1BiteReefer- Red Sea Reefer 250 Build

[1bitereefer]

First want to start off by giving you a little background information about myself and the tank. I am a total noob to the reefer hobby so will be looking for help frequently. I have took the last 2 months browsing this forum for help and research. I have previously been in the African Cichlids Hobby the last 4 years and have just sold all of tanks and live stock to dive head first into the reefing hobby. I have always wanted a reef tank and Actually had bought this tank 4 years ago. The tank was used only during MACNA when MACNA was in DC. I walked into my LFS and they had this gorgeous tank on the floor lightly used for a great price. So I made the impulse buy a bought the tank. When I bought the tank it came with a Eheim pump and tank. I had it setup as a Fowlr tank for about 6 months before moving and shutting it down. I am now in the process of buying equipment and setting it up as my dream tank.

Equipment:
Tank: Red Sea Reefer 250
Lights: 2 Kessil a360w-e, Goosenecks & Spectral Controller (Planned to go with AI Hydras, but 2 lightly used Kessil came up on my local Craigslist and got a great deal)
Powerheads: 2 Jebao sw8’s ) I plan to put on the back wall but we will see how it goes)
Pump: Eheim pump that came with tank
Protein skimmer: Either Nyos 120 or Deltec sc1351 (would love to hear opinions on these)
Sand: 30lbs of Tropic Eden Mini Flakes (plan to add some reef flakes when they come back in stock)
Rock: 50lbs of ReefCleaners dry rock
Salt: Bought a bucket Live Aquaria Salt Mix
Heater: 200watt hydor heater from a previous Cichlid Tank

The Plan is to start a mixed reef tank and take my time with this build. I have the tank completely apart cleaned all the plumbing and sump.

Next up cleaning the tank and setting up plumbing and leak testing.

Pics to follow

 

[revhtree]

Cool and following!

 

[jwt1603]

I'll be following this as it sounds like you're in the same spot I am with the hobby.

 

[1bitereefer]

Tank is clean and lights are up, next step is to level tank and leak test. Still waiting on some equipment to come in and to plan my wire management. Then aquascape and cycle. Updates to come. Plan to take my time with this build, do a ton of research and make sure everything is done right. Should be wet with salt water in about 2 weeks.

 

[1bitereefer]

Did the leak test with water, and tank level. Everything seems to be good to go for now . Will be working with the gate cable to make tank silent. Now just waiting for Reef Cleaner rocks and skimmer to come in and will clean up my wires. And get it wet with salt water. I plan to have a build that I can grow with in the hobby, looking at adding a BRS reactor and another ATO in the future.

 

[1bitereefer]

Wanted to get some feed back on my aquascape, not sold on the structure on the right. Want to get some community feedback before I cement.

 

[Branespikin]

I think your going to have to have a little more rock than that. Id stack a bit higher. Get some more rock to put more coral on also bettter fir biological filtration and beneficial bacteria to grow. Those sumps are small so once you got skimmer in there no room for adding any rock in sumo. I have Nyos 120 in my Reefer 250 and its great.

 

[Branespikin]

Get a bigger ATO container and ditch that small one. I have both Neptune ATK and Tunze ATO and perfer the Tunze

 

[Branespikin]

There is a dedicated thread started by Broadfield on here fir Reefer tanks. You will find tons of info

 

[Broadfield]

Wanted to get some feed back on my aquascape, not sold on the structure on the right. Want to get some community feedback before I cement.

Can you take a picture standing a little further back?... like post #5. That way I can get a better feel for the boundaries of the tank and how the scape fits in there.

 

[1bitereefer]

Made a few changes to try to make the rocks higher. That is 50lbs of rocks, is 50lbs not enough for the tank? Should I buy more rocks or some marine pure? Will also have a sand bed. Any feedback is appreciated! I’m new to hobby. So I can use all the help possible.

 

[Broadfield]

Made a few changes to try to make the rocks higher. That is 50lbs of rocks, is 50lbs not enough for the tank? Should I buy more rocks or some marine pure? Will also have a sand bed. Any feedback is appreciated! I’m new to hobby. So I can use all the help possible.

A little too symmetrical for me. I would try to make one of the structures twice as large as the other. Have one structure take up roughly 2/3 of the tank and the other structure take up 1/3 of the tank.... with spacing all around each structure. You will obviously need more rock to accomplish this.

 

[1bitereefer]

I w

A little too symmetrical for me. I would try to make one of the structures twice as large as the other. Have one structure take up roughly 2/3 of the tank and the other structure take up 1/3 of the tank.... with spacing all around each structure. You will obviously need more rock to accomplish this.

I was thinking the same thing. Will play with it some more and let you know what I come up with. Is the one on the left high enough? I really like that structure. Not a huge fan of the one on the left

 

[Broadfield]

I w


I was thinking the same thing. Will play with it some more and let you know what I come up with. Is the one on the left high enough? I really like that structure. Not a huge fan of the one on the left

I was actually going to say leave the left one alone also. Then leave the right one right where it is, but add to it. Make it stretch to the left more and make it just a tad taller than the left one.

 

[Broadfield]

Maybe something like this to get you started...

 

[Broadfield]

I also wouldn't mind seeing the left structure rotated in various positions... just to see if it can look even better with it rotated, on point, like 180 degrees etc.

 

[1bitereefer]

Maybe something like this to get you started...

Awesome, will do! Thanks @Broadfield. Going to hit it again tomorrow night. Need to step away from it for a bit

 

[Branespikin]

Also think ahead what kind of coral you want. LPS or SPs. Euphyllia like torches that will sting etc. i re did my scape few times to work with my corals. Did kind of 2 islands one fir Euphyllia garden other for zoas and sand bed for other cool stuff

 

[1bitereefer]

Well looks like I may need to put another order in for rocks with reef cleaners. All of those pictures is all 50lbs of rocks. I will play around some more with the rocks. Do you fellas think that if I lengthen the second island on the right it will be to low if I use the rocks I currently have? Btw you guys are awesome, and this is a huge help

 

[Branespikin]

Where do you plan to put ur powerheads? Sides? Or back? I have two mp40s just above the highest point of my rock work so its not directly blowing on my torches and zoas since they dont like high flow. So think about this when figuring how high you want to go. Unless you are going to go SPS then high flow is good.