Red Sea Reefer 350 build

[BlueFynn_Ian]

Hi All,
Have owned numerous different sized tanks, from homemade to custom built and everything in between. Finally decided I wanted to take my time and set up a tank that I would really enjoy and have fun working with. I'm sure others have had tanks they dreaded at times, my dad's 400gallon fish-only tank is the bane of my existence right now.
Have a 150gallon mixed reef but I wanted to do a smaller reef build with a bit more high-end corals. I also really wanted to get away from some of my homemade stands, patch-work plumbing and when my LFS had a new Reefer350 for a fantastic price so I jumped at it and am extremely glad I did. It has been a pleasure to work on in all aspects.

Enough babbling:
Equipment List
- Red Sea Reefer 350 (Gen 1) 92 gallons including sump
- Aquatic Life 48" DX18 T5 Dimmable Hybrid (I'm in love with this)
- 48" T5 True Actinic and Blue Plus x2 each
- Kessil A360x Blue Tuna x2
- Kessil Spectral Controller (Is not able to dim the T5s which I am quite bummed about)
- MP10 Quiet Drives x2
- Red Sea ReefMat 500
- Reef Octopus Classic 110
- BRS Mini Reactor
- Reef Dose 4 Dosing Pump
- Current USA eFlux 1050gph DC pump
- AutoAqua Smart ATO mini
- Eheim Jager 250W heater x2
- Inkbird WiFi Temp Controller (having lots of issues with this)
- TopLids mesh top with evaporation lid

Next steps are finally cleaning up all the wiring (somehow its always tomorrow's project), adding a UV and getting the dosing system up and running. Still finishing off some of my bottles that I just manually add for now.

Corals are in from my other tank break down along with a pair of skunk cleaner shrimp. Fish are going through QT now and will be started to get added in about a week.

 

[blaxsun]

Love the lid!

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

Love the lid!

Really impressed with the quality of it. Took some time to arrive once ordered (6ish weeks). Significant upgrade from my old homemade screen.

 

[Hopestar075]

How much rock do you have in? I love the negative space.

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Looks great, thanks for sharing.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks good so far!

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

How much rock do you have in? I love the negative space.

All together the rock is about 50+ lbs.

 

[legalizedreefer]

How’s it coming along? Just started filling my 350 yesterday

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

How’s it coming along? Just started filling my 350 yesterday

You won't regret the choice.

Definitely been a while since I did an update and a lot of the equipment has changed, and lots of coral added. Attached some quick pictures under the blues, still need to figure out a better camera filter so I don't have to always change the light levels.

As far as the tank goes, I love it. I know Red Sea has its issues and reviews but so does every product I have ever come across in any field. My biggest thing I wish I had done before setting it up was the sump modification for the roller mat while it was dry. I was too afraid to cut up a brand new sump and put it off until the tank was already running. Would have been sooo much easier doing it while it was dry and it really opened up a lot more room in the sump and made installing the ReefMat a breeze. Space under the tank for equipment gets used up quickly, I'm glad I purchased the Red Sea Nano tank stand to house my dosing system, ATO resevoir and CO2 scrubber so far.

Current Stock List:
3 Lyretail Anthias, one has since turned male and starting to change color
2 Mocha Storm Clowns
1 Pink Streaked Wrasse
1 Rainford's Goby
1 Bluespot Jawfish (love and hate this fish)
2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (constantly breeding and pilling the tank with food!!)
Snails- Trochus, Ceriths, Bumblebees, Mexican Turbos, Dwarf Ceriths, Astereas, Nassarius
Assorted Hermits
Massive Copepod and Amphipod colonies
Bristle Worms- Yes I added them!
Spaghetti Worms- Added these too!
Mini Brittle Stars- Yup added these as well, Indo Pacific Sea Farms has some amazing items to build the ultimate CUC.
Corals- A whole bunch, my favorites are my Trachyphyllia, Scolies and Indophyllia

New Equipment:
- Two MP40s for more alternating flow, SPS is happy as can be, still trying to dial it in for my sandbed LPS.
- Apex and Trident Systems- Love them. Easy to set up.
- BRS universal CO2 scrubber system
- Avast K1 Kalk Stirrer
- Misc Neptune sensors
- Neptune COR15 return pump (slightly more underpowered than expected but did not want to mess with the COR20.
- 2 300w Titanium heaters controlled via the Apex. My power consumption has gone down significantly since bumping up to larger heaters than the previous Jagers.

Was apparently very good last year and Santa brought me an apex and a trident system. To say this is an amazing piece of hardware is an understatement. I still supplement it with weekly testing of my own, but being able to monitor levels, control outlets with a quick touch of my phone and get alerts for any changes it detects has been amazing. Has its quirks but so far I love it, to me its the ultimate piece of redundancy for my tank.

Added a BRS CO2 scrubber to my protein skimmer that is drawing air from inside of my ATO container has given me a great PH boost (yes I am chasing a number, I know I am crazy). Pushed my swing from 7.9-8.2 to 8.2-8.3. Next am going to be doing small amounts of nighttime kalk dosing to see if I can flatten out the night/day wave even more.

Feel like this was mostly a brain dump but all in all I love how this tank is going, minimal algae issues, just some hair algae on the sand bed I've been putting off removing.

 

[legalizedreefer]

You won't regret the choice.

Definitely been a while since I did an update and a lot of the equipment has changed, and lots of coral added. Attached some quick pictures under the blues, still need to figure out a better camera filter so I don't have to always change the light levels.

As far as the tank goes, I love it. I know Red Sea has its issues and reviews but so does every product I have ever come across in any field. My biggest thing I wish I had done before setting it up was the sump modification for the roller mat while it was dry. I was too afraid to cut up a brand new sump and put it off until the tank was already running. Would have been sooo much easier doing it while it was dry and it really opened up a lot more room in the sump and made installing the ReefMat a breeze. Space under the tank for equipment gets used up quickly, I'm glad I purchased the Red Sea Nano tank stand to house my dosing system, ATO resevoir and CO2 scrubber so far.

Current Stock List:
3 Lyretail Anthias, one has since turned male and starting to change color
2 Mocha Storm Clowns
1 Pink Streaked Wrasse
1 Rainford's Goby
1 Bluespot Jawfish (love and hate this fish)
2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (constantly breeding and pilling the tank with food!!)
Snails- Trochus, Ceriths, Bumblebees, Mexican Turbos, Dwarf Ceriths, Astereas, Nassarius
Assorted Hermits
Massive Copepod and Amphipod colonies
Bristle Worms- Yes I added them!
Spaghetti Worms- Added these too!
Mini Brittle Stars- Yup added these as well, Indo Pacific Sea Farms has some amazing items to build the ultimate CUC.
Corals- A whole bunch, my favorites are my Trachyphyllia, Scolies and Indophyllia

New Equipment:
- Two MP40s for more alternating flow, SPS is happy as can be, still trying to dial it in for my sandbed LPS.
- Apex and Trident Systems- Love them. Easy to set up.
- BRS universal CO2 scrubber system
- Avast K1 Kalk Stirrer
- Misc Neptune sensors
- Neptune COR15 return pump (slightly more underpowered than expected but did not want to mess with the COR20.
- 2 300w Titanium heaters controlled via the Apex. My power consumption has gone down significantly since bumping up to larger heaters than the previous Jagers.

Was apparently very good last year and Santa brought me an apex and a trident system. To say this is an amazing piece of hardware is an understatement. I still supplement it with weekly testing of my own, but being able to monitor levels, control outlets with a quick touch of my phone and get alerts for any changes it detects has been amazing. Has its quirks but so far I love it, to me its the ultimate piece of redundancy for my tank.

Added a BRS CO2 scrubber to my protein skimmer that is drawing air from inside of my ATO container has given me a great PH boost (yes I am chasing a number, I know I am crazy). Pushed my swing from 7.9-8.2 to 8.2-8.3. Next am going to be doing small amounts of nighttime kalk dosing to see if I can flatten out the night/day wave even more.

Feel like this was mostly a brain dump but all in all I love how this tank is going, minimal algae issues, just some hair algae on the sand bed I've been putting off removing.

Nice, scape looks great!

 

[BlueFynn_Ian]

Nice, scape looks great!

Thanks, I like how it turned out but its also very permanent. I want to figure out how to make a similar one that's more modular and changeable. I caught the coral bug and wish I had more rockwork to cover up.

 

[AKLiving]

Looks great. I have about 3 weeks before mine arrives. Unfortunately it will arrive over 350miles away and then I’ll have to figure out if I ship it the rest of the way or go pick it up. Just finished my aqua scape as I kill time.
Glad to see you are happy with your RSR.