Night_shift_reefer_ Red Sea 350 build

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 8, 2018

I guess like everyone's story I got into reefing through years of freshwater tanks. My wife and I went with our realtor to look at a new house and the seller had a 150 gallon saltwater tank in the dining room. Long story short I ended up getting the tank with the house and so started my saltwater journey.

It was a great tank, but never really felt like it was my own. I always felt like I was messing with someone else's tank and the customization was what drew me into saltwater in the first place.

Did not take me long to realize, and convince my wife, that we needed to go a different route

. Three months later I went to the LFS and put in my order for my reefer 350 deluxe. The tank arrived a few weeks before christmas.

Merry Christmas to me.

Just a little tip from me. If you happen to work night shifts like I do, do not get off in the morning and attempt to put this stand together. It isn't super difficult, but enough to remind you of all that stupid ikea furniture you bought and regretted.

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 8, 2018

What drew me to these tanks was the simplicity of the system. My old tank had plumbing going every way possible and just looked like a mess no matter how clean the sump was.

Once the cabinet was built, I quickly realized the black wires from my heaters and return pump looked terrible against a white cabinet. So I decided to paint the back of the sump black to hide the wires.

Went and bought some plasti dip and sprayed the back of the sump. I've never worked with plasti dip before and it took about 5 coats to get really thick coverage. My biggest mistake was not masking the sides and bottom of the tank. Tried a whole bunch of different methods to get the overspray off the sump, but a plain paper towel worked best.

After the sump was dry, I mounted a dj power strip in my cabinet space with velcro.

Bob Escher · Jan 8, 2018

mbh7848 said:
I guess like everyone's story I got into reefing through years of freshwater tanks. My wife and I went with our realtor to look at a new house and the seller had a 150 gallon saltwater tank in the dining room. Long story short I ended up getting the tank with the house and so started my saltwater journey.

It was a great tank, but never really felt like it was my own. I always felt like I was messing with someone else's tank and the customization was what drew me into saltwater in the first place.

Did not take me long to realize, and convince my wife, that we needed to go a different route . Three months later I went to the LFS and put in my order for my reefer 350 deluxe. The tank arrived a few weeks before christmas.

Merry Christmas to me.

Just a little tip from me. If you happen to work night shifts like I do, do not get off in the morning and attempt to put this stand together. It isn't super difficult, but enough to remind you of all that stupid ikea furniture you bought and regretted.

So you actually scaled down
Looking great though

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 8, 2018

Bob Escher said:
So you actually scaled down
Looking great though

Ya I scaled down from a 150 gallon. I was a little nervous i would regret it but I don’t think I will.

Bob Escher · Jan 8, 2018

Still nice

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 8, 2018

Bob Escher said:
Still nice

Thanks!

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 8, 2018

For my return pump I went with the jaebo dct-6000 pump. Love this pump, and for the money its amazing. The smallest size barb that came with the pump was 3/4 and the return hose is 5/8 on the reefer 350. So off to home depot I went to make it work.

Came back home with a whole bunch of pieces and was pretty bummed i had to use so many pieces to get to 5/8. I am very new to plumbing and hated the fact that I had to use so many pieces of hard plumbing. Started doing some research and went back out and got some vaseline. The soft tubing slipped right over the 3/4 barb with the vaseline. Live and learn i guess ;Facepalm

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 9, 2018

I used velcro to attach a white piece of shelving inside the cabinet to hide the wires and attach my pump controller. Planning on getting a apex and a gyre pump and will have plenty of room to mount all of that without taking up space.

Cut a 12 inch strip of cable raceway to hide the wires running into the electrical part of the sump.

Next my wife and I put the display tank on the stand and made sure it was level. The display tank is not nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. I will be doing my aquascape with the display tank full so I do not get any die off from my live rock. So I decided to go pick up some egg crate for the bottom of the tank, in case anything fell.

Bob Escher · Jan 9, 2018

mbh7848 said:
For my return pump I went with the jaebo dct-6000 pump. Love this pump, and for the money its amazing. The smallest size barb that came with the pump was 3/4 and the return hose is 5/8 on the reefer 350. So off to home depot I went to make it work.

Came back home with a whole bunch of pieces and was pretty bummed i had to use so many pieces to get to 5/8. I am very new to plumbing and hated the fact that I had to use so many pieces of hard plumbing. Started doing some research and went back out and got some vaseline. The soft tubing slipped right over the 3/4 barb with the vaseline. Live and learn i guess ;Facepalm

Next time put the hose in hot water to slip it on something it seals better

Bob Escher · Jan 9, 2018

mbh7848 said:
I used velcro to attach a white piece of shelving inside the cabinet to hide the wires and attach my pump controller. Planning on getting a apex and a gyre pump and will have plenty of room to mount all of that without taking up space.

Cut a 12 inch strip of cable raceway to hide the wires running into the electrical part of the sump.

Next my wife and I put the display tank on the stand and made sure it was level. The display tank is not nearly as heavy as I thought it would be. I will be doing my aquascape with the display tank full so I do not get any die off from my live rock. So I decided to go pick up some egg crate for the bottom of the tank, in case anything fell.

I do the same have egg rate in mine

Night_shift_reefer_ · Jan 9, 2018

Bob Escher said:
Next time put the hose in hot water to slip it on something it seals better

I will keep this in mind for next time, i was a little worried about the vaseline over time leaching into the water but im sure its not enough to hurt anything.

Bob Escher · Jan 10, 2018

There are also plastic clamps you can use too

Night_shift_reefer_ · Apr 3, 2018

Tank has been up and running for about 4 months now. Still battling nitrates and tank is in the "uglies" stage. Had a bad out break of algae on the sandbed. Interesting enough I started feeding more and the algae ended up going away. My guess is my bristle worm population multiplied since i fed the tank more and cleaned the algae up for me.

Night_shift_reefer_ · Apr 3, 2018

Started dosing two part a few weeks ago as well.

Night_shift_reefer_ · Apr 3, 2018

Added a chalice, birds nest and acro to my tank.

Night_shift_reefer_ · Feb 4, 2020

It has been a long time since i have updated my build but the tank is still up and thriving!

I have recently had some acros die off and sadly lost my favorite.

I have been having issues with keeping nitrates and phosphates up. I was originally feeding every other day and running my skimmer 24/7. I am currently feeding a mixture of pellet and reef chili twice a day using a automatic feeder and running my skimmer 6 hours a day. Since starting that routine, my phosphates have been hovering between .03 and .04 ppm and my corals are doing much better.