Hello, Been reefing for quite 10+ years and gathering knowledge from here as well as a nano specific site as my previous tanks where smaller. Wife finally told me to quit holding back on the hobby after a recent promotion at work so Xmas present was to fully upgrade my system to whatever I want (amazing opportunity after starting reefing on a low level enlisted military pay scale (E3-E6)). Currently Travel for work 28 days at a time with 28 days off so automation and minimum maintenance while gone is Very high priority. System is a Redsea Reefer XL 425 with 2 Kessil 360's , 2 Mp40's ,2 Aquamaxx reactors, 1 Aquamaxx BioPellet Reactor, 1 Clarisea SK3000 (all installed in the redsea V1 Sump which was a PITA), 1/10th hp JBJ Nano chiller, all controled by an Apex w/ Trident. Build thread will be coming up soon to show some issues and ideas I found with previously mentioned installs as well as further projects of upgrading to Hybrid lighting (for that evening coral Pop), Continous Phyto dosing / Copepod farming (surprisingly wife is very excited to perform 7 day transfers/restarts and harvests), Calc reactor set up and eventually show off of a very happy Mixed reef with a fat Madarin .
Two observations already..Don't ever waste time on the "nano" reactors having actual full size ones they work so much better was very geekily excited by seeing BioPellets really swirling with out up flowing!
Second is I cant recommend a filter roller mat enough. The change in water clarity is like night and day after just a day. If you are in the middle of a setup and considering this at all do it at the beginning as draining a sump to remove baffles and modify an active reef is way more stressful than you are thinking.
Two observations already..Don't ever waste time on the "nano" reactors having actual full size ones they work so much better was very geekily excited by seeing BioPellets really swirling with out up flowing!
Second is I cant recommend a filter roller mat enough. The change in water clarity is like night and day after just a day. If you are in the middle of a setup and considering this at all do it at the beginning as draining a sump to remove baffles and modify an active reef is way more stressful than you are thinking.