Hello all! a little new to R2R..
Anyways I see these build threads and i love the documentation of everything. SO cool to see everyones builds come alive.
Some background info about me:
I did youtube for a little while under the name "Nanojoe".. still post videos here and there but not so much in the past year.
Im from Southern Nj and im an Aquarium Technician for a living! (my life is literally fish tanks)..
Im starting this Red sea reefer 250 upgrade from a fluval evo 13.5 which has been a fun experience. I originally set up a 40 breeder AIO aquarium. Just wasnt happy with the the height and being sumpless. So i tore that down and jumped out of the hobby for a little while. I still had the evo going but was not really documenting its progression or short falls, failures etc.
The 250 red sea will be an SPS dominated reef. This is my first time really having my own SPS tank and am very excited to be a stick head. Theres just something about these specimens that draws us all into them. Colors, place of origin, down to even the stories behind certain corals in our industry / hobby that just attract me/us...
So for starters the Red Sea is dropped shipped i had never experienced an drop ship before especially for something on the larger side...
It was delivered in a tractor trailer and you can have the driver pallet jack anywhere on your property...i dont think they can help you carry inside though.. so have another pair of arms on standby. Luckily my girlfriend was home to help me
It came in 2 packages, stand in its own box and the display and fixins all inside of their own box. Set up was a breeze. Its literally like setting up ikea furniture. Although the directions saying the parts were labeled with letters to distinguish from each other for ease of build.. mine did not. You dont really need that aspect because it all really makes sense putting it together.
So the only issue i found with my plumbing is that i had leak in my return line union (left union shown in pic)
For the life of me, no matter how hard i twisted and with channel locks, could not get the freaking leak to stop! Made sure the flange to the union was clean and going on straight, no cross threading etc. etc. Finally i busted out the lube....
Magic lube saved the day! Gave the o-ring a generous dollop of magic lube and no leak.. so far... not sure if this will be an permanent fix but this stuff has worked in the past long term on jobs... So we shall see. Fingers crossed.
Moving onto the scape.. ugh....
I am very indecisive when it comes to scapes or anything in general.. picking out candy, beer or even what i want for dinner...
In a way i absolutely love doing scapes. Its great alone time and to focus on your reef and become more apart of what you created.
Spent a lot of time outside re configuring rocks to my liking only to do the process over and over again.
Above is not the final scape but close to it... I know in an SPS tank i shouldnt stress over a scape as you want your corals to be the scape. Part of me does not stop at that...
Thats all i have so far as i am typing this 7/28/2020 i have my 5 stage RODI pumping out some water into a bucket to fill this up! Will be active on this post so any questions ask a way!
Thanks for reading up to this point. Glad to be apart of this Forum and particular thread.
Anyways I see these build threads and i love the documentation of everything. SO cool to see everyones builds come alive.
Some background info about me:
I did youtube for a little while under the name "Nanojoe".. still post videos here and there but not so much in the past year.
Im from Southern Nj and im an Aquarium Technician for a living! (my life is literally fish tanks)..
Im starting this Red sea reefer 250 upgrade from a fluval evo 13.5 which has been a fun experience. I originally set up a 40 breeder AIO aquarium. Just wasnt happy with the the height and being sumpless. So i tore that down and jumped out of the hobby for a little while. I still had the evo going but was not really documenting its progression or short falls, failures etc.
The 250 red sea will be an SPS dominated reef. This is my first time really having my own SPS tank and am very excited to be a stick head. Theres just something about these specimens that draws us all into them. Colors, place of origin, down to even the stories behind certain corals in our industry / hobby that just attract me/us...
So for starters the Red Sea is dropped shipped i had never experienced an drop ship before especially for something on the larger side...
It was delivered in a tractor trailer and you can have the driver pallet jack anywhere on your property...i dont think they can help you carry inside though.. so have another pair of arms on standby. Luckily my girlfriend was home to help me
It came in 2 packages, stand in its own box and the display and fixins all inside of their own box. Set up was a breeze. Its literally like setting up ikea furniture. Although the directions saying the parts were labeled with letters to distinguish from each other for ease of build.. mine did not. You dont really need that aspect because it all really makes sense putting it together.
So the only issue i found with my plumbing is that i had leak in my return line union (left union shown in pic)
For the life of me, no matter how hard i twisted and with channel locks, could not get the freaking leak to stop! Made sure the flange to the union was clean and going on straight, no cross threading etc. etc. Finally i busted out the lube....
Magic lube saved the day! Gave the o-ring a generous dollop of magic lube and no leak.. so far... not sure if this will be an permanent fix but this stuff has worked in the past long term on jobs... So we shall see. Fingers crossed.
Moving onto the scape.. ugh....
I am very indecisive when it comes to scapes or anything in general.. picking out candy, beer or even what i want for dinner...
In a way i absolutely love doing scapes. Its great alone time and to focus on your reef and become more apart of what you created.
Spent a lot of time outside re configuring rocks to my liking only to do the process over and over again.
Above is not the final scape but close to it... I know in an SPS tank i shouldnt stress over a scape as you want your corals to be the scape. Part of me does not stop at that...
Thats all i have so far as i am typing this 7/28/2020 i have my 5 stage RODI pumping out some water into a bucket to fill this up! Will be active on this post so any questions ask a way!
Thanks for reading up to this point. Glad to be apart of this Forum and particular thread.