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Our Red Sea Reefer 350

hillie

Registered
Hello everyone!

It's been a long while since I've been posting - following a foot op last year, we had a disaster with our RSM 130 and lost most of our corals (long story so I won't bore you). Tone was ready to give up completely and sell the tank, but I persuaded him to soldier on. We were overrun with algae which killed most of our corals. The only corals we could save were our Australian Bubble, a large toadstall (although that "threw" it's foot and is only slowly recovering), a small toadstall and a finger coral.

After a major clean up we added a nem, which has subsequently split. The tank is looking good, albeit a bit empty...............BUT..........

having been re-invigorated, we have decided to buy a RSM 350 Reefer :biggrin: so I thought I'd better hard-foot it back on here asap :w00t: and hence posting in medium tanks.

We're pricing everything up and trying to choose the equipment that doesn't come with the tank, so I'll be cruising other threads to see what other people have bought. We've never had a sump before, so this will be a learning curve for us!

I tried to post a couple of photos of our RSM 130, but when I press on the icon at the top I just get a blank page (I think it's this blasted Windows laptop).

So, we are thinking of getting:
- Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer
- Marine DC DCT4000 return pump
- for water movement, Maxspect Gyre 130
- 2 reactors - Bubble Magus Mini 70- one for Rowaphos and one for carbon (as we've been told the socks are best filled with floss)
- 10kg live white fine sand
- Aragonite so the sand doesn't fly all over the tank

We've already got:
- a stack of dead live rock from when we shut our previous 4 foot tank down
- Maxspect Razr 160 (which is over our RSM130 currently) - we've had this a couple of years now so will change the lenses from 90 to 120 degrees
- heaters

Have we forgotten any major items?

Thanks!
 

hillie

Registered
That's gonna be Tone's job.......... our LFS said that some people use the integral ATU for cheato, so that's something else we've gotta explore !
 

merser

Registered
Hi, I have the 350 and I bloody love it. Sure you will be the same. I personally don't have an issue watching the atu but the [MENTION=12861]reefloat[/MENTION] option is a good one.

You will need a lump lamp if you intend on having cheato (I do). I'm intrigued as to how people are running cheato in the atu?!

Anyway I've subscribed. Good luck.

Jamie.
 

hillie

Registered
Sorry, I pressed the enter key before finishing my post!

Apparently "they" mod the sump by adding another tank on the right-hand side in the space reserved for a cooling unit i.e. adding a new ATU on that right hand side, then use the 350's ATU as the cheato bit by putting a light over it. We've never had a sump before, so please do excuse me if I don't get all the technological wording right!
 

CEECH

Registered
Good luck with your build :) Would you consider a temperature controller also (stc1000) i think for the money they are great value and gives peace of mind :)
 

Fishpalace

Registered
Good choice of tank, reefers are a quality build.

I have a 450 and use the ATU and find it ok as previously I had a 135L tank with no sump or ATU so this is a luxury.

I also use the filter socks which I change every 2 days as they get clogged quickly but do the trick. I have 5 pairs which allows me to machine wash once a week, have a spare and 1 in the sump.

Quite a few have modified sump for triton, cheato or fit another ATU but I have decided to go with as is for now and see how it goes for next few months.

A temp controller is a really good idea.
 

nodster

Registered
+1 on stc controller mine all hooked up and to be honest never looked back since great piece of kit , I too have left my tank as stock with no mods and if you don't mind topping atu often then not a problem , it actually for me promotes me to check the sump regular as I'm lazy and don't empty skimmer as much as I should or change the socks , getting about 2 days out of mine
 

Crabby1

Registered
Hi, I've been looking at the 250 model to get me back into reefing. How are you getting on with the new set up? What equipment did you decide to go for? Thanks,
Chris
 

hillie

Registered
Update time!

We have now ordered the 350, which may be delivered this week yee hah :clap:

Equipment so far is the Bubble Magus Curve 5 skimmer which we've already set-up in the curing bin with our rock. We set that up on Monday and so far are really pleased with it.

We've bought the V2 Bio Reactor.

The next purchase is the return pump. Red Sea recommends a 3,000 LPH unit and our LFS stocks a 3,000 D&D. Does anyone have any experience of the D&D pump? Having done some research, some people say a 4,000 or 5,000 LPH pump would be better so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

I've taken some photos of our existing RSM 130d and of the skimmer in action and will try and work out how to upload them later ... having failed miserably before :w00t:

A friend of ours is going to help us set everything up as we've never had a sump before. The plan is to convert the ATU into a refugium and add a container to the right hand side of the under unit to house a top-up system.

We are getting very excited.............................
 
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merser

Registered
Looking forward to seeing how you setup the refugium in the atu. How will you get the water up to it? An additional pump?

I've used the D&d 5000lph pump and had no issues whatsoever. Good kit. I used the jeocod dc6000 on my 350 simply because I wanted to use low power where possible. Tbh it's over kill as I'm now into low flow through the sump.

Exciting times
 

hillie

Registered
In all honesty, I've no idea how the ATU & refugium are going to work..........our friend is going to be in charge - Tone and I are his little project and will just do as we are told :eek:! (in theory that is.......might have to milliput our lips).

I've not heard of the Jeocod range.......I'll get Tone onto it.
 

hillie

Registered
Just re-read your post...........did you use the D&D 5,000 on your 350?? Red Sea recommend 3000.......................
 
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