Broadfield's Red Sea Reefer 450 Build

nuxx said:
Sorry for more car offtopic...

Just picked this up for my wife :)

hellcat_home.jpg
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I'm trading my Charger in on a Hellcat next year!
 
wanted to ask, how did you create or get the black back board to mount everything onto?
 
Nice set up. How is your Tank Progressing? I have been considering getting one of these. Is the set up silent?
 
Are you still liking the Primes over the Hydra 52s? I am going to pickup a Reefer 350 first part of next year. I have a Hydra 52 on my current tank and was going to move it along with a new one to the 350, but after seeing your Prime setup, I was thinking of going with 3 Primes.
 
How did you tee off the return line? Do you think it is possible to attach a seaswirl? Pick up my tank today and will be able to have a look/feel of it today.
 
Ok, I have a major update, but not necessarily by choice. I completely removed all of my sand and rock, then replaced with all new. Here's why:

When I did my original aquascape, I used rock that I aquired from a friend. The pieces weren't ideal, but I used hydraulic cement to make structures that I was happy with... bonding smaller rocks together to make larger ones, making overhangs etc. Everything was fine for the first three months. I then noticed a couple of the cemented joints starting to "break" down. The cement was getting soft and starting to deteriorate. The small dark grey parts of the cement were flaking away and making the sand in the area look bad. Luckily, the "infected" areas were not really structural ones so I didn't worry about it too much. The areas where I really needed the support were still solid and completely intact. Until about a month ago when those areas started to also break down. Now the sand really looked bad and I was going to be facing a landslide of reef rock before too long. On top of that, I was never happy with the sand. To start off, it was REALLY dusty. It also wasn't consistent. It had larger chunks of stuff that would color up with surface algae and then look really out of place in the sand. So being completely fed up, I ordered up 120 lbs or Marco Rocks and Tropic Eden Miniflakes. In the past, I used Marco Rocks in my nano and was 100% happy with them.

I put all of my coral in my sump and performed a 24 hour swap. First getting the rock out and then the messy job of getting the sand out... without removing any of the water. Here it is with everything out:

IMG_5122 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

I think I clogged up about 20 filter socks throughout this process lol. It was very late at this point so I let the tank clear up over night and then I continued on with it when I got home from work the next day. I did my aquascaping with the new Marco Rocks. Since they sent me a nice variety of large pieces, I didn't have to bond anything together to get the look I was after. Next up was the Tropic Eden sand. Let me tell you, this stuff is basically dust free... it's unbelievable! Then I simply moved the corals back into the DT and I was good to go. I used a bottle of Dr. Tim's All-In-One to make sure I didn't have a crazy cycle. All parameters tested great every day. I had a very minor, 1 week long diatom bloom. And that was it. I have had great results with Dr. Tim's in the past and the results were equally impressive this time around. Back in business:

IMG_5285 by Toby Broadfield, on Flickr

A quick video I made for documentation:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhYkA5m4O0
 
Last edited:
Adapter between your return plumbing and Rea Sea plumbing

Adapter between your return plumbing and Rea Sea plumbing

What sch 80 adapter did you use between your return plumbing and the Rea Sea plumbing?

Tank looks great btw!

Thanks
 
Good job. I really like the new scape. How are the mini flakes doing with regard to your current flow? Based on your video, it does not seem to be blowing all over.
 
vitodog said:
Good job. I really like the new scape. How are the mini flakes doing with regard to your current flow? Based on your video, it does not seem to be blowing all over.
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The mini flakes are simply awesome! The sand does shift slightly... building up in certain areas over time. I guess making, what you could call, small drifts like snow does. I like this though... I don't really like it when the sand is perfectly flat across the tank. But when it "drifts" like this, it doesn't really kick the sand up into water column at all... the sand particles just kind of roll over the top of the sand bed. It's great!
 
DVW said:
What sch 80 adapter did you use between your return plumbing and the Rea Sea plumbing?

Tank looks great btw!

Thanks
Click to expand...

I used this type of fitting, but I don't recall if the threaded section was 3/4" or 1". I bought both... so when I get home I'll check to see which one I didn't use :)

male_80_1.jpg
 
How you liking that Nyos 120? I am getting the rSR 450 next week just stocking up on euipment. Wanted to get Nyos but wasnt sure on 120 or 160. Your thoughts?
 
Branespikin said:
How you liking that Nyos 120? I am getting the rSR 450 next week just stocking up on euipment. Wanted to get Nyos but wasnt sure on 120 or 160. Your thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm really happy with it. It's dead silent and produces an insane foam. I also pondered swapping out my 120 for the 160 in the future, but for now, my nitrates are still at 0.
 
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