Critique my plan.

[Litfury]

So far ordered a red sea reefer 425xl. Waiting on delivery of this.
Items so far.
Sicce 4.0 return pump
Vortech mp40wqd
Vertex omega 180i
Around 120 pounds or rock -mostly pukani with a little reef saver and tonga.
Brs 4 stage rodi value plus.
60 pounds arag alive
Digital thermometer
10 pounds crushed coral (plan on having some sand sifters, thought they would like this).
2 jagger heaters (one for backup)
Reeflink for echotech stuff
Xr15 gen 4 lights and mounts.

Those are major items. Please let me know if you see anything on this list you think should definitely be changed. This is first tank and have done a lot of research prepping for this. Want to make sure I get it right.

 

[scooter31707]

Auto Top-off (ATO)- some hobbyist use them and some manually tops-off.
Refractometer

 

[worm5406]

What are you going to use to control your pumps? I assume you will want to be able to turn them off during feeding or maintenance.

What are you going to use to turn on and off the heaters? I personally have had heater problems and never want to again.

I ask those two questions for automation control. Not to say go out and spend $1000 but you need something that will control and limit things.

My heaters are set to 81. The controller is set to turn off at 80. That way if anything gets stuck one will turn off and fail to the other to limit over heating over 300 gallons. I am going to set a plug up to turn on a fan placed to blow on the surface of the water in the sump if it gets to 82. Then I will have heat and cool for the tank covered.

With one button I can turn off all pumps for 5 minutes. This give plenty of time to do most things.

Now with all this said I used to have two time of day surge strips. Everything was plugged into the day or night side on one strip while pumps/skimmer/heater was in the other one set to all on. Lights came ON and went OFF at exact times.

With the XL425 only being 88g display for a 112g total volume, a bit of automation and measurements for pH, temp, and SG is a good start.

 

[Litfury]

Great questions. The power heads I was hoping to control with reeflink. Don't have anything for the return pump so need to look into that.
As far as the heater goes I had assumed it would shut off when the temperature was achieved. Guess that may be my ignorance being new to the hobby showing.

 

[AK707]

heaters get stuck in the on position all the time....they are the weakest link and your whole tank relies on a $30 heater not failing....

 

[AK707]

bulk reef supply has reef keeper lite basic controllers for under $100 until 1159pm pst tonight