Johns first coral adventure RSR 425xl

chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
I think im going down the man made route but im unsure which to go for.
Marco rock leaches phosphates and needs a lot of soaking and cleaning
I cant stand the look of the caribsea stuff or the real reef rock
aquaroche just wont provide the filtration
Im just looking at the TMC Eco Reef Rock but cant find a lot of info about it except its bloody expensive.
Then again ive yet to find anything cheap in this hobby.
 

Pancho75

Well-Known Member
In my case, I got 130 pounds of South Seas rock included with my S-500. The rock turned to be very porous in with good shapes, I cleaned them with RO/DI water before putting them in the tank, I guess they leaked a “normal” quantity of PO4. I had a regular one month cycle to achieve hospitable water parameters, the cycle was so deep that it took me one year to obtain readable PO4 lectures.


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chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
After more research ive decided to go with the TMC Eco Reef Rock as its supposed to be 2.5 times more porous than live rock.
I always used to cycle with good old household ammonia, drop a few drops in and let nature do its thing, never had a problem with that except it used to take 6-8 weeks to cycle so ive got the Red Sea Reef Mature Pro which states it takes 21 days to cycle so we will see when the time comes.
 

chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
My first DILEMMA
Im having great difficulty in choosing a tank.
I thought I had set my heart on a 260-e but im now looking at a 350 deluxe, I cant go any bigger due to size constraints
My dilemma's are as follows
1. the 260 is an all in one (ease of use and set up and no additional equipment to buy)
2. the 350 deluxe is bigger but needs additional equipment ( more expense which could be used on stock if I get the 260)
Questions:
If I bought the standard 350 then what are a good lighting option? (not Radions as stupidly overpriced) im looking at options that would be cheaper to buy tank and lights separately rather than the deluxe model. Although I hear good things about the Hydra 26's.
Im looking at different online companies and am finding that most have the deluxe version out of stock, is there a new version coming out soon or any other reason why so many have stopped stocking the deluxe version?
*EDIT* Just re measured and can just fit a 425xl so might go with that yet
Cheers
John
 
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chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
Will have to change thread title as i have decided on a reefer 425xl
Hydra lights, vortech qd pumps, red sea skimmer
Do I go for 2 hydra 52, 2 hydra 26 or 3 hydra 26?
Do I go for 2 mp10's or 1 mp40?
Do I go for a red sea skimmer 600 or 900?
Do I go for a Vectra small, medium or large return pump?
 
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DaveK

Well-Known Member
Will have to change thread title as i have decided on a reefer 425xl
Hydra lights, vortech qd pumps, red sea skimmer
Do I go for 2 hydra 52, 2 hydra 26 or 3 hydra 26?
Do I go for 2 mp10's or 1 mp40?
Do I go for a red sea skimmer 600 or 900?
Do I go for a Vectra small, medium or large return pump?

This applies to most LED fixtures like the Hyrda 26, Hydra 52, Radion and similar point source LED lighting.

Generally you can figure a LED fixture like that is going to cover about 2 foot (60 cm) square on a tank. A Reefer XL 425 is about 47 inches, almost 4 feet long (120 cm) so you'd want to see 2 Hydra 26 fixtures as a minimum. However, depending on what your keeping in the tank, and how much light you want, you could go with two Hydra 52. That's a ton of light though, and you'd need to be very careful with them, since it's easy to "burn" new corals or have bad algae issues. If I were setting this up, I'd go with 2 Hydra 26 fixtures. That should work fine for you. Later on if you feel you need more light you could add a 3rd fixture.

When you rate a skimmer for a tank, you tank the the manufacturers rating for the tank size it can handle and use that skimmer on a tank about half that size. Manufacturers tend to ve very "optimistic" about the size tank the skimmer will support. In your case the 600 is rated for an SPS tank of 160 gal (600 l), so you should be fine with that.

When you size a pump, figure you want to turn over the tank volume about 10 - 15 times an hour, so the Vectra S1 would work fine if you just want to run the filtration system. However a lot of people T off the main pump return and run part of the water through various reactors, UV or a refugium. The nice thing about DC controllable pumps is that you can easily dial them back a bit. So you might want to get the Vectra M1 if you think adding reactors or other equipment is in your future. Note - you sometimes see people talking about a flow rate in their tank of 30 times an hour or even more. There people are almost always adding on the flow pumps they have added to the system. You may want flow pumps, but that's something different from the main return pump.
 

chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the reply Dave.
I have got a maxspect gyre 250 and a tunze 6040 for circulation which I think will be enough, although like you say I can add more if needed as the tank gets more and more corals.
 

Sonaya

New Member
Hi everyone can someone advise me on what’s happening with this coral is it dead? Do I remove it? Any advice is welcomed!
 

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chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone can someone advise me on what’s happening with this coral is it dead? Do I remove it? Any advice is welcomed!
This is a tank thread mate, you will get more help if you put the question in the beginner thread. Im a coral beginner myself mate so cant really help you.
 

chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
Ok just a little update.
I cant get the red sea deluxe version as red sea are putting their own lights with them, but I like the look of the hydras so this is what ive ordered and what I have got so far;
red sea reefer 425xl
3 x hydra 26 and slimline brackets
red sea rsk 600 skimmer
maxspect gyre 250 with advanced controller
tunze 6040 circulating pump
tmc 8000 reef pump
tunze osmolator
2 marine pure blocks (which I had from my fowlr days) which are nicely cycling in the qt
kamoer x4 doser
2 reactors (again left over from my fowlr days), Thinking of filling them up with matrix but not sure yet.
all the other bits and bobs like test kits, heaters, refractometer etc.
If you think I have missed anything then let me know, cant wait to get this up and running.
Cheers
John
 

chickenjohn

Well-Known Member
Just had confirmation from my lfs that my tank, skimmer, and lights will be here on Wednesday woohoo!!!!!!
Cant pick it up though until Friday or Saturday due to work but at least now I have a date to look forward too.
So stress balls at the ready and remove all throwable items before starting to build.
Cheers
John
 
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