Hi Lee, this is a great video! I’ve been thinking of getting a tank myself for a while & I like how honest you’ve been with the challenges you’ve faced & how you’ve overcome them! Keep the videos coming & no doubt I will be in touch when I get mine! Thanks!
Looking at getting into saltwater and am looking at either purchasing the reefer 170 or 250. Everything in the stand looks very organized and neat. Keep up the great work.
Outstanding setup! I'm also new to the hobby and currently in research mode looking through all the videos. I want make sure I understand everything about it before putting any time and money into it. This has been very helpful friend thank you.
I agree with people's comments below, can't tell you are a beginner. The tank looks great. I only have a helpful tip. Watch your sandsifting goby. Your tank is newly setup and hasn't had a chance for microfauna to accumulate in your sand bed. It's also very clean. So having said that, if you notice your goby getting thin you can get sinking pellets and crush them a little and sprinkle it on the sand in front of his mound or even in it. If it's eating the mysis and prepared foods well then you have no worries and he should be fine. He looks great so far.
goophy30 he loves frozen (thawed out!) mysis! Plus my sinking pellet too! Thanks for this as I was also worried too at first but he seems to eat whatever is on offer atm
Well thought out approach to your plumbing and sump..Clean and organized I like it,may I suggest if you haven't already done it add a hermit crab in the refugium it will take care of nuisance algae..4-5 Bumblebee snails Trocus and Asteria snails a single Emerald crab to help keep bubble algae in check..Nice tank well done mate.
Great video. I got the same aquarium system as well, but in black. I'm also documenting my experience and I'm a first time saltwater tank hobbyist as well! :)
Awesome set-up, clearly no expense spared! I wouldn't worry too much about your kH, if you are planning on stocking mostly frags/small colonies, they will enjoy the additional kH. Red Sea's Coral Pro salt has a kH of 12dkH for maximum coral growth. Once your corals have grown in after a couple of years and they are all a decent size you can then begin to drop the kH to around 8dkH to sustain slower but 'stronger' growth, i.e. corals grow denser but far slower. Keep up the vids and best of luck with the tank!
Amazing video mate, an amazing tank so neat. I’m on the same journey as you but I’m at the start, I’m looking at tonnes of videos, books etc. I hope mine will be like yours one day, keep up the good work.
Looking lush mate will defo keep an eye on how things progress .. just try not to get hung up on everything you read that you need all sorts of equipment. I ran a reef with just an external fluval and it was fine . Corals and fish ...
Can you send me the links to where you purchased your plumbing or what parts you ordered . Also have the m1 pump and want to install reactors like you have done very cleverly. Thanks in Advance. Great setup .
Your aquarium is awesome! Great setup. I would highly recommend a 35ppt calibration solution for the refractometer instead of calibrating to RO water. Will be much more steady and accurate.
Your setup is excellent man! The equipment you have is all top notch and not at all what I would expect from a “beginner” and you also seem to know pretty well what you are doing. I’m pretty sure you will be successful. I would only suggest you exchange those stainless steel hose clamps with plastic ones. Also, question: why do you have the phosphate reactor, the algae reactor and also dose NOPOX? All of those methods remove phosphate, they can affect each others effectiveness when used simultaneously and it seems like a bit of overkill. Keep making videos man! Great job!
Lee I have to say you have an awesome set up there, especially for a beginner. That has to be one of the neatest sumps I have ever seen !. I’m hoping to buy an aquarium soon and want to get a lot of the bits you have on your set up, like an Apex controller and Wav’s etc. The Red Sea 250 is one of the aquariums I have been considering as well as Elos, EA and Reef Octopus. I’d love to see your system close up if possible and the chance to have a chin wag and ask you about the issues you’ve encountered in setting up your system. I think you’re pretty close to me, I’m in the Sidcup Orpington area. Where about do you buy all your bits from ?. Regards Paul
Hi, very nice tank ! hope it is still in good shape ... I've got the same reef tank, but it is in water since February. I can see two reactors on the left side, one for carbon and the other i can't determine what you are using in it ? sorry for my english. Hope to read you soon. Best regards from Normandy - France . Marc
Seen your sump all over the Red Sea page, I like it a lot! Very neat and tidy. Just quickly though, with the ALR reactor you have, doesn't the dose of NoPox prevent the Chaeto from growing? I am just as new to the hobby as you but thought that NoPox removes the nitrate before the Chaeto can benefit and grow from it.
Depending on how much you are dosing and also depends on what light you have over it and also how fast your chaeto is growing If you have rapid growth in the chaeto then it can possibly suck up nutrients before they climb so in reality if you have consistent growth in your chaeto then you don’t really need to be dosing no pox only if your nutrient number is really high like 20 ppm or higher ideal is like close to 0 or 5 ppm depends on what coral you have if you have lps or soft coral then they can tolerate high nitrate like 20 ppm and still be fine but if you have or want a mixed reef consisting of lps and sps then you wanna try to keep your nitrate around 5 ppm because coral in general do need some nitrate to survive
Michel Weis thank you! The mdf was cut quite tight on the vertical piece and then the side piece which I mounted my reactors to were stuck with heavy duty Velcro as I didn’t want to screw into the unit itself
Thanks for a nice video. I really like your lid. I have the e260 version of your tank and am going lidless so far but that is limiting my fish choice. I live in Aus so cant use your same manufacturer but did you just go to an acrylic specialist or how did you go about sourcing the lid? Thanks
thanks for that michael. Best thing to do is put up a post on the red sea group and ask about the acrylic lid as thats what i did and i had a few recommendations straight away! also red sea have brought their DIY kits out now too
Great looking tank! I'm new too, about 2 months in. Do you have a contact for your guy mark who created the lid, been after something similar for my fluval evo 13.5 , been emailing all around and it's in non of their capacity. Be such a great help! James
James Phelan hi mate thanks for the comments. Yeh his name is mark vince and if you look up reeftops on Facebook that’s him. Just let him know I referred you
Nice tank! I'm about to pick my reefer 250 next week, I can't wait!!! Have you kept the stock return pump or have to had to up-rate it due to the other equipment coming off your manifold?
Brian Goldstein it was made by a guy I met on the Red Sea owners group on Facebook. His name is mark vince. Search rooftops on google or find them here m.facebook.com/ReefTops/?locale2=en_GB Mention my name when you speak to him. Lee Havard
you can invest in a milwaukee refractometer, saves me sooooo much time not having to recalibrate the refractometer. i've had mine for 6 months, and after the initial calibration, it has needed 0 further calibration so far.
What’s going on lee hey man well done on this video and nice aqua scape congratulations on your first salt water setup ,you will for sure be successful just acknowledging the equipment and materials you need and being consistent and trying to gain more knowledge will only help your tank be more successful and thrive and like other people said your pretty much sound like a vet just by how you speak on everything regarding your tank it seem like you already have years of experience I’m 1000 % sure you will be growing corals like crazy and everything. So hey I’m a fan of yours because I see the potential in your setup you pretty much have everything you need now it’s just about time and adding corals and watching them grow im some what of a newbie as well been in this hobby two years now and I’m addicted I’ve learned a lot from other people and my own experiences but hey if you need advice or help you can sub to my channel or send a message would be more then happy to help you out I’m really excited for the progression of your tank ! Nice video keep it up
Lee Havard hey your welcome it’s really a nice hobby to be in and once you get more fish and coral and things start to grow your fiancé will be glad that you bought this setup love red sea products But yea I mean it your doing a good job
how much maintenance time a week do you think you have to spend on your tank. I'm just thinking at getting into this and want to make sure I have enough spare time to care for one.thanks
G MX it really does depend on what you want out of the tank and also what equipment you buy for your tank. If you spend a bit and get good quality equipment to help the running of the tank t will save you a lot of time. I reckon I do around 2 hours a week maintenance. Eg cleaning and water change. I do however tinker with the tank all the time. If you do bits here and there during the week, come the weekend when it’s water change time you won’t need to spend as much time on it then if you know what I mean
Liking the aquascape! I'm impressed at how well you have setup this tank.
Hi Lee, this is a great video! I’ve been thinking of getting a tank myself for a while & I like how honest you’ve been with the challenges you’ve faced & how you’ve overcome them! Keep the videos coming & no doubt I will be in touch when I get mine! Thanks!
Callum Melly thanks mate
Looking at getting into saltwater and am looking at either purchasing the reefer 170 or 250. Everything in the stand looks very organized and neat. Keep up the great work.
Tell you something can’t tell your a beginner in the saltwater hobby great set up love your aqua scape great job 👍
Superyellowtang appreciate that mate thank you. I’m learning loads all the time and just love the science behind it all. Just totally fascinated me
If you need any help with anything im here to help been in the hobby 10 years still learning myself 👍
absolutely brilliant! love your tank and how organized you have it! keep it up
Amazing set up, very pro! I’m thinking about buying a Red Sea Reefer 250 used in a few weeks , upgrading from my Waterbox 25
Outstanding setup! I'm also new to the hobby and currently in research mode looking through all the videos. I want make sure I understand everything about it before putting any time and money into it. This has been very helpful friend thank you.
Great job, really good set up. I’ve been looking at Red Sea 250 myself . Your commentary was very useful with set up dosing etc 👍🏼 keep it up.
I agree with people's comments below, can't tell you are a beginner. The tank looks great. I only have a helpful tip. Watch your sandsifting goby. Your tank is newly setup and hasn't had a chance for microfauna to accumulate in your sand bed. It's also very clean. So having said that, if you notice your goby getting thin you can get sinking pellets and crush them a little and sprinkle it on the sand in front of his mound or even in it. If it's eating the mysis and prepared foods well then you have no worries and he should be fine. He looks great so far.
goophy30 he loves frozen (thawed out!) mysis! Plus my sinking pellet too! Thanks for this as I was also worried too at first but he seems to eat whatever is on offer atm
Welcome to the marine side of the hobby. The tank looks awesome. Very exciting.
Well thought out approach to your plumbing and sump..Clean and organized I like it,may I suggest if you haven't already done it add a hermit crab in the refugium it will take care of nuisance algae..4-5 Bumblebee snails Trocus and Asteria snails a single Emerald crab to help keep bubble algae in check..Nice tank well done mate.
Great video. I got the same aquarium system as well, but in black. I'm also documenting my experience and I'm a first time saltwater tank hobbyist as well! :)
Oh man, what a beautiful and tidy setup! I’m very jealous! I’m in the researching process now and could only hope to have half as nice a setup.
gd6585 ah thanks very much mate. Good luck with yours mate
Awesome set-up, clearly no expense spared! I wouldn't worry too much about your kH, if you are planning on stocking mostly frags/small colonies, they will enjoy the additional kH. Red Sea's Coral Pro salt has a kH of 12dkH for maximum coral growth. Once your corals have grown in after a couple of years and they are all a decent size you can then begin to drop the kH to around 8dkH to sustain slower but 'stronger' growth, i.e. corals grow denser but far slower.
Keep up the vids and best of luck with the tank!
Amazing video mate, an amazing tank so neat. I’m on the same journey as you but I’m at the start, I’m looking at tonnes of videos, books etc. I hope mine will be like yours one day, keep up the good work.
Very neat sump area. Nice coral setup.
Great looking tank. Hoping to get a Reefer 250 myself.
Brilliant set up
Looking lush mate will defo keep an eye on how things progress .. just try not to get hung up on everything you read that you need all sorts of equipment. I ran a reef with just an external fluval and it was fine . Corals and fish ...
Really nice, a job well done,I like that in a person!
Robert Malaney thanks very much mate
wow landscape is awesome, very nice setup!
Can you send me the links to where you purchased your plumbing or what parts you ordered . Also have the m1 pump and want to install reactors like you have done very cleverly. Thanks in Advance. Great setup .
Love you tank I am looking at the 170. Thanks for showing us your set up! Oh, and by the way, in America we speak English not American. :)
I like your style! I envy your first set up! looks great.
Your aquarium is awesome! Great setup. I would highly recommend a 35ppt calibration solution for the refractometer instead of calibrating to RO water. Will be much more steady and accurate.
You said you were new but looks like a pro setup to me.
Your setup is excellent man! The equipment you have is all top notch and not at all what I would expect from a “beginner” and you also seem to know pretty well what you are doing. I’m pretty sure you will be successful. I would only suggest you exchange those stainless steel hose clamps with plastic ones. Also, question: why do you have the phosphate reactor, the algae reactor and also dose NOPOX? All of those methods remove phosphate, they can affect each others effectiveness when used simultaneously and it seems like a bit of overkill. Keep making videos man! Great job!
Lee I have to say you have an awesome set up there, especially for a beginner. That has to be one of the neatest sumps I have ever seen !. I’m hoping to buy an aquarium soon and want to get a lot of the bits you have on your set up, like an Apex controller and Wav’s etc. The Red Sea 250 is one of the aquariums I have been considering as well as Elos, EA and Reef Octopus. I’d love to see your system close up if possible and the chance to have a chin wag and ask you about the issues you’ve encountered in setting up your system. I think you’re pretty close to me, I’m in the Sidcup Orpington area. Where about do you buy all your bits from ?.
Regards
Paul
Hi, very nice tank ! hope it is still in good shape ... I've got the same reef tank, but it is in water since February. I can see two reactors on the left side, one for carbon and the other i can't determine what you are using in it ? sorry for my english. Hope to read you soon. Best regards from Normandy - France . Marc
How many pieces of rock did you use to make this scape? Beautiful scape!
Seen your sump all over the Red Sea page, I like it a lot! Very neat and tidy. Just quickly though, with the ALR reactor you have, doesn't the dose of NoPox prevent the Chaeto from growing? I am just as new to the hobby as you but thought that NoPox removes the nitrate before the Chaeto can benefit and grow from it.
Depending on how much you are dosing and also depends on what light you have over it and also how fast your chaeto is growing If you have rapid growth in the chaeto then it can possibly suck up nutrients before they climb so in reality if you have consistent growth in your chaeto then you don’t really need to be dosing no pox only if your nutrient number is really high like 20 ppm or higher ideal is like close to 0 or 5 ppm depends on what coral you have if you have lps or soft coral then they can tolerate high nitrate like 20 ppm and still be fine but if you have or want a mixed reef consisting of lps and sps then you wanna try to keep your nitrate around 5 ppm because coral in general do need some nitrate to survive
Welcome to the community buddy and the tank is looking great 👌I've subbed aswell, looking forward for more updates 💪
reef guy 92 thanks very much mate
Lee Havard your welcome buddy it's always good to have new reefers to watch
Looks beautiful bro! Well done!
jamesrecon14 thank you mate
Very impressive start! Where can I get one of these acryclic lids?
Tank looks lovely! You may want to try and feed Masstick to your fish, this being a fairly new set up. Subbed
Chris Groves I will look up masstick as I heard someone else talked my about this a couple of weeks ago but wasn’t sure what it was! I’m intrigued 🤔
This is a piece of art!
Can you please make video of your plumbing and how you connect and turn the valves on and off?
Hi Lee. Very beautiful tank. I do like the idea with the Mdf panels. How did you fix them?
Michel Weis thank you! The mdf was cut quite tight on the vertical piece and then the side piece which I mounted my reactors to were stuck with heavy duty Velcro as I didn’t want to screw into the unit itself
Excellent! Very nice tank👍🏾
Looks great man! Keep the videos coming.
Josh Houser thank you mate appreciate that!
Lee , sometimes the journey can be more fun than the destination... Love coming along with you mate. Greeting stateside!
Thanks for a nice video. I really like your lid. I have the e260 version of your tank and am going lidless so far but that is limiting my fish choice. I live in Aus so cant use your same manufacturer but did you just go to an acrylic specialist or how did you go about sourcing the lid? Thanks
thanks for that michael. Best thing to do is put up a post on the red sea group and ask about the acrylic lid as thats what i did and i had a few recommendations straight away! also red sea have brought their DIY kits out now too
Lee Havard good idea. Thx
I did subscribe looking forward to more updates 👍
Great looking tank! I'm new too, about 2 months in. Do you have a contact for your guy mark who created the lid, been after something similar for my fluval evo 13.5 , been emailing all around and it's in non of their capacity. Be such a great help!
James
James Phelan hi mate thanks for the comments. Yeh his name is mark vince and if you look up reeftops on Facebook that’s him. Just let him know I referred you
Ideal! Cheers Lee
Ideal! Cheers lee
Looks as though you have had a great start to the hobby . Welcome . Be warned thought it can be addictive
I'm purchasing the Reefer 250 soon. Does it still hold up after a couple years? Any tips or advice?
Amazing work
beautiful tank 😊
looking good dude!
great job
Nice tank! I'm about to pick my reefer 250 next week, I can't wait!!! Have you kept the stock return pump or have to had to up-rate it due to the other equipment coming off your manifold?
Sorry, I kept watching and you said what pump you had :P
Love the ALR tho! I think I will have to be getting myself one of those!
Really like your video.
Neil Hodkinson thanks mate!
wow, where can I buy that lid? its beautiful
Brian Goldstein it was made by a guy I met on the Red Sea owners group on Facebook. His name is mark vince. Search rooftops on google or find them here
m.facebook.com/ReefTops/?locale2=en_GB
Mention my name when you speak to him.
Lee Havard
you can invest in a milwaukee refractometer, saves me sooooo much time not having to recalibrate the refractometer.
i've had mine for 6 months, and after the initial calibration, it has needed 0 further calibration so far.
What’s going on lee hey man well done on this video and nice aqua scape congratulations on your first salt water setup ,you will for sure be successful just acknowledging the equipment and materials you need and being consistent and trying to gain more knowledge will only help your tank be more successful and thrive and like other people said your pretty much sound like a vet just by how you speak on everything regarding your tank it seem like you already have years of experience I’m 1000 % sure you will be growing corals like crazy and everything. So hey I’m a fan of yours because I see the potential in your setup you pretty much have everything you need now it’s just about time and adding corals and watching them grow im some what of a newbie as well been in this hobby two years now and I’m addicted I’ve learned a lot from other people and my own experiences but hey if you need advice or help you can sub to my channel or send a message would be more then happy to help you out I’m really excited for the progression of your tank ! Nice video keep it up
Claudius Reefer Taylor thanks for that mate that’s very kind of you to say
Lee Havard hey your welcome it’s really a nice hobby to be in and once you get more fish and coral and things start to grow your fiancé will be glad that you bought this setup love red sea products
But yea I mean it your doing a good job
Who made that cool cover??
What lights are you using and what is your experience with them?
how much maintenance time a week do you think you have to spend on your tank. I'm just thinking at getting into this and want to make sure I have enough spare time to care for one.thanks
G MX it really does depend on what you want out of the tank and also what equipment you buy for your tank. If you spend a bit and get good quality equipment to help the running of the tank t will save you a lot of time. I reckon I do around 2 hours a week maintenance. Eg cleaning and water change.
I do however tinker with the tank all the time. If you do bits here and there during the week, come the weekend when it’s water change time you won’t need to spend as much time on it then if you know what I mean
Hey can i know what live rock you got? The brand
nice video buddy
dan wood thanks mate maybe I will do a couple more after all! Have made a few changes and improvements lately and got more coral so will do one soon
great! !
How much rock did you use?
Typical beginner spending thousands for a small aquarium that should only cost hundreds. haha Nice setup though