As some of you already know by following my RSM 250 chronicle (http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?threads/john-whippetguy-rsm-250.72114/), I recently purchased a Red Sea Reefer 450. I had modified my RSM 250 so much and made a few rookie mistakes with it being my first tank that I was ready to upgrade to something a little larger and be able to choose the equipment that I preferred from the get go. My equipment is as follows: Lighting consists of 2 Ecotech Radion XR30 with wide angle lens which seems to offer enough spread for what I want. I've gone with 2 Maxspect Gyre 150 for water movement. At the moment, I have one horizontal on one side and one vertical on the other just to see what I prefer and may leave it this way. In the sump, I'm using an Ecotech Vectra M1 which I cannot rave about enough. It's very nice to control the return power and also to be able to decrease the flow to a trickle when feeding the tank. My protein skimmer is a NYOS Quantum 160 which is dead silent and so far skimming very well. I'm also using a Reef Octopus Biochurn 120 in the sump for biopellets which I've had good success with in both of my other tanks. I have an external ATO reservoir with a Tunze 3155 osmolator to add water to the RSR reservoir so I don't have to add water to that daily. Tank has been cycling since early December using cured live rock and some dry Caribsea life rock. I've also added a big MarinePure block in the sump for more bacteria to aid in the nitrification process. I've added a small CUC from reefcleaners a couple of weeks ago along with some pods and macroalgae from Reefs2go. From my RSM 250, I've transferred my 2 anemones so they could move around to their location of choice before I started placing any corals. They seem to be doing well so far. I've also transferred a couple of corals since and today, I transferred my 2 black/white clowns and my starry blenny. They all seem to be very happy so far. I'll try and catch the faster swimmers of the fish out of my old system tomorrow. Here are couple of quick phone photos.
Beautiful! Love the dimesions of that tank. Where did you get your live rock? Awesome idea to use an Osmolator to top off the top off reservoir. Look forward to frequent progress reports!
Thanks, David! I used some dried rock that I've been hanging on to and bought some CaribSea dry Liferock from Salty Supply. Got my two speedsters, hogfish and yellowtail chromis, in the new tank today. The funny thing is that they all hang out in one half of the tank. I'm not sure they realize there's more real estate yet. I'll be adding a couple more fish down the road. Looking forward to filling it up with coral in the meantime.
