RedSea xl 425 Build (slightly modified)

[GratefulAlpaca]

I’m getting back into the hobby. When we moved from Atlanta to Pine Mountain we were scammed out of our old tank. Long story there for a whole different thread. Over the summer my friend offered us a “free tank” and it has escalated from there. This time we have been able to go a little bit crazy with the build and I’m super excited to share it!

Have you ever read the book “If you give a mouse a cookie” about how one task snowballs into a whole adventure? This is absolutely how the build has gone.

The thing I hated the most with previous tanks was maintenance. Big shocker right? So, I figured if I must do it, I might as well make it easy on myself and have plenty of room to work. I ditched the Red Sea sump and decided to make a fish room behind the wall instead. After some minor stand modifications and some big conversions from the metric drains to standard, I had the pipes sent through the wall. They go into a Synergy Reef Sump and I’ve been building custom controller boards to keep things tidy.

I still have plenty more to build, but the basics are in so we could begin letting the nitrogen and biome cycles start to do their things. Next up is mounting and plumbing the two Dos units for running Triton Core7. I’m happy to share details, as there have been a ton of stories throughout this build.

 

[project1004]

Cool setup!!
I can tell there was lots of thoughts added to it. Seeing all power plugs are above the water line etc
Looking forward to it. Looks like your sump even have place for frags to grow out~ <><

 

[GratefulAlpaca]

Thanks! There was definitely lots of planning. There was also a lot of, “well if I’m doing this, I might as well do that.” That big area in the sump is currently slated for the refugium. The black hook on the ceiling will hold the cable to raise and lower the light. I just don’t have it online right now since I want the ammonia to bottom out before I start pulling the nitrates back down. As for power, there was a plug behind the plug. So I moved it to the other side of the wall (and up) for power. Something about having a plug directly below saltwater pipes didn’t feel right. I also did the same for the Ethernet that was originally behind the tank. Now I’ve got a dedicated aquarium network as well for connecting everything to.

Speaking of connecting stuff over the network, I also cracked the issue of using an Apex and ReefBeat for controllers. I wrote a broker that sits between them and allows me to sync ReefBeat and Apex. Now I can use all of the ReefBeat features without having to just turn a plug on and off for the wave makers. Happy to help anyone who has been stuck on that problem.

 

[NAS]

This is sweet! Looking forward to updates!

 

[Bladecom]

looks good. i enjoy having my filtration in a room behind the tank to have room to work without crawling around under the tank. Also what did you build the controller board out of?

 

[GratefulAlpaca]

looks good. i enjoy having my filtration in a room behind the tank to have room to work without crawling around under the tank. Also what did you build the controller board out of?

You are absolutely correct! Not having to crawl under the cabinet, or play Tetris with equipment is so nice.

For the controller board, I used a scrap piece of 3/4 inch laminated project board from Home Depot. I ripped down some fence pickets to 1 1/4” wide and attached them to the outside to make it look finished. Then took a 1 1/2” bit and drilled the holes for cords. After that was assembled, I routed the edges of the trim and holes to make it look finished. I had some wooden stakes, so I cut those down to put on the vertical sides to make the board stand out from the wall. Then added some hinges on one side, and a medicine cabinet clasp on the other to keep it closed. Last, I threw some black spray lacquer on it to make it look fancy.

I also have made a second one of these boards for mounting the Dos units.