Brad's 525xl Super-Sized Reef Adventure.. come join us!

asrpdoc said:
Looks beautiful. I am thinking of buying the the Redsea Reefer 525XL. Any suggestions/advice would be very helpful
Click to expand...

Its on heck of a nice looking tank, redsea has a great product here, though there are a lot of questionable suggestions they did with return and supply line tubing size i've heard other have said with these reefer series. To me its fine for what i'm going to be doing. Any other suggestions would be to plan things out, I have a long road a head of me don't foresee i'm going to be happy with the look of the tank for at least a year till the system/rocks mature and take off. So any advice would be to have take your time and plan ahead :)
Reeftanks6 said:
Looking great so far, tagging along!
Click to expand...
Cool and thank you.
burton14e7 said:
Do the orpheks come with those tank mounts or did you have to rig those?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately no had to custom make them with the AI brackets, should have pic's on the first page if not i will find them and post them. The fixtures are closer to the water then i'd want but so far so good, no were near full power and corals are seeing 250-330 par.
 
8-23-16 WC and recent frag coral pic update

8-23-16 WC and recent frag coral pic update

So went ahead and did another 40g wc which I think it needed. Unfortunately i know the system has a long way to go since i'm not growing more then a few dots of coraline algae spots :( Waiting for the day it looks like my other bb's which are completely covered in the pink stuff even on the bottom of the tank. This time i scrapped the bottom with a razor, not sure the tangs are happy with that since they enjoyed picking and grazing during the day. About an hour after the water change the astrea snails started to spawn and shoot there slurry everywhere lol.

Still guessing on lighting with the Orphek's to take pictures this time its mostly just channel 1 which is whites. Snapped some pic's to show a comparison between 9 days ago of these small frags. Looks like we are off to a good start and they are growing and coloring up well too. Really need to learn how to take better pictures, if I leave the lights on to normal highest schedule setting of the day (which i enjoy) its just to blue and the camera doesn't take pictures well. I've heard of using a filter and would like to learn more about that. Anyway just wanted to document the positive small change.







 
Last edited:
9-19-16 check in.

9-19-16 check in.

Whats up guys, finally have the time to give an update. Despite wanting my other tangs in here for more pee and poop coral food, we haven't yet. Will have to brake down and remove rocks out of my other tank to get them they are not easy to catch. Was thinking when they are sleeping in the rocks at night may be the best time.. Anyway, back to the 525xl. So far i can't be happier in that any added changes seem to be a positive reaction which is unusual for me.

Added 5 A160 Kessils to fill in the shadows and add the extra pop. Made some alum U shape brackets that are held in by a bolt and nut running down the AI rail channel. Works well and can move the A160's anywhere i want. Running them at 30% color and 70 % intensity for most of the day. Corals are seeing 300-380 par, so far so good do not plan on increasing intensity for some time since come corals are light in color still. Did lower the Orphek's down 10 percent on each channel since adding the Kessil just in cases.

Corals are all doing very well, once again my attempt to take better photos now with a filmed lens cover just doesn't do the coral colors any justice. But i wanted to share the growth and over all health changes which can be seen (again please look past the ugly photo coloring). Colors and growth i can not be happier with at the moment especially for the age of the tank. What really makes me happy is the health/color and growth of the undata which is one of my favorite monti's of all time, all blues/greens are coming out very nicely!!

Maintenance has been the same, skimming and filter sock changes ever 3-4 days since they both get dirty quickly. Decided not to do a large water change in the past couple weeks, instead blew off rocks with pumps off and removed 8 gallons. With the amount of water flow there isn't much in this BB system that isn't making its way the the sump/socks/skimmer which is what i wanted. I feed the fish/tank at least 4-5 times a day, most frozen or a mix of 4 different types of pellets, stopped the nori since it makes a mess. Everyone once and a while i'll dose some Zeo products nothing consistent to worth mentioning though. I know i need more food / dirtier tank with more fish to get things taking off.. in time! Thanks for listening guys!

Alk / cal consumption is up so its time i've ordered a doser, will be doing mostly 2 part for now.











 
Last edited:
Update 9-22-16 (dosing pump / 2 more tangs and more sps frags)

Update 9-22-16 (dosing pump / 2 more tangs and more sps frags)

Hi guys, sorry for the bad pic's last time. Believe we've done better this time around.

-more fish! I know the tank needs more coral food (dirtier water) and i really don't like shutting off the skimmer so the plan was always to have as many tangs as one could fit in this size tank. Now i know the tang police will surely be after me since we now have successfully removed the Hippo and Lieutenant tangs as well as to a pair of anthias from another system we have. So that make it 5 tangs in this system!! We are feeding 8 to 10 times a day to make sure they stay fat and happy :uhoh3:

-added a bunch more frags, do not know the names to share, though grabbed a mind trick monti which i'm happy about. The really white sps frags were getting bleached from the system it was in, they should gain some color in a few weeks.

-added a cheap-o ebay doser which i really didn't want to do so i'm keeping my eye on it. Sadly everything is made in china so it is what it is. 12ml a day is what we are starting at and can already tell we need to increase, just taking it slow since i rather be low then high with alk especially for a low no3/po4 system like this.

*note to self, you do not need any more frags/corals*









 
I am planning of buying the Red sea Reefer 525XL. I visited the LFS and looked at the custom aquarium tanks and stands too. Your Red sea Reefer 525XL looks amazing. Please advise and your experience with the 525XL would be very helpful to make a decision.
 
brad65ford said:
Its on heck of a nice looking tank, redsea has a great product here, though there are a lot of questionable suggestions they did with return and supply line tubing size i've heard other have said with these reefer series. To me its fine for what i'm going to be doing. Any other suggestions would be to plan things out, I have a long road a head of me don't foresee i'm going to be happy with the look of the tank for at least a year till the system/rocks mature and take off. So any advice would be to have take your time and plan ahead :)
.
Click to expand...

thank you. Saw your reply to my earlier msg here :)
 
At the moment we have 5 tangs and 4 other fish and cleaner shrimp.
Fish really depending on waste removal / feeding basically making the fish happy. My bb system and high flow with socks and big skimmer all while feeding 8 -10 times a day and i'm still not seeing any no3 or p04! lol
 
Update 10-10-16

Update 10-10-16

Unfortunately I accidentally started two threads on this system, today I didn't notice someone asking a question on the other thread I didn't so i posted the update there by mistake. Need to get the other one closed. Anyway here is the update.

Finished moving over all the LPS's and rest of some SPS's from another system. In doing this we've added more rock that we had in the sump for these corals. Some of the corals will surely sting the sps's as they grow and sweepers sweep Also moved over two antithesis to join the gang, fish load and feeding seem to be spot on though i'm still in belief i will need to run the skimmer part time for better coral color (dirtier tank). All the SPS's are doing very well by attaching and encrusting nicely. Some have better coral then others and I can already tell which like more intense light then others. Hoping in time all will settle in as the tank matures. Going to change and lower white lighting to see the effect on coral growth and color.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2394.jpg
    IMG_2394.jpg
    74.4 KB · Views: 0
  • IMG_2398.jpg
    IMG_2398.jpg
    80.5 KB · Views: 0
Feather dusters and sponges in sump

Feather dusters and sponges in sump

Thought this was pretty cool to share. This was seed from one of my other tank sumps but blew up when it put it in this tank. Looks as though if i had more of this mess bag material i could spread more of it. Crazy to see that many feather dusters and sponges in a few months lol.
 
Oct 20th 2016 quick pic update

Oct 20th 2016 quick pic update

Used our Canon SX700 HS today, not the best photos since the looking glass was dirty and I was lazy about not cleaning it before pic's :rolleyes: Reflecting on the only changes thus far we are running skimmer only 8hrs at night and brought white led's down to 2 hours a day now. No water changes as well since I'm trying to get to see some No3 or po4 (still all 0). Alk and Cal are steady at 8.4 and 400. Colors are starting to come back though I'm still not fully happy with the color rendition even though they are attaching and growing well. The orphek's mix in some blues in the whites which I'd rather them be on the blue channels, maybe its just be a time thing who knows. I know I want faster growth but I always know its going to take time. Positive thing is we are seeing coraline growing everywhere which is a great sign.









http://s30.photobucket.com/user/brad65ford/media/Screen Shot 2016-10-20 at 3.08.08 PM.png.jpg.html
 
Last edited:
In that first photo you can see that I spaced the nuts away from each other and slide the rail in. Since this i've raised the light 15" away from surface so I could increase spread and intensity. Need to post pic's of corals soon to update.
 
brad65ford said:
In that first photo you can see that I spaced the nuts away from each other and slide the rail in. Since this i've raised the light 15" away from surface so I could increase spread and intensity. Need to post pic's of corals soon to update.
Click to expand...

So you used two Nuts or a whole new bolt and nuts? Looks like two nuts hart to see the top of it tho not sure if its a nut or a whole bolt lol.

And what was the tread 4-5mm thought I saw somewhere?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Automated/bluetooth/wifi alert systems
Replies
7
Views
155
Dustin07
D
Tamara Marshall
Comprehensive Article About Bubble Algae - Manta Systems Article
Replies
0
Views
92
Tamara Marshall
Tamara Marshall
CHSUB
30 gal RedSea nano xl mangrove reef lagoon
Replies
8
Views
492
Reefing102
Reefing102
9
Red Sea Reef ATO+ Auto Top Off System
Replies
7
Views
467
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
M
NanoCube 24DX Goals...Advice
Replies
1
Views
171
griss
griss
Back
Top