Back In the Saddle - Reefer 450 Softie/LPS Build

[theKoolAidMan]

Hi folks. I'm about to begin the journey of my 3rd ever reef tank and my first in about 10 years! Back when I was in college at the University at Buffalo I was a bit of a fish nut and had a couple of freshwater tanks and 30g and 10g reef tanks.

^^Clown from my old 30g^^

In 2009 I graduated and moved to South Korea to teach English. I had majored in Linguistics which is one of those degrees that you get for the love of the subject matter and not the career prospects. During my two years in Korea I couldn't have a tank due to space constraints but was able to feed my reef obsession through diving. I would often fly to the Philippines on long weekends to dive and ended up with my Advanced Open Water and Nitrox certs by the time I was done. I had the privilege of diving some amazing places during those two years. Moalboal, Borneo, Cebu, Boracay, and the Great Barrier Reef.

My next career move took me to Warsaw, Poland, where the diving obviously wasn't so great and financial constraints made reefing a pipe dream. I did, however, meet my wife there and 3 years later, in 2015, we moved back to my hometown of Buffalo to settle down and pretend to be responsible adults.

Flash forward to 2018 and we're happy DINKs (Dual Income No Kids) with an extremely reasonable mortgage. It seems like it's finally time to get back into the hobby and get the tank I've always wanted.

With my amazing wife's encouragement we began searching for the right size. Off the bat we both knew we wanted a reef. While I've happily kept freshwater fish in the past, that just wasn't as appealing as a big, gorgeous reef. The only freshie tank I considered was a Great Lakes biotope with a couple wild caught Bluegills as I am an avid angler (the whole fish thing I guess!).

^^This is how you afford expensive stuff like reefing. Keep the house small and mortgage LOW LOW LOW^^

We knew we could afford what we wanted, within reason, so the real limitation was going to be time we had for maintenance and the space available in the house. In order to keep our mortage reasonable and have disposable income for things like travel, kayaks, aqauriums...just fun stuff essentially, we decided on a small suburban ranch. With no near term plans for kids we didn't really need the space and figured we would get more use out of the extra money each month rather than an extra guest bedroom or two that wouldn't be used. As a result, however, we did have limited space for a tank. The best spot was the living room for a couple of reasons. First off, we want to see the tank and share it with others. Nothing against folks with tanks in a "tank room" or the basement, but our main goal was to make the tank and reef a part of the house's decor and a focal point for both us and for visitors. Second, it was the only room left in the house that could be reconfigured to have an open wall for a tank.

This led to the question of size. the open wall we cleared was about 6.5 feet long. We thought about a 125g but didn't want something the whole length of the wall as I felt that could make maintenance tough as it would be difficult to reach around the back of the tank. After looking at some standard black plastic rimmed 4 foot tanks at Petsmart, we also weren't in love with the aesthetic and also felt that 4 feet might be a bit small for the wall. We wanted a WOW tank and again, had a goal of an aquarium where the design was as much a draw as the cool stuff inside of it. On the recommendation of the fantastic folks at A Reef Creation here in Buffalo, we took a look at the Red Sea Reefer series. This seemed like a match made in heaven as the tanks and stands were absolutely gorgeous with a sleek, rimless, modern look that just oozes class and refinement. I also loved that the 450 would be 5 feet long bridging the gap between the too short 4 foot and too long 6 foot tanks. While I do have experience in reefing and am not a true n00b, I also was not thrilled with having to do my own plumbing, drill a tank, etc. The fact that the Reefer came with a fairly well designed sump, ato system, and even 3 Hydra Twenty Six lights pretty much made it a no-brainier for us.

When it comes to stocking we wanted a balance between beauty and manageability. While we weren't necessarily looking for a ULM setup, we also did not want to spent hours each weekend doing maintenance. So, planning out livestock that would keep things like dosing, reactors, and water changes to a minimum would be a plus. This led us to a softie/lps tank. It also helped that we both preferred the look and movement that these corals provide to the tank. At the same time, we wanted to choose a setup that could easily be ramped up to handle a true mixture of SPS and LPS corals after a year or so if desired.

In the end, the equipment we settled on is as follows:

Tank and Stand: Reefer 450 Deluxe

Lighting: 3X Hydra Twenty Six LED

Skimmer: Reef Octopus Classic 150 INT

ATO: Included with Reefer
Flow: Ice Cap 3K Gyre

We especially liked that the Gyre was DC and could be turned down and programmed for a light pulse for the softies and LPS and if we end up adding SPS down the road can be cranked up if needed.

Stay tuned as we get everything set up over the coming days/weeks and take you all along for the ride. I plan on giving you thoughts/reviews on the equipment as well as updates on livestock choices, etc. I think this will be a unique build in one specific way. I'm neither a grizzled vet starting another tank, nor a total n00b on my first adventure. I've been out of the hobby for 10 years, so I've forgotten a lot, but still remember a ton and am looking forward to catching up on 10 years of changes in the hobby! There will also be lots of picture, I promise! Comment with your questions, commonts, tips, complaints, etc!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Nice! Where in Buffalo? My brothers and parents moved up there. We go there a lot. I have hit a couple of LFS, but cannot remember the names. One is right by the airport that was pretty good and the owner was a really nice guy.

 

[Reefer Deez]

That's awesome! I wish you the best of luck on your new journey

 

[theKoolAidMan]

ny_caveman

We're in Cheektowaga, which is the suburb that the airport is in. We're only about a 5 minute drive away which is great as I have to travel for work one or twice per month. The LFS near the airport is likely the place I go to. A Reef Creation. The owner, Randy is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and they have a brand new location even closer to the airport that is absolutely spotless. He following best practices and I feel you can really trust him and his livestock. I went to pick up the tank which he ordered from his distributor for me for considerably less than the online prices from BRS and Marine Depot, and he and 2 of his employees broke down the crate it ships in and loaded everything into my SUV with care.

 

[NY_Caveman]

ny_caveman

We're in Cheektowaga, which is the suburb that the airport is in. We're only about a 5 minute drive away which is great as I have to travel for work one or twice per month. The LFS near the airport is likely the place I go to. A Reef Creation. The owner, Randy is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and they have a brand new location even closer to the airport that is absolutely spotless. He following best practices and I feel you can really trust him and his livestock. I went to pick up the tank which he ordered from his distributor for me for considerably less than the online prices from BRS and Marine Depot, and he and 2 of his employees broke down the crate it ships in and loaded everything into my SUV with care.

That is it, A Reef Creation. Really nice shop and atmosphere. I am usually in Depew or Lancaster and my other brother is in Lockport. We grew up in Cortland, NY.

 

[SPR1968]

Great write up and thanks for the nice pictures of your home etc,

And welcome to R2R!

 

[Sits Unafraid]

DINKs with reefs.... my life goal haha. Im along for the ride!

 

[BertieBones]

Ahhh can't wait to see the build

 

[hdsoftail1065]

Sounds like this will be a great build! I'm excited to watch it all come together!

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Day 1 - Tank Delivery and Assembly

-The Method-

Yesterday's goal was perhaps the most physically demanding of the entire setup. I can say I'm happy to have it behind me as it had the most potential for a $3,000 disaster! The plan was that the tank and stand were being delivered to my LFS, A Reef Creation by their distributor on a pallet sometime in the afternoon. After work I would stop by the shop and the owner, Randy, and his employees would help me load it all into my GMC Acadia for the 1.5 mile drive home. There I would assemble the cabinet myself and then call my dad to come help with bringing the actual tank in when ready.

-The Madness-

I got a call from Randy at A Reef Creation at about 4:30 letting me know that the tank had arrived and was sitting in the hallway outside their shop. I could stop by at any time before they closed at 8 for pickup. While I initially thought that having the stuff drop shipped directly to my house would be easier, I'm actually pretty glad Randy had it delivered to the shop instead. They were able to help break down the massive wood coffin this thing comes in and dispose of all the packing material properly.

I got to the shop about 5 and Randy and his crew swung into action. By first thoughts when seeing this beast of a crate brought Jaws flashbacks. We're going to need a bigger boat! In reality, once we got the crate outside via a pallet jack, we were able to pull out the individual boxes for the sump, lights, plumbing, light arms, etc. and load them all into the back of my SUV without too much trouble. Having a grand total of 4 people made it all pretty easy.

The biggest change to the plan was the cabinet. I had visions of IKEA flat packs in my head while thinking that I could simply carry that box in the house myself and assemble before calling for help with the tank. I swear, the box for the cabinet is HEAVIER than the tank. So I rang my dad and he came over to help carry in the cabinet box and supervise the build while entertaining our dog, Saoirse.

^^I need entertainment, human^^

Assembly of the cabinet started at about 6PM and ended about 8:30, which is in line with what I read from other reefers assembling the 450 and 525. It's not a difficult build at all, there are just a lot of heavy parts and a lot of little screw and pieces to attach.

Finally it was time for the tank! For anyone who's carried a thick glass, rimless tank in this size before you'll know that these things aren't just heavy (225lbs.) but also extremely awkward to carry. To help, we left all of the cardboard edge guards and plastic wrap on the tank as we removed it from the car in order to provide some texture to make gripping it easier. We first put the tank on the couch, removed all of the wrapping, and then positioned it on the stand.

Day 1 was done!

-Thoughts and Prayers-

First, my opinion of the packing of the tank. Big shout out to Red Sea on absolutely bomb proof packaging for the tank and stand. The chances of getting anything damaged during shipping are very small due to the extreme care taken to box this thing up well. The crate itself is made of over 1/2 inch thick, super dense particle board screwed together with corner brackets. The box with the cabinet especially was impressive. We'll all familiar with flat pack self assembly furniture. Think Ikea. You'll have the pieces laid out nicely in the box with some foam or cardboard spacers in place to keep everything from moving. Red Sea didn't use foam or cardboard though. All of the spacers in the box to keep things from moving during shipment were made of wood! While this no doubt adds to shipping costs, it also ensure that both they, and their customers can be sure that the pieces in the box will NOT be moving around and rubbing against each other during shipment.

^^THIS is how you keep your flat pack boxes packed well. Wood!^^

Assembly of the cabinet was NOT difficult, just time consuming. It was very, very similar to an Ikea assembly, but with higher quality components. It was mostly held together with plastic dowels and the Ikea standard screw with lock furniture connectors.

These things make up about half the build. They're obviously easy to assemble, and easy to take apart one day if you need to. However I'm not always a fan of them as they don't do well as keeping perpendicular boards from moving, relying instead on other boards to shore things up. What I mean is, if you built two boards with a 90 degree angle, it WILL be wobbly just due to the way these work. They're designed to keep the two board together, not make the angle or connection tight and solid. However the cabinet is made of an army of these things and ultimately the cabinet comes together to be extremely solid.

The wood material used was also extremely solid and I have a lot of confidence in it. While it is technically a composite wood rather than solid oak or pine, it is extremely dense and I would put as much confidence in it as I would solid wood. The lamination of the pieces is also fairly seamless and there seems to be little to no risk of the laminate separating from the wood. Everything has a nice coating that feels initially like it should hold up to splashes and drips well.

A nice touch on the finished cabinet is the "self leveling" foam pad. Most folks probably know that the black 1/4 thick foam comes preinstalled on the top of the cabinet, but it also comes installed in the sump section as well. Very nice touch by Red Sea and further solidifies my decision to go this route rather than piecemeal it all together myself. If you look closely at the picture below, you'll see that the foam doesn't just completely cover the bottom but also goes about an inch up the sides of the walls. This means that it was dampen vibration coming from your sump even if you push it right up against one of the internal walls. Very well designed!

I'm not as in love with the door hinges and opening/closing mechanisms. I think they're a good idea, but also difficult to get right. The hinges are soft close hinges, so no slamming, which is a good choice, however they're also not the easier to assemble or adjust. Unlike some hinges where 1/2 is installed on the door, and 1/2 on the cabinet and then you simply click the hinges together, these are one piece. This means that you have to attach the full hinge to the door and then take the whole heavy door with hinges attached and line it up with the holes in the cabinet and attach it all there. This wasn't impossible by any stretch, but I've seen better hinge assemblies used that make builds easier. It's also difficult to make fine adjustments. You can adjust screws on the hinges to move the doors further from the cabinet face, however moving the door up and down requires that you loosen the screws that attach the actual hinges to the cabinet. Again, this is difficult due to the weight of the doors and is a 2 person job.

I'm also initially having some trouble with the push latches. The doors have no handles (further comparisons to a higher quality Ikea build) and instead have little cylindrical, spring loaded contraptions that mount to the cabinet. When you push the door in, it clicks and then pushes the door out so you can grab it by the top or side to open it all the way. These are super common in European homes, especially kitchens and are becoming more common in US homes as well. One of the spring latches, however is properly assembled, but sits too far back in the cabinet, so that when you try and push the door in to open, the door itself cannot push in far enough to make the spring click and release, as the cabinet itself gets in the way. I need to find a way to get the mechanism to sit out of the cabinet just a bit further. Hopefully it's just an issue of tightening a couple screws.

Moving up from the cabinet, the tank itself is absolutely gorgeous and flawless. The front and back panels are made of 5/8 thick glass with beautifully beveled edges. Black silicone holds these panels to the 1/2 inch thick sides. Good choice by Red Sea of keeping the side panes only 1/2 inch thick, as 5/8 all the way around would have severely reduced the selection of powerheads that would have magnets rated to that thickness. The silicone is mostly even on the edges and is visibly better than the run of the mill Aqueon or Marineland tanks from a pet shop. The back pane is black backed glass and the overflow is also glass which is a very nice touch. Often "reef ready" tanks with a built in overflow will have the walls made of a textured plastic which becomes nearly impossible to keep clean. Making the overflow glass means that it can easily be scraped clean as necessary. I am not a fan of coraline on the glass so I'm happy that I'll be able to keep everything free and clear.

Perhaps the most impressive feature of the tank itself is the lighting. I will say that the cost of getting the deluxe reefers is absolutely worth it, provided you'll be happy with Hydra Twenty Sixes. The cost of getting the package (lights, and mounting arms) is LESS than buying the same lights and mounts yourself, and the Hydras are some of the most economical, but also highly reviewed lights out there. However going with the deluxe reefer also has another cool advantage that I did not know about until assembly was complete. The tank back itself is pre-drilled to mount the hydras!. Let me show you what I mean. The deluxe reefers come with holes drilled in the back of the tank with black plastic plugs in them. The back of the plugs are threaded. The mounting arms line up with the plugs and have a small lip that just every so slightly sits on the rim of the tank, and a couple of plastic screws attach the arm to the back of the tank via the plugs. This means there are no clamps on the glass keeping the lights on. I thought this was a very cool touch and I'll update the thread with picture of the lights once they're on.

The last thing to talk about is leveling the tank/cabinet. The whole assembly is pretty much spot on level from left to right lengthwise, which was most important to me as it would have the greatest aesthetic impact. Front to back, however, is a bit out of level. Rough measurements from the floor to the front rim and floor to the back rim suggest that the tank is about 1/4 higher in the front than in the back. This means that the tank and cabinet lean ever so slightly back towards the wall. After a lot of research on the topic, the consensus from reefers who are also engineers is that as long as the tank weight is evenly distributed on the stand (it is) and the stand is flat on the floor (it is), then any out of level variance of less than 1/4 or 1/2 inch is NOT worth shimming in most cases. Shimming can cause its own problems that may be worse than everything being slightly out of level. Take my case, for example. If I were to shim the back of the cabinet by 1/4 inch to make everything level, this is going to result in the sides of the cabinet not being on the floor and not being properly supported. Over time that can cause the cabinet sides and walls to distort or warp, even slightly. This warping could create uneven support and pressure on the base of the tank itself, which is far more dangerous than the few extra pounds of pressure on the glass from things being off a 1/4 inch. One engineer reefer in a post once did the math and that suggested that a 4 foot tank that is off by a whole 1 inch left to right, would only be exerting an additional 16 points of water pressure on the glass, which was something like 1 or 2% extra. A wave maker or someone bumping your tank generates more pressure. In my case, 1/4 inch front to back is extremely minimal and not worth the potential long term damage from shimming. Adding to this, it would be extremely difficult to get between the wall and tank to evenly shim the back. At the end of the day, keep in mind that your stand was designed to distribute the weight of the tank, water, rocks, sand, etc evenly around all sides of the stand. The moment you stand to change this through the use of shims you put stress and weight on areas that might not have been designed for that distribution long term. From person experiences and from the opinions and math of engineers in the field, I would personally avise that you only shim if you're off by quite a bit. If you're just off a bit, it isn't worth it. A fellow reefer once posted that they were worried that their tank was off level by less than 1/4 inch and contacted Red Sea. Red Sea told them not to worry about it at all. They assume that most people will not be able to provide a 100% level environment and their stands and tanks are designed to account for a additional water pressure from being slightly off level.

-On the Docket-

On Thursday, August 2 my Skimmer, RODI, and heater are scheduled to arrive from BRS. I likely won't make any progress as I'm in a board gaming group on Thursdays and my wife and I are hosting this week.

Friday I'll get the RODI hooked up in the basement and start to make water. I do not have an auto-shut off so it will need to be monitored, meaning only making water while we're home and awake. I will fill up my 32 gallon Brute container and stop the RODI in order to siphon the water into 5 gallon buckets to be carried upstairs and dumped in the tank. I expect this to take 2-3 days as it is a 100gpd RODI only being run while we're home and awake. Once that is done, hopefully on Monday or Tuesday, I'll mix the salt into the tank, and get the powerhead and sump running to mix, as well as adding heating to get things to a nice 78 degrees. That means mid week next week we should be ready for rock.

In the meantime I'll find time to get the plumbing hooked up and will take step by step photos to see if it's truly as easy and plug and play as Red Sea claims.

Stay tuned! If you have any comments, questions, concerns, critiques, please post them and I'll do my best to respond or like them!

 

[theKoolAidMan]

NEWSFLASH

Just had my Ice Cap 3K Gyre powerhead show up today. First impressions are pretty strong. The pump itself is identical to the Maxpect Gyres with 2 exceptions. The mount going from the pump to the base is different. The Maxpect has two connections closer to each end of the pump, where the Ice Cap has one main "neck" in the middle. Both use a soft silicone base to dampen vibrations, however. The second difference is the name plate on the front. The mold and shape is 100% the same as the original Maxspect.

The controller is also very, very nicely made. While it is all plastic, the body is a fairly thick, strudy type and is painted a metallic blue that really looks a lot like anodized aluminum. The controller is also a carbon copy of the new Maxspect Gyre 250 line but with a blue, rather than black body.. A rubber power button which controls power and feeding, and a "cycle" button that is used to select modes, are on top, with a big round click-wheel below used to select and highlight options.

Everything came nicely packed and did not feel or look like a budget minded product. Honestly I'm hard pressed to see much of a difference between this and the Maxspect, despite being $100+ cheaper. This isn't a kick-off as the company behind the Ice Cap licensed the technology and design from Maxspect as it noted on the box. It's legit. I would have to assume that perhaps some of the internal parts of lower quality to reduce the cost.

I'll update more once it's on the tank and operating with water, later next week!

 

[Jay Duke]

I’m super jelly. Love the tank. Following!

 

[NY_Caveman]

NEWSFLASH

Just had my Ice Cap 3K Gyre powerhead show up today. First impressions are pretty strong. The pump itself is identical to the Maxpect Gyres with 2 exceptions. The mount going from the pump to the base is different. The Maxpect has two connections closer to each end of the pump, where the Ice Cap has one main "neck" in the middle. Both use a soft silicone base to dampen vibrations, however. The second difference is the name plate on the front. The mold and shape is 100% the same as the original Maxspect.

The controller is also very, very nicely made. While it is all plastic, the body is a fairly thick, strudy type and is painted a metallic blue that really looks a lot like anodized aluminum. The controller is also a carbon copy of the new Maxspect Gyre 250 line but with a blue, rather than black body.. A rubber power button which controls power and feeding, and a "cycle" button that is used to select modes, are on top, with a big round click-wheel below used to select and highlight options.

Everything came nicely packed and did not feel or look like a budget minded product. Honestly I'm hard pressed to see much of a difference between this and the Maxspect, despite being $100+ cheaper. This isn't a kick-off as the company behind the Ice Cap licensed the technology and design from Maxspect as it noted on the box. It's legit. I would have to assume that perhaps some of the internal parts of lower quality to reduce the cost.

I'll update more once it's on the tank and operating with water, later next week!

I have the newer IceCap 1K Gyre on my 45 and I love it. The controller is slightly different, but works the same way with the same modes.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

We have the 1k in our 32, a 3k in the 144. I didn't like the 3k at first but after I turned it down some the noise went away. I really like them so far. Getting ready to order another 3k for the larger tank.

Your doing a great job on your build thread, keep it coming!!!

 

[theKoolAidMan]

We have the 1k in our 32, a 3k in the 144. I didn't like the 3k at first but after I turned it down some the noise went away. I really like them so far. Getting ready to order another 3k for the larger tank.

Your doing a great job on your build thread, keep it coming!!!

Thanks! Rodi just arrived so more updates and pics coming Friday!

 

[theKoolAidMan]

I have the newer IceCap 1K Gyre on my 45 and I love it. The controller is slightly different, but works the same way with the same modes.

Is it? I haven't handled the new generation Maxspect controllers. Going off pictures they look pretty similar but I'm sure there are some cost cutting differences!

 

[happyschneiders]

Great build thread. Really nice to read and obviously great eye for the right kind of detail.

Regarding rodi, my tip is to buy a cheap garden watering timer to control it. Since I have it, I have no more floods in the basement and a much happier wife [emoji41]

 

[NY_Caveman]

This is the 1k Controller.

If I could run a second pump off of this one controller I would own it. Or if the Maxspect Advanced Controller worked with IceCap, etc.

By the way, I ran the 1k gyre at constant speed at first to “break it in.” I raised it 20% each day, but it really was not needed. It basically ran dead silent out of the box up to 100%. I now run 50% with variation until I add corals and they tell me what they want.

EDIT: This is in a display that is roughly a 30 gallon tank.

 

[Mark]

For RO/DI in the basement, I have a brute trash can that has a double float from http://autotopoff.com/Standard/index.html
Then I installed two solenoids on the input line for the RO(also from http://autotopoff.com/Solenoids/index.html), which are plugged into the float switch outlet. When the trash can is full, the float switches kill power to the electric solenoids which shuts off the RO. I use two solenoids for redundancy in case one of the solenoid fails open.

You will inevitably forget about the RO and not turn it off in time, so the float switches will save you. From there you can just manually turn it off with a valve, during times you don't need to make water. In my case, I added a third fail safe. The solenoids are plugged into the float switch outlet, and the float switch plug is plugged into a simple lamp timer to only allow it to run for 2 hours a day. That way, if the float switches get stuck, the RO/DI can only run for 2 hours a day. The idea there being that if the float switches get stuck, I would only find a few gallons on the floor versus a ton of water. I'm down in the basement at least once a day, so I would catch it. But I'm not down there all the time, so it may be a few hours before I would know something is wrong. Two hours a day keeps the trash can full. If I need to make more water, I can always switch the light timer from auto to on and let it run all day.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

This is the 1k Controller.

If I could run a second pump off of this one controller I would own it. Or if the Maxspect Advanced Controller worked with IceCap, etc.

By the way, I ran the 1k gyre at constant speed at first to “break it in.” I raised it 20% each day, but it really was not needed. It basically ran dead silent out of the box up to 100%. I now run 50% with variation until I add corals and they tell me what they want.

EDIT: This is in a display that is roughly a 30 gallon tank.

Ah ok. This is the new Maxspect 250 controller compared to the Ice Cap 3K. It looks like the 1K they kinda sorta immitated the Maxspect but for the 3K it's nearly a straight up copy minus the color.