Starting from scratch

[MUTiger]

I have been out of the Reef hobby for about 5 years. In the past I was low tech: an undrilled 75 gallon tank with an in-tank skimmer, in-tank heater, floating thermometer, and a few power heads. I would like to go more high tech this time around. I’m thinking of a Red Sea Reefer Deluxe 250, good choice? I will then need a skimmer and a return pump. Then there are the probes, controllers, reactors, etc. I would appreciate any help or advice for all this additional equipment.

Are the Hydra HD 26 LED lights on the RS Deluxe the way to go?

What’s the best skimmer for this size tank? I was thinking the Bubble Magus Curve 5

Size and brand of return pump?

Controller necessary? Which one?

Probes necessary?

What else?

 

[Jdeleon]

Redsea are awesome tanks, specially the deluxe, Hydras are awesome lights I however ended up supplementing my 525xl with T5 and hydra mix, I love it. the only thing about redsea that I kind of sort of dislike is glass sump and the fact the display scratches so easily. really have to pay attention to sand in the scrappers. that said I'm happy with my 2 tanks.

I'm not big on controllers, so no input there.

 

[MUTiger]

So are 2 Hydra HD 26 LED lights enough for a Red Sea Reefer 250 (54 gallon display) or will I also have to supplement with T5s?

 

[Jdeleon]

So are 2 Hydra HD 26 LED lights enough for a Red Sea Reefer 250 (54 gallon display) or will I also have to supplement with T5s?

sorry didn't mean to mislead you, they are plenty of light,, I added t5 just because I like complicating things, ran just the hydras for a year and half, overtime noticed me acquiring more and more sps so I just had to turn it up a notch with the t5,