First saltwater tank

[FirstReef]

Hello R2R community! I'm so glad I found the group last week. I will be removing myself from a few FB pages and turning to this group for info! I am currently in the research phases to begin a sw tank. About a month ago I went to a new LFS and had a Red Sea Max E260 catch my attention. After reading I am now looking at purchasing the Reefer 350 deluxe so I can have more options with a sump. I am also open to any other recommendations from the group for tank ideas. I noticed most of their tanks were all open tops. Guessing that is the way to go?! I hope to order a tank in the near future but have so much reading and learning to do first. I want to do this right from the start. I have had a few fresh water tanks with the largest being a 55gal with 5 piranhas. My daughter loves the aquarium at the zoo and I look forward to bringing a piece of that into our home!

 

[kschweer]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[ourcoralreef]

Welcome to R2R and the hobby

 

[ourcoralreef]

Open top is the “new” look personally i like a top
When thinking of getting a reefer i asked redsea if i can build a top and they said it can handle the weight

 

[FirstReef]

I did see that artfully acrylic makes a decent Clear view lid for the reefer. Will probably go that direction then when time comes!

 

[WWIII]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[WWIII]

I did see that artfully acrylic makes a decent Clear view lid for the reefer. Will probably go that direction then when time comes!

Those are nice! There's another company that makes similar screen covers, but I forget the name, maybe someone else knows!

 

[MaddyP]

Welcome to the family!!

 

[dbl]

Welcome to R2R and your new reefing community.

 

[Big G]

Welcome to R2R! So cool you and your daughter will have a tank of your own to learn, grow and appreciate. Neat! Welcome to the salty side

 

[Ashish Patel]

Red sea reefer is a good option for anyone getting into the hobby - takes the guess work out of the most fundamental mistakes new hobbyist makes. Most of our first tanks had bad cabinet, bad sump, bad wire management, this one is great cause it has all those things figured out. Rimless-vs braced or eurobraced is a preference thing and IMO only thing that is good about rimless is really aesthetics. For me keeping fish in the tank and having a stronger tank was more important so went eurobraced -which was custom but I would like to see redsea build a eurobraced version in the future.

Best advice I can give is find good Liverock (preferably from another hobbyist who has FOWLR tank), This will probably have long died of reef pest and help you not deal with algae problems associated with all new dry rock. I never had much luck with SPS until dialing in my ALK and nutrient export using Hanna checkers for ALK/ULR Phosphate. Since these 2 deviate on a daily basis significantly I don't think I could adjust my feeding or dosing so accurately without the hanna checker. For everything else I use redsea test kits and saliferts. Most overlooked thing is reasearch about the animals you are trying to keep and compatibility. Know what these things are in advance so you can take steps to avoid them from spreading (aiptasia, flatworms, dinos, vermid snails) -learn it. lol.. Good luck!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Welcome to R2R!!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Greckel]

Welcome! I am waiting on my Reefer 170; it's killing me. I thought Fedex Freight was going to arrive today, but I doubt it will.

As for a lid to the tank, BulkReefSupply sells a kit to build a lid. Red Sea is also releasing its own lids soon.