Beginner questions

[Muscles83]

Hello, My wife and I are considering buying a salt water aquarium as we used to have one about 10 years ago. I just have a few questions hopefully some of you can answer and give us information on.

I am in love with the red sea reefer 250, but wondering if it will be too complicated for us. I'm not sure what else I need to purchase for it other than a pump and lighting and I am unfamiliar with a sump box. Are they hard to setup and operate? My old system I had a canister filter.

I was also looking at the Fluval M90 as it looks easy to operate.

Again, new to this and looking for information on how difficult a sump box is to setup, and opinions on a Red Sea Reefer 250/Fluval M90 or any other tanks you may recommend.

Thanks!

 

[NinnJinn]

If you build your own sump it is much cheaper but they are not really that hard to set up. The biggest concern you would have is to make sure if you have a power failure you do not flood your home.

So in other words a sump is pretty easy to set up.

After you get it up and running the easiest way to make sure that you will not have a flood during a power outage is to make sure the sump is big enough to hold the excess water. Also adjusting your overflow.

When you get it up and running basically just turn off your return pump to simulate a power outage and make sure it does not overflow the sump.

 

[NinnJinn]

One of the easiest ways I have found to make sure this does not happen is to put a ball or gate valve on your return side and on your overflow side so you can adjust them accordingly

 

[Reefer Deez]

Welcome! The rea sea reefer 250 is a wonderful choice for a tank, have you considered getting the delux model? It is a bit more in price but it comes with the AI hydra hs lights and the mounting holes are already in place. If not the I would suggest you purchase 2 ecotech marine radion xr30w gen 4 lights. A echotech M1 return pump and at least 1 ecotech MP10 or MP40 powerheads to create flow. By going with all 3 echotech and the echo tech lights you could get a reeflink and control them all wirelessly but the light have WiFi built in, no reeflink needed. Echotech also offers a battery back up Incase of a power outage with one you could either control you return pump or your power heads,you could daisy chain 2togatger and run all your pumps so you won’t fear any loss when the power goes out. At last you need a skimmer IMO there are a lot of good skimmers out there you have vertex, skimz, reef octopus, eshopps if it was me I would go with a vertex but the most important thing you must consider is the footprint of the skimmer and what space you have in your sump. You don’t necessarily have to get the biggest one that will fit but the bigger the better depending on your bio load meaning how many fish you plan to have. Those are the necessities as far as equipment needed to get your tank up and running. Good luck and I look forward to you creating a build thread so we can see you Tank progression!

 

[Jesterrace]

Canister filters tend to be the most problematic filtration method in marine aquariums (very easy for nitrates to build up in them). Sump is best followed by HOB filtration.

 

[PatW]

Sumps sound daunting, don’t they? But in actuality they are simple. They also allow you to put your equipment where it is not seen and you have reasonably easy access. The Red Sea Reefer tank’s look pretty good. They are well designed and they have low iron glass. Normal tanks have glass with a strong green tint. The low iron glass has almost no tint at all. I am a photographer and to me accurate color is important.

Oh, properly set up a sump will not cause a flood. Your over flows in your tank will drain only a certain amount of water into your sump before the water level in the tank drops below the over flow. If your sump has a large enough capacity to handle that extra water, there will be no flood.

Welcome and good luck to you.

 

[scott11106]

i agree with the above comments, red sea has some great options and go with a sump as it is easy to setup and run. plus it will help you keep some consistency.

ask any specific questions as you setup and we can help you along....

 

[NeedMoreReef]

You should be able to set up a sump with out much issue. especially if its all designed for you like the RedSea

you will need a return pump, internal circulation pumps, heaters, lights, maintainance equip. and RO/DI system if possible.

 

[Muscles83]

Thanks everyone. We have decided on the Red Sea reefer 250 deluxe and will be ordering it in the next day or so.

My only other question is does this setup need a wavemaker or will it provide enough circulation for corals on its own?

 

[PatW]

Thanks everyone. We have decided on the Red Sea reefer 250 deluxe and will be ordering it in the next day or so.

My only other question is does this setup need a wavemaker or will it provide enough circulation for corals on its own?

I just looked at the stats and it looks as if the only water movement is from the return pump. I would strongly recommend some power heads no matter what kind of system you want. Water flow is a good thing. For a FOLR system, just a generic power head or two will do. If you want to go to SPS corals, a powerhead that will vary its flow is considered optimal. Actually probably any system would benefit from having variable flow but many systems do fine without it.

 

[Sgt Jonny]

The Red Sea line is definitely a nice set up, but if I may offer some advice, a lot of the fun in this hobby at least for me is the tinkering and upgrading. I feel that the red sea system once set up there is really no room for tinkering or changing things. For the price of t hat system you could build your own system and have a pretty awesome set up. I built my own sump out of a 30 long and I am constantly tinkering and playing with the tank. It's how I relax. Anyway, just my 2 cents worth...