My new redsea reefer 250!

Parent_usmc · Jul 20, 2020

Less than one year after starting in the hobby, and quickly outgrowing my biocube I decided my best option was to purchase a tank I could keep running for years without the need to upgrade.

I looked into a few different tanks but finally settled on red seas reefer 250. Given the size of my house this tank fit perfectly as a main attraction to my living area.

I had plenty of help with building the stand..

After putting everything together and leveling the tank I made enough r/o water to top off the tank after moving the entirerty of the existing tank into the new one.

After 24 hours of the tank running I was able to aquascape ( which I'm not 100% in love with ) and tune the plumbing which I almost got to absolutely silent.

I knew I would need some sort of storage inside the cabinet so a quick trip to home depot and a few saw cuts later I was able to modify a cheap white closet rack.

I'm currently putting together a small area in the basement as a dedicated "r/o fish room" simply to store r/o water and all other tank related items.

Thanks to everyone in r2r that has helped me since the beginning of this year with all my questions and concerns I now feel settled into the hobby and greatly look forward to growing with this tank.

* Build specs. *

Red sea reefer 250 ( white )
Red sea's reefled 90 x2
Red sea's led mounting arm x2
Red sea's reefwave 25
Red sea's rsk300
Hygger 300w heater with controller
Sicce syncra 3.0 return pump

40lbs of caribsea sand
Around 50lbs of caribsea life rock
Red sea reef salt

I'm still settling in with this tank and look forward to stocking it in the coming weeks. If anyone is interested in following the progress or has questions please stick around ! You can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/parent_reefing/

That is my only form of social media I use and have dedicated it to this amazing hobby! Cheers all.

Vleis · Jul 21, 2020

Looking good mate

Difrano · Jul 21, 2020

Very nice setup! I have a RSR 250 you can follow my build on my thread.

Parent_usmc · Jul 21, 2020

Difrano said:
Very nice setup! I have a RSR 250 you can follow my build on my thread.

Love the 3d printed gear!

HaveFishWillTravel · Jul 21, 2020

Parent_usmc said:
Less than one year after starting in the hobby, and quickly outgrowing my biocube I decided my best option was to purchase a tank I could keep running for years without the need to upgrade.

I looked into a few different tanks but finally settled on red seas reefer 250. Given the size of my house this tank fit perfectly as a main attraction to my living area.

I had plenty of help with building the stand..

After putting everything together and leveling the tank I made enough r/o water to top off the tank after moving the entirerty of the existing tank into the new one.

After 24 hours of the tank running I was able to aquascape ( which I'm not 100% in love with ) and tune the plumbing which I almost got to absolutely silent.

I knew I would need some sort of storage inside the cabinet so a quick trip to home depot and a few saw cuts later I was able to modify a cheap white closet rack.

I'm currently putting together a small area in the basement as a dedicated "r/o fish room" simply to store r/o water and all other tank related items.

Thanks to everyone in r2r that has helped me since the beginning of this year with all my questions and concerns I now feel settled into the hobby and greatly look forward to growing with this tank.

* Build specs. *

Red sea reefer 250 ( white )
Red sea's reefled 90 x2
Red sea's led mounting arm x2
Red sea's reefwave 25
Red sea's rsk300
Hygger 300w heater with controller
Sicce syncra 3.0 return pump

40lbs of caribsea sand
Around 50lbs of caribsea life rock
Red sea reef salt

I'm still settling in with this tank and look forward to stocking it in the coming weeks. If anyone is interested in following the progress or has questions please stick around ! You can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/parent_reefing/

That is my only form of social media I use and have dedicated it to this amazing hobby! Cheers all.

Looks great. I really like the config of the sump on the 250. I just put together a 200XL and the return pump chamber is in the back and difficult to reach. One comment I will make after running my 200XL is the little storage area in your sump will get full of salt crystals because there is a lot of condensation in the sump and with the skimmer bubbling all the time, you can’t get away from water being sprayed around a bit down there. Another thing, the hinges on my cabinet have started to rust. I got some rustoleum primer and paint and plan on touching them up. You would think that REDSEA would have supplied us with hinges that didn’t rust or at least told us about it before we put the thing together. Looks like a great addition to your growing family! Take care JL

HaveFishWillTravel · Jul 21, 2020

Parent_usmc said:
Less than one year after starting in the hobby, and quickly outgrowing my biocube I decided my best option was to purchase a tank I could keep running for years without the need to upgrade.

I looked into a few different tanks but finally settled on red seas reefer 250. Given the size of my house this tank fit perfectly as a main attraction to my living area.

I had plenty of help with building the stand..

After putting everything together and leveling the tank I made enough r/o water to top off the tank after moving the entirerty of the existing tank into the new one.

After 24 hours of the tank running I was able to aquascape ( which I'm not 100% in love with ) and tune the plumbing which I almost got to absolutely silent.

I knew I would need some sort of storage inside the cabinet so a quick trip to home depot and a few saw cuts later I was able to modify a cheap white closet rack.

I'm currently putting together a small area in the basement as a dedicated "r/o fish room" simply to store r/o water and all other tank related items.

Thanks to everyone in r2r that has helped me since the beginning of this year with all my questions and concerns I now feel settled into the hobby and greatly look forward to growing with this tank.

* Build specs. *

Red sea reefer 250 ( white )
Red sea's reefled 90 x2
Red sea's led mounting arm x2
Red sea's reefwave 25
Red sea's rsk300
Hygger 300w heater with controller
Sicce syncra 3.0 return pump

40lbs of caribsea sand
Around 50lbs of caribsea life rock
Red sea reef salt

I'm still settling in with this tank and look forward to stocking it in the coming weeks. If anyone is interested in following the progress or has questions please stick around ! You can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/parent_reefing/

That is my only form of social media I use and have dedicated it to this amazing hobby! Cheers all.

BTW, thank you for your service. Just noticed the USMC. My son is in the Marine Corps. Soon to go on deployment to Africa.

Parent_usmc · Jul 21, 2020

HaveFishWillTravel said:
BTW, thank you for your service. Just noticed the USMC. My son is in the Marine Corps. Soon to go on deployment to Africa.

Awsome! What is his MOS

powers2001 · Jul 21, 2020

@Parent_usmc thank you for your service!!! I have a Reefer 250 too, great tanks. Check out my build thread, click on my build thread badge.

Parent_usmc · Jul 21, 2020

powers2001 said:
@Parent_usmc thank you for your service!!! I have a Reefer 250 too, great tanks. Check out my build thread, click on my build thread badge.

Awesome build! I would love to have all my controllers together like that

HaveFishWillTravel · Jul 22, 2020

Parent_usmc said:
Awsome! What is his MOS

Ordnance. He works on helicopters at MCAS New River in North Carolina.

Parent_usmc · Jul 22, 2020

Awsome! I was stationed at Lejeune myself.. I was an artillery cannoneer , hope he stays safe and God bless

HaveFishWillTravel · Jul 22, 2020

Parent_usmc said:
Less than one year after starting in the hobby, and quickly outgrowing my biocube I decided my best option was to purchase a tank I could keep running for years without the need to upgrade.

I looked into a few different tanks but finally settled on red seas reefer 250. Given the size of my house this tank fit perfectly as a main attraction to my living area.

I had plenty of help with building the stand..

After putting everything together and leveling the tank I made enough r/o water to top off the tank after moving the entirerty of the existing tank into the new one.

After 24 hours of the tank running I was able to aquascape ( which I'm not 100% in love with ) and tune the plumbing which I almost got to absolutely silent.

I knew I would need some sort of storage inside the cabinet so a quick trip to home depot and a few saw cuts later I was able to modify a cheap white closet rack.

I'm currently putting together a small area in the basement as a dedicated "r/o fish room" simply to store r/o water and all other tank related items.

Thanks to everyone in r2r that has helped me since the beginning of this year with all my questions and concerns I now feel settled into the hobby and greatly look forward to growing with this tank.

* Build specs. *

Red sea reefer 250 ( white )
Red sea's reefled 90 x2
Red sea's led mounting arm x2
Red sea's reefwave 25
Red sea's rsk300
Hygger 300w heater with controller
Sicce syncra 3.0 return pump

40lbs of caribsea sand
Around 50lbs of caribsea life rock
Red sea reef salt

I'm still settling in with this tank and look forward to stocking it in the coming weeks. If anyone is interested in following the progress or has questions please stick around ! You can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/parent_reefing/

That is my only form of social media I use and have dedicated it to this amazing hobby! Cheers all.

I wanted to ask you about the REDSEA Reef Salt. Did you get the blue bucket and are you dosing the tank? I just changed my water for the first time using the REDSEA blue bucket mostly because my Calcium and Mg were so high and I had a few Monti’s start to bleach. I had been using Instant Ocean Reef Salt Crystals. I’m using both ELOS and REDSEA test kits. Ca = 540 (way too high), KH 10.6 (perfect), Mg = 1,720 (way too high). I executed multiple tests.
I think the REDSEA blue bucket is too low in Ca and KH. Only, 430 ppm and 9.2, respectively when tested prior to water change. I have mostly SPS plus 2 clownfish and a damsel and some pink tipped rainbow anemones.I do like the way the salt dissolved. I aerated for ~24 hours. What are your thoughts?
I am enclosing a photo of my sump and the rusty hinge.

Parent_usmc said:
Awsome! I was stationed at Lejeune myself.. I was an artillery cannoneer , hope he stays safe and God bless

Thank you. Me too.

Parent_usmc · Jul 22, 2020

HaveFishWillTravel said:
I wanted to ask you about the REDSEA Reef Salt. Did you get the blue bucket and are you dosing the tank? I just changed my water for the first time using the REDSEA blue bucket mostly because my Calcium and Mg were so high and I had a few Monti’s start to bleach. I had been using Instant Ocean Reef Salt Crystals. I’m using both ELOS and REDSEA test kits. Ca = 540 (way too high), KH 10.6 (perfect), Mg = 1,720 (way too high). I executed multiple tests.
I think the REDSEA blue bucket is too low in Ca and KH. Only, 430 ppm and 9.2, respectively when tested prior to water change. I have mostly SPS plus 2 clownfish and a damsel and some pink tipped rainbow anemones.I do like the way the salt dissolved. I aerated for ~24 hours. What are your thoughts?
I am enclosing a photo of my sump and the rusty hinge.

Thank you. Me too.

I also used instant ocean on my first tank, and yes the red sea salt I use is the blue bucket. I love how fast it desolves .. as for my levels I really only have softies and lps. No sticks yet. I've never noticed any drops and there for do not dose yet. In the future I may when the tank is full of coral. And those hinges .. yikes. Ill keep an eye out on mine

Parent_usmc · Jul 26, 2020

* UPDATE *

Had a little extra time this morning to work on the r/o + fish room. Purchased a small 35gallon tank which fit snuggly under my bench, along with some shelves to hold everything. Still have a few more ideas that I hope to add over the next few weeks. But for now it's a good start.

HaveFishWillTravel · Jul 26, 2020

Parent_usmc said:
* UPDATE *

Had a little extra time this morning to work on the r/o + fish room. Purchased a small 35gallon tank which fit snuggly under my bench, along with some shelves to hold everything. Still have a few more ideas that I hope to add over the next few weeks. But for now it's a good start.

Hi there, is the 35 gallon tank for your RO reservoir?