CraigLiz
New Member
My wife and I recently decided that we wanted to make an addition to our home. By that I mean I ordered everything to set up a saltwater tank and my wife wasn't entirely mad at me. Once I told her we could have some clownfish everything was ok. I had spent many hours reading forums like this and watching a lot of videos. I am new to having a saltwater aquarium, one of the things that was important to me was having equipment that I would be able to monitor via apps and the internet. At the end of the day, I felt my biggest concern would be if I got a smaller tank and pretty quickly decided that it was too small. I do believe that in time the more systems I can make automated the more I will enjoy the tank. I hate to be that person who doesn't care much about the budget, but after a lot of thinking, I decided I would rather go with all new rather than pick something up locally that I may be inheriting others problems. When the dust settles my goal is to have a nice aquarium with some corals and fish that look awesome!
For countless reasons that may be bad assumptions or outright wrong. Here is what I ended up with.
Red Sea 425 XL G2
Red Sea RL 90's for lighting
600w heater with the Helio controller
2x Octo Pulse 4 Wave Pumps with the WaveEngine LE Controller
Syncra SDC 7 Return Pump
Red Sea ATO
For salt, I am using Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt
All of this stuff came in around the new year. I have been doing a little housework and as usual, it took a bit longer than I had hoped it would. I had put the tank stand together a few weeks ago and started gluing rocks together slowly. I don't believe I will become an aquascaper any time soon. Though I hope once there are some corals my poor work will be less noticeable.
The basic assembly of everything went well.
My first hurdle came pretty quickly when I saw how fast my RODI system filtered water. WOW, I was shocked at how slow this thing was filtering, might have a booster pump in my future. I went with the 150 GPD system thinking that it would move things along a little quicker than the 75. It took 2-3 days to be able to make the approx 112 gallons I needed to fill my tank/sump.
I must say I have been a bit surprised to go through the setup process of the tank. So far I have focused first on getting the heat up and running which went well with the Helio, they had pretty solid instructions.
The wave pumps on the other hand were not the easiest thing for me. I feel the instructions were poor at best to get the pumps going and I am still scratching my head about setting the flows. There are lots of videos for the Hydros but not so many with the Hydros LE which is a different interface it appears. As of now, the pumps are spinning and I will continue to play with the settings. Also, I noticed this morning I need to reposition the heads as there is no longer sand in one part of my tank. If anyone has any experience and has any insight with using this controller I am all ears.
The Sicce return pump is a beast. I may have overestimated what model I needed. When I first started the pump it was on 100% and it was as advertised. I eventually brought it down to about 15% and it seems that I am getting decent movement in the sump though I'm guessing there will be more tuning of that. I will say the pump came with all sorts of pieces to connect to the plumbing. Once I was able to figure out what size pipe I needed things went together well. I was also not all that impressed with the instructions for the return pump.
The ATO is also on the shortlist to get all dialed in.
One of these nights I will start messing with the lights. However, I am not as concerned currently, as I just wanted to get the water cycling. I should be receiving some Fritz turbo start tomorrow to get the cycle kick-started.
As I said I am completely new to this, so what could possibly go wrong?
I am super excited to get deeper into this hobby.
If anyone is bored and wants to offer any suggestions please do. I'm also not afraid of criticism, it is most important to be successful and learn.
For countless reasons that may be bad assumptions or outright wrong. Here is what I ended up with.
Red Sea 425 XL G2
Red Sea RL 90's for lighting
600w heater with the Helio controller
2x Octo Pulse 4 Wave Pumps with the WaveEngine LE Controller
Syncra SDC 7 Return Pump
Red Sea ATO
For salt, I am using Tropic Marin Pro Reef Salt
All of this stuff came in around the new year. I have been doing a little housework and as usual, it took a bit longer than I had hoped it would. I had put the tank stand together a few weeks ago and started gluing rocks together slowly. I don't believe I will become an aquascaper any time soon. Though I hope once there are some corals my poor work will be less noticeable.
The basic assembly of everything went well.
My first hurdle came pretty quickly when I saw how fast my RODI system filtered water. WOW, I was shocked at how slow this thing was filtering, might have a booster pump in my future. I went with the 150 GPD system thinking that it would move things along a little quicker than the 75. It took 2-3 days to be able to make the approx 112 gallons I needed to fill my tank/sump.
I must say I have been a bit surprised to go through the setup process of the tank. So far I have focused first on getting the heat up and running which went well with the Helio, they had pretty solid instructions.
The wave pumps on the other hand were not the easiest thing for me. I feel the instructions were poor at best to get the pumps going and I am still scratching my head about setting the flows. There are lots of videos for the Hydros but not so many with the Hydros LE which is a different interface it appears. As of now, the pumps are spinning and I will continue to play with the settings. Also, I noticed this morning I need to reposition the heads as there is no longer sand in one part of my tank. If anyone has any experience and has any insight with using this controller I am all ears.
The Sicce return pump is a beast. I may have overestimated what model I needed. When I first started the pump it was on 100% and it was as advertised. I eventually brought it down to about 15% and it seems that I am getting decent movement in the sump though I'm guessing there will be more tuning of that. I will say the pump came with all sorts of pieces to connect to the plumbing. Once I was able to figure out what size pipe I needed things went together well. I was also not all that impressed with the instructions for the return pump.
The ATO is also on the shortlist to get all dialed in.
One of these nights I will start messing with the lights. However, I am not as concerned currently, as I just wanted to get the water cycling. I should be receiving some Fritz turbo start tomorrow to get the cycle kick-started.
As I said I am completely new to this, so what could possibly go wrong?
I am super excited to get deeper into this hobby.
If anyone is bored and wants to offer any suggestions please do. I'm also not afraid of criticism, it is most important to be successful and learn.
