New tank! Red Sea Reefer G2+ 250.

2Sunny · Sep 27, 2024

My LFS helped transfer my FijiCube 20 over to this new tank, and I must say I can't get over how well designed and laid out everything is. It all just works perfectly together and is dead quiet. Now to grow a few coral colonies and fill it in

2Sunny · Sep 28, 2024

I just watched a video talking about cost and I was thinking it would be mildly entertaining for me to do the same.

So . . .
Equipment
Red Sea Reefer G2+ 250 $2099
Sicce Silent 3.0 $130
Red Sea Reefer 300 $618
Simplicity 5 gal ATO $140
ZetLight refugium LED $64
ATI Sunpower+ReefBrite XHOs w/ cntrlr $1547
3 Blue Plus/3 Actinic T5s $124
Ultum Aquarium hanging bar $107
Jager Trutemp 150 watt heater $27
Dual Maxspect Gyre 308s $270
Reefractometer $33
4 Stage RODI $208
Mag Float Algae scraper $46
Kent Marine glass scraper $44
ReefBeat ATO (came with tank)

LiveStock
Fiji Pink live sand 20 lbs $26
Tampa Bay live rock 50 lbs $300
4 Damsels $100
4 Harptail Blennies $180
2 Clownfish $130
1 Perchlet $60
1 Aiptasia eating File fish $42

Total $6295

Then of course there are the corals. Wow, I've never done that exercise before, very interesting. Certainly more than I thought.

Tactical Reefkeeping · Sep 28, 2024

Can’t wait to see it going I also have a Red Sea reefer 250 as well and love it.

2Sunny · Oct 2, 2024

Just ordered a Red Sea Reefer 300 skimmer because my Reef Octopus overflows every time the water level changes in the sump which for various reasons seems to happen somewhat often, and I'm curious to see how well the new level detection system works on the Reefer 300.

And . . . I ordered an ATI 36" Sunpower and 2 ReefBrite XHOs with controller because I realize now a 24" fixture is just not wide enough to light the ends of my bommies. The ends become covered in shadow so I wouldn't be able to put the corals I want there. Not to mention that I LOVE how T5s make corals grow and color as my 240 had dual 8 bulb ATI Powermodules and the corals in that tank grew like crazy. Truthfully though I don't miss the work and stress of keeping that huge of a system and am much happier with my new little ole 50 gallon G2+ 250. The last photo is the old 240 just before it was taken down.

Plus I added 2 teeny-tiny cuts of OG Bounce that I won off an Ebay auction, and a small frag of PC Rainbow and Fruit Loops Micro-goni both from WWC:

2Sunny · Oct 9, 2024

Well good thing I'm fortunate enough to not have to worry about costs when it comes to my aquarium addiction

Just finished assembling the Red Sea Reefer 300, and I've decided NOT to put it in and use it. It's just too complicated compared to the uber simple Reef Octopus I have in there now. I wanted the overflow protection and that's why I bought it, but truth is I've only had one overflow incident so far with the Reef Octopus and otherwise it's working great and producing plenty of skimmate so I just don't see a need to switch.

Also as a brief aside there was no way in heck the neck cleaner would possibly work. It took pliers and maximum effort to get the thing just to budge. No way ever it would just spin without someone holding the base with two hands. Maybe oil or something would help loosen it up, but no way it would work just out of the box without some type of mod, so I just took it out for the assembly, AND given that fact one would need to remove the skimmer cup to empty it. BUT, it too took a Herculean effort to remove from the cup from the base. Definitely NOT user friendly. Maybe both items would loosen over time, but in the near term they were definite deal busters for me.

Anybody want a Red Sea Reefer 300, never used, at 50 cents on the dollar, lol.

Looks like I may have to create a selling thread