A couple of weeks back I posted in search of a RSR 525xl for sale. Less than a day later I pulled the trigger to just purchase one. Plenty of good deals online being holiday time an all. Yet I still chose to give my business to some of the LFS in the area. Needless to say i could of save a few hundreds bucks by gathering all the goodies online but that doesn't bother me growing up with a family retail business it felt like the right thing to do.
Here's the list of what I've collected thus far.
Tank-RSR 525xl in black
Skimmer- vertex omega 180i
RTN pump- eco tech M1
Reactors - x2 vertex 2.0 (possible carbon ,media or riophos) we will see what I really need when the time comes.
Heater- finnex 300w titanium
Power heads- x2 Neptune wavs
Controller - Neptune Apex (new version with wifi/4 probes)
Lighting- currently have 2 AI hydra 52 on my 75 gallon uni. Plus I purchased a third 52 HD also using the new AI HMS mounts (they hide the wires and lol very sleek)
Doseing system- Neptune DOS with canisters.
Rock- 120 pounds of real reef (shelves and round chunks)
Sand - about 100 pounds of caribsea aragonite
Day one
So Tuesday I got the call tank and most of the equipment was in so I picked it up (super nice shipping box the tank came in, plus very heavy) 5 of us packed in in the truck and off I went. With some help from my wife I had the stand build and leveled up in a couple hours. As plenty have said in other forums I've read about these reefers the stand is of nice quality very sturdy an easy to assemble. Once that was complete I needed assistance with tank itself. A phone call to buddy down the road and the tank was sitting nicely in its new home atop the stand in my living room. I fooled around with some of the plumbing only to find I was a few parts short to get the hard pluming complete so That was it for day one.
Day two.
I ran around after work to gather up the real reef rock I wanted. I chose to hand pick the pieces I wanted from a couple stores intentionally buying too much just so I had the available pieces to achieve the scape I wanted. I also gathered the plumbing parts I needed. It was my goal to get the scape sand and plumbing and water in. With the help of a friend some putty and glue the scape and sand made it into the tank. After he left I finished the plumbing and added some cool features to the scape with some approval of the right kind from my wife. I spent the next few hours getting RODI and mixing up the reef crystals to 1.025. I plugged in the apex the one wav I had (awaiting the second still) linked it to the wifi turned on the return and the wav. I set up the single 52 HD that's not in use on my 75g. My heater had yet to come in so heating her up was going to have to wait until Friday.
Day 3
Thanksgiving day gobble gobble no update other than I turned the skimmer on for the required 24 hrs with collection cup off to allow it to spill over. Plus started the dosing of micro Bactor five caps daily for two weeks starts today.
Day 4
The heater and DOS system have arrived at the LFS. I took this opportunity to retune 35 pounds of unused rock and pick up the equipment. When we returned home I played around with the apex, setting up the controls to my liking. I've installed the heater to the sump plus the Temp prob for the apex to allow the tank to heat to 78. With a 77.8-78.4 setting. Temp prior to heater 71 with ina few hours the tank was up to 75. ( that was daily quick) I also mounted the Apex , Neptune power bar and rtn pump controller to the inside of the dry storage cabinet. I'm waiting for the prob holder to arrive before I set up the remaining three probs. It's because of this that I'm holding off on straightening up the mess of wires in the dry cabinet. I played with the dos unit but I'm holding off on where I'm mounting that until all the wires/ probs are ran so I have a one time shot at wire organization and dos mounting. I still need my second wav pump too.
Day5
Didn't do much other than checked up on the water temp. Sitting at 78. I'll probably test the water tomorrow to see what's going in there.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk