Red Sea 525 - Full send! build thread

[Bartanto]

10/16/24

9/17/24

Here's the start of the upward trajectory on the high dive...look out below!!

Thanks to everyone who has helped along the way and TIA for the future, R2R is awesome.

RS525 (112 gal. DT ~ 31 gal. sump) 5' tank

Lights:
3x ReefLed 90's (was going to go 160's but landed on the 90's)
H.D. cheapie linkable 24" and 18" light strips in cabinet

Aquascape:
Marco rock - Worked with Armando @ Reef Scape Designs to build this scape, which I absolutely love. Those folks are amazing. The final design was about exactly what I had in my mind's eye, sturdy and modular.
Special Grade Sand

Filtration/misc:
Reefmat - going to use socks until I 'need' the roller
Skimmer - Red Sea DC 600
ATS-100 turf scrubber
MarinePure cubes
Aqua UV 25W - this little light saber is going to see right around 400 GPH
BRS reactor

Flow:
Return - Cor-20 pushing through UV
Manifold is plumbed in sump from RedSea Reefrun (backup to Cor-20)
2x Reefwave 45's
Sicce Voyager Nano for in sump (if needed)

Temp:
2x IM Helios 350's

Feeding:
- Plank all cozied up in sump with extended tube dumping right into return pump (thanks for the help @AVAST Marine - you guys rock!)
- Neptune AFS (backup/supplimental that I doubt sees any use)

Lid:
Kraken w/ cutout for Plank , Kraken on QT

Controller/Misc:
Apex Pro with allllll the goodies
Extra EB8
Dosing with Dos QD
Trident (and soon to be Trident NP)
AWC: Dos QD
@SuncrestReef duplicated automated mixing station (thanks!!)
7 stage BRS RO/DI w/ automatic flush
20A & 15A dedicated circuit

The fish cave (lovingly referred to a the fish shack or merely the F Shack) shares a wall with the tank which is super convenient. Maybe down the road it gets rearranged to have remote sump, frag tank, ???...

Here's the Frankenstein plumbing I just finished...used the RS Imperial adapter kit to get returns to 3/4" - leaving the drains Euro, but have the 1" adapters if I find the need to tinker/swap adjustment valve - hoping the flow sensor exceeds its reputation. 4x 1/2" valves off the Franken-fold (need 1 for ATS, 1 for reactor and 2 for who knows). Looking forward to seeing how the sump Plank situation plays out - planning for it to be totally rad.

Alright, that's all I got! Back to sump shuffling all this gear on the precipice of trying to corral what seems to be about a mile of cords. I'm going to try to use the sliding Red Sea shelf on the controller side -- we'll see how that goes...

 

[tzabor10]

Looks. Amazing. Can’t wait to see it running

 

[Cell]

Love the scape.

 

[Bartanto]

Stuff in place for now…

 

[Bartanto]

Solid mail day! Thanks @Kraken Reef perfection on plastic! …and the new crew can QT in style too!

 

[Bartanto]

15k

 

[Bartanto]

RS slide out panel all wired. I’d rate it a solid ‘meh’. Beats mounting on cabinet wall I guess.

 

[Bartanto]

Cycle time

 

[Bartanto]

@Printed Reef helping assuage the OCD factor with a nice media basket!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Love the aquascape in your tank!

 

[Bartanto]

Exciting

 

[Bartanto]

NP tested exactly to my Hanna’s - out of the box. That’s convienient.

 

[slingfox]

Welcome to the Reefer 525 club! Looks like a super nice setup and aquascape. One thing you might want to consider is whether the aquascape is too high. If you mount to the top portions they don't have much space until they hit the water level. Common rule of thumb is to have no portion of your aquascape higher than mid tank height.

 

[Bartanto]

Welcome to the Reefer 525 club! Looks like a super nice setup and aquascape. One thing you might want to consider is whether the aquascape is too high. If you mount to the top portions they don't have much space until they hit the water level. Common rule of thumb is to have no portion of your aquascape higher than mid tank height.

Thanks! I have been quite concerned about that…not sure what the play is going to be. Either super par ‘short’ corals or rejig…

 

[slingfox]

Thanks! I have been quite concerned about that…not sure what the play is going to be. Either super par ‘short’ corals or rejig…

If I was you I would rejig now since it will be much more painful later. Several issues to consider:

1. Having aquascape so high is whenever you do a water change from the main display a very large portion or coral will be exposed to air for a potentially extended period of time. The corals will live through that but the stress likely is not good for them.

2. Having so little open area at the top of the tank could adversely affect flow.

3. If you have coral growing to the very top of the tank everywhere, it is going to be much harder to scrape the back glass. Some people don't clean the back glass but I try to keep it clean since I think that makes the tank look much nicer.

4. Most importantly, you won't be able to growarge coral colonies for the upper portion of the tank. That area is typically considered prime real estate since the top of the aquascape gets the most light and flow.

If you are going to revisit the aquascape, you may also want more rooms on the sides of the tank. You don't want the rockscape too close to the glass since it is better to give coral some room to grow out. You also want to leave room for water movement, frag racks (I prefer to put them on the side rather than front of tank), and easy cleaning. I also hope you put enough room between the rockscape and back glass for flow and cleaning.

The aquascape looks really nice but it is filling up space that could otherwise be used for coral.

 

[Bartanto]

Thank you for the input! I’ll stare a hole in it and come up with something. Sides and back have more room than pictures really show. Flow (right now) is not impacted in the least. And you are 100% right on now’s the time.

 

[Bartanto]

For some reason I was skeptical of the CO2 scrubber. Why? No clue. It definitely works.

 

[Bartanto]

Tabled the in sump feeder for now and went tandem on top.

 

[Bartanto]

Stuck some Nero 5’s for flow along the lower back of the tank.

 

[Bartanto]

If I was you I would rejig now since it will be much more painful later. Several issues to consider:

1. Having aquascape so high is whenever you do a water change from the main display a very large portion or coral will be exposed to air for a potentially extended period of time. The corals will live through that but the stress likely is not good for them.

2. Having so little open area at the top of the tank could adversely affect flow.

3. If you have coral growing to the very top of the tank everywhere, it is going to be much harder to scrape the back glass. Some people don't clean the back glass but I try to keep it clean since I think that makes the tank look much nicer.

4. Most importantly, you won't be able to growarge coral colonies for the upper portion of the tank. That area is typically considered prime real estate since the top of the aquascape gets the most light and flow.

If you are going to revisit the aquascape, you may also want more rooms on the sides of the tank. You don't want the rockscape too close to the glass since it is better to give coral some room to grow out. You also want to leave room for water movement, frag racks (I prefer to put them on the side rather than front of tank), and easy cleaning. I also hope you put enough room between the rockscape and back glass for flow and cleaning.

The aquascape looks really nice but it is filling up space that could otherwise be used for coral.

Here’s where I ended up. New on bottom. Angle is tough but +3” or more for sure.