Clarks Red Sea Reefer 450 BUILD! - advice needed!

[Cody Clark]

Red Sea Reefer 450

Tank - This tank is used that I bought on here. Red Sea Reefer 450
Sump - Trigger Triton 34
Plumbing - All custom blue and gray with cepex valves - gotta match the sump of course
Skimmer - Skimz SM162 external recirculating skimmer
Return Pump - Waveline 10k DC
Heaters - 2 Eheim Jager Truetemp
ATO - Tunze osmolator 3155
ATO Container - Trigger systems 5g ATO sapphire
Powerheads -
2 Hydor Korlia 850 - on the back bottom to keep the bottom stirred up and clean
2 Maxspect XF250 - will be doing a ramp up and down cycle for both alternating
Carbon Reactor -
Aquamaxx - will be running 1 cup of ROX 0.8 swapped monthly
Lighting -
2 AI hydra 52hd on the outside - will be running a copied version of the coral labs settings customized for the AI lights
1 center 26hd - same settings as the 52
Rockwork - Marcos Reef Rock all new dry rock - used stone fix to "glue" all the rocks together, supper happy with how sturdy they are. Would not ever make another rock scape without it!


Cooming Soon! -
1 Kessil H160 light for the refugium!
Dosing pump - undecided - advice please!?
Dosing containers- will do 3 or 4 trigger systems sapphire dosing containers

Planned stock for the tank
2 - Snowflake Occelaris
1 - Royal Gramma Basslet
1 - Sixline Wrasse
1 - Cherub Angel
1 - Flame Angel
1 - Powder Blue Tang
1 - Purple Tang
1 - Foxface

Coral -
No specific plans for certain corals other than this will be a heavy SPS dominant system with a few zoas and some misc LPS corals that I like - will update as I stock the tank - not adding anything for 6 months

Updated Pictures Below - Couldn't Figure out how to add them to this post - PM me if you know how!

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Honestly the best advice I can give you, if you're going to copy the BRS 160, is to watch every video they have in the series and take notes, especially the recent update videos where they go over the changes they had to make, or something they learned after the fact (like how worrisome the Zeovit system is).

FWIW, I honestly think that some of that series was to sell high-end/high-profit stuff that they used on that tank, so don't think you HAVE to follow everything they do.

 

[SPR1968]

Great write up and sounds like a good build thread, so we just need lots of pictures

And welcome to R2R as well!

 

[Cody Clark]

Thanks. Ill be adding pics as they come in and @nautical_nathaniel I appreciate the feedback. I have had decent success for only having being in the hobby for 9 months with my current tank dosing 2 part but I am just striving for the best and i had read/heard the triton method works very well.

 

[Cody Clark]

Attached are the pics of my current tank. Will be getting the RSR 450 this weekend and will post pics of it when I get it into the house. Might be a month or so before its up and cycling!

 

[NY_Caveman]

Looks great! Man, those column tanks are a challenge to aquascape, but I think you got it just right.

 

[Cody Clark]

Looks great! Man, those column tanks are a challenge to aquascape, but I think you got it just right.

Ty its definitely been a pain. I've had rockwork fall and I've had to redo it a few times. I'm happy with it but I'm so over this tank. Excited to move onto bigger and better things!

 

[Cody Clark]

Question! - At what tank size did you guys consider reinforcing your floors?

First tank update - nothing big but went under the house and placed some support with a floor jack where the tank is going to be. Feel alot better knowing I wont have to worry about the tank crashing through the floor.

 

[Cody Clark]

got the tank picked up and home safely! Bought a used 450!

 

[Cody Clark]

Tank is unloaded and cleaned up as good as it gets until I move it into the house! Moving it in the house tonight! Starting to order all the supplies for the tank! Decided to replace the sump with a trigger triton 34. Running out of funds atm. Will probably be a month until it's up and going!

 

[UB400]

@Cody Clark . I'm happy to see you off to a good start. I've seen a Reefer 450, it's a nice size and well built. I myself have a Red Sea Max S-400. Below is my two cents worth.

1. On the lights the AI HDs are great lights, if you ever want to see a great tank under those lights do a search For David Saxby's tank. The Reefer 450 I saw had two Hydra 52HD and they did a great job lighting up the whole tank, adding another two HD26 as you have already planned is also good, if I was in your shoes and had the budget, I'd get two HD52, in case you go bigger later on .

2. One thing to watch out on Red Sea Tanks is the valve on the drain, they're sensitive and if you're running Filter socks (which tend to clog frequently and need regular cleaning out), it'll back up the drain and you'll see the emergency drain come into play. If you can, look into replacing Filter socks with a Clarisea filter, you'll need to make some small modifications to the sump. I'm planning on adding one myself.

3. I also see a lot of Red Sea Reefer owners use an ATO such as Tunze's to replace the mechanical ATO that comes with the Reefer. In my case I modified mine slightly and it's working quite well, just that the ATO reservoir is small and needs to be topped every two to three days.

Great to see you off on a good start, will be following to see how this progresses.

 

[Cody Clark]

@Cody Clark . I'm happy to see you off to a good start. I've seen a Reefer 450, it's a nice size and well built. I myself have a Red Sea Max S-400. Below is my two cents worth.

1. On the lights the AI HDs are great lights, if you ever want to see a great tank under those lights do a search For David Saxby's tank. The Reefer 450 I saw had two Hydra 52HD and they did a great job lighting up the whole tank, adding another two HD26 as you have already planned is also good, if I was in your shoes and had the budget, I'd get two HD52, in case you go bigger later on .

2. One thing to watch out on Red Sea Tanks is the valve on the drain, they're sensitive and if you're running Filter socks (which tend to clog frequently and need regular cleaning out), it'll back up the drain and you'll see the emergency drain come into play. If you can, look into replacing Filter socks with a Clarisea filter, you'll need to make some small modifications to the sump. I'm planning on adding one myself.

3. I also see a lot of Red Sea Reefer owners use an ATO such as Tunze's to replace the mechanical ATO that comes with the Reefer. In my case I modified mine slightly and it's working quite well, just that the ATO reservoir is small and needs to be topped every two to three days.

Great to see you off on a good start, will be following to see how this progresses.

sorry just now getting back to you! Thanks for the feedback! I have decided to run a 52hd in the middle with 26s on each side as I think it will be better coverage than just 2 52s. I will definitely check out davids tank! Also I am replacing the sump with a trigger triton 34 so no worries about filter socks, im going to be running a fuge and large skimmer for a mimic triton method. Its already in actually just need to go pick it up and yes I am going to be using a tunze ato. I will be putting a small ottoman next to the tank and using it to disguise a 10gallon acrylic ATO resevoir. Once again thanks for the feedback and I am very excited to see it up and going!

 

[Cody Clark]

Minor update but I am excited! Finally have my own rodi system. No more driving an hour for rodi water. Going to add a second ro filter to reduce waste later this week!

 

[becon776]

following

 

[Cody Clark]

So I took down my 47g column and the RSR 450 is filling up as we speak! finally getting wet! this whole process has taken far longer than I anticipated and def more expensive that I had planned. Hopefully start cycling this weekend! I have tons of pics to be uploaded and will probably just reformat my original post with all my pictures and a timeline of progress! Super excited to show everyone how far this thing has come. Very proud of where it is and how it looks. Looking forward to feedback!

 

[Cody Clark]