Jenyphur's Red Sea REEFER MAX 300 G2+ Build

[Jenyphur]

I'm back in!

Hi all...I recently took a trip to Maldives and realized I miss having my own reef so I have decided to come back to the hobby. My first venture into saltwater/reef tank was back in 2017- 2019 and I had an AIO Biocube 32. I loved it and was perfect for me at the time. In 2020 I moved to Hawaii and was not able to continue with my tank. I'm now back in the states and just recently moved into a new house. Unfortunately I didn't realize I was going to be getting back into the hobby when the house was being built or else I would have had a much better plan going forward. Oh well, I'll make the best of what I have to work with.

I decided to gift myself (for Christmas) the Red Sea Refeer Max G2+ 300. It's the largest I could fit in my office and I love that everything is essentially plug and play. I do have limited space in there as I have a custom built in desk as I work from home and this is my space.

My Build Specs:

Total system water volume​

79.3 gal

Display tank water vol.​

65 gal

In-Cabinet sump water vol.​

15 gal

Lighting​

2 x ReefLED 90

Water circulation​

2 x ReefWave25 (1,980 gph) linear wave pumps

Main system pump​

1x ReefRun 5500 (530-1450 gph)

Protein Skimmer
RSK DC 300 (Water flow 265 gph air flow 130 gph)

ReefMat​

ReefMat 500

ATO
RedSea ATO+ - no reservoir yet so using 5 gallon jug

Sand
CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand 40 lbs

Rock
CaribSea Purple Life Rock Shapes (per lb) × 20
CaribSea Life Rock Original (per lb) × 15

Cycle Technique
Fishless using Brightwell MicroBacter Starter XML

Type of Tank
Mixed with softies, LPS and I really want to try my hand at a montipora. There were many of these in Maldives and I found them to be one of my favorites.

Livestock
Still deciding but a few that I know for sure are a pair of clowns and a goby and pistol shrimp pair. Still lots of time to figure out what I want.

Other Items Purchased:
Red Sea Doser 4 and tubing
ATO102 10 gal narrow black acrylic from Advanced Aquatics
Inkbird heater controller with wifi
Helio 400 Watt PTC Smart Heater 2x200W
Kasa Smart Power Strips
Hanna Marine Master - couldn't help it...it was on sale for Black Friday
Hanna Salinity Tester
Under cabinet lighting with auto turn on/off
Various other 'stuff' - still much more to get


December 27, 2023
Local fish store delivered the tank and equipment and I paid to have them put everything together. So yes, I cheated. But to be honest...it was money well spent. I will say I made some mistakes already. I should have done a better job at being more prepared for the delivery and what I wanted as far as aquascape, power management, cable management, etc. I should have had them deliver and set up but not add water or aquascape. That would have given me time to put together the scape better and to deal with my cables, control board, etc. I'll explain more later on this.

December 31, 2023
After a few interesting days of getting used to the equipment, essentially watching every video out there, reading all the manuals, etc...I haver a pretty good idea what's going on. I have never had a sump, protein skimmer or a reef mat so those are all new to me. It took a bit for me to get the flow right (for now) and to get everything purring like a kitten. I still have a tiny bit of trickle noise where the mat flows into the skimmer area but I'll figure that out later.

My biggest issues so far:
1. The rockscape - it's not 'secure' in any way and the rocks were just placed on top of each other and are leaning/touching the back creating dead spots. I really want to take it all out and mortar the pieces together and move it forward an inch or two if possible.

2. Cable management - The pull out control panel is pretty much useless. First of all, I think they gave me the wrong size (the smaller one) and quite honestly not even sure I want to use it. It seems cumbersome and I don't like seeing the cables in the back. I have been doing a lot of research and I think I want to take this out and build a hinged control board that will hide all the cables behind it (in a nice neat way). I seriously hate clutter and it's driving me crazy right now. I know I need to do this sooner than later so this will be my next big project over the next week or so. The good news is that the cabinets that were built for me in my office have shelves in black that I can repurpose for the hinged panel. I do need to seal the mdf on the edges so it doesn't swell. More on this later. There really just isn't a lot of space in this cabinet. Luckily I will be using the left two cabinets in my built in bookcase to store most of my supplies and possibly even a small refridgerator/freezer for my food.

Other things planned:
Lid - probably from Kraken lids as I have lost fish in the past due to jumping and it was a really sad thing to wake up to.

So now on to some pictures.

Would love to hear any feedback you have especially if you have a cabinet/tank my size and how you handled the cable management control panel part.

 

[Red_Beard]

Nice, that will be awesome when it gets stocked up and fills in! I think we all feel your pain on cable management, mine has been up 4 years now and i just redid all my cables and hardware mounting. Was a mess before. Much better now. One thing you can also look into to help dress in your cables is called finger duct. It is used in data com and inside larger control panels. Works great to clean stuff up. Comes in a ton of shapes and sizes too, google it up, should be easy to track down.
For your rocks, i also just redid my scape, wasnt happy with it and had musrooms explode and cover every available surface. The mortar route is what i did, so far i think its ok. If you do decide you like stacks and want to keep it wet, you can stack it up in your tank, let it set a day or two to make sure you like it, the use some epoxy sticks to stabilize it all and make it semi permanent.
Sweet tank and good luck!

 

[WonkyWapiti]

Awesome! I'm following this thread as this is the exact tank I keep gravitating to. I was trying to find a way to fit a larger tank in my chosen spot but ultimately this is the size I'll be going with due to space constraints. Zip ties will be your friend with alot of those cables. That is definitely a jumble of clutter that needs to be dealt with, it would drive me nuts.

Did your Red Sea ATO not come with a reservoir? I was watching a video where someone was complaining the one they had was too small.

 

[Red_Beard]

Awesome! I'm following this thread as this is the exact tank I keep gravitating to. I was trying to find a way to fit a larger tank in my chosen spot but ultimately this is the size I'll be going with due to space constraints. Zip ties will be your friend with alot of those cables. That is definitely a jumble of clutter that needs to be dealt with, it would drive me nuts.

Did your Red Sea ATO not come with a reservoir? I was watching a video where someone was complaining the one they had was too small.

Also... never zip ties. Velcro strap. No sharp tails and you can pull it/reuse it without diagonal cutters.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

Also... never zip ties. Velcro strap. No sharp tails and you can pull it/reuse it without diagonal cutters.

If you have the proper cutter, zip ties are fine. Ppl. using diagonal cutters on zip ties are my pet peeve and nightmare. ( I work in an industry that others have gone before and used the wrong cutters and I end up with sliced hands). So I get your point.

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I love the pull out, you just have to do it right.

 

[tzabor10]

Feel your pain with the cord management. We went with small floor cabinets for electricals. Going through the cords weekly to continuously strengthen things out. It’s like combing a child’s hair. Good luck

 

[Lavey29]

I have the same tank but the gen 1 model. I just used my ATO to hide my cable mess and it works as a stand for my fan and red sea doser also. I wouldn't mortar all your rocks together. It will be a pain if you ever have to move them or pull one to scrub it. I have a ton of rocks and nothing has ever come loose or fallen. Pick up a couple live wet real ocean rocks to Jumpstart the biodiversity and microfauna in your tank. The helio system comes with its own controller which works flawless for me past 3 years. Why did you get a separate controller?

 

[bdesign]

My biggest issues so far:
1. The rockscape - it's not 'secure' in any way and the rocks were just placed on top of each other and are leaning/touching the back creating dead spots. I really want to take it all out and mortar the pieces together and move it forward an inch or two if possible.

Although I agree that I wouldn’t like the rocks against the back, I think your rockscape looks great!

Personally, I wouldn’t mortar because, inevitably, I would want/really need to move something.

I’ve used small dabs of silicone in troublesome spots which seemed to work out well.
When I had to move something, it wasn’t impossible to pull things apart.

Those cables are giving me a headache from here! Haha

 

[Nano_Man]

Very nice set up
Enjoy your journey

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along! Can't wait to see how the tank progresses!

 

[1ocean]

Tank Looks good

 

[Jenyphur]

Nothing too exciting to report just yet. Doing a fishless cycle and starting to see some nitrites...very little though. Still working on the cables and controller board...trying to decide what to do. I did see a cool diy solution to do a hinged door...I might go that route. It's hard to plan when I don't have all my equipment here just yet.

 

[Jenyphur]

Although I agree that I wouldn’t like the rocks against the back, I think your rockscape looks great!

Personally, I wouldn’t mortar because, inevitably, I would want/really need to move something.

I’ve used small dabs of silicone in troublesome spots which seemed to work out well.
When I had to move something, it wasn’t impossible to pull things apart.

Those cables are giving me a headache from here! Haha

Thank you and great point about needing to move something. I'll have to see how stable it is when I move it out just a bit and might go with the silicone to stabilize some areas.

 

[Jenyphur]

I have the same tank but the gen 1 model. I just used my ATO to hide my cable mess and it works as a stand for my fan and red sea doser also. I wouldn't mortar all your rocks together. It will be a pain if you ever have to move them or pull one to scrub it. I have a ton of rocks and nothing has ever come loose or fallen. Pick up a couple live wet real ocean rocks to Jumpstart the biodiversity and microfauna in your tank. The helio system comes with its own controller which works flawless for me past 3 years. Why did you get a separate controller?

Good question on the controller....I really just wanted the wifi part that the inkbird will give me. I do travel some and want to be able to be notified if there is an issue so I can let my housesitter know right away. Or am I wrong in my understanding of the helio system? Does it have an alerting capability?

 

[Lavey29]

Good question on the controller....I really just wanted the wifi part that the inkbird will give me. I do travel some and want to be able to be notified if there is an issue so I can let my housesitter know right away. Or am I wrong in my understanding of the helio system? Does it have an alerting capability?

It has audible alerts but not remote alerts. I have read pros and cons to inkbird. I use the same 2 element helio you got 2 x 200w and have never had an issue. Occasionally my chaeto slows flow down and the helio sends out a warning. If an element fails, a second element adds redundancy. Have you checked with IM to see how their element works with inkbird?

 

[flfrosty]

Nice work!

I am going through my own build with a Reefer 200 G2+.

I feel your pain with the pull-out panel. In my case it was useless because I am using the ReefDose pump and it it too thick to mount on the panel because it hits the skimmer.

Currently, I am fighting the ReefBeat app to recognize the skimmer pump. Also, trying to determine what I am going to do for an ATO. The reservoir tanks was discontinued on the 200 (nobody told me this). I dont think it would have fit anyway. Probably a 5 gallon white bucket with a lid for now.

10 miles of cable in a smaller cabinet than your 300 makes for a lot of fun!

 

[exnisstech]

I like your scape. I set up a 300 G2 in February 2023 but not the max version so I don't have the slide out board. Cable management has been an issue as it is on every tank I have. Fortunately I'm not too picky and we never have anyone over that even sees the mess so it's not too neat. I'm up to version 3 of cable organizing and am done. Tank is in a corner so I have all the power head controls outside of the cabinet in the corner along with the ATO container and photon power supplies. All the excess wires are stuffed behind the stand where I don't see them. I really don't think I could be in this hobby if I had OCD.
Third and final version of cable management

The "corner"

 

[WonkyWapiti]

I went to a LFS yesterday to see this tank in person. I really like it, you've got a great tank there. I'm kind of weighing the pros and cons between this and an E-170 but I'll save that for my own thread so as not to hijack this one.

 

[tuscani]

Nice!