Red Sea Reefer 170 or RS Max E-170?

[Wtkerr]

Hello,

I have kept fish for years and had success with a small nano reef biocube a few years ago. I am ready to jump back in to the hobby, but would like to step up my game with a larger aquarium. The Red Sea Reefer Deluxe 170 is 45 gallons and comes with an in cabinet sump and auto top up, the Red Sean Max E-170 comes with the built in rear sump w/ skimmer, pump, etc, but no top up and only an option to upgrade to an in cabinet sump down the road.

My question is, if I went for the e series, the stock unit comes without the auto top up/cabinet sump, I have never had a rimless open top setup, how crazy is the evaporation factor? Wondering which way to go...

 

[abecker]

Following

 

[Fyveonit]

I really dig my Reefer 170

If I could do anything over it would be to ditch their stand and use a bigger sump down below for a large fuge and bigger ATO

That's just being picky as the stock one fits a lot of stuff lol.

I am ditching my WAVs and running a Gyre as soon as UPS gets here today...If you are looking into that as well. The Hydra lights that come with it are awesome.

I am almost 9 months in with mine...here are a few pics.

 

[Jdeleon]

I have the E170 also,,, and I must say it does evaporate for me a bit, about every 2 days I add about half gallon fresh water, if you can handle that then your good, my water temp stays @ 77-78 f, other than that the system itself is great, the skimmer can pump some crap out but its just a little awkward shaped and hard to clean, nothing I cant look past.

 

[Robinreefs94]

Hello, don't know if u have gotten yourself a tank yet, but I've purchased the reefer 170 in june this year, and I am very pleased with it. The only thing that's a real bugger is the ATO which is pretty small compared to the size of the tank. I fixed that problem with using a Tunze osmolator and a 10l bucket beside the tank behind a curtain to one of my windows. So far this works well and i only need to refill it once a week. I use the ATO which came with the tank as storage for gloves and refractometer. Have an idea of building a stand there instead for dosage pumps and contatiners, but it's pretty tight with space in there and I am still not sure how it will work yet haha!

But all in all it's a great tank and I'd recommend it.