Whip’s Red Sea Reefer XXL 750 Hybrid Bare Bottom Build

[Diesel48]

Love the outcome of the PVC conversion. Waiting on the call for the delivery of my 750 xxl right now. Wish I had a baseball team to help move it!

 

[Whip]

Everything looks good, but it's gonna be hard to top dragging rock around the front driveway. I don't know why, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing that lol

Thanks Rakie. It was actually pretty comical. @Devaji mentioned that I should have told him I was doing CrossFit... I wish I was that quick witted!

I think I am going to do your solution and give you made probs On my build thread of course!
funny I did this years ago for my reef octo skimmer needed to direct the water down into the sump to quite it down. did not think about that here.

Thanks Devaji! Having all of us doing our builds together is actually pretty fun and educational.

Lookin good man, that's a nice tank!

Thanks Neo Jeo! I appreciate the words of encouragement!

Love the outcome of the PVC conversion. Waiting on the call for the delivery of my 750 xxl right now. Wish I had a baseball team to help move it!

I am super excited to watch your build thread. Exciting times are upon us!!!

 

[Whip]

Ok... After a break from aquascaping, time to get back to it!

So remember... I am going for “hybrid” barebottom, so the plan is to have large Tonga plates act as the barebottom. One of the Tonga plates came with a missing corner. Luckily, I cut some off this plate to make my “trench” and it was a perfect fit for the other side that had the missing corner.

Next... I cleaned up my homemade cave (remember that the entire underside of this plate is hollow).

Next is...

 

[Crabby48]

That looks cool. Very original. Waiting to see it in the tank

 

[Whip]

That looks cool. Very original. Waiting to see it in the tank

Crabby,

Thanks for always following my build and always offering words of encouragement!

You’re right; I need to get my build going! I’ve been thinking and planning too much and I just need to get going. I think I need to set a date...

March 18th = Go-Live!!! (I think... hehe)

ETA: Already changing my go live date (have to do some business travel; ugh)... April 1st = Go Live!!!

 

[Firemanreefkeeper]

I finally had some time to sit down and check out your build. I love the plumbing conversation. That is slick and clean looking. I remember the whole metric ordeal all to well. I bought a used 170 without a sump since it was broken. It had the pipes though. I bought a trigger sump then had to figure out how to actually make it work. I used a 1 1/4 inch rubber coupler over one end of the gate valve and regular pvc on the other side. That was my conversion. It worked but yours puts mine to shame. Well done sir!

 

[Devaji]

loving the scape I am curious to see how this "hybrid" BB works for you i think it gonna be great as you have the flow for it.

question:
how in the heck did you get your down pipes out of the tank to cut them. my ( guessing your was to ) bulk heads heads where factory installed I cant get the bottom bulk head to come apart so I get them em out to cut them down.

any tips & tricks?

 

[Whip]

I finally had some time to sit down and check out your build. I love the plumbing conversation. That is slick and clean looking. I remember the whole metric ordeal all to well. I bought a used 170 without a sump since it was broken. It had the pipes though. I bought a trigger sump then had to figure out how to actually make it work. I used a 1 1/4 inch rubber coupler over one end of the gate valve and regular pvc on the other side. That was my conversion. It worked but yours puts mine to shame. Well done sir!

Firemanreefkeeper,

First, thanks a bunch for taking time to check my build thread AND I really appreciate the compliment on the conversion. It was a twist on a lot of great ideas I read about on this forum.

loving the scape I am curious to see how this "hybrid" BB works for you i think it gonna be great as you have the flow for it.

question:
how in the heck did you get your down pipes out of the tank to cut them. my ( guessing your was to ) bulk heads heads where factory installed I cant get the bottom bulk head to come apart so I get them em out to cut them down.

any tips & tricks?

This is crazy... mine WERE NOT installed upon arrival. The were wrapped in stretchwrap and placed inside one of the equipment boxes. I had to install them. The directions even tell you to install them. I watched YouTube videos of people installing them. When setting the tank on the stand... that must have been crazy as the downpipes must have stuck out from underneath the tank several inches! Wow.

Now, I did install them and remove them a few times... I needed to do this to see how far they dropped down and and what they looked when cut. Because I did this, I can offer you some insight... be careful and don’t squeeze too hard, but loosen them from below. Just make sure you are twisting the right direction. Seems weird for me to say, but give it some thought before you twist... you are twisting below the threads from underneath.

Now, after you glue the 1” nipple in the downpipe, you can install the downpipes and use a pair of channel locks from below to tighten them. You won’t crush the pipe because the 1” pipe is stuffed inside.

Don’t over tighten.

 

[Whip]

loving the scape I am curious to see how this "hybrid" BB works for you i think it gonna be great as you have the flow for it.

question:
how in the heck did you get your down pipes out of the tank to cut them. my ( guessing your was to ) bulk heads heads where factory installed I cant get the bottom bulk head to come apart so I get them em out to cut them down.

any tips & tricks?

I am still trying to picture what you have going on. Can you take a photo from underneath?

If you see three pipes... twist the pipes. Red Sea doesn’t use bulkheads like you’d get off of Bulk Reef Supply. The bottom of their tank has a plastic plate with a nut molded into it. It’s one piece. The pipes thread into it. Notice the pipes have two sets of threads... the top on threads into the plate and the bottom one accepts their factory union. You actually hack off the bottom set of threads to convert it to standard plumbing.

 

[Devaji]

Firemanreefkeeper,

First, thanks a bunch for taking time to check my build thread AND I really appreciate the compliment on the conversion. It was a twist on a lot of great ideas I read about on this forum.



This is crazy... mine WERE NOT installed upon arrival. The were wrapped in stretchwrap and placed inside one of the equipment boxes. I had to install them. The directions even tell you to install them. I watched YouTube videos of people installing them. When setting the tank on the stand... that must have been crazy as the downpipes must have stuck out from underneath the tank several inches! Wow.

Now, I did install them and remove them a few times... I needed to do this to see how far they dropped down and and what they looked when cut. Because I did this, I can offer you some insight... be careful and don’t squeeze too hard, but loosen them from below. Just make sure you are twisting the right direction. Seems weird for me to say, but give it some thought before you twist... you are twisting below the threads from underneath.

Now, after you glue the 1” nipple in the downpipe, you can install the downpipes and use a pair of channel locks from below to tighten them. You won’t crush the pipe because the 1” pipe is stuffed inside.

Don’t over tighten.

yeah it was a real pain to move on the stand for sure. i had it on 2x4 when On the floor. I thought that was a normal RS thing. I seen other ppl on FB group there tanks had it too now that I think about it some.

yeah the top nut in on there tighter than a duck but...and that's water proof!

so I just caved in and bought 2 of red sea pump adapter that screw on to the down pipes then you can put a 3/4" x 1" thread to slip in to that. $30 something bucks for the price tag of what we pay for these you think they would have a better US solution. a ton of PPL want to use 1" plumping for manifolds and what not. at the very lest though these adapters in the box help it cant cost them that much to make them.
that's my gripe.

 

[Devaji]

I am still trying to picture what you have going on. Can you take a photo from underneath?

If you see three pipes... twist the pipes. Red Sea doesn’t use bulkheads like you’d get off of Bulk Reef Supply. The bottom of their tank has a plastic plate with a nut molded into it. It’s one piece. The pipes thread into it. Notice the pipes have two sets of threads... the top on threads into the plate and the bottom one accepts their factory union. You actually hack off the bottom set of threads to convert it to standard plumbing.

Here are some pics.
Once I get the parts next week I can just screw them in to the down pipes.
And pump form there.

 

[Whip]

Here are some pics.
Once I get the parts next week I can just screw them in to the down pipes.
And pump form there.

Crazy that those came installed and mine didn’t. Anyway, just grab pipes from below and spin them.

On the plate... what looks like a nut... is not a nut that requires turning. It is siliconed.

 

[Devaji]

Crazy that those came installed and mine didn’t. Anyway, just grab pipes from below and spin them.

On the plate... what looks like a nut... is not a nut that requires turning. It is siliconed.

yeah right, I wonder why some do & some dont come preinstalled? I could not get if off with my hand and did not want to mess things up so I just spent the $$ on the part that is supposed to fit them. was really hard finding info if it does fit the bigger RS tanks but finally found a guy who it it.

 

[Whip]

Cable Management

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

 

[Devaji]

Cable Management

BEFORE
View attachment 996403

DURING
View attachment 996404

AFTER
View attachment 996406

Wow that in sump cable management took it up a notch. Great call to use that stuff.

Now what about getting it out to service? PITA or did you think about that and have a plan?

 

[Devaji]

Are you going to run a huge fuge.or just don't have the divider in?

 

[Whip]

Wow that in sump cable management took it up a notch. Great call to use that stuff.

Now what about getting it out to service? PITA or did you think about that and have a plan?

Devaji,

You have me scratching my head... mainly because you are totally correct! Hmmm... I need to put some thought into the service aspect. The covers come off of those raceways, but because they are behind the pipe... yeah, this is going to be a major PITA!

Are you going to run a huge fuge.or just don't have the divider in?

Nice observation. Yup. I am going to run a monster fuge. I am going to give Triton a try.

In a perfect world, I would pipe in an external recirculating skimmer from another location to maximize the fuge square footage, but... I haven’t figured that out yet. If a recirculating skimmer goes in the fuge, it shouldn’t cause any issues as it will be fed from the header (so it won’t suck up any chaeto).

I think I am getting this...

ETA: Header at 90%. I just need to bush it down and get some valves. The drop furthest to the right will feed the recirculating skimmer.

 

[Whip]

ATO (clear tubing) and Fresh Saltwater In (white tubing) downspout installed. It is the one furthest to the right.

In the corner is Dirty Saltwater Out (black tubing).

So close to auto-waterchanges!!!

 

[Whip]

Finally doing a leak test... so far; so good (knock on wood).

 

[Devaji]

Devaji,

View attachment 996480

You have me scratching my head... mainly because you are totally correct! Hmmm... I need to put some thought into the service aspect. The covers come off of those raceways, but because they are behind the pipe... yeah, this is going to be a major PITA!



Nice observation. Yup. I am going to run a monster fuge. I am going to give Triton a try.

In a perfect world, I would pipe in an external recirculating skimmer from another location to maximize the fuge square footage, but... I haven’t figured that out yet. If a recirculating skimmer goes in the fuge, it shouldn’t cause any issues as it will be fed from the header (so it won’t suck up any chaeto).

I think I am getting this...

View attachment 996450

ETA: Header at 90%. I just need to bush it down and get some valves. The drop furthest to the right will feed the recirculating skimmer.

View attachment 996579

yeah I am glade you are thinking about the race way. I hope you find a good solution. let us know.

that is gonna be one big fuge! the sumps on these RS tanks are so nice I thought about tanking it out and doing another build with the "Sump" as a DT and use a 40br as the sump..lol

thank skimmer looks real nice I bet it has a price tag to match too.