HighEndOfTheLow's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

[highendofthelow]

I have Walt Smith's Fiji mud in my sump and I feel it helps.

Interesting, definitely something I'll be looking into I've had a few friends advise to give it a go.

Great build, following along

Glad to see you're enjoying the ride,

R.O production is still in full swing.
We also nipped out to a local DIY store and got a few small bits, firstly we got some stickback M3 tape and stuck one of my web cams to the sump door allowing me to see the state of the skimmer / sump / ATO / XR15 light etc

We also grabbed some 13mm square rubber..stoppers?? feet / furniture protectors which We're using to act as stoppers preventing the ATO from hitting the return pipe, its a simple addition which just generally helps with the running of the sump.

I intend to stick something like a fluorescent ping pong ball / fishing float / other floating object in the ATO so it makes it easier to see via the webcam how low the water volume is.

(ignore the wires at the front those are temporary heater cables.)

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

Great build thread. I've wanted to see one of these kits setup from the beginning for awhile.

 

[highendofthelow]

Great build thread. I've wanted to see one of these kits setup from the beginning for awhile.

Glad your enjoying it so far Joshua, hopefully we won't disappoint.

So today's update..

R.O ... geez is it slow, don't get me wrong it's producing at a reasonably fast rate you just don't really consider how much R.O 750 ltrs actually is until you try and make it in one go. Rome wasn't built in a day and this tank certainly won't be filled in one!

It wouldn't be so bad if we could leave it running however due to how the house and water access is we simply can't.

We've probably got the sump and a healthy 1/4th of the display tank filled.

We also got the second gyre magnet reinforcement kit...It sucks as much as the first one but is workable on the Red Sea Reefers beefy 19mm glass. We have a few ideas which may also help.

We also sparked up one of the gyres in the bottom of the tank purely because we wanted to see it in action and...it's kinda loud...

We're hoping it's because there was about 450 ltrs of water missing out of the desplay! The tanks big enough to give a faint echo if your talking down ether end! So suspect this probably wasn't helping matters.

We'll also give them time to bed in / gunk up a bit before making our final judgement but they do move some serious flow considering.

 

[Brew12]

Glad your enjoying it so far Joshua, hopefully we won't disappoint.

So today's update..

R.O ... geez is it slow, don't get me wrong it's producing at a reasonably fast rate you just don't really consider how much R.O 750 ltrs actually is until you try and make it in one go. Rome wasn't built in a day and this tank certainly won't be filled in one!

It wouldn't be so bad if we could leave it running however due to how the house and water access is we simply can't.

We've probably got the sump and a healthy 1/4th of the display tank filled.

We also got the second gyre magnet reinforcement kit...It sucks as much as the first one but is workable on the Red Sea Reefers beefy 19mm glass. We have a few ideas which may also help.

We also sparked up one of the gyres in the bottom of the tank purely because we wanted to see it in action and...it's kinda loud...

We're hoping it's because there was about 450 ltrs of water missing out of the desplay! The tanks big enough to give a faint echo if your talking down ether end! So suspect this probably wasn't helping matters.

We'll also give them time to bed in / gunk up a bit before making our final judgement but they do move some serious flow considering.

I don't know what it is with the gyres. You aren't the first one to say they are noisy. I run a pair of them and mine are almost completely silent. I can't hardly tell they are running even with my skimmer and return pumps off.

 

[highendofthelow]

I don't know what it is with the gyres. You aren't the first one to say they are noisy. I run a pair of them and mine are almost completely silent. I can't hardly tell they are running even with my skimmer and return pumps off.

It was a audible ramping of the pump as it pulsed on and off it's hard to described, Anything over 30% was loud,

But then it was only in approx 3-4 inch of water which probably didn't help and approx 20 inch of air to echo around.

We'll have to wait and see!

I'm not expecting them to be silent but they better quieten down with some running in/bedding in.

 

[Brew12]

It was a audible ramping of the pump as it pulsed on and off it's hard to described, Anything over 30% was loud,

But then it was only in approx 3-4 inch of water which probably didn't help and approx 20 inch of air to echo around.

We'll have to wait and see!

I'm not expecting them to be silent but they better quieten down with some running in/bedding in.

I run mine close to the surface, but the full tank would reduce any echo effect.

 

[highendofthelow]

I run mine close to the surface, but the full tank would reduce any echo effect.

Agreed thats what we're thinking and also what we're planning on doing.

The flow really was impressive even in a reasonably shallow amount of water from 1 on low power,

We're going to trial them both left and right hand side but also ether wide of the wier.

(Kinda feels a shame mounting one on the right hand side if I can keep that view clear it's rapidly becoming a favorite view to conceptualize the set up)

 

[Brew12]

Agreed thats what we're thinking and also what we're planning on doing.

The flow really was impressive even in a reasonably shallow amount of water from 1 on low power,

We're going to trial them both left and right hand side but also ether wide of the wier.

(Kinda feels a shame mounting one on the right hand side if I can keep that view clear it's rapidly becoming a favorite view to conceptualize the set up)

I'm curious how that works out. I love the flow I get from having them opposite each other. I would run gyres even if only for the interesting interaction the fish have swimming in them.

 

[highendofthelow]

Optimistic 1/3rd full.

 

[highendofthelow]

On brighter news, the gyres appear to be quieter after changing the mode, they're just on a random mode; we need to read the manual more but I'm generally happy with the flow.

We chucked a bit of salt in to start mixing too.

 

[highendofthelow]

Woop,

The 2x 250 watt Titanium Schego heaters have come they're a really nice quality product and are well regarded for Titanium heaters here.

Good job they're indestructible...

One thing I forgot to account for was the need for international plug adaptors (German made) so i've ordered some good quality plug adaptors to make them UK, I contemplated rewiring them but the price was negligible.

I've also been pretty interested in this mod by Flippers4pups...
Think it looks pretty cool but how easy it will transfer to my particular set up (especially with the ATO).

 

[Thle009]

Looking good.

 

[highendofthelow]

40-44 kg (2 boxes) of live Pukani rock with our name at the wholesalers.

Apparently it came in today and it's being kept wet for me.

The LFS is picking it up Thursday, we'll get it Thursday afternoon.

Gooooo R.O Gooooo,

We've got a real good working relationship with our LFS, the plan is to start with 40 KG, we're was toying with some plating rock but unsure how it'll look.

We'll ether keep all 40-44 kg/ cure and trade back in X amount or add X amount depending on how it looks.

 

[highendofthelow]

So we got the tank filled last thing this morning and we have got the live rock from the LFS.

The rock smells quite sweet which I believe is a good sign. We have just chucked it in for the moment but it certainly looks good stuff

 

[revhtree]

Woop,

The 2x 250 watt Titanium Schego heaters have come they're a really nice quality product and are well regarded for Titanium heaters here.

Good job they're indestructible...

One thing I forgot to account for was the need for international plug adaptors (German made) so i've ordered some good quality plug adaptors to make them UK, I contemplated rewiring them but the price was negligible.

I've also been pretty interested in this mod by Flippers4pups...
Think it looks pretty cool but how easy it will transfer to my particular set up (especially with the ATO).

Very cool idea on the heater holders!

 

[highendofthelow]

Very cool idea on the heater holders!

Yes it's pretty sweet but can't take the credit for it; it was Flippers4pups idea first in one of the DIY threads.

My plug adapters for the heaters also came which are excellent.

Liz caved in first and got wet; scaping the tank.

Each piece of rock was very nice but we definitely need another box of something, composed of some smaller bits to mix in.

 

[highendofthelow]

Not bad at all for under 24 hours.
That hasn't been dialed in max air, flow and closed gate. I'll drain it tomorroe and then dial it back to skim drier

 

[highendofthelow]

Annnnd we have life..abeit algae/diatoms!

I'm hoping my LFS can pick me up another 20 KG of live rock from the dealer and a large sack of sand for Thursday.

 

[highendofthelow]

Wow diatoms is hitting pretty hard (Not that suprising really) also starting to see the beginnings of some green algae on the rock.

Cleaned the filter socks.
Cleaned the skimmer.
Razored the glass.

The waters also taken a very slight cloudless over the past few days (presumably bacterial bloom which may or may not have something to do with half a bottle of Zeobak I had left over that I chucked in...)

We're not conserned as of yet but I think I'm going to tone the lighting down a bit for a bit.

My LFS managed to pick up some sand for the tank (need to pick it up) but there were no live rock of interest (grr).

 

[highendofthelow]

So we picked up a 25 KG of marine sand sack and added it to the tank,

I actually intentionally didn't rince it out, I've had a bit of a bacterial bloom and although isn't a problem (natural progression of the tank) it's a bit unsightly. I'm expecting the sand dust to act as a floculant and help the skimmer pull out some of the bacteria etc,

Surprisingly it covered more then I thought it did, I was kinda half expecting it to barely dent the tank but it's given us what looks like a nice shallow sand bed, I'll let the dust settle and see how much more sand we wish to add.

Give the wrasse and possibly a Jawfish we'll probably want atleast double the current sand bed.