bryan06107
Member
Well a little over a week ago I picked up my new 500s from the Puppy Center and Aquarium in West Hartford, CT. I have been reading up about this tank since last year when it was announced. I have posted a build thread over on another forum witch hosts the local Connecticut area reefers Club CTARS forum. Not sure on this forums posting rules so PM me if you want a link to the build. If I am allowed to post it here I will just let me know the rules.
As far as the tank goes I could not be happier with the purchase. When this tank was rumored to be in the 3k range I knew I wanted it. However, when the pricing came out I started looking at every other tank out there and pricing them out for all that was needed to be comparable. I had pretty much made up my mind to go with a reef ready 120 and buy everything needed separately. After all I was not entirely happy with my max 250 (for sale by the way) Once I set eyes on the display tank at Puppy Center you could not even compare the two tanks. to me then the difference in price of less than 1000.00 between the two was no big deal as the 500s is just an awesome tank that has a presence to it not found in any other tank like this. I had to have it. I will not go through a complete build with pictures as that has been done here twice before. I just want to mention a few items I think make this tank very special.
A couple of things I thought showed the impeccable attention to detain by red sea with tonights assembly.
The entire outside surface of the bottom of the sump has the same rubber cushion bonded to it to inhibit any vibrations or tank noise. This is like a 1/4" wetsuit type material.
The shelf in the sump where the skimmer sits is also bonded with the same material to inhibit vibrations and noise. this time they used 1/8" material.
All of the plumbing was cut to size and glued to fit exactly as it was designed. I did not have to cut or glue one piece of pvc pipe. just seat the o-rings and join the union connectors.
The hinges on the cabinet doors all have a soft close feature. just close the door and about 3" from being closed the dampers slow the door down and close it nice and softly.
all of the electrical cords come into 1 power box and every cord,receptacle and switch are labeled. the from of the drawer is where all of the switches are located making it real easy to turn things one and off w/o having to guess what switch goes where...
Will have to figure out how to post pictures
As far as the tank goes I could not be happier with the purchase. When this tank was rumored to be in the 3k range I knew I wanted it. However, when the pricing came out I started looking at every other tank out there and pricing them out for all that was needed to be comparable. I had pretty much made up my mind to go with a reef ready 120 and buy everything needed separately. After all I was not entirely happy with my max 250 (for sale by the way) Once I set eyes on the display tank at Puppy Center you could not even compare the two tanks. to me then the difference in price of less than 1000.00 between the two was no big deal as the 500s is just an awesome tank that has a presence to it not found in any other tank like this. I had to have it. I will not go through a complete build with pictures as that has been done here twice before. I just want to mention a few items I think make this tank very special.
A couple of things I thought showed the impeccable attention to detain by red sea with tonights assembly.
The entire outside surface of the bottom of the sump has the same rubber cushion bonded to it to inhibit any vibrations or tank noise. This is like a 1/4" wetsuit type material.
The shelf in the sump where the skimmer sits is also bonded with the same material to inhibit vibrations and noise. this time they used 1/8" material.
All of the plumbing was cut to size and glued to fit exactly as it was designed. I did not have to cut or glue one piece of pvc pipe. just seat the o-rings and join the union connectors.
The hinges on the cabinet doors all have a soft close feature. just close the door and about 3" from being closed the dampers slow the door down and close it nice and softly.
all of the electrical cords come into 1 power box and every cord,receptacle and switch are labeled. the from of the drawer is where all of the switches are located making it real easy to turn things one and off w/o having to guess what switch goes where...
Will have to figure out how to post pictures
