Red Sea Reefer 250 Build

[Donny41]

Replacing my old, bowed 40 breeder with a Red Sea Reefer 250! Placed the order last Friday, supposed to ship out tomorrow. This will be my second reef tank (40 breeder originally started in a 10g but i transferred all the corals and rocks), and first tank with a sump. Wanted to list out the equipment I plan on using for this tank and hope to get some feedback since this will be the first time I will not be relying mainly on HOB equipment. First I will list the equipment I currently have and plan on using and then I will list the other items I am planning to purchase on black Friday. Aiming to keep the tank sps dominant with a few lps (favia, blasto, duncan) towards the bottom.

Current equipment:

Lighting
24 inch aquatic life T5-led hybrid with 2x blue plus and 2x aquablue special
Hydra 26 hd running ab+ setting

Flow
1 reefbeeders rpm running reef mode
1 icecap 3k gyre*

Controller
Apex el

ATO
xp aqua duetto

Dosing
coral box wifi dosing bundle from reef breeders (not set up yet but a christmas gift from my wife.. Reefbreeders makes their boxes very obvious)
Dose BRS 2-part with mag plus tropic marin part c by hand currently

Filter Media
Bagged ROX carbon
Purigen

RO/DI
Fountainhead 6 stage

Planning to purchase:

Skimmer
Red Sea RSK 300 internal skimmer

Return pump
Sicce syncra silent 3.5

Heater
BRS 200 W heater system

Flow
2 Reefbreeders RPM*

Rock
40lb caribsea life rock
20lb caribsea life rock branches (may wait on this)

Sand
40lb caribsea aragonite fiji pink dry sand**

Cycling bacteria
4 oz Dr. Tims***

* currently undecided on keeping the gyre or swapping it for two more rpms and mounting all 3 on the back to hide them a bit

**smaller grain size then i currently use. Would This blow around too much?

*** initially was looking into using microbacter start XLM but it states not to use with any dry rock seeded with bacteria and pretty much goes on dismiss the entire notion that there is any benefit at all to this type of rock (which is a main selling point of liferock). Curious if anyone has any experience or thoughts on this.

 

[splitting_lanes]

I think you’re going to enjoy your reefer.

i don’t have much to comment on the specifics of the build list, but I will say I added an RFG nozzle from vivid aquatics and it was a great price/performance ratio. Is the sicce pump a DC pump? Tunable DC is nice...

 

[Donny41]

I think you’re going to enjoy your reefer.

i don’t have much to comment on the specifics of the build list, but I will say I added an RFG nozzle from vivid aquatics and it was a great price/performance ratio. Is the sicce pump a DC pump? Tunable DC is nice...

I read that those are a good upgrade. I will look into that, thanks! And the sicce is not DC but if I do decide to upgrade to a DC cant hurt to have a solid back up

 

[Donny41]

Began to clear out my current tank today, fragged everything that I intend to keep (besides xenia) and will transfer it to a temporary home for a while at the end of this week. Made a few early black friday orders. Only thing I'm still waiting on is the Reefer skimmer to go on sale and the brs heater to come back in stock, other than that my equipment list is pretty set. Tank shipped out friday so hoping to get that soon and 40 lb life rock should be here Tuesday to start cycling in a tote.

 

[Donny41]

Aquascape complete and rock is cycling.

 

[bar|none]

I don't want to start the return pump wars but if you like Sicce, look at the DC pumps. I'm using this one on a Reefer 170 and it would be even more suited to a 250.

However that said, get the AC to start and make it the backup later.

Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0 Controllable DC Pump 400-1600 GPH

The fail safes, like dry run protection, Blocked protection, etc are key and also the app, alerting (when something goes wrong like you left your tank in feed mode and return pump has been off too long), tune-ability, multiple modes like lagoon which is a slow random up and down on flow.

 

[CasaReefer]

I really like that design..... Just My "O"

 

[Donny41]

I don't want to start the return pump wars but if you like Sicce, look at the DC pumps. I'm using this one on a Reefer 170 and it would be even more suited to a 250.

However that said, get the AC to start and make it the backup later.

Sicce Syncra SDC 6.0 Controllable DC Pump 400-1600 GPH

The fail safes, like dry run protection, Blocked protection, etc are key and also the app, alerting (when something goes wrong like you left your tank in feed mode and return pump has been off too long), tune-ability, multiple modes like lagoon which is a slow random up and down on flow.

I'm sure I will end up getting a dc pump at some point, just felt like this was an area where I could cut some cost now (new tanks do add up quick) and still have a use for the pump when I do upgrade it

 

[Donny41]

I really like that design..... Just My "O"

Thanks!

 

[powers2001]

@Donny41 great to see another Reefer 250! Will your Aquatic Life 24" cover the 36" length of your tank?

 

[Donny41]

@Donny41 great to see another Reefer 250! Will your Aquatic Life 24" cover the 36" length of your tank?

I currently have it over a 40 breeder that is 36" and it was growing low light corals on the side but I was concerned about not having enough light so I ended up buying another hydra 26 hd so I'll have 2 of those mounted on the t5 fixture so i should have more than enough light. Also keep it about a foot above the water.

 

[Donny41]

Black friday boxes arrived! Ended up grabbing another hydra 26hd. Also the reefer skimmer did not go on sale so I ended up going with a reef octo essence instead. Had been between the two anyways but figured the reefer would end up being cheaper. BRS heaters also did not come back in stock so I got a 200 W eheim jager in the meantime. Tank is scheduled to arrive tomorrow and then the real fun begins!

 

[Donny41]

Tank arrived! Was off today and took down my old tank and set up a 10 gallon with some of the old rock for my corals/tang. Clowns are in with the cycling rock for now. Have the stand mostly built but need to wait for another set of hands to get the tank on so that may have to wait for tomorrow. Hoping to have water in it by the end of the week!

 

[Donny41]

Tank is up and filled with hose water. Had to fix one minor leak at the main drain adjustment valve. Going to run for a few days to make sure no other leaks form. Hopefully all is well and can officially set up sunday morning.

 

[Donny41]

Tank ran for over two days with no leaks so yesterday I went ahead and added the sand and rocks and refilled it with saltwater. Added the two clowns as well. Over the next few days I am going to set up more equipment, right now i just have a heater, ato, return pump and one powerhead running. Also had to change my scape slightly. I did not account for the overflow box originally.

 

[powers2001]

@Donny41 you will love having a sump. I ran HOB equipment on a tank years ago and had oily scum floating on the top of the water. Eewww!!! Are you going to add all the livestock from the 40 breeder all at once or slowly?

 

[Donny41]

@Donny41 you will love having a sump. I ran HOB equipment on a tank years ago and had oily scum floating on the top of the water. Eewww!!! Are you going to add all the livestock from the 40 breeder all at once or slowly?

Only other fish I kept is a bristle tooth tang which I'll transfer out of the frag tank in a week or two. Corals I'm going to start adding in january.

 

[Donny41]

Realized a big rookie mistake today.. did not leave enough room behind the tank to mount the magnets for the reef power rpms or to run the power cord for the skimmer. Ended up draining out most of the water so I could move the tank out a half inch. Set up the skimmer today and also got started on setting up a small IKEA cabinet to mount my apex and other controllers

 

[Donny41]

Finished my controller cabinet and set up the apex. Looking into getting one more energy bar, still have to connect my lights. Other than that just waiting for the skimmer to break in and making adjustment to quiet the drain.

 

[powers2001]

@Donny41 is that an IKEA cabinet? I Almost went with one but I wanted my electronics cabinet to hold a lot of weight in case I wanted to put a tank on top so I bought a standalone Reefer 170 stand and paid a lot for it. It does match my Red Sea 250 system quite well though!!