SuncrestReef's Red Sea Reefer XL 425 build

[SuncrestReef]

My wife & I will be out of the country over Christmas and New Years Day, so I arranged for a house sitter to take care of the dog and the aquarium. I'm in the process of writing up specific instructions, and I'm also recording some videos to help her with some of the routine maintenance tasks on the tank. Here's one on emptying the Avast Marine skimmate locker when full:



(for those of you with a keen eye, you'll notice my Neptune DDR 2-part dosing reservoir is gone and I'm pulling liquid directly from BRS plastic jugs...this is just temporary as the DDR optical sensors failed and are being replaced by Neptune)

 

[Raptor72]

Nice tumbling on that chaeto. I’m going to have to look up that conversion for the stock ATO.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Nice tumbling on that chaeto. I’m going to have to look up that conversion for the stock ATO.

Thanks! Here's a link to my ATO/Refugium conversion instructions:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/s...eefer-xl-425-build.358990/page-5#post-4668633

 

[NY_Caveman]

Last night was our annual white elephant xmas gift exchange party. This party has grown over the past 10 years and we had over 50 guests at our house last night. This was the first big party since setting up the aquarium, and I figured it would be a big hit for entertaining kids, but it turned out to be an even bigger hit with the adults! I ended up giving four separate tours of the tank, sump, and garage mixing station to groups of interested guests. Everyone was amazed and I got tons of compliments. Makes all the planning, work, and care worth it!

That is a great feeling! House looks nice. I am not allowed on the roof of mine.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I’ve had a couple corals where low flow has allowed detritus to settle, so I increased the intensity on both my WAV and Gyre to see if it helps keep the corals clean. As a result, the Gyre is now creating a vortex sucking in air from the surface. This is happening off and on a couple times per minute and injecting air bubbles into the tank. Not sure if I should turn it down or perhaps lower the Gyre to prevent this.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I found another aiptasia, this time in my refugium. Here's a video of killing it with the laser. It took a little time to get the laser focused, but at 0:28 you'll start to hear the aiptasia sizzling as the laser cooks it. Sorry for the red lighting, but that's from the chaeto grow light.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Here's a little eye candy for today:

 

[Mordie101]

Ha! Yes, hopefully my wife doesn't read these posts (though she already knows how important the camera and corals are to me...). I'm glad you like the photos and my build thread.

One word of advice with your plans to feed your refugium from your manifold: Occasionally my refugium drain will get clogged with stray fragments of chaeto, so I have a float switch in the refugium that triggers my Apex to turn off the PMUP so the refugium doesn't overflow and sends me an alert. If you feed your refugium directly from your manifold, it can overflow your refugium if the drain clogs, or if you have a float switch it will need to turn off the flow to your entire manifold. For this reason, I think it's much better to have a dedicated small pump feeding your refugium so it can be turned off in this situation (or for routine maintenance to clean the refugium) so the rest of your system can continue to run while the refugium is offline.

As for the PMUP noise, I can honestly say I cannot hear it running. I have a Nyos Quantum 160 skimmer which is supposedly one of the quietest skimmers on the market and I can't hear the PMUP running when the skimmer is on. I made sure to suspend the PMUP by the output tubing so it doesn't touch the sump glass, and it really isn't noticeable when it's running. I'm not sure if your experience with PMUPs is different, but mine is practically silent as long as it's not reverberating against glass.

Just keep these issues in mind as you're planning your system. Thanks again for the kind words on my build!

Hello! Reading through in hopes to turn a reefer 250 ato into a Refugium when I get it in January! I don’t have an apex and it’ll be a while before I do.. any ideas on what to use to keep the ato from over flowing?

Thanks!

 

[SuncrestReef]

Hello! Reading through in hopes to turn a reefer 250 ato into a Refugium when I get it in January! I don’t have an apex and it’ll be a while before I do.. any ideas on what to use to keep the ato from over flowing?

Thanks!

I'm not aware of any way to guarantee it won't overflow without some sort of controller to monitor the water level and shut off the pump. Even if you added a 2nd drain, chances are the drains will eventually get clogged. My Apex detects and prevents an overflow about 1 or 2 times per month. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

 

[Mordie101]

I'm not aware of any way to guarantee it won't overflow without some sort of controller to monitor the water level and shut off the pump. Even if you added a 2nd drain, chances are the drains will eventually get clogged. My Apex detects and prevents an overflow about 1 or 2 times per month. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

Thanks a lot for the advice! Your thread is amazing

 

[BigMo]

Hey John, I hope you are enjoying your beautiful and well planned Tank.
When I was reading your thread I saw some drawings for where you are going to put the tank and the water flow and so on, I was curious to know what software you have used? it seems very neat and useful.
Thanks

 

[SuncrestReef]

Hey John, I hope you are enjoying your beautiful and well planned Tank.
When I was reading your thread I saw some drawings for where you are going to put the tank and the water flow and so on, I was curious to know what software you have used? it seems very neat and useful.
Thanks

Those drawings were made in Microsoft Visio. It's an all-purpose drawing tool, but I have used it for many years to document computer networks in my work. There are probably a lot of cheaper (or free) drawing tools available that would work as well: https://twitgoo.com/best-visio-alternatives/

 

[BigMo]

Those drawings were made in Microsoft Visio. It's an all-purpose drawing tool, but I have used it for many years to document computer networks in my work. There are probably a lot of cheaper (or free) drawing tools available that would work as well: https://twitgoo.com/best-visio-alternatives/

Thanks, really was looking for a good software.

 

[rs1831]

Today I connected all the Apex cables for the probes and flow monitors & leak sensors. I used the same zip-tie mounts but this time with just the adhesive backing since the cables are light weight and likely don't need screws to support them. We'll see how long the adhesive works in a saltwater evaporation environment.

I also used some plastic cable management tubing to keep things organized. Since I have the four basic Apex probes plus 4 flow sensors, two optical sensors for the ATK, and two leak sensors, there are a lot of cables to run from the sump area to the control cabinet. The corrugated plastic tubing allowed me to tuck all 12 cables into a single bundle to tie off and route neatly to the control cabinet.





On the control cabinet side, I mounted the various power bricks to the cabinet ceiling and used 1 foot power cords to eliminate as much cabling clutter as possible.



(there's one empty mounting bracket for a Radion power brick. The LED is on back order.)


I labeled all the cables and tried to keep them from tangling.



I also ran the tubing for the DOS and DDR. I wish Neptune wouldn't crimp their plastic tubing and wrap it with rubber bands that make it really difficult to straighten out the tubing. I did my best to make it look neat, but may end up replacing their tubing with something that hasn't been folded up.



I made sure to leave room in the control cabinet area for the upcoming Neptune Trident and plan to order one as soon as it's available.

At this point I just need to wait for my COR-20 pump and one more Radion LED, both on back order.

Abulsoluty stunning! Where did you get the mounting brackets for the power bricks? Thanks!

 

[SuncrestReef]

Abulsoluty stunning! Where did you get the mounting brackets for the power bricks? Thanks!

Thanks! Glad you like it.

The brackets are available at many vendors. Try BRS: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/power-supply-bracket-ecotech-marine.html

 

[rs1831]

Thanks for the quick response. You mentioned that you were thinking about a cal reactor and I am wondering if the trident from apex would be something to consider. I’ve been going back in forth between a reactor or waiting until the trident is available.

 

[SuncrestReef]

Thanks for the quick response. You mentioned that you were thinking about a cal reactor and I am wondering if the trident from apex would be something to consider. I’ve been going back in forth between a reactor or waiting until the trident is available.

So far I'm happy with my 2-part dosing routine, so I don't think I'll be getting a calcium reactor any time soon. As for the Trident, I still intend to buy it whenever it eventually comes on the market. But just to be clear, the Trident is only a water testing device, so it doesn't replace the need for supplementing calcium & alkalinity the way 2-part dosing or calcium reactors work. Your question above implies that the Trident could be a substitute for a reactor.

 

[rs1831]

So far I'm happy with my 2-part dosing routine, so I don't think I'll be getting a calcium reactor any time soon. As for the Trident, I still intend to buy it whenever it eventually comes on the market. But just to be clear, the Trident is only a water testing device, so it doesn't replace the need for supplementing calcium & alkalinity the way 2-part dosing or calcium reactors work. Your question above implies that the Trident could be a substitute for a reactor.

I do not believe that the Trident needs additional dosing pumps or anything like that. Just the latest version of the Apex.

 

[SuncrestReef]

I do not believe that the Trident needs additional dosing pumps or anything like that. Just the latest version of the Apex.

I think you're missing the point. The only thing the Trident does is automatically test your water for alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium. It does not deliver any nutrients or elements into your tank. It draws water from your tank through one tube, tests it, then pumps it out another tube to discard. You can read the details directly from Neptune's FAQ: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/trident-faq.323209/

 

[Oshengems]

Bro your tank is goals!