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Hello! About a year and a half ago, I started my first reef aquarium which was a BioCube 16. Even though I had been told nano tanks can be hard to maintain due to the small water volume, I had a great time with that tank and learned a TON. For me, it worked very well to "get my feet wet" in the reefing world. The small size and (relatively) cheaper cost, allowed me to get started and find out if I really enjoyed it and would stick with it. I always knew that if I did really enjoy reefing, that I would eventually upgrade to a larger aquarium. I had originally wanted to go with a RedSea Reefer 425XL, but a friend of a friend decided to sell his RSR 250 and it was a deal that I could not pass up! The tank had been up and running for about six months before he took it down and it is in near perfect condition. I bought the tank back in August 2020 and today (2/5/21), I am finally adding water to it. I'll add more details in subsequent posts, but just wanted to get this thread started and say Hello! As this thread continues, I'll try to keep this first post updated with the latest equipment and livestock. Tank: RedSea Reefer 250 Salt: Fritz RPM Aquascape: About 50 lbs CaribSea Life Rock (40 lbs regular rock/10 lbs arches) Sand: 20 lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Live Sand (about 1 inch deep) Lighting: RedSea ReefLED 90W x2 Return Pump: Octopus Varios-6 Powerhead: Ecotech Vortech MP40wQD Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160 Algae Turf Scrubber: IceCap 20W Heater: Finnex 150W Heater with Inkbird WiFi controller Chemical Filtration: TBD Mechanical Filtration: RedSea Filter Cups filled with matrix and topped with filter floss ATO: TBD, Innovative Marine HydroFill Reservoir 15 Gal Tank Modifiations: Removed stock plumbing and replaced with custom plumbing P.S. I love hearing other people’s opinions and suggestions! Please comment all you want!!! Edited: 3/2/21 Livestock: TBD Will be transferring over 2x Ocellaris Clownfish and 1x Blood Fire Shrimp 1x Melanurus Wrasse in QT Corals: TBD - will be transferring: Duncan 1x Green/Purple Hammer 1x Toxic Green Hammer 2x Ricordea Florida (orange and green) Ultra Orange Rhodactis Mushroom Blastomussa merletti (I believe, could be wellsi) Green star polyp Frogspawn Candy Cane Plating red Montipora Solid pink Scoly Meteor Shower Cyphastrea JF Burning Banana Stylocoeniella Encrusting white/green Montipora Neon Green Cabbage Leather Rainbow Trachyphyllia

Hello Nano Reefers, been in the hobby off and on since 2004...but due to military service I haven't been able to keep a reef going for more than a few years at a time. On a positive note, this has allowed me to start up several tanks and learn as much as possible, especially from my mistakes. Throughout the years I've browsed several the of reefing community sites, but never created a profile or interacted with folks. I decided it was time to finally create a profile and start this journal in an effort to document my tank's progress over the next couple of years. I'll be able to retire in about 18 months and would like to eventually start a large reef in the 200 gallon range. My desire to start this current tank was to begin building my coral collection in order to transfer them to the larger system upon retirement. My plan was to keep it as simple as possible, reuse the equipment I had on hand and see if I could successfully grow SPS corals in this "smaller" system. Got the tank wet and started the cycle in January 2018. * Upgraded to a Red Sea Reefer XL425 - Sep 2019 Parameters: Temp: 77.8 Salinity: 1.025 Calcium: 395 - 415 Alkalinity: 7.5 - 8.0 Magnesium: 1260 Nitrate: 20 ppm Phosphate: .03 Equipment: Aquarium - Red Sea Reefer XL425 Return Pump - Simplicity 120DC Flow - 2x Nero 5, 2x Icecap Gyre 4K Lights - 3x Radion XR15 w/ diffusers & Aquatic Life T5 w/ 2x blue plus & 2x coral plus bulbs Dosing Pump - ATI 6 channel Skimmer - Simplicity 240DC Heater - Eheim Jager 250w x2 Controller - Neptune Apex EL Filtration: Skimmer Filter Socks Carbon (occasionally) GFO (sparingly) 85 lbs Marco & Reef Cleaners Rock Dosing: ESV Calcium and Alkalinity Brightwell Magnesium Acropower Stability (on occasion) Livestock: Fish: Wyoming White Clownfish Six Line Wrasse Falco Hawkfish Scribbled Rabbitfish Captive Bred Yellow Tang Captive Bred Rolland's Damsel x3 Corals: Jack O Lantern Leptosaris Green Leptosaris Mr. Freeze Leptosaris Meteor Shower Cyphastrea Burning Banana Stylocoenela LA Lakers Scroll Coral ORA Purple Stylophora Green Stylophora Birds of Paradise Seriatopora Sunset Montipora Slow Burn Montipora Red Montipora Cap Seasons Greetings Montipora Cap Rainbow Montipora Mystic Sunset Montipora Orange Montipora Digitata Green Montipora Digitata German Blue Polyp Montipora Digitata Jedi Mindtrick Montipora Tubb's Stellata Montipora Green Goblin Anacropora JF TNT Anacropora Cali Tort Acro GARF Bonsai Acro ORA Frogskin Acro ORA Pearlberry Acro Bali Green Slimer Acro Miyagi Tort Acro ORA Red Planet Acro JF Coolers Champagne Acro JF Fox Flame Acro Pink Lemonade Acro ASL Red Robin Acro JRC Great Unknown Acro JRC Oscar the Grouch Acro JKR Apocalypse Now Acro FHC Kryptonic Acro Blueberry Limeade Tenuis Acro RRC Pink Cadillac Acro TCK Orange Milli Acro TCK Pikachu Acro TCK Rainbow Acro TCK Molten Core Acro TCK Pink Bear Acro Sanjay's Leprechaun Beard Acro ARC Fireworks Acro CC Firewalker Milli Acro WWC Lil' Red Ferrari Acro WWC Yellow Tips Acro Katropora - Acropora Subulata Thanks for looking, Andre Nuvo 30l - 2018 Red Sea Reefer XL425 - 2020

Hi Folks, I'm currently in the cycling process of my Red Sea Reefer 170. This is my third tank. I started this tank with BRS Dry Rock, and live sand from BRS. I added a shrimp 3-4 days ago. It's beginning to disintegrate in my filter sock, still no ammonia readings. I added a small live rock and some chaeto yesterday. Before adding shrimp I began with Red Sea Mature Pro cycling kit however my readings using API & Salifert show to be 0 on everything Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite. This is after seven days... 77.3 *F 8.17 ph 34.2 salt 233 ORP Visually, the tank looks clean. No signs of diatoms. Where the $#%* is my ammonia haha?! Either this tank is cycling very efficiently and it's undetectable or Red Sea's Mature Pro cycling kit is pure snake oil. Prove me wrong. What to do next... Edit: I added the live sand and dry rock one week before beginning the cycling product from Red Sea.

I’m seriously considering upgrading my current Red Sea Reefer Nano(18x18x18, 21 gal display). the two replacement options are the Reefer 250 (35x21x20, 54 GAL display) and the waterbox 70 (24x24x22; 47 gal display). The demensions of the waterbox would allow me to use my currrent NanoBox Duo light without any supplementation and would allow more depth for aquascaping. The Reefer would allow for increased length and increased sump space, but would require an additional light purchase. All other equipment from my current aquarium could be used on either tank for the short term at least.

Alright everyone! Here is a start to a new beginning, I recently shut down a nuvo fusion 10g (wee tanked) as well as a rimless 70 gallon which I did not post on here before in order to set up a Red Sea Reefer 170!!! I tried my my best to go with top notch equipment and so far I think I've done pretty well! So on to the specs thus far and then some pictures! Tank : Red Sea Reefer 170 Return pump : Ecotech Vectra M1 Powerhead : Ecotech Mp40w Quiet Drive Skimmer : Reef Octopus 110sss Light : Ai Hydra26HD ato: tunze nano ato Salt: DD H2Ocean pro+ mods: stock ato to refugium mod (sicce 1.0 for pump) filter sock changed to shaker cup mod for filter floss Current livestock: Gladiator clownfish pair Leopard wrasse Full moon goby 5x sexy shrimp 3x peppermint shrimp designer zoa/palys torches leathers Bluespot clam Anemones sps And now onto the pictures! If you have any questions feel free to ask!