Fork's saltwater tank upgrade - XXL 625

Forkedwizard · Mar 12, 2021

My new tank just arrived! Now it seems like a good time to jump start this build thread with what I've bought so far, what I'm planning on buying, and what I plan on doing.
This is a huge upgrade for me as I started this hobby with a 40g breeder, DYI 10g sump, DYI tank stand. I even tried to do a DYI overflow (was the slurpiest thing you ever heard)

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Living in Texas I was unfortunate to experience a long power outage which killed my first tank and almost all inhabitants except for a Turbo snail and shrimp which I have in a rescue 10g tank at the moment. So having 95% of my tank die off, I figured it was a good place to restart with something bigger and better.

What I've bought so far:

Tank:
Reefer XXL 625 System (133 Gal) - Black - Red Sea

Reefer XXL 625 System (133 Gal)

REEFER XXL Red Sea Reefer tanks are going to be the best foundation for any reefer that wants custom filtration while having an elegant and professional looking reef aquarium with an included sump, stand, and plumbing. If you have a personal preference for the skimmer you want to run, lighting...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Salt:
Marinemix Reefer Salt Mix
Rock:
Reef Saver Nano Shelf Dry Live Rock (130 pounds)
20 lb. Special Grade Arag-Alive! Reef Sand (x5)
E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit
Return Pump:
VarioS-6 Controllable DC Pump (1720 GPH) - Reef Octopus

VarioS-6 Controllable DC Pump (1720 GPH)

Reef Octopus VarioS DC pumps give you enhanced performance and precise control of flow through your aquarium's reactors, sump, or closed loop system. With complete control through the VarioS Controller, you can control the flow of the pump, enter feed modes (15 or 60 minutes), add a safety float...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

What I'm planning on buying:

Heater:
600W Titanium Aquarium Heater System - WiFi - Bulk Reef Supply

600W Titanium Aquarium Heater System - WiFi

The Bulk Reef Supply Titanium Aquarium Heater System is a complete temperature control system that includes a virtually unbreakable titanium heating element paired with an Inkbird ITC-306a Wi-Fi Aquarium Temperaturere Controller which sets new standards in safety and reliability. The heater...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Pumps:
VorTech MP40QD - Mobius Ready QuietDrive Propeller Pump - EcoTech Marine (x2)

VorTech MP40mQD - Mobius Ready QuietDrive Propeller Pump

In a reef aquarium, having the perfect amount of flow and water movement is crucial to the health of your animals, as well as the overall success of the tank. With the addition of Ecotech Marine's Mobius app compatibility, Vortech QuietDrive pumps have never been more versatile or easier to...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit - ARC Reef

Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit

There is No Faster Way To Turn Bare Rock Into Beautiful Pink & Purple Coralline Encrusted Live Rock! ARC Reef's Bottled Purple & Pink Coralline Algae is a truly unique product that contains multiple species of live coralline algae spores and nitrifying bacteria in a single solution. Unlike many...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Lighting:
UNDECIDED
Skimmer:
UNDECIDED (might use old 75g skimmer from 40g build)

What I'm planning on doing:

I actually don't have a solid aquascape in mind yet, I thinking I want to do something similar to this:

Both VorTech would be side by side in the top right side of the tank flowing left. I want a large overhang and the left side of the tank is in a position to be viewed from my kitchen as well as the living room, so I'd like that area to be 'busy'.

As for the livestock I would eventually keep (purchased over a year or so):
2 Jawfish (seeing them spit sand at each other would be so funny)
2 clownfish (this would be my first fishes)
1 Yellow Tang
I also would like to add 5-6 other fishes, probably in the small to medium size category

I'm open to any comments or suggestions. I want to get this done right the first time.

Rubberfrog · Mar 12, 2021

Good start. Hold off on adding the coralline algae stuff for a while.

Sley1 · Mar 13, 2021

I have 2 Red Sea reef wave 45 gyre pumps in my 625 xxl and really like how they are working. I have a mixed feed LPS dominant. Consider Removing the Red Sea Valve and replace it with a spears gate valve before you even start, it gets very hard to adjust water level and is noisy and builds up crud in it easily, you will thank yourself everyday for making that change. I searched and found a great thread which showed a pretty simple modification without buying any new parts other than the valve.

ShepherdReefer · Mar 13, 2021

What a great start, going to be an awesome tank.

Forkedwizard · Mar 14, 2021

Sley1 said:
I have 2 Red Sea reef wave 45 gyre pumps in my 625 xxl and really like how they are working.

I was considering a few gyre pumps, but I wanted to perform better husbandry for my equipment this time around, figured the VorTech pumps would really give me no excuses

Forkedwizard · Mar 21, 2021

Some slight updates:
Tank has been installed and I've been slowly working on the aquascape
I also ended up getting 2 heaters with temp controllers for them.

For lighting, I'm thinking of going with 8 AI Prime 16hd, I think it would be pretty cool to customize the par settings in different areas of the tank. Any thoughts on this idea?

Mike1970 · Mar 30, 2021

Nice!!

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 30, 2021

Ill never buy the titanium heating elements again. Mine never came back on after sitting for prob 2 yrs. The controllers work. Elements no. Mine were finnex 500w.
D

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 30, 2021

Looks great. Nice tank!
D

Phil D. · Mar 30, 2021

I would suggest the Red Sea Reef LED 160s's for lighting. Red Sea has a video series on YouTube where they have researched for 5 years and found corals use mostly the 360-480nm spectrum and their lights are tailored to that.

Forkedwizard · Apr 7, 2021

Phil D. said:
I would suggest the Red Sea Reef LED 160s's for lighting. Red Sea has a video series on YouTube where they have researched for 5 years and found corals use mostly the 360-480nm spectrum and their lights are tailored to that.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look into it some more. I'm still 4-6 months away from turning on the lights

Forkedwizard · Apr 7, 2021

Ok finally finished making the rock pieces for my aquascape. The rock pieces are held in place with carbon fiber tubes and aqua cement. I also used the dust from drilling the rock to cover some of the cement (not sure if this was a good idea but I experimented)

Please do let me know if there is some major issue with this configuration. I want to try and grow LPS on the top of the rockwork and unsure of where to place the pumps. So far I'm thinking of putting my two pumps above the center of each section.

This piece goes up 75% of the tank, I don't think I'll grow anything at the very tip

The left side has a good amount of large gaps between the pieces to allow small fish to hide out if they want.

Forkedwizard · Apr 7, 2021

Another question I had, is this enough rock for this 120 gallon tank? I have 30 lbs of decent sized rock and 20 pounds of rubble left over. Should I just throw those in the sump?

I'm going to put sand in the tank, roughly 2".

ajtomase · Jul 16, 2021

Forkedwizard said:
My new tank just arrived! Now it seems like a good time to jump start this build thread with what I've bought so far, what I'm planning on buying, and what I plan on doing.
This is a huge upgrade for me as I started this hobby with a 40g breeder, DYI 10g sump, DYI tank stand. I even tried to do a DYI overflow (was the slurpiest thing you ever heard) .
Living in Texas I was unfortunate to experience a long power outage which killed my first tank and almost all inhabitants except for a Turbo snail and shrimp which I have in a rescue 10g tank at the moment. So having 95% of my tank die off, I figured it was a good place to restart with something bigger and better.

What I've bought so far:
Tank:
Reefer XXL 625 System (133 Gal) - Black - Red Sea

Reefer XXL 625 System (133 Gal)

REEFER XXL Red Sea Reefer tanks are going to be the best foundation for any reefer that wants custom filtration while having an elegant and professional looking reef aquarium with an included sump, stand, and plumbing. If you have a personal preference for the skimmer you want to run, lighting...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Salt:
Marinemix Reefer Salt Mix
Rock:
Reef Saver Nano Shelf Dry Live Rock (130 pounds)
20 lb. Special Grade Arag-Alive! Reef Sand (x5)
E-Marco-400 Aquascaping Mortar Complete Kit
Return Pump:
VarioS-6 Controllable DC Pump (1720 GPH) - Reef Octopus

VarioS-6 Controllable DC Pump (1720 GPH)

Reef Octopus VarioS DC pumps give you enhanced performance and precise control of flow through your aquarium's reactors, sump, or closed loop system. With complete control through the VarioS Controller, you can control the flow of the pump, enter feed modes (15 or 60 minutes), add a safety float...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

What I'm planning on buying:
Heater:
600W Titanium Aquarium Heater System - WiFi - Bulk Reef Supply

600W Titanium Aquarium Heater System - WiFi

The Bulk Reef Supply Titanium Aquarium Heater System is a complete temperature control system that includes a virtually unbreakable titanium heating element paired with an Inkbird ITC-306a Wi-Fi Aquarium Temperaturere Controller which sets new standards in safety and reliability. The heater...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Pumps:
VorTech MP40QD - Mobius Ready QuietDrive Propeller Pump - EcoTech Marine (x2)

VorTech MP40mQD - Mobius Ready QuietDrive Propeller Pump

In a reef aquarium, having the perfect amount of flow and water movement is crucial to the health of your animals, as well as the overall success of the tank. With the addition of Ecotech Marine's Mobius app compatibility, Vortech QuietDrive pumps have never been more versatile or easier to...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit - ARC Reef

Pink & Purple Live Coralline Algae Kit

There is No Faster Way To Turn Bare Rock Into Beautiful Pink & Purple Coralline Encrusted Live Rock! ARC Reef's Bottled Purple & Pink Coralline Algae is a truly unique product that contains multiple species of live coralline algae spores and nitrifying bacteria in a single solution. Unlike many...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Lighting:
UNDECIDED
Skimmer:
UNDECIDED (might use old 75g skimmer from 40g build)

What I'm planning on doing:
I actually don't have a solid aquascape in mind yet, I thinking I want to do something similar to this:

Both VorTech would be side by side in the top right side of the tank flowing left. I want a large overhang and the left side of the tank is in a position to be viewed from my kitchen as well as the living room, so I'd like that area to be 'busy'.

As for the livestock I would eventually keep (purchased over a year or so):
2 Jawfish (seeing them spit sand at each other would be so funny)
2 clownfish (this would be my first fishes)
1 Yellow Tang
I also would like to add 5-6 other fishes, probably in the small to medium size category

I'm open to any comments or suggestions. I want to get this done right the first time.

What made you choose the 625 instead of the 750? I'm looking at either of those two tanks for my first tank and I can't make up my mind which to get.