Thanks to extensive (honestly, extensive) research within the archives of this forum, along with the guidance of a bunch of youtubers - I'm finally out of the equipment researching stage for my first reef tank, I made a few mistakes and misjudgements, a couple of orders went wrong, but they're all corrected now and everything is locked in...
I'm now the proud owner of a brand new Red Sea Reefer 250, it's white, v3, spectacular.
I've got my hands on 40lb of used Caribsea Life Rock, I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to use it, I might scrap the idea and go brand new to eliminate any risk and make things simpler.
Not quite ready to start building yet, although I am close -
One purchase I'm definitely happy with is my choice of 2x EcoTech Radion Gen5 XR15 Blue LED's, I've spent a lot of time watching BRStv, exploring every possible option, with aims to begin with soft and LPS corals - to then introduce some SPS corals high and center - later on down the line, I believe I've made a good choice here, these may slot nicely into a hybrid T5 fixture later on down the line.
I've gone quite cheap on some other things -
Jecod DCP4000 DC for the return
2x Jecod SOW-4 Wavemaker's
Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer
Eheim ThermoPreset Heater 200w
100g/day 4 stage RODI system
...and I've picked up a couple of cheap DD gadgets, TDS meter, Thermometer, Refactometer, and also a couple of API Master Test Kits (Saltwater and Liquid Reef).
No sand for me, I'm in love with the bare bottom look, I know it will make things harder to begin but I'm settled on that idea, I do have a natural HDPE starboard - but I might even skip that and go full glass.
Next is dosing, how I'm going to start the cycle, and how I'm going to dose going forward, it's an area in which I still have a lot of research to do, I'll begin this manual and then look to automate it as time goes on / once I fully understand my tank and everything I need to know about its parameters.
Exciting times.
I've found the information available on this forum to be absolutely invaluable throughout, so thanks reef2reef, happy to be here, and I'll see you around.
I'm now the proud owner of a brand new Red Sea Reefer 250, it's white, v3, spectacular.
I've got my hands on 40lb of used Caribsea Life Rock, I'm not sure whether or not I'm going to use it, I might scrap the idea and go brand new to eliminate any risk and make things simpler.
Not quite ready to start building yet, although I am close -
One purchase I'm definitely happy with is my choice of 2x EcoTech Radion Gen5 XR15 Blue LED's, I've spent a lot of time watching BRStv, exploring every possible option, with aims to begin with soft and LPS corals - to then introduce some SPS corals high and center - later on down the line, I believe I've made a good choice here, these may slot nicely into a hybrid T5 fixture later on down the line.
I've gone quite cheap on some other things -
Jecod DCP4000 DC for the return
2x Jecod SOW-4 Wavemaker's
Bubble Magus Curve 5 Protein Skimmer
Eheim ThermoPreset Heater 200w
100g/day 4 stage RODI system
...and I've picked up a couple of cheap DD gadgets, TDS meter, Thermometer, Refactometer, and also a couple of API Master Test Kits (Saltwater and Liquid Reef).
No sand for me, I'm in love with the bare bottom look, I know it will make things harder to begin but I'm settled on that idea, I do have a natural HDPE starboard - but I might even skip that and go full glass.
Next is dosing, how I'm going to start the cycle, and how I'm going to dose going forward, it's an area in which I still have a lot of research to do, I'll begin this manual and then look to automate it as time goes on / once I fully understand my tank and everything I need to know about its parameters.
Exciting times.
I've found the information available on this forum to be absolutely invaluable throughout, so thanks reef2reef, happy to be here, and I'll see you around.



welcome, you’ll love it here.

