Red Sea Max Nano, worth it?

[Lyss]

I got the Red Sea Max Nano. It's a nice tank but if I were to do it over again I would likely get a Waterbox cube or something. I ended up replacing the light and skimmer on my Max Nano, which I could have done from the start with a Waterbox. Live and learn though.

What did you find was wrong with the light and skimmer? I have been very happy with the whole package, and especially think the skimmer works great.

 

[MtnDewMan]

What did you find was wrong with the light and skimmer? I have been very happy with the whole package, and especially think the skimmer works great.

The skimmer never started to produce skimmate. It took up a lot of that back space. I got the Tunze 9001 to replace it, takes up less space and the skimmate is much better. Both have noise though. Regarding the light, they were very convenient to get on the tank. The control was good, but the spread was not complete on the tank. The Radion XR15 gives the entire tank a good spread of light and has more fine tuning of the LEDs, not that I do much fine tuning. I wanted more powerful lighting as well as I am an SPS guy, the Radions penetrate the tank better (IMO).

 

[MtnDewMan]

I ended up going with a JBJ, $460 tank and stand. Nice tank, stand is a lil to be desired tho. But it holds the tank.

Enjoy your tank, I bet it will be great.

 

[JayFish4004]

I have the Red Sea Man Nano and love it, mixed reef tank.the AIO makes life easy and it’s really well built.

I’ll second that! Here is my build one year in - I have the tunze nano ATO with trigger systems res. Works great!

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[jocamero]

ended up replacing the light and skimmer on my Max Nano

Why did you have to replace the skimmer and light?

 

[MtnDewMan]

Why did you have to replace the skimmer and light?

The skimmer was not performing great so I upgraded it to a Tunze 9001 which gave me more room in the back. I also wanted stronger wide spread lighting so upgraded to the Radion XR15 lights.

 

[Lyss]

I think upgrading either is unnecessary TBH. The skimmer does need some time to break in -- it took me a while w/mine -- but once it's broken in it works great. I don't keep much SPS (part of why I felt comfortable going w/the Max Nano) but if it was for mainly keeping SPS I don't think the Max Nano would be a tank I'd recommend. I think you could do it, but to me the tank is more of either a great entry level true plug-and-play, or great for someone who is keeping a lot of softies and LPS and wants an easy low-maintenance setup.

 

[MtnDewMan]

I think upgrading either is unnecessary TBH. The skimmer does need some time to break in -- it took me a while w/mine -- but once it's broken in it works great. I don't keep much SPS (part of why I felt comfortable going w/the Max Nano) but if it was for mainly keeping SPS I don't think the Max Nano would be a tank I'd recommend. I think you could do it, but to me the tank is more of either a great entry level true plug-and-play, or great for someone who is keeping a lot of softies and LPS and wants an easy low-maintenance setup.

If you reread my previous posts I did say I’d go a different route than this all inclusive tank. I’m glad you are happy with your setup. I’m now happy with mine.

 

[Lyss]

If you reread my previous posts I did say I’d go a different route than this all inclusive tank. I’m glad you are happy with your setup. I’m now happy with mine.

Yes, I did read your posts. OP specifically said they did not want to keep SPS. I’m saying that there’s really no good reason to get the max nano and then make those upgrades, more for the OP and thread in general, which is why I didn’t directly quote you. But OP also said they went w/the JBJ, so it doesn’t matter a ton at this point anyway I guess.