon
- 75 Gallon Sump - 2 Big socks used Fri night - Sunday night. Replaced with clean every week.
- 75 Gallon Fish Quarantine - Empty now

Display Front View:


Display Front Side View:


Display Back Side View


Display Back View:


Sump - $15.00 from US Plastic with Lid (Some imperfections in that so it got sold cheap). Lid not shown.



Rock Etc.
- Assorted Dead Clean Rock
Some New
Some Old, Acid washed and bleached 2 years ago.
- I’m less than half way up with rock. I’m leaving plenty of room for future growth.
- (4) Marine Pure Blocks large blocks 8x8x4
— 2 in Fug
— 2 Hidden in Tank
(I’m aware of Aluminum Theory here, used them in past with Poly Pad and had no issues).
- With the tank being 40” Front to back I will be able keep corals from getting close to glass. In the past I was usually 6” front and back glass.

Fishless Cycle with:
- Dr. Tims One and Only
- Ammonium Chloride
- 10 Days in to process
- Ammonia - Dropping
- Nitrites Rising
- Calcium 450
- Alk 10
- Salt 1.026
- Temp steady at 77.6
- Had lite phosphates, GFO in Sock, knocked it down.

Equipment:
- EcoTech Radion XR30 G5 Pro’s
- At 70% intensity I’m Getting:
- 315 Par on the top of the high rocks.
- 75 Par in lowest Corners
- 100-250 through the rest
Ran Halides & Blue Actinic in last go around.
- Kessel Algae light in Fug
- Abyzz 400 - Primary Return
Sump is 40’ of PVC Away feeding a
- Oceans Motion (6) Way and / or simple 1.5 Inch single return - True Unions on both to switch or share. The six way alternates the current through (6) Outlets (always 2 at same time) and rotating. (4) returns are high in corners of euro bracing. (2) go low to bottom. I have holes drilled to prevent back flow and 1.5 inch check valves on the primary and secondary main return lines.
Oceans Motion Video Here


- Redundant Return is plumbed but not purchased yet. Thinking Red Dragon, MRC or Dolphin. Old system had two old school big tank returns constant issues and replacements. This second pump will add more flow
- Reeflo ORCA 250 Skimmer
- Geo Calcium Reactor w/ Electronic Doser on large CO2 Tank.

Electrical:
(3) Redundant 20 Amp Breakers
(Redundant in my utility room with sump fug, reactors etc & 1 to tank with a 15 amp Back up)

Monitoring and Control:
- APEX (Redundant)
(1) New - Installed w/
PH
ORP
Conductivity
PM1 Module
- 2nd PH
- Temp in Fug
- Temp in Sump
- APEX Auto Feeder
- (2) EB32’s - 3rd Soon
- (1) Classic -
- APEX Par meter
- Advanced Leak Detector
- APEX Trident
- (2) BRS 600 Watt Titanium Heaters in Tank with their controller and controlled again by APEX
- (3) Finex 300 Watt heaters between Sump and Fug. May run just on their controllers in longer term.

Water:
- 7 Stage+ 150 GPD (2-75’s) (2) RO/(3) DI w/ 2 Filter, 2 Carbon, auto flush
(Not planned but using a box of extra I had)
With Booster Pump
- 200 Gallon Vertical Tank
- Multiple US plastic 50 Gallon Tanks
- 50 Gallon Mix Station
- Working on final mixing station design
- Planing for Automated water change
- 50 Gal per week

The Future Residents:
Planning from top top in levels
- SPS Dominant: Acro’s Stags, etc growing up
- Table Corals - growing in center comming from ends toward middle (front to back).
Planning for shadowing
- Montie’s in the corners - (I Know they grow)
I love them...
- LPS - A few
- Some Zoa’s in the seams
- fews Softies about below
- Green Star Polyps growing like grass on the bottom
I will also try to give it very different look from each room with Middle and bottom species.
- Most fish will be their for specific reasons:
- Tangs - Yellow school (7) Algae
- Hippo
- Naso & some other pretty no ich’y fish
- Wrasses for all they do
- Foxface
- File
- chromis school
- Clean Crew
- Will introduce POD’s & ACR Colorline
- Cheato in a section of fug

My thoughts:
- APEX has been simplified!
I’ll still need “Russ” - right?
- Fusion is Awesome!!
Is it Secure??
- 832 Energy Bars - thought I’d. Never buy one, until I did. I bought a2nd and will buy a 3rd when available. Great to trend and balance the power. They are pricey but I love the out let by outlet watt usage and alarms / notifications.
- Abyzz not using min set power - Alarm
- Heaters not using power alarm
- Status notification awesome
- Hearbeat - awesome
I travel several days a week and this level of monitoring, notification and alarms are great. The old methods were technical and troublesome. I have (8) wireless web cams with DLink app to visually see everything when traveling. It makes it easier to instruct wife kid, or chocolate lab to make adjustments.

The Abyzz - Very, Very, Very Pricey!
- It’s a beast!!
- Sits in sump
- Controllable - awesome!!
- Box of old leaky, bad seal pumps are dead to me!!!
- no noise
- no heat from pump itself
(I may have some stray electricity in sump from it?? Or Finex? - tomorrow’s isolation project).
- Also they need a few more how to videos

- G5 Pro LED’s & Mobius
- Lights would not stay in sync for the 1st week. New firmware came out & improved them.
- Mobius - it only does a few things but it not intuitive. A nice how to video is needed!!!
- I set it to the coral labs AB (I think) optimized for a coral I love - future top center. It’s difficult to find the sub settings of the pre program. I know it’s not at 100%, but can’t see it. Stumbled into a sub menu once and was so excited I hit the screen and couldn’t get back.
- My other complaint are power cord length and quality. All the connections suck. They are loose. The power into the power supply is loose. Abyzz has a lock on theirs (awesome, can’t fall out. The chord from power supply to light. You move it and it falls apart. Note to ecotech, water and electricity don’t mix well. (Gave feedback to them on this today). Luckily for the short cables I only had to pay $50.00 more today for 2 of my lights (crazy). How does a cable with crappy connections cost so much?? My cable need to run through wall. The other lights I zip tied and electrical taped them so they don’t come apart in wall.

I LOVE THE LIGHT COMING FROM THE UNITS!!

Please make sure you give these MFG’s the real feedback early on some of the short comings that should not come with a product people are spending 100’s to 1000’s on! My COVID sheltering time was great for catching up. I’m 42 years into this hobby and live it!!!

Note to MRC, heard good things about your pumps, most of your reseller links don’t work or they don’t have your product on their website! Their are no online ones listed.

I truly appreciate the You Tube videos from BRS, Mr Saltwater, Tidal Gardens & Reef Builder.

LFS - you need to get modern with inventory and ordering on your web sites. The big online guys make it easy!!

Edited wrong Video & Added Sump Video
 

Blue Tang Clan

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Probably ;Bookworm

You might consider making smaller chunks of information so people can engage on a specific topic, rather than the entire hobby as it pertains to your setup! In any case, it's looking good!
 
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Hendrix

Hendrix

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With any new build, your going to run into issues! Its how your supplier's respond that sets them apart.

Shout out to two companies for Great Customer Service!
- BRS - They are are awesome and stand behind what they sell - Thanks Chad
ESV Salt Resolution
- BRS - Randy & Ryan - took the time to say hello when I did an impromptu visit the week before the COVID shelter in place in Ohio. I was in MN on business
- Ocean's Motion - Great device & Outstanding customer service from Paul!
He listens, he ask questions, he looks for photo & video, he's totally transparent.
We invest a great deal of time and money and this hobby

Thank you again Paul, Chad, Randy & Ryan.
 

Bulk Reef Supply

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Wow, this has all the makings of an EPIC build. We will be following along with this one for sure! Love the dimensions of the tank. Let us know if you ever need anything :D
 

Sltloser

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The aquarium is looking good! I think you have a good choice of quality equipment that will last you for many years to come. What are your plans for nutrient export? Will you be relying heavily on mechanical filtration (skimmer/socks/etc.) or are you looking to use algae (refugium/ATS/etc.) as the main source of export? I ask because I think this is a very important aspect to decide early on for future success!

Also do you have pictures of the tank from each room? How about the fish room? Refugium?
 
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Hendrix

Hendrix

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Thanks BRS

SLTLOSER

Nutrient Export
Refugium is 125 Gallon
- Cheato - when I can buy a bunch of clean
- Big Kessel Algea light
- water change every 2 weeks
 
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