Red Sea Reefer 300 G2

[brettonw]

In years past I've been a big DIYer, but this time around I really want to focus on the ecosystem and get it going in under a year. I settled on the Red Sea Reefer G2, as it is very similar in design to what I would do if I was building it all myself. My wife and I decided on the 300 model with a white cabinet, and a complete redecoration of the "nook" by the kitchen to make the tank the focal point of the room. I used "Sweet Home 3D" to make a rough model of the tank, space, and our furniture and rug choices.

I opted for a complete Red Sea lineup, including the lights and skimmer. I'm skipping the reef mat (for now) because I really want to focus on using the sump space as a refugium with a Kessil H80 light. I have an Apex A3 controller on hand, which I'm adding a salinity probe and a flow sensor to. I set up a 4-stage RODI system in the garage wiring closet running into a pair of brute trash cans, and ordered Tropic Marin salt.

I used the Red Sea configurator on their web site, which I hated. It doesn't actually have a lot of needed information about the tanks, and then just refers you to a local fish shop. I bought almost everything through Bulk Reef Supply, which has been a mostly great experience. My only real negative is that they don't have the full tank bundle including the skimmer on their site. They did give me a lot of time in their customer support, and are very knowledgeable. Their BRSTV YouTube channel has also been hugely useful and entertaining, though I sometimes wish they had a bit more scientific background on the "why" instead of basing all their opinions on their own experimentation. The tank arrives tomorrow - about 2 weeks total to get everything together. I expect to start assembly this weekend.

The BRS RODI system is functional and producing good water. I give it a B grade, knocking a few points off just because I have nitpicks on the assembly that made it hard to mount (like the pressure gauge is directly in front of one of the mounting holes), and a general sense that the whole thing could be better. I think I'd go with a Spectrapure system if I had to do it again.

Local fish shops in Baltimore are fairly scarce. Two are within a 20 mile drive of my house, but after visiting both I'm only going to one of them regularly. They are a clean shop with clean tanks and some pride in their displays. The other store is filthy, with wet floors, sick fish, and more aptasia than you can shake a nudibranch at. It looks like there is a local aquarium social group, too, but I don't use Facebook so it might be hard to connect to it.

For life, I intend to focus on the clown/anemone relationship - A. ocellaris and E. quadricolor (I want A. frenatus, but wifey wants Nemo, guess who wins?). We'll try to populate the rest of the rock with a variety of softies. I would like to keep a mandarin, but I'll hold off on that until I have a thriving copepod/amphipod population, and depending on how competitive it will be with the six line wrasse that I want to keep for managing certain pests. The obligatory hepatus tang, and a yellow tang. Other fish I'm considering: green chromis, purple gramma, maybe a small variety of damsels, and a couple of small anthias (though I'm not sure the tank will be big enough for the swimming room they need). We'll round it out with a pair of cleaner shrimp and a pair of peppermint shrimp, and the obligatory snails, hermits, and bristle stars.

I'm big on home automation, and I use Home Assistant (HA) to integrate with my Apple HomeKit. I hope to expose my Apex to HA so I can control the tank using Siri, but I haven't finished gathering info on the integrations yet. I understand the Apex has an XML-based front-end. I really don't want to have to go to the cloud, as I just don't trust the internet to be reliable enough. As it is, I'm having to adjust the tank setup so that the components that require WiFi actually have a line of sight to an access point, which means *not* under the aquarium (the water makes it a great big wifi shield). Wifey isn't really pleased with this, so I'm going to have to be creative.

I'll update this thread as I proceed.

 

[ScubaFish802]

Following along, looks good so far. I am in the same boat (though slightly smaller with the 250 g2).
Keep me updated on how you end up liking the H80. I have the AP9x and am interested in staying in the kessil family.

Edit: also, don't forget to add the URL of this build thread to your profile so you get the badge

 

[BR260354]

I have Home Assistant feeding my Homekit also. I also have HomeBridge for the extra stuff. That can feed both HA and HK.

Trying to decide on which aquarium - Red Sea 200 G2 or the AF Oceanguard 275. I like the build quality of the AF, but it's also $900 more. Are you pleased with the stand on your Red Sea? Either way, going with Radion on the light and probably Reef Octopus on the skimmer. Still deciding on the A3 Apex, but the gearhead in me says go for it, especially with the home automation I have in the house.

 

[Scottrshoe]

Following along. Looking forward to seeing it set up!

 

[ScubaFish802]

I have Home Assistant feeding my Homekit also. I also have HomeBridge for the extra stuff. That can feed both HA and HK.

Trying to decide on which aquarium - Red Sea 200 G2 or the AF Oceanguard 275. I like the build quality of the AF, but it's also $900 more. Are you pleased with the stand on your Red Sea? Either way, going with Radion on the light and probably Reef Octopus on the skimmer. Still deciding on the A3 Apex, but the gearhead in me says go for it, especially with the home automation I have in the house.

I'm not the OP of this thread, but if it helps, the new G2 has a higher quality cabinet then the last version, I am really happy with mine, but this is also the nicest tank I've owned.. so if that says anything lol

 

[A Young reefer]

Following

 

[brettonw]

I have Home Assistant feeding my Homekit also. I also have HomeBridge for the extra stuff. That can feed both HA and HK.

Trying to decide on which aquarium - Red Sea 200 G2 or the AF Oceanguard 275. I like the build quality of the AF, but it's also $900 more. Are you pleased with the stand on your Red Sea? Either way, going with Radion on the light and probably Reef Octopus on the skimmer. Still deciding on the A3 Apex, but the gearhead in me says go for it, especially with the home automation I have in the house.

Great questions... My answers are going to be circumspect...

Overall, I'm very happy with everything right now.

I'm a perfectionist, so little design details bother me. Don't read too much into my criticisms here and keep in mind I'm still very early in getting to know these components.

re: Red Sea:
Delivery is by truck, in a single crate that weighs 350lbs.

The stand is basically a more robust version of an IKEA cabinet (made of plywood instead of compressed stuff). It looks good assembled. I'm kinda nervous about the cam-bolts holding 1,000lbs of water and equipment over the long haul. I've not seen anybody talking about the stands collapsing, though, and the older ones at one LFS have huge amounts of water damage and are still standing.

The stand design has an opening in the back. It would have been nice if this could be put either to the left or the right, but it only goes together one way. Make sure to place the stand far enough from the wall that you can get your arm behind it...

The cabinet doors don't have any kind up up/down adjustment, so I had some issues adjusting them to be perfectly level to each other after squaring up. In a "you can't unsee it" moment, I've noticed all the Red Sea cabinets I've seen in person (at several LFS) have the left cabinet door ever-so-slightly lower than the right door. I don't know if that's a systematic flaw in the manufacturing, or just weird happenstance. The cabinet doors also cannot be adjusted once the sump is in place and full of water because you can't get to the bottom screws.

I liked that they designed the cabinet to be fully leveled without the bottom floor in place (so you can actually get to all the feet). I wish the feet were a bit bigger to spread the load out on my tile floor.

I have a few issues with the design of the 300 G2 sump layout. Mostly in the category of the sump placement is tight and their use of space is not efficient IMNSHO. I'm a big guy, and I find it very difficult to get to the important stuff.

They made an odd decision to have lots of plumbing bringing the downspouts to the side instead of straight down from the tank.

With their float-valve overflow in the back chamber, it's nearly impossible to adjust the float valve (and I have all but decided to give up on this component and use the Neptune ATK or similar solution). The float valve also keeps getting tangled in my return pump cord.

There is a foam filter in the last chamber overflow into the return pump. I don't really want a physical filter there, but without it there's a lot of water noise. Once the ATO tank is installed on the sump, the entire return pump area of the sump is completely inaccessible (in other words, you will never be able to clean that filter).

If I had assembly to do over again, I would put a neoprene sheet under the sump to isolate vibrations. My main pump hums and the whole cabinet resonates.

I really like the all-in-one solution aspect of the G2. The tank comes with *almost* everything you will need to assemble and start running. I had to make one trip to the big orange box store to get a few parts to interface the return pump to the Red Sea plumbing.

The return pump plumbing is something between 1/2" and 3/4", where my Sicce SDC 6 pump has a 1" outlet. Using the Neptune flow sensor, I'm getting 450GPH at full power (not enough). Sicce tech support has recommended removing the flow sensor and plumbing 1" ID tubing all the way to the Red Sea nipple. I have the stuff to do this, but haven't done it just yet (maybe today). I have to figure out how to isolate the pump from the sump walls. The plumbing placement and return pump chamber layout with the float valve make it very difficult to not have the pump touching the glass sides.

Overall, I'd prefer a bigger sump with more water height control and less empty space inside the cabinet. For now, I put a 10G tank to the right of the sump and all the electronics are in that. I intend to build a control board eventually, or just get a bookshelf to hold everything inside the cabinet. There's room...

There's a fidgety bit of the tank configuration I haven't quite worked out yet: There are two places where the water level can vary (pump return chamber and overflow chamber), and three things that affect them (pump speed, evaporation, and the downspout valve). Pump performance varies very slightly with changes in the water level on the return pump chamber of the sump - which also corresponds to salinity changes, so I'm going to have to solve a differential equation to get this truly stabilized. I imagine most people accept a range of variation in these things that is stabilized by a good top-off solution.

And lastly, despite running a refugium, I'll have to add a door activated light at some point. The cabinet interior is black, the refugium light is not bright to the human eye, and I'm using a flashlight way too much.

re: Skimmer:
In the 300G2 sump, you will need to elevate your skimmer. Plan on a table of some sort in the skimmer chamber. Like, the sump should come with one. I made one from PVC pipes and sheet PVC I happened to have laying around (dumb luck).

I went with the Red Sea 300 skimmer and it looks good inside the cabinet. I had hoped there was a bit more of a "made for Red Sea sumps" aspect to the design, but it's just a generic skimmer design. I don't have an opinion on its function yet.

The assembly was a bit fidgety and I'm amazed the pump stays in place - it kept popping out of the little clips during assembly.

I'm cycling the tank now and the skimmer is just pumping wet bubbles up to the cup that overflows in about 5 minutes, so I've just left the drain valve open for now (and eventually just turned the skimmer off). I have the skimmer at its lowest of lowest settings and raised it to the point that the pump will cavitate if I raise it any more (it's 2 inches below the recommended water level). Red Sea tech support suggested I should be removing the "skimmed" water, but I'd drain my tank in a few hours if I did that. I mean, getting rid of all that pesky water would stop the cup from overflowing, right?

re: Apex A3:
Setup was mostly easy. I haven't decided if I'm a fanboy or not just yet. I ran into a few early adopter challenges with the A3 integration into Apex Fusion, but I'm sure those will get cleared up - it's just software.

My first blush sense is that the A3 Pro is very expensive for what I'm getting compared to other types of home automation controllers. Probably the cost is mostly in the Apex Fusion software. If it was possible to have a monitor-only device with *all* the probe/sensor ports you actually want, I would probably get that and use Home Assistant to automate the controls. When I looked at the Apex solutions, this wasn't one of them.

I *really* like that the A3 Pro has an ethernet jack. Wifi is just not reliable enough, and a big bucket of water on top of the controller is a great WiFi filter.

I *really* like that the power bar has all these switchable plugs, monitors power consumption on each plug, and you can use this information to trigger an alarm. This is just a great product, and it needs to be a stand-alone device with an ethernet jack and an API. I can think of lots of non-aquarium uses for it.

I ran into a roadblock with the salinity sensor (I added this to my A3 Pro purchase as I felt it was an important and missing sensor). Tech support was initially not very useful, but then I got a more considered reply. I refer you to this thread (TL/DR is you *must* use temperature compensation to make the salinity probe useful):

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...ex-salinity-calibration-and-tc-factor.718971/

If you are used to Home Assistant, ApexFusion is going to be a shock. It has its roots in much older microcontroller architectures I think, so there are weird artifacts of connecting inputs and outputs with 6 character name limits (and no spaces) that won't match your expectations of a sensor-based controller. For instance, I want to be able to turn a pump on or off, and then attach an automation to it for a schedule, but they don't really have this concept. Everything is built on the automation and the on/off is kind of hidden inside the settings.

There are lots of little icons that I don't truly have a sense for at this point. If you click on the settings icon you get a whole bunch more icons, LOL. Supposedly the interface is identical on a web browser, but I find some functionality is missing (like the tasks icon). I wish I could control the filtering of the sensor inputs - I want periodicity measurements and long-term averages, maybe fit-lines (I've seen some people roll their own using grafana). Also, note that the display is not using the right 30% of the screen, which feels like a missed opportunity in the design.

The temperature controller doesn't look like a thermostat, you have to enter the upper number to turn off the heater, and the lower number to turn it on. This is consistent with a "set it and forget it" mentality that seems pervasive in the A3 interface design.

If you aren't buying all Neptune equipment, most of their presets are going to be useless.

I was able to integrate my Kessil H80 refugium light, but the first Kessil cable I got was bad and I had to make my own. This device has 3 controls on my Apex Fusion interface: on/off at the plug, color, and intensity. The last two are configured in the advanced tab as "SET ###" commands. A couple of sliders would sure be nice.

I was able to integrate my Sicce pump control (which is wifi only - grr). The IOTA interface they use does not export the temperature reading the pump has built-in, so just go to the Sicce app to read it. Adding the Sicce pump did not automatically connect it to the return pump built-in automations (like feeding schedules). I'll have to figure out how to do that eventually. I also wonder if the Sicce pump has its own network interface...

I wish the A3 kit had come with a probe holder of some sort. I 3D-printed my own, and I'm happy with it, but it's an obviously missing piece.

I did find the device runs an Apache web server (cgi-bin, etc.) accessible from the local network. This is good, because I want to monitor the tank even when the internet goes down (I run a small data center out of my house, so this is rare and I have fallback, but emergencies happen). There's a "developer" interface where you can fetch the data logs in JSON or XML, so I can read the tank state into HA sensors, but I haven't found anything that would enable me to control the A3 from the web interface yet. So far, there's no ability to say, "Hey Siri, feeding time."

re: Red Sea Lights:
I installed them and have no opinion of their quality yet, as I'm still cycling.

The ReefBeats app is internet-only and is *very* slow (make a change and count to 30 before it happens).

Like the A3, it's a set-it and forget type of interface, and there's no "on/off" button - just the schedule. It's actually really challenging to test them because of this. I'm guessing the schedule gets uploaded to the lights and they run it without needing to be connected to the internet.

I currently have the lights turned off at the A3 power bar because there's no way to just switch them off during cycling. The ReefBeats app keeps sending me connectivity alerts, but I can't adjust any settings unless the lights are switched on. When I get ready to turn the lights back on, I'll see if they are running any kind of local network interface I can use.

 

[BR260354]

Great information! Good tip on the neoprene for the sump. I hear some do that with the tank also. I thought about adding wood glue when I put the cabinet together....if that would help. Since I have one door to deal with, I don't have to worry about doors matching!

As far as return pump and sump flow, I've been reading some say the a 3-5 x tank cycle should be good enough, if that helps you any.

Network: I have a UniFi network with many in-wall APs and one WiFi6 Lite AP. Since I have both 2.4 and 5Ghz, I should be good. I agree, prefer wired, but not an option given the location I'm looking to place it.

Controller, been reading and reading and looking at the "controller war" threads on Apex v. Hydros (GHL isn't in play for me). Still leaning towards Apex. Get to the point of analysis paralysis!

I have an empty wall (large air in-take area) behind where I'm placing the tank, so I may be placing more of the electronics back there, along with a 5g bucket for my own ATO reservoir. The 1.8g that comes with the 200 G2 isn't big enough. Perhaps it can be repurposed for refugium.

Thanks for taking time out reporting your setup!

 

[brettonw]

I did find the "manual" option in the Red Sea Reef Beats app. It's very non-obvious, only available when editing the schedule, but was very useful to help me adjust the appearance of the lights.

 

[brettonw]

Great information! Good tip on the neoprene for the sump. I hear some do that with the tank also. I thought about adding wood glue when I put the cabinet together....if that would help. Since I have one door to deal with, I don't have to worry about doors matching!

As far as return pump and sump flow, I've been reading some say the a 3-5 x tank cycle should be good enough, if that helps you any.

Network: I have a UniFi network with many in-wall APs and one WiFi6 Lite AP. Since I have both 2.4 and 5Ghz, I should be good. I agree, prefer wired, but not an option given the location I'm looking to place it.

Controller, been reading and reading and looking at the "controller war" threads on Apex v. Hydros (GHL isn't in play for me). Still leaning towards Apex. Get to the point of analysis paralysis!

I have an empty wall (large air in-take area) behind where I'm placing the tank, so I may be placing more of the electronics back there, along with a 5g bucket for my own ATO reservoir. The 1.8g that comes with the 200 G2 isn't big enough. Perhaps it can be repurposed for refugium.

Thanks for taking time out reporting your setup!

FYI, the main tank already has a pad built in to the stand, so you shouldn't need an additional pad under it.

You're right, the return pump is probably fine, but it's about half what I expected.

Right on! I'm also running Unifi, and PoE. I had to get a no-name active PoE+ pass-through switch (Ubiquiti is just sold out of them everywhere), but I stuck one between the wall outlet and the AP in this room (running it low power). Just don't expect the 2.4Ghz signal to make it through the water, and almost no IOT thingies have 5Ghz radios.

The Hydros didn't even pop up on my radar at the time I made this purchase. I'll have to check it out. I really just went with what appeared to be the runaway market leader. I've worked on too many things that had no support presence in forums to want that experience for my "spare" time. I'll probably review this decision over time.

The ATO tank *is* small, you're right. I'm topping off by hand about 1 gallon per day right now. I imagine that will be much more in the winter. Right now I think the benefit of an ATO solution would be consistency, rather than capacity.

 

[BR260354]

Check this out - https://github.com/itchannel/apex-ha - this via HACS on your Home Assistant. Inputs and Outputs are currently supported in the form of sensors and switches. Could be interesting.

 

[brettonw]

Check this out - https://github.com/itchannel/apex-ha - this via HACS on your Home Assistant. Inputs and Outputs are currently supported in the form of sensors and switches. Could be interesting.

Oh that is *GLORIOUS*. Thank you!

 

[BR260354]

- if and when you set it up, share a screen shot. Would be interesting to see what you could do with it. Then you could maybe even send to HomeKit via that integration. Fun times!

 

[brettonw]

It's all there exactly as it appears in the Apex Fusion app, and I've verified the controls work. I'll expose a few things to homekit via a scene, eventually.

 

[brettonw]

So... I've been bombarding the HA integration author with tickets and ideas, and the controls are getting to be really useful:

The Refugium slider controls are actually base vars, and they work in real time to control the inputs to my Kessil H80 through the Apex.

We're still talking about the Return Pump, which is a Sicce pump imported into the Apex via their IOTA interface. I can turn it on or off, but ultimately it should be exposed to HA as a variable so I can have a slider control on that.

 

[BR260354]

That is way cool.
I just ordered my Red Sea 200 G2 White. I ended up going with the Hydros Control 4 Pro (with the XP8). No HA integration....for now.

Going to take my time. Looking to plumb in a manifold off the return for future use. Would rather do this while it's dry. Have to figure out the UV on it - to do off the return or within the sump. Always a great debate on that one. Easiest is within the sump - from under the roller mat area to the skimmer area. The optimal way is off the return - NOT the manifold. All those gate values add up real quick!

Now I need someone in the HA community to write integrations to Hydros. Of course, Hydros may have to expose some.

Nice work @brettonw . Thanks for sharing!

 

[brettonw]

Linked it through to HomeKit, along with a bit of automation:

The ridiculous delay is how long the Red Sea lights take to start up after turning on. I'm pretty sure they have to connect via WiFi and phone home to some remote website before they will turn on. This is terrifying, if some catastrophic loss of internet occurs.

That said, I've got the Sicce pump controlled through HA now, and will add a "feeding" automation to turn off the skimmer, then the main pump, then wait a bit to turn the pump back on, then the skimmer.

 

[BR260354]

For preparing with all the controller gear, ReefBeat, etc., within the UniFi network, I created another VLAN and another SSID (IoTa) on 2.4Ghz only and pointed that WiFi to that VLAN that is allowed to access the internet. With that isolation, perhaps I can get ahead of any connectivity issues. I shouldn't regardless, but since I can do it, why not.

 

[brettonw]

 

[brettonw]

Update time...
- Added 2 percula clowns, 2 peppermint shrimp, and a refugium kit from IPSF - and I've been feeding the tank robustly. The tank has started to explode with microfauna, and I'll be planning to harvest the algae from the refugium in pretty short order.

- The automation integrations have been updated to include control and monitoring of the DOS pumps, so I'm running at ATO from a 5 gallon-ish reservoir sitting next to the stand. That's controlled from Home Assistant with a simple slider, which I'm updating manually for the time being (1.3mL / min):

- I don't quite have a handle on fixing the water level in one part of the system. It varies in three places (return pump chamber in the sump, tank overflow, and skimmer chamber in the sump) for four reasons that I can tell (return pump intensity, overflow valve, skimmer height setting, and evaporation). These variables are all somewhat interdependent, so it's an iterative process to hone in on it slowly.

- From an automation standpoint, the only thing I can't really control is the Red Sea LED90 lights. I need to set up a proxy so I can figure out what the control endpoint is on them, but I'll get to that eventually.

- I use Siri to turn on feeding time, which turns off the return pump the skimmer, and the heater for me, and automatically stages the restart of those things after 10 minutes.

- I removed some of the internal setup from the Red Sea sump - specifically the filter cup holder. This gave me a bit more room in the front for my refugium. It was sticky with extra silicone adhesive, so I had to fiddle with it before I could get it to slide out. I wish it had been as easy as the instructions said, I put that down to a bit of sloppy construction.

- The next steps are to 3D print a baffle to make the water flow stay high in the refugium instead of sweeping down to the bottom over the shallow sand bed there. I also need to manage the light spread in the sump, since algae is starting to grow inside my skimmer.

- Once everything is working, I'll pull the nest of wires out and make an actual control board.

- The lady of the house wants me to put a cap on the tank to keep the Nerite snails from escaping, but that seems like it's going to be a lot of bother. Of course, dead snails don't smell very good.

- For life, pods, worms, and critters are the current priority. We'll aim for yellow and blue tangs when they come back into stock anywhere, and probably a royal gramma or a six-line wrasse.