Buckerberg's Reefer 170

[Buckerberg]

April 2026 FTS

Aug 2025 FTS

Hey reef2reef,

Been lurking around the forums already for a few months while setting up my first reef tank after 10+ years of freshwater systems.
Seems fitting to start a build thread in retrospect

Here is my journey so far:

Setup a Reefer 170 at the end of September/start of October

Equipment:

• Red sea reefer 170
• Red sea reefled90
• Red sea 5500 DC return pump
• Red sea DC skimmer 300
• Red sea reefrun controller
• Red sea reefwave 25
• Redsea reef Ato+
• Eheim Thermocontrol 150W

Initial setup went smoothly and a day later the enitre system was setup

I used dubblesided tape to secure the controllers and power bricks on the inside of the cabinet. (Ignore the cable mess )
In the meantime I also added a Inkbird heater controller.

The water reservoir was very small and so I opted to not use it for now and use a 25L jug as a reservoir.

I wanted to start with dry rock so I got +/- 20kg of rock labeled Indonesia dry base rock and got chopping to try to create a NSA aquascape but ended up building a tree-like structure using Corafix 2 part epoxy to glue everything together.

Added a layer of aragonite sand and I started the tank with Natural sea water from my local LFS. Filled up I estimate the total water volume to be around 140L.
To cycle the tank I used the Red Sea Reef mature kit.

Tank took about a month and a half to cycle, in the meantime I did get myself a RO/DI unit and switched from Natural sea water to the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. The Natural sea water caused a big drop in ALK on every water change so I had to dose extra everytime which made it unstable. Since switching over to the coral pro salt I got ALK stable at about 9 with minimal extra ALK dosing (3ml/day of Red Sea coraline gro).

Now lets fast forward to the current day: after cycling I started to add some livestock
Current stocking includes
Invertebrates:
- 2 nassarius snails
- 2 turbo snails
- 2 trochuns snails
- 2 blue-legged hermits
- 1 fire shrimp
Fish:
- 2 Percula clownfish
- 1 lawnmower blenny

Also started adding some corals started with a small Zoanthid colony which seems to thrive so I added some extra corals last weekend
Current coral stocking:
- Zoanthids
- Hammer coral
- Alveopora coral
- Duncan Coral

Parameters:
- ALK: 9
- N03: 2
- PO4: 0.02
- pH : 8.2
- Salinity: 35

Full tank shot (still need to get myself a orange filter lens to take better pictures)

Everything is going slow but steady so far mainly film algae showed up and some hair algae so far.
More updates to follow soon!

 

[Troylee]

Nice start! Looking forward to the grow out!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hey reef2reef,

Been lurking around the forums already for a few months while setting up my first reef tank after 10+ years of freshwater systems.
Seems fitting to start a build thread in retrospect

Here is my journey so far:

Setup a Reefer 170 at the end of September/start of October

Equipment:

• Red sea reefer 170
• Red sea reefled90
• Red sea 5500 DC return pump
• Red sea DC skimmer 300
• Red sea reefrun controller
• Red sea reefwave 25
• Redsea reef Ato+
• Eheim Thermocontrol 150W

Initial setup went smoothly and a day later the enitre system was setup

I used dubblesided tape to secure the controllers and power bricks on the inside of the cabinet. (Ignore the cable mess )
In the meantime I also added a Inkbird heater controller.

The water reservoir was very small and so I opted to not use it for now and use a 25L jug as a reservoir.

I wanted to start with dry rock so I got +/- 20kg of rock labeled Indonesia dry base rock and got chopping to try to create a NSA aquascape but ended up building a tree-like structure using Corafix 2 part epoxy to glue everything together.

Added a layer of aragonite sand and I started the tank with Natural sea water from my local LFS. Filled up I estimate the total water volume to be around 140L.
To cycle the tank I used the Red Sea Reef mature kit.

Tank took about a month and a half to cycle, in the meantime I did get myself a RO/DI unit and switched from Natural sea water to the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt. The Natural sea water caused a big drop in ALK on every water change so I had to dose extra everytime which made it unstable. Since switching over to the coral pro salt I got ALK stable at about 9 with minimal extra ALK dosing (3ml/day of Red Sea coraline gro).

Now lets fast forward to the current day: after cycling I started to add some livestock
Current stocking includes
Invertebrates:
- 2 nassarius snails
- 2 turbo snails
- 2 trochuns snails
- 2 blue-legged hermits
- 1 fire shrimp
Fish:
- 2 Percula clownfish
- 1 lawnmower blenny

Also started adding some corals started with a small Zoanthid colony which seems to thrive so I added some extra corals last weekend
Current coral stocking:
- Zoanthids
- Hammer coral
- Alveopora coral
- Duncan Coral

Parameters:
- ALK: 9
- N03: 2
- PO4: 0.02
- pH : 8.2
- Salinity: 35

Full tank shot (still need to get myself a orange filter lens to take better pictures)

Everything is going slow but steady so far mainly film algae showed up and some hair algae so far.
More updates to follow soon!

Great looking start to your tank!

 

[mtraylor]

Looking good

 

[Buckerberg]

Going to redo my scape today.

Why? Because the tank is next to my WFH desk and the tree in the center blocks a lot of the view from my tank. Want to be able to view most of the tank from that angle.
Also got a few dead spots I want to get more flow going through (spotted some cyano today) and create some more visible cave structures. Now have only 1 cave in the tree base which has my fire shrimp and lawnmower blenny as its permanent residents.

Plan is to keep most of the rock submerged while rescaping. I do have some extra rock in the sump to help create a new scape + i can move some extra rock to the sump while redoing the scape only taking parts of the scape out of the tank as I glue them together using glue + epoxy for some extra strength


After the rescape I am going to mount my 4 corals and maybe get some extra in a few weeks!

 

[Buckerberg]

Going to redo my scape today.

Why? Because the tank is next to my WFH desk and the tree in the center blocks a lot of the view from my tank. Want to be able to view most of the tank from that angle.
Also got a few dead spots I want to get more flow going through (spotted some cyano today) and create some more visible cave structures. Now have only 1 cave in the tree base which has my fire shrimp and lawnmower blenny as its permanent residents.

Plan is to keep most of the rock submerged while rescaping. I do have some extra rock in the sump to help create a new scape + i can move some extra rock to the sump while redoing the scape only taking parts of the scape out of the tank as I glue them together using glue + epoxy for some extra strength


After the rescape I am going to mount my 4 corals and maybe get some extra in a few weeks!

Rescaped the tank

A lot more caves and visible areas.

Both lawnmower blenny and my fire shrimp are also more active now!

got some white spots now but those will overgrow over the coming weeks
Before

After:

 

[WonkyWapiti]

I like the rescape! A lot of places for your little guys to hide, good job.

 

[Not_Erick]

Nice tank! I’m looking forward to see it progress

 

[Buckerberg]

Some progress updates

Got some extra LPS corals to fill out the tank.

Added a conch to get some extra movement in my substrate and got a Royal gramma in quarantine. Might add a fish or 2 in over the next months (suggestions welcome!)

Still some GHA and cyano in the tank.

Parameters are quite stable

Top down shot

 

[Buckerberg]

The one year update

It was time for an update as the Reefer170 has been running for over a year now.

A lot has happened during the last year with the Tank and it is finally past its ugly stage as I have been battling Dino's, GHA and cyano.
The sump has changed a lot as the filter socks have been removed in favour of a chaeto refuge lit by a Tunze ecochic refuge light.

The display has undone many rescapes and coral additions, the system is becoming more LPS focused with some SPS in there. had some losses as well but that's okay as these have been good learning opportunities.

Parameters are getting more stabler, decided to move away from RS CoralPro salt and move to more manageable parameters with AF reef salt. For dosing I am using OG balling ATM

here are some trends over the past year of the most importent parameters I am tracking .

ALK (stabilising around 9dKH)

Phosphate - still struggling to keep below .1

Salinity is stable hard to get it fully locked in in such a small system

Overall happy with the results after just 1 year of reefing!Excited for the future of this tank as I got to move to a bigger house at the start of 2025. Moving tips are welcome!

 

[Buckerberg]

Some pictures I took a few days ago

FTS

The torch garden

Lobo is growing nicely

The acan garden

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Some pictures I took a few days ago

FTS

The torch garden

Lobo is growing nicely

The acan garden

Love all the torches you have!

 

[Buckerberg]

Love all the torches you have!

Thanks! They are growing nicely but so aggressive with their long sweepers which is challenging in a small tank

 

[Tahoe61]

The tank looks really great!

 

[Buckerberg]

The tank looks really great!

Thanks!!

 

[Buckerberg]

Lighting update

Got a sweat deal on 2 Radion XR15 Gen4 Pro's.
This will be a major upgrade over a single Reefled90

Now need a find way to mount them on the tank :thinking-face:, preferably as clean as possible so my GF approves :grinning-face-with-sweat:

 

[mjszos]

Tank is looking great!

Regarding the move; will you have access to both properties temporarily? And do you plan on re-using the same tank in the new location?

 

[Buckerberg]

Tank is looking great!

Regarding the move; will you have access to both properties temporarily? And do you plan on re-using the same tank in the new location?

I will have access to both properties for a period of at least 2 weeks. Plan is to move the tank as-is and possibly upgrade later once we are fully settled in the new place.

 

[mjszos]

I will have access to both properties for a period of at least 2 weeks. Plan is to move the tank as-is and possibly upgrade later once we are fully settled in the new place.

Depending on your turnaround expectations, I would recommend setting up either a temporary holding tank (could be as easy as a stock tub), moving the tank, then moving the inhabitants.

I'd suggest not reusing your existing sand, but the rest of it all should be fine. Some folks swear by using water from the existing system, but my approach has been to just drip acclimate for a couple hours into a 5 gallon bucket.

If you're moving far, make sure you are prepared to maintain at least temperature and an airstone or 2 per bucket during the move. If you're moving down the street, it should be fine (I did a 1.5hr move with no airstones or heaters in the dead of winter with just a preheated car and a trunk full of buckets).

Good luck!

 

[Buckerberg]

Depending on your turnaround expectations, I would recommend setting up either a temporary holding tank (could be as easy as a stock tub), moving the tank, then moving the inhabitants.

I'd suggest not reusing your existing sand, but the rest of it all should be fine. Some folks swear by using water from the existing system, but my approach has been to just drip acclimate for a couple hours into a 5 gallon bucket.

If you're moving far, make sure you are prepared to maintain at least temperature and an airstone or 2 per bucket during the move. If you're moving down the street, it should be fine (I did a 1.5hr move with no airstones or heaters in the dead of winter with just a preheated car and a trunk full of buckets).

Good luck!

Its a 20min drive.
Talked to the local LFS and they can provide some heaters, airstones and some styrofoam boxes.

Good idea for the temporary holding tank!

Still have some time to prepare as we will move in March.