I've never owned a Red Sea tank, but from their reputation that I've seen here on R2R, I don't want to own one. Some say their tank failures were limited to their G1 design, but we've seen G2 tanks fail for sure. I believe they are up to G3 now
It's been said that they are using a very low quality of silicone that leads to a lot of their failures.
For me, I'm turned off by the lack of transparency and responsibility Red Sea has assumed from these failures. Often burying or removing negative posts from their Facebook page, and offering people who have lost thousands of dollars in livestock and home damage measly discounts off buying a new Red Sea tank. I personally won't buy any Red Sea product, but that's just my opinion, many here at R2R very much like their tanks and products, and clearly the majority of tank owners don't experience a problem. But man, when a Red Sea tank goes, it's not some little drip, drip, drip, it's often a catastrophic failure leading to livestock loss and home damage in a hurry.
With all that out of the way, I do own about 5 Innovative Marine tanks from 10 to 25 gallons, all have been of excellent quality. I know many R2R members have larger IM tanks, and all seem quite happy with their tanks. I think IM is a very good value for a tank these days.
Waterbox is also well liked, but I have heard just a few negative experiences. I learned recently that Walmart now and I believe PetCo too offer Waterbox tanks through their websites, and I heard the pricing on Walmart was even better than ordering directly from Waterbox. I would recommend buying a tank through a company like PetCo or Walmart just because these companies typically will not hesitate to issue a refund if there's an issue. Often, when dealing directly with an aquarium company, if there is an issue, it can sometimes be a struggle to get that company to help you.
If your objection to many of these options is the sump, why not buy only a tank, and then buy or build whatever sump you want? Personally, I think SC Aquariums has a great value on stock, Chinese made tanks. Their relatively new website is entirely cheesy, but their tanks are a decent value. I do own an SCA 150 gallon, it's not set up yet, but the tank itself is very nice:
https://www.empire-usa.com/collecti...bqP-4k7liuNCnazSdmgkY3yU9D3smB0sTKYNNs2wegZb#
I hope this helps and good luck!
