Reefer 250 (My first tank EVER!)

[Mindblock769]

Hello everyone!

Follow along over the next few weeks/months as I prepare my very first tank ever. I have never owned a single tank in my life, but have always had a interest in marine life. After my recent trip to the Mexico and snorkeling with all the beautiful fish, it really gave me the inspiration to look into my first tank.

It wasn't until I found the threads by @Eight and @Butuz that truly inspired me. I fell in love with their clean and sleek setups and found myself saying "I WANT THAT!". So to the both of you, thank you so much for the inspiration, and I apologize for the straight up plagiarism for copying yalls setups!! LOL

This build is not complete, and still needing a few things, but I figured why not start a build thread?

Tank: Reefer 250 (Black)
Aquascape: CaribSea Life Rock (40lb)
Sand: CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade (40lb)
Return Pump: Reef Octopus VarioS-4
Filter: Clarisea SK-3000
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 120
Reactors: (2) Aquamaxx Reactors XS
Lights: TBD
ATO: TBD
Wavemakers: TBD
Salt: Instant Ocean Sea Salt

I did not take an many pictures as I wanted, but I'll show yall what I got!


Stand built!

Time to modify the sump...

Painted the bulk head fittings with Krylon paint.

Fittings for the media reactors.

Dry fitting with white PVC ( You can see my media reactors are not even.. I'm more of a measure once cut twice kinda guy! lol)

Performing a leak check with tap water.

Draining the tap water with a little help from Henry

Aquascape

And where I am now!

MORE TO COME OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS!

 

[i cant think]

Hello everyone!

Follow along over the next few weeks/months as I prepare my very first tank ever. I have never owned a single tank in my life, but have always had a interest in marine life. After my recent trip to the Mexico and snorkeling with all the beautiful fish, it really gave me the inspiration to look into my first tank.

It wasn't until I found the threads by @Eight and @Butuz that truly inspired me. I fell in love with their clean and sleek setups and found myself saying "I WANT THAT!". So to the both of you, thank you so much for the inspiration, and I apologize for the straight up plagiarism for copying yalls setups!! LOL

This build is not complete, and still needing a few things, but I figured why not start a build thread?

Tank: Reefer 250 (Black)
Aquascape: CaribSea Life Rock (40lb)
Sand: CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade (40lb)
Return Pump: Reef Octopus VarioS-4
Filter: Clarisea SK-3000
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 120
Reactors: (2) Aquamaxx Reactors XS
Lights: TBD
ATO: TBD
Wavemakers: TBD
Salt: Instant Ocean Sea Salt

I did not take an many pictures as I wanted, but I'll show yall what I got!


Stand built!

Time to modify the sump...

Painted the bulk head fittings with Krylon paint.

Fittings for the media reactors.

Dry fitting with white PVC ( You can see my media reactors are not even.. I'm more of a measure once cut twice kinda guy! lol)

Performing a leak check with tap water.

Draining the tap water with a little help from Henry

Aquascape

And where I am now!

MORE TO COME OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS!

Just out of interest, how long is that tank?

 

[Mindblock769]

Just out of interest, how long is that tank?

Here at the dimensions (in yellow)

 

[i cant think]

Here at the dimensions (in yellow)

Thankyou! I want to have a wrasse only display and that would be the perfect size, just a pain on how hard it would be to run (Along side a 4’ long aswell)

 

[Zach B]

Very nice setup!

 

[blaxsun]

Nicely done! What’s in the white container? ATO?

 

[Jbmynes]

Very nice!

 

[Mindblock769]

Nicely done! What’s in the white container? ATO?

Its a 6gal trash bin to serve as an ATO. Sort of a temporary solution until I find something better.

HÅLLBAR Bin with lid, light gray, Lower outer measure depth: 12 5/8" - IKEA

HÅLLBAR Bin with lid, light gray, Lower outer measure depth: 12 5/8". Are you curious about how your waste can become new resources? HÅLLBAR series helps you sort different materials into different bins – a simple action and the first step towards giving waste a new life.

www.ikea.com

 

[blaxsun]

Its a 6gal trash bin to serve as an ATO. Sort of a temporary solution until I find something better.

My suggestion would be to find the largest bin (clear if possible) to place in that space such that you can still fill it. You can never have a large enough ATO!

 

[Mindblock769]

My suggestion would be to find the largest bin (clear if possible) to place in that space such that you can still fill it. You can never have a large enough ATO!

Agreed! I just don't know what's next for me. Apex? Dosing? So temporary solution for now just so I don't have to re-work anything.

 

[i cant think]

Agreed! I just don't know what's next for me. Apex? Dosing? So temporary solution for now just so I don't have to re-work anything.

Yeah, that’s the main issue with the hobby you never know what’s next.

Have you thought on live stock or not? That’s often my favourite bit is seeing how others stock their reefs

 

[blaxsun]

Agreed! I just don't know what's next for me. Apex? Dosing? So temporary solution for now just so I don't have to re-work anything.

I like my Apex - it’s made life much easier. And you can get an ATO module for it as well. You’ll find that all that control comes with a penalty in the form of energy bars and lots and lots of cables, ie: basically all the space you have your ATO in.

You may want to look at an external ATO to sit beside your tank (or elsewhere), as once you get into dosing or automated testing that can also take up a lot of space.

 

[Mindblock769]

Yeah, that’s the main issue with the hobby you never know what’s next.

Have you thought on live stock or not? That’s often my favourite bit is seeing how others stock their reefs

Still trying to figure out what I want. Definitely some easy, hardy, and valuable to the tank fish. Bascially the top 5 recommended from BRS...Clownfish, lawnmower blenny, six line wrasse.. Then maybe a couple tangs if I can find some smaller ones (yellow tang, bristletooth tang)

I like my Apex - it’s made life much easier. And you can get an ATO module for it as well. You’ll find that all that control comes with a penalty in the form of energy bars and lots and lots of cables, ie: basically all the space you have your ATO in.

You may want to look at an external ATO to sit beside your tank (or elsewhere), as once you get into dosing or automated testing that can also take up a lot of space.

My goal eventually is a fully automated, very little interaction required tank. I will probably never get to an automated water change state, but I do have a little external room for a large ATO, as long as I can make it look clean and not an after-thought.

 

[i cant think]

Still trying to figure out what I want. Definitely some easy, hardy, and valuable to the tank fish. Bascially the top 5 recommended from BRS...Clownfish, lawnmower blenny, six line wrasse.. Then maybe a couple tangs if I can find some smaller ones (yellow tang, bristletooth tang)



My goal eventually is a fully automated, very little interaction required tank. I will probably never get to an automated water change state, but I do have a little external room for a large ATO, as long as I can make it look clean and not an after-thought.

Be careful with six lines, they can and will get very aggressive, a better alternative is one or two of the Halichoeres wrasses (if you wanted it for the pest eating abilities)

 

[blaxsun]

My goal eventually is a fully automated, very little interaction required tank. I will probably never get to an automated water change state, but I do have a little external room for a large ATO, as long as I can make it look clean and not an after-thought.

My Apex setup has allowed me to do just that, although I’m in the same situation with water changes. You could always try and find a Reefer Nano stand which would give you some space to hide an ATO as well as some place to stack any aquarium essentials next to the tank.

 

[Mindblock769]

Be careful with six lines, they can and will get very aggressive, a better alternative is one or two of the Halichoeres wrasses (if you wanted it for the pest eating abilities)

Thank you! Yes, looking for a fish for pest eating. I will look into that one!

My Apex setup has allowed me to do just that, although I’m in the same situation with water changes. You could always try and find a Reefer Nano stand which would give you some space to hide an ATO as well as some place to stack any aquarium essentials next to the tank.

Good idea!

 

[SPS2020]

IMO, you can hold off on the Apex and dosing efforts until you are way past the ugly stage and are ready for coral. I jumped the gun on that portion and could have kept money in the bank until it was necessary.

For an ATO pump, I use a kamoer X1 and dial it in to the evaporation rate. This has worked very well for me and is an economical solution. BRS has those on sale every so often. Thanksgiving is a great time to watch for sales...especially Neptune.

 

[Gedxin]

Setup looks great. Welcome to the hobby!

 

[i cant think]

Thank you! Yes, looking for a fish for pest eating. I will look into that one!

Yeah, Also the ones I recommend are H. chrysus and get a pest eating H. iridis (I say pest eating because they won’t always eat pests, similar to copperband butterflies)

 

[Mindblock769]

As a new reefer, i underestimated the power of evaporation! I did not have an ATO setup just yet and noticed the return pump area was getting near the pump suction.

Temporarily im using the exisiting ATO container and float sitting up on the bin that will eventually be another temporary solution. I used an old float to connect my RODI line to so i can top off and fill out without too much supervision.

Im going to the Reef Currents show this weekend in hopes of grabbing some deals on lights, ATO, and wavemakers. Excited!