Help me choose my next tank

[Aaron Gustafson]

I just moved across the country and sold my tricked out BioCube, but I kept pretty much all the gear. Now I'm looking to start a new tank, but there are some constraints given my current residence (a condo on the 33rd floor) and the fact that I'm renting.

The tank will be a mixed reef, but likely SPS dominant. I tend to run a very light bioload (only a few fish) and I feed pretty light.

Here's what I'm looking for:

1. Roughly 30g display w/ plumbed overflow (30g is the condo association max, but I figure there's a little wiggle room)
2. Well-built stand
3. Decent sump w/ room for a refugium or a chaeto reactor

Here's the equipment I'm planning to run on it and would like to fit in the stand

• Apex 2016 + Energy Bar
• Neptune ATK, LDK, WXM
• 4th gen Radion XR15 Pro
• Neptune COR 15
• 2x Neptune DOS + DDR
• Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer
• Heaters, etc.
• I'm planning to get a new powerhead, but haven't decided what yet.

Ideally, I'd love to get the tank, stand, and maybe the powerhead for under $1500, but I'm somewhat flexible.

Mass-market wise, I'm currently considering the Red Sea Reefer 170 and the Waterbox 40.1 (though sadly, not all of my equipment will fit in that sump). I would love to hear other suggestions too.

In my situation, what would you get?

 

[JonPhillips]

Good shoes to carry buckets up stairs.

 

[Coral Newbie]

There was a article on REEF2REEF about the redsea vs water box. I posted this on that thread

While the miss leading comments are one thing that people have pointed out I think all companies bend the rules to their side at some point. I have been looking to upgrade my RedSea Max 170 and the only thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger on a RedSea reefer is the dame metric plumbing. I upgraded my max 170 to have a trigger sump with the RedSea piping. I had to spend a extra $100 in plumbing parts(outside of the cost for the redsea piping) just to go from metric to standard. At the time BRS wasn’t selling the metric to standard adaptors only coralvue was. Parts were like $5 but shipping was $25. Also the metric to standard that both BRS and coralvue are selling are deceiving, while the metric side is a slip the standard side is not. Example the 25mm metric side is a female that goes into the RedSea plumbing however the 3/4” is not a slip. It is 3/4” in size that means you need a additional male coupling to extend over the 3/4” side of the conversion pipe to a another pipe. Its a dam hassle. I would look at waterbox just for this alone.

However with both of these companies I would prefer a option that doesn’t have a sump that I don’t want. Just get me piping into the stand and let me take it from there. That gives me the flexibility to purchase the sump I want and pipe what ever extras I want