Red Sea Reefer 350 Build - Flash's Place

[marxman]

I currently have a 36 gallon bow front tank with a canister filter which has been up and running for 1 year now. Been an amazing learning experience and it has taken some effort to keep it stable. Finally decided that I would get a "real" reef tank with a legitimate setup.

With the exception of my Aqua Illumination Hydra 32HD (which was a huge upgrade), nothing will be making it to the new tank.
So far I only have the tank purchased, everything else is still being decided on. I will update as I decide.

All livestock will come from my current tank, and I think they can already sense a big new tank where they can stretch their fins.


Equipment List:

Almost all of this equipment will be coming from Love The Reef, in Wilmington MA. Great LFS!!


Tank, Sump, and Cabinet : Red Sea Reefer 350

In-Cabinet Lighting : Luminoodle Click LED Strip

Controller : Neptune Apex EL

Auto Top Off : Neptune ATK w/ extra OS1 Optical Sensor and Low Profile Leak Detector

Tank Lights : (2) Aqua Illumination Hydra 32 HD

Refugium Light : Aqua Illumination Prime Fuge

Return Pump : Ecotech Vectra M2

Power Heads : (2) Ecotech Vortech MP40

Heater : (2) Aquatops 300W

Auto Top Off Reservoir : Trigger Systems Crystal ATO 5 Gallon

Media Reactor : Nyos Torq 2.0 w/ Torq Dock

Skimmer : Nyos Quantum 160

Dosing Pump : Neptune DOS w/ Neptune DDR

Testing : Neptune Trident

 

[andrewey]

Did you mean to post the rest of the equipment list?

 

[marxman]

Did you mean to post the rest of the equipment list?

Only when I actually buy equipment, I'm still deciding on how I want to equip the tank.

 

[marxman]

Red Sea Reefer 350

Picked up the RSR 350 package from the LFS today, and man is that thing heavy.
Anyway I have it home, built and in place. My immediate impression is the impressive quality of all pieces.

The tank is beautiful, the glass is nice and thick, and the seamless design looks great. The black backing will make a nice contrast to anything in the tank. You will have to decide if you want to scrape that back glass to keep it clean as your tank matures.

The sump is similarly well built, same kind of glass as tank which is a nice touch. Compartments in the sump are sizable. The issue I don't care for is the location of the ATO tank. It sits on a glass rail over the sump. It's a bit inconvenient but I am planning on replacing that soon anyway.

The plumbing is very easy to assemble and i like the idea of not doing any plumbing myself... maybe on the next tank

The cabinet is extremely sturdy. There are foam pads affixed to the surfaces that will come into contact with glass. Soft close mechanism is excellent, and doors are completely adjustable... this is frustrating for someone dumb like me at first, but once you get a hang of what all the screws do you find that you can get the doors to do exactly what you want.

Perfect fit!!

Exterior of cabinet is a nice finish that can compliment any room

Added a battery operated LED strip under the cabinet so i can see what I am doing. I think I saw that idea on here somewhere and it's a must for any cabinet.

 

[Scubafrog]

How are you connecting the 5/8" ID flex tubing return line to your Vectra pump?

 

[marxman]

How are you connecting the 5/8" ID flex tubing return line to your Vectra pump?

Ecotech have barb and screen kit. I may try that rather than hard plumbing for now.

 

[Scubafrog]

Ecotech have barb and screen kit. I may try that rather than hard plumbing for now.

I believe that kit comes with 3/4" & 1" barb. Flex tubing on Reefer 350 is 5/8". This is the issue I am having with my Sicce pump on my Reefer 350.

 

[RoweReef]

I believe that kit comes with 3/4" & 1" barb. Flex tubing on Reefer 350 is 5/8". This is the issue I am having with my Sicce pump on my Reefer 350.

I used a 3/4" slip union fitting and a
3/4" insert fitting to 5/8". If you call BRS I'm sure they can set you up.

 

[marxman]

So, I contacted BRS and they told me to contact Red Sea as they "have a kit to convert their plumbing"
Bit of a bullsh*t answer if you ask me, and I certainly wasn't about to start a discussion on the widespread popularity of the metric system

I spent about 15 minutes in Home Depot figuring this out, and managed to piece together a $5 solution.
I have documented it here: Red Sea Reefer 350 plumbing to a ecotech marine vectra m2

 

[Scubafrog]

So, I contacted BRS and they told me to contact Red Sea as they "have a kit to convert their plumbing"
Bit of a bullsh*t answer if you ask me, and I certainly wasn't about to start a discussion on the widespread popularity of the metric system

I spent about 15 minutes in Home Depot figuring this out, and managed to piece together a $5 solution.
I have documented it here: Red Sea Reefer 350 plumbing to a ecotech marine vectra m2

Good solution!

I actually converted the other end of the connection to accept a 3/4" flex hose but I'm thinking about modifying the pump side instead and go back to the 5/8" flex hose supplied in case of leaks.

 

[dungdatinh]

Very nice

 

[marxman]

Algae Barn sent me the first installment for my Refugium.
I ordered the Medium Clean Chaeto Starter Pack.

if you specify it's for a new tank they send it to you in two shipments a week apart.
First shipment is Marine Pure Bio Cubes and a bottle of Fritz Aquatics Turbo Start.

 

[New&no clue]

Great start, I have the 350 as well and have really liked the tank. That's a great idea of lights in the cabinet, always use my phone light to see and it's a pain. What are your thoughts for power heads?

 

[marxman]

Great start, I have the 350 as well and have really liked the tank. That's a great idea of lights in the cabinet, always use my phone light to see and it's a pain. What are your thoughts for power heads?

Vortech's all day, I love those power heads and they are the reason I went with a Vectra M2. I wanted all pumps to be Ecotech and controlled through 1 app. I will do 2 x MP40s for sure.

I saw some tanks that had additional powerheads on the sides, at the back corners pointed across the back glass to stop detritis build up. I like the idea, will see if I need them.

 

[New&no clue]

I saw some tanks that had additional powerheads on the sides, at the back corners pointed across the back glass to stop detritis build up. I like the idea, will see if I need them.

I did that in my tank I have two on the glass pointing in, and two on the overflow pointing out. However, I did it to get more flow back there for corals.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Nice setup! I love these red sea tanks and I'm seriously considering one when I upgrade.

Any pics of your current setup? And what livestock will you be moving over to their new home?

 

[marxman]

Nice setup! I love these red sea tanks and I'm seriously considering one when I upgrade.

Any pics of your current setup? And what livestock will you be moving over to their new home?

These Red Sea and I assume Waterbox tanks are amazing. The tank, the sump, and the cabinet are all incredible quality.

My current tank is a 36 Gallon Aqueon.

2 Clowns, Bicolor Blenny, Blue Chromis, Yellow Tang, PJ Cardinal, Watchman Goby, Pistol Shrimp, Peppermint Shrimp, Fire Shrimp, Emerald Crab... and a bunch of corals.

As you can see I didnt really know much about aquascaping, so I am looking forward to a new bigger space to try to create a better scape.

 

[marxman]

Ready for The Cycle:

I have installed the Aquatops 300W heater which I chose because it's shorter than other heaters and it has a plastic guard. So far so good, although I may add a second heater at some point seeing as it's taking a while to heat this amount of water up.

I also began the installation of the Neptune Apex EL controller. I've tried to pretty up the wiring like I have seen other reefers do, I think my setup is average compared to what I have seen, but I'm liking it so far

PH and Temp probes are active as the tank warms and clears the water. I also replaced the Red Sea Filter Media Cup with a Red Sea Filter Bag for the cycle. That way I have two filter bags running.

So, here it sit watching my Apex Fusion app on my iPad watching the temp in my tank increase..........

 

[marxman]

Two Heaters are Better Than One

It took my Aquatops 300W heater all night to raise the tank by 8 degrees. I decided this morning to get a second heater; this will serve to help share the heating load and also provide some redundancy.
Both heaters are configured with identical settings. I may mess with the settings as the tank runs.

 

[marxman]

Neptune ATK with Trigger Systems Reservoir

After 2 days of sliding that Red Sea ATO Reservoir back and forth I couldn't take it anymore. I could some real problems in my future once a skimmer was installed.

I hit up my LFS and got a Neptune ATK w/ extra Optical Sensor and a Trigger Systems 5 Gallon ATO Reservoir.

The ATO tank fit nicely in the cabinet.
Setup of the Neptune ATK was extremely simple through the Fusion App.
For anyone that has used the Neptune ATK will know it has 2 optical sensors that report a low water and high water level in the sump. The low level turns the pump on, the high level is a fail-safe that turns the pump off.
The extra Optical Sensor is in the ATO Reservoir and will warn me when I need to refill with RODI.