Red Sea Reefer 750xxl Finally ordered

ReefChef19 · Jul 11, 2019

Hello everyone, it has taken a while but my tank should finally arrive next week. I started this journey back in February and still have a long way to go!!! I'm going to sort of list what I have so far and what I still have planned, hopefully it doesn't get too long winded!!! Thank you everyone for all of your help and feed back so far. I have probably missed some items as well, but please give any feedback, criticism, support, help, guidance, or just good job that you may have. As this is our first large tank we are super excited and super nervous at the same time especially as we get closer to the tank arriving.

Have Already

Tank - Red Sea 750xxl White

Return Pump - Reef Octopus Varios 8 pump and a Jebao DCP 13,000 for emergency

Skimmer - AquaMaxx CO-3 in sump skimmer

Heaters - 2-500 watt Finnex Titanium Heaters - Finnex controller but only single plug

Apex - Full system including leak detection, 1inch flow meter for return to be plugged into FMM for LDK, BOB, DOS for AWC, wxm for mp60's maybe, and maybe more later!!!

Skim Mate Locker - Avast Skim Mate Locker, this is for my I don't feel like dumping poop days!!! I told the wife she will love me more for it later!

Plumbing - blue 1 inch pvc with black pvc fittings, I have my gate valve for my over flow and my ball valve for the manifold, I still have to get my tees for the manifold and the metric to standard conversion fittings.

Testing - I bought an API salt water testing kit for now, hoping to meet up with Brandon this weekend sometime to try to get some Hannah checkers.

Rock - I have probably about 200 - 250 lbs soaking in fresh RODI water will drain and get into salt water on sunday probably.

Still Need

Sand - Haven't decided yet

Aqua Scape - Still have to get acrylic rods and epoxy or cement.

Plumbing - Clear primer and glue, metric to standard fittings, and 1 inch black tee's for manifold

Lights - Still going back and forth, like one I saw on R2R - 2 36 inch aquatic life hybrids with 6 Radions xr15 but still may change again. The lights seem to be the hardest item to make a solid decision on.

Cabinets - one for each side of tank - "I do not want to see one wire", that was the wife words it must be clean and organized!!!

Egg crate - considering putting this on bottom of tank. Thoughts?

Husbandry - Still have to get most of this stuff, nets, chemicals, medicines, gloves, scrapper, tongs, salt - LA at the moment,

Flow - 2 GYRE 350's or 2 MP60's, still deciding on that one.

Lid - Leaning toward Artfully acrylic lid

Switches - for break out box, door magnet for under cabinet lights, and led lights for under cabinet

ATO - waiting for new ATK to come out and I still have to decide how I'm going to do ATO. Not sure if I want to plumb directly from my RODI tank to sump scary I know, or plumb the RODI to an ATO container, or just use a hose or something to fill a traditional ATO container

humidity Control - thinking about installing a bathroom fan over the tank with a humidistat near the stand, to help control any extra humidity or moisture in the air. As most already know, GA is already humid as you know what!!!

Chiller - I'm going to try to do without one, I keep the house around 74 degrees most of the time even in winter maybe 76.

Media Reactors - none now, maybe Bashsea later to match our plumbing!

Apex power bar 832 - need at least 1 more maybe 2, depending on how I change around or automate my water station.

QT Set Up

Should I just buy a 20 gallon kit or piece together one, especially since petco has the dollar a gallon sale going on?

Hitman · Jul 11, 2019

Heaters I would run off your Apex, if one fails it will notify you. The Apex unit doesn’t only do alarms by temp for heaters it also alarms if the power spike, no power when a power draw should be on etc. where as your separate controller will not notify you if your away from home.

Egg crate on the bottom: If your going to have sand then no it will act as a ditritus trap, it will prevent your sand critters from getting to it.

Sand: it depends on livestock as well as flow. Wrasse, Gobys etc. like a fine sand but will blow all over. Fiji pink is lite enough for sand shifting pets but generally blows around less. If your not planning on certain wrasses or gobies then go with crushed coral. I have crushed coral in my reef tank as I personally don’t like the looks of a bare bottom tank. I have approximately 18,000 gph running in my 240 and the crushed coral is still where I put it.

Flow: again personally I like the gyres over the MP’s. I just feel you get more natural looking and functionality of water movement from the flat sheet the gyre produces.

Lights: I am a big fan of T5’s and LEDs. I have seen tanks with beautiful color and growth from all 4 big names. Kessil, Radion, AI, and Orpheck. The T5’s fill in the shadowing and really give a natural look just as your scuba diving.
I have Kessil as well as AI and honestly once I stopped playing with settings and buttons my corals took off.

Only other 2 cents I’d like to throw out there is to just remember nothing good happens in the hobby fast!

Sounds like you have a great plan. Make sure you post plenty of pictures as you progress on your build as we loves pictures!!!

TX_Punisher · Jul 12, 2019

Ditch their top off. Put your equipment in your ad-on cabinets and find a 15-18g reservoir in the right side of your stand.

I think I’ve got about 125lbs of Rock and it’s plenty in my 750.

I’d go with the new gyres as well.

ReefChef19 · Jul 12, 2019

Hitman said:
Heaters I would run off your Apex, if one fails it will notify you. The Apex unit doesn’t only do alarms by temp for heaters it also alarms if the power spike, no power when a power draw should be on etc. where as your separate controller will not notify you if your away from home.

Egg crate on the bottom: If your going to have sand then no it will act as a ditritus trap, it will prevent your sand critters from getting to it.

Sand: it depends on livestock as well as flow. Wrasse, Gobys etc. like a fine sand but will blow all over. Fiji pink is lite enough for sand shifting pets but generally blows around less. If your not planning on certain wrasses or gobies then go with crushed coral. I have crushed coral in my reef tank as I personally don’t like the looks of a bare bottom tank. I have approximately 18,000 gph running in my 240 and the crushed coral is still where I put it.

Flow: again personally I like the gyres over the MP’s. I just feel you get more natural looking and functionality of water movement from the flat sheet the gyre produces.

Lights: I am a big fan of T5’s and LEDs. I have seen tanks with beautiful color and growth from all 4 big names. Kessil, Radion, AI, and Orpheck. The T5’s fill in the shadowing and really give a natural look just as your scuba diving.

I have Kessil as well as AI and honestly once I stopped playing with settings and buttons my corals took off.

Only other 2 cents I’d like to throw out there is to just remember nothing good happens in the hobby fast!

Sounds like you have a great plan. Make sure you post plenty of pictures as you progress on your build as we loves pictures!!!

1. Got you, I had planned on using a temp controller plugged into the apex for redundancy.

2. Thank you, that cancels tge egg crate.

3. I have been so back and forth on the gyres, I like them as well. I know tge mp's have a good following.

4. I plan on using the aquatic hybrid for sure, the new ones are cool but pricey. I'll decide on the other lights in a few months after cycling because I have no clue at this time!

Im trying to take my time and only do it once! Thank you so much and I plan on it.

I enjoyed your 600 build progress as well!

ReefChef19 · Jul 12, 2019

TX_Punisher said:
Ditch their top off. Put your equipment in your ad-on cabinets and find a 15-18g reservoir in the right side of your stand.

I think I’ve got about 125lbs of Rock and it’s plenty in my 750.

I’d go with the new gyres as well.

Thank you for the feedback, yeah I went a bit over board on rock but some was free so can't complain too much!

Thanks, I probably will!

TX_Punisher · Jul 12, 2019

One last thing. I got the filter cups from Red Sea. Place filter floss or big lore sponges on them. Easier tHan cleaning socks.

ReefChef19 · Jul 23, 2019

Tonight moved me one step closer to completion. We were able to get the tank on the stand and leveled, doors on, and started fiddling with some of the equipment. I have a stand coming on Friday that I saw another member on R2R using, that I will use for all of my equipment or all of my supplies and small wares I'm not sure which yet. I plan to run it without a chiller, but I'm not sure how it will work out. I really don't want to have to buy a chiller. The tank looks great in the location that we chose, the wife is happy for sure. Hopefully I will start plumbing it probably next week, I have to order my metric conversion fittings so I can hard plumb it. After that I will probably start on getting my QT set up going, and then I have to re soak my rocks in dechlorinated water after sitting in the sun for 2 weeks.