Jeff's 300 Gallon Deep Dimension Reef Build

Seanislav · Nov 18, 2015

A little tardy, but what's an Apex? I have a Marineland Starphire 300gal DD that was an upgrade from a 180gal acrylic that was feeling its age. Definitely could've saved a few bucks had I found it on eBay, but I'm thrilled with the beast I have.

Shredded · Dec 4, 2015

@Seanislav - I am not really qualified to answer. I had hoped someone else would as I do not own one yet. The Apex is a total aquarium controller. From what I have read, you can almost control anything on your aquarium as long as it is Apex ready. My two Red Dragon return pumps are apex ready as I do intend in the future to purchase the system and should allow me to control them remotely (their power output). I guess what I really like about this is its ability to notify you by email or text if it detects something is not right ie water on the floor if using one of the water detection modules.

An update on my dream box.... So, it is complete, bubble wrapped and on the pallet, ready to go, and NO SHIPPER in the U.S. would ship it for me. Unless you are a company, UPS, FedEx, DHL, RockIt, etc will have anything to do with you. Very frustrated. So Royal Exclusiv is going to use their shipper their in Germany to do the shipping. I'll let them have my money, the U.S. companies obviously don't want it. Waiting on a quote now. Hopefully will ship early next week.

Bought a new piece of equipment. During black Friday, Bulk Reef Supply put the Vertex Calcium Reactor on sale. I have been looking at this for a while and just could not justify the 499.00 price. BRS put it on sale for 349.00. That's all it took. It arrived yesterday. Very well built piece of equipment. Really happy with the quality. I cannot wait to start setting this tank up. I've got to figure out what to do about the stand next. Looking at T-Slot aluminum but don't know how to use it if it is going to mounted thru the wall.

Shredded · Jan 4, 2016

OK, so finally after 3 months, my RE sump arrived in OKC. Even though I paid for home delivery, they were not going to deliver until today. (arrived December 31 in OKC) It turned out that the trucking company was two miles from my office so my son and I went and picked it up because I just couldn't wait another day. Well, some bad news and good news. The bad news was that US Customs decided that they needed to slice open my shipment to inspect it. Whoever did it had no respect for someone else's property. When I said slice, I meant slice. They completely removed the carton on the water top off box and in the process put a few nice box knife slices in it. I verified that indeed the water box did not leave Germany unboxed. They sliced open the skimmer box, and cut the top off the section that held the pump. Luckily it does not appear that any damage has been done to the skimmer. The good news is that is as far as they went. You could tell by the way the box had been sliced open that they basically just shoved a blade in and ripped the box open. There was no call for that. It takes no more time to open a box correctly then it does to rip it open. Apparently Customs is hiring monkeys and giving them box knives. This is what gives government employees a bad name. They shoved the water top off box back under the plastic wrap and taped everything up with green Customs inspection tape. Actually surprised they would acknowledge this was their work. I was so upset by this, I didn't even bother to unwrap the rest of the shipment when I got home.

New Years Day I got over my anger enough to go out and open the rest of the shipment. I had Shelly video everything and I will post it out on Royal Exclusiv's Facebook page as soon as I can figure out how to edit video. Right now its about 10 minutes long. So, the good news... Everything else was untouched and the sump is gorgeous. Also, everything is packaged and protected very well had someone else not felt the need to get into it. The construction and quality of the workmanship is truly a work of art. I spent the day just looking at every piece of it. Kind of a shame to hide it under the tank where no one can see it. I only wish the house was ready for me to start setting up and plumbing. I still have equipment to buy, lighting, dosing pumps and controller so I do still need time. I am looking at Pacific Sun's, Kore 5th. Has anyone had any experience with this unit?

shred5 · Jan 4, 2016

Well that stinks but glad the rest is ok... I worried about that much and large item making it in one piece. It stinks a person takes no pride in their job but it has nothing to do with it being a public job. In about a year I have had ups damage three skimmers and a sump that were extremely well packaged. I have worked some not so good jobs in my life but I still took pride in my job, it comes down to the individual.

I do not know much about the Kore but I have heard of issues with it, but allot of people seem to like it too.

I bought a GHL Profilux Stand Alone and they are supposed to be pretty good, support is a little weak but they are working on making them cloud based. Mine has been in a box for a while, I just have not had time to set it up yet since the new reef.

ATB USA · Jan 5, 2016

Shipping is always a nightmare. It costs so much and they care so little. Glad it came thru OK

Shredded · Aug 25, 2016

I thought I would pop in and update this thread a little. Things are actually moving. I have been accumulating equipment, the house is under construction and getting ready to move. Have lots of pics so I will share a few. Still a few more months until I can actually set the tank but it is actually in sight now. Starting to get exciting. When I close I should have everything necessary to completely set the tank up.

Tanksfishtank · Sep 8, 2016

Please keep this updated with pics. This is going to be an amazing system!

rmiles54 · Dec 24, 2016

Just wondering if the house has finished and you've made any progress on the tank?

Rob.D · Dec 24, 2016

Great build thread, following along!

Shredded · Dec 24, 2016

Hi all,
Yes, we close in 30 days. Really excited about getting started. Attaching a current house pic. Below is the current equipment list. Some items have been replaced since the start. A little overwhelmed.

Marineland 300 gallon DD (3 sides of Starfire glass) Still in the crate
Custom Powder coated stand 2X4 3/8" box steel stand for thru wall access (white with red pearl)
Royal Exclusiv Dreambox - sample - set 5c with LED (custom - larger 7 box modified for dual return pumps)
Royal Exclusiv Dreambox - water tank 20 x 60cm 48 liter for top off
2 - Red Dragon 80 Watt return pumps w/0-10v control
1 - Red Dragon 60 Watt return pump to power equipment manifold (chiller, calcium reactor...)
Royal Exclusiv Bubble King Deluxe 200 Skimmer + RD3 Speedy VS14
AquaDriver SkimClean Helix 200 w/wash down
Royal Exclusiv Dreambox - dosing feeder / station 16 liter with LED
GHL Doser 2.1, 4 Head w/stepper motors stand alone in white
Vertex Cerebra Prima Controller
1 - Vertex Cerebra Multi bar
2 - Vertex Cerebra 6 Outlet Power Bars
Vertex dissolved oxygen sensor (Free gift from Vertex)
Vertex Rx-Z 3 Liter ZEOvit Reactor (Built in to the sump)
Vertex RX-6D Calcium Reactor
2- MaxSpect Gyre XF150s
1 - New dual MaxSpect Controller
Penguin 1/2 HP Refrigeration Unit
Genesis Storm Pro Water Top off unit
Genesis Renew Pro Automatic Water changer
BRS 6 Stage Universal Water Saver Plus RO/DI System - 150GPD with AquaticLife Smart Buddy Booster Pump
2 - 5 lb CO2 cylinders (powder coated red)
Professional Dual stage pressure regulator
Lighting - metal halide / T5 combination 3 - Phoenix 250 watt HQI 14K + 8 - 80W - T5 ATI True Actinic 03
Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro Test Kit
Red schedule 40 PVC 1" up to 1-1/2"
White schedule 40 fittings
Red and White PVC Gate valves
Clic Clamps to fasten all pipe to stand

29102016 · Dec 25, 2016

WOW! Can't wait to see you put this together. Merry Christmas too

Shredded · Dec 25, 2016

Merry Christmas to you too! Thank you, a lot of work ahead. Should be fun but I will be so broke!

29102016 · Dec 25, 2016

Loads of fun [emoji16]

justingraham · Dec 25, 2016

Amazing build can't wait to see it

rmiles54 · Dec 25, 2016

Awesome! Looking forward to the progress! Beautiful home!

Shredded · Dec 25, 2016

Thanks everyone. I may be more excited about the tank then the house. So much to do!

audikers · Dec 25, 2016

Following! I cant wait to see this build finished!

revhtree · Dec 26, 2016

Nice list and beautiful home!!

Shredded · Jan 20, 2017

OK, so, we closed on our old house and we are out. We are in a small rental house for about 3 weeks. They would not allow me to move the tank and equipment to the new house before closing due to possible liability issues since there are a lot of people that have access to the house at this point in time. There is still a lot to do in the house. Here are a few pics of the tank room. It is in no way huge but it was all the space I could "steal" from the house. 9 X 6, with a 4 inch main floor drain. For perspective, the box in the center is my full size professional gas stove top with grill. Space will be at a premium so I am trying to plan in advance where everything will go. The room doesn't look like much yet but its actually supposed to look like less but since people don't listen, I wound up with more then I was supposed to. It is actually just supposed to be framed, bare, no plumbing except for the main drain in the floor. Instead, it is also plumbed for a sink on the left, hot and cold water, (the hand washing sink that I ordered is sitting on the floor by the plumbing in the wall), sheet rocked, textured and painted. After I saw that they had hung sheet rock in the room, I snuck in that night, took down part of the sheet rock and ran all of my electrical circuits. There are 5 - 20A , electrical circuits behind the walls waiting for me to close. The tank and stand will sit to the right with about 3' of work room to the left. On the other side of that wall is the underside of the staircase. It would have been wasted room but they left an access in the pantry for me. In that area, I will have two 65 gallon storage tanks for RO water and Salt water and run that plumbing thru the wall. So much to do.... Oh, no doors yet as the builder and I are having a slight disagreement on what is being installed.