From nano to reefer 250 Deluxe

[marito09]

So after remodeling my home floors and kitchen I decided to upgrade my tank and start with a Reefer 250 by Red Sea.
I have a fusion 20g for 3 years and I will use it as a Qt tank once the reefer is up and running.
This is my first time with a sump and all home owners with wood floors are welcome to share your thoughts on how you sleep at night without going crazy if you know what I mean. [emoji33] kind of freaking out on that.
I'm not rushing it [emoji15] so here are some pics of my tank so far.

Equipment so far:

Red Sea Reefer 250 w/ 2 Hydra's 26
Skimmer Reef Octopus 150s
Return Jebao DPC 6500 (back up Sicce 3.0)
2 wireless powerheads Jebao PP8
Marine Depot 4 stage RoDi system

On the way:

50 lbs Reef Cleaners Dry Rock
Apex Wi-Fi System
Apex ALD module with 4 probes
LED sump light
Tunze ATO 3155
5 gallon acrylic reservoir


Need help deciding:

What kind of sand
Salt mix
Bio-Spira???
Any other changes or equipment suggestions.

 

[marito09]

 

[marito09]

This is what I have now that will be turn into my qt tank.

Mp10
Reeflink
Radion 15 pro
2 clown fish
Cleaner shrimp
Rose Bubble tip anenome
And a bunch of corals

 

[marito09]

 

[Scubafrog]

This is my first time with a sump and all home owners with wood floors are welcome to share your thoughts on how you sleep at night without going crazy if you know what I mean. [emoji33] kind of freaking out on that.

Great looking start. I too have been thinking of upgrading from a Biocube (first aquarium) to an aquarium with a sump and being a newbie have the same worries as yourself.

I think that going with a kit such as the Red Sea Reefer is a smart move. Since the plumbing and sump come together with the tank it has been designed to work together. I also like that it has an emergency drain. I was also looking at the Cad Lights Versa series but it only has two pipes (drain & return) and no emergency drain. The Red Sea sump should be designed to hold the extra water from the overflow in case of a power outage.

Plus you have the Apex leak detection. So that should help.

 

[jasonamyers]

What kind of sand
Salt mix
Bio-Spira???

Congrats on the upgrade. I've seen a lot of people use Tropic Marin Reefflakes Sand, but I went with the Caribsea Aragonite Special Grade. I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, but the Fritz Pro was another option I seriously considered and IO Reef Crystal is a good, dependable salt as well. On the Bio-Spira, I decided to do the Red Sea Reef Mature Program. It's got a bacteria component, foods for the bacteria, and coralline growth; however, it's a 21-day process to help get a healthy environment going. I'm right at the end of my 21 days, and I've very happy with what I've seen so far. I went to my LFS and got them to scrape some coralline from their display tank that I used to seed my rocks. Enjoy the journey and I wish you much success.

 

[marito09]

Great looking start. I too have been thinking of upgrading from a Biocube (first aquarium) to an aquarium with a sump and being a newbie have the same worries as yourself.

I think that going with a kit such as the Red Sea Reefer is a smart move. Since the plumbing and sump come together with the tank it has been designed to work together. I also like that it has an emergency drain. I was also looking at the Cad Lights Versa series but it only has two pipes (drain & return) and no emergency drain. The Red Sea sump should be designed to hold the extra water from the overflow in case of a power outage.

Plus you have the Apex leak detection. So that should help.

Thank you !!! Yes that's the main reason I went with red sea. I'm not really too familiar with plumbing. I am waiting for the main brain of the apex to come with the probes so I can set up take water and rocks. I'll post some pics on the weekend

 

[marito09]

Congrats on the upgrade. I've seen a lot of people use Tropic Marin Reefflakes Sand, but I went with the Caribsea Aragonite Special Grade. I'm using Red Sea Coral Pro salt, but the Fritz Pro was another option I seriously considered and IO Reef Crystal is a good, dependable salt as well. On the Bio-Spira, I decided to do the Red Sea Reef Mature Program. It's got a bacteria component, foods for the bacteria, and coralline growth; however, it's a 21-day process to help get a healthy environment going. I'm right at the end of my 21 days, and I've very happy with what I've seen so far. I went to my LFS and got them to scrape some coralline from their display tank that I used to seed my rocks. Enjoy the journey and I wish you much success.

Thank you for your comments, since I got my rodi system I started mixing my own saltwater and I used instant ocean corals seem to be doing better. The LFS water is not that clean most of the time.
Those are the 2 sands I was thinking about. Do you know if the diamond gobys will be ok with the tropic marine reefflakes ?
I will be doing the process for as long as it takes. Maybe I can get some of that coralline from my other tank i have some on the glass thanks for the tip.
I'll post some pics when the rocks come in.[emoji2]

 

[marito09]

So rock arrived from reefcleaners and working on the aquascape. I decided to go with the Tropic Eden reeflakes which is on the way also the main apex came in as well so mounting that later on.[emoji1]

 

[marito09]

Still missing to put more rock but this is how it looks so far with the lights on at night. I put an L.e.d in the back wall as well and mounting the apex with a false wall (piece of white cabinet) with hinges so I can access where all the cable mess is going to be. Apex brain and modules are going upfront. When I'm done I'll post more pics. I work a lot so this is taking forever but I am enjoying every moment.

 

[marito09]

Still missing to put more rock but this is how it looks so far with the lights on at night. I put an L.e.d in the back wall as well and mounting the apex with a false wall (piece of white cabinet) with hinges so I can access where all the cable mess is going to be. Apex brain and modules are going upfront. When I'm done I'll post more pics. I work a lot so this is taking forever but I am enjoying every moment.

 

[marito09]

Got some things done ...finished cement on my rock attaching the final pieces, also finish the panel nothing crazy just simple. Sand just arrived in going to fill it up on Tuesday and see how it goes.

 

[marito09]

Here you go:

 

[jasonamyers]

looking great!

 

[marito09]

Finally this thing is filled up and running.
Put a bottle of Bio-Spira to move things along so we see how that goes... still trying to make it as silent as possible and figuring out the sump level needs to be in case of power outage or pump turn off.
I'm not using the reefer ato, I'm going to wait until the ATK from apex comes out hopefully soon.
Figuring out if I keep the red sea socks or take them out and just put pads as a filter.
I'm also thinking to put a bag of matrix filtration on the sump... anyone using this?
Thank you!

 

[marito09]

24 hours later...

 

[Jimbo662]

Can't wait to see it when everything is moved over.

 

[marito09]

So finally in the last month I transfer all my fish plus a very small yellow tang. Everyone is doing great!
A clean up crew is coming this morning and the apex ATK is coming tonight as well. [emoji48]
The skimmer is working great, pulling out a lot of crap. Took a whole to break in and figuring the noise situation. Now everything is very quite.

 

[Scubafrog]

Looks Good!

 

[marito09]

First 2 coral frags transfer