Was looking to buy a Red Sea Reefer 350, but have been looking at some issues with them and now am worried. Recommendations?

[One Reefing Boi]

I was looking to order a Red Sea reefer 350 in about 2 months after we move to our brand new house.

After doing a bit of searching though, it seems that some people are having issues with the Red Sea tanks randomly breaking at the silicone seals and flooding their rooms with 75+ gallons of salt water. Pretty sure if this happened to me in my parents brand new house I would be out of the will.

Is this a very rare issue? is it something that can be seen and prepared for or is this like a 'snap' and it's over.

What other options in that size (can't go any bigger because of limited space) and price range ($2k-$3k) non-custom build would you recommend?

 

[Sophisticated Reefer]

No this is not a rare issue, I have this also at the moment and red Sea is not going to help me in any way

Just don't buy their aquarium

 

[One Reefing Boi]

No this is not a rare issue, I have this also at the moment and red Sea is not going to help me in any way

Just don't buy their aquarium

hmmm ok.. thanks. what other brands would have comparable systems like the 350, know of any off the top of your head?

 

[Sophisticated Reefer]

Waterbox is a option, but I don't have experience with them.
Maybe a custom made tank?

 

[MikeIkerson]

Go to some of your local fish stores and see what they have for sale. I wanted a Red Sea originally, then after all of the seals started going bad I switched to Waterbox. I went to a lfs to get a quote on one and they had Planet Aquarium tanks that were much higher quality and not ikea put together stands like Red Sea and Waterbox have. I ended up buying a 130 gal Planet Aquarium tank.

 

[Sophisticated Reefer]

Red Sea is just 100% in marketing but almost none in support or quality, they give away these aquariums to people with a big following but treat their normal customers as trash

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Waterbox is a option, but I don't have experience with them.
Maybe a custom made tank?

for some reason I am just not super into the custom builds... no clue why tbh. ill do some research on the Waterbox though. Thanks

 

[One Reefing Boi]

Go to some of your local fish stores and see what they have for sale. I wanted a Red Sea originally, then after all of the seals started going bad I switched to Waterbox. I went to a lfs to get a quote on one and they had Planet Aquarium tanks that were much higher quality and not ikea put together stands like Red Sea and Waterbox have. I ended up buying a 130 gal Planet Aquarium tank.

thanks for the name, I will look into Planet Aquarium too and see what they offer. My LFS only has Red Sea but there is a 'not so local LFS' like an hour away I might make the trek to go to

 

[Treecop]

I was thinking about a Red Sea Reefer myself. Maybe not now.

 

[Tang22]

No this is not a rare issue, I have this also at the moment and red Sea is not going to help me in any way

Just don't buy their aquarium

Mind if I confirm which model this is and how old the tank is?

 

[Midrats]

Innovative Marine has some nice tanks with internal and external overflows.

 

[rsaylor3]

I purchased a Red Sea Reefer 300xl two months ago. I had looked at them, the waterbox and the Innovative Marine tanks. Honestly, I felt they were all very nice quality and like anything, there will always be some some quality control issues with some units. One of my local fish stores that sells Red Sea had the 300xl out of box and stand installed. So for me, I was able to inspect the entire tank and make sure the silicone as well as everything else was in perfect order.

I have been very pleased with my purchase, even though it's been only a couple months! Just my 2 cents I'm sure I would have been just as happy with the Waterbox or Innovative Marine units.

 

[Sophisticated Reefer]

Mind if I confirm which model this is and how old the tank is?

Rsr 425XL, since I knew there was air in the seams tank was 2,5 years old

 

[Tastee]

It’s hard to form an objective view from a post like this as those who have had issues will far more likely reply to you than those who haven’t. Conventional wisdom in the retail industry is that a person who has had a bad experience is likely to tell 20 times more people than someone who has had a good experience will tell others about that. In high value hobbies like this that ratio could be even higher.

Personally I have a RSR 250 (v2 I think) and a RSR 525XL v3. The 250 is 3 years old and the 525 7 months. Both are going really well and I am very happy with the build quality of both. There are lots of posts about RSR owners who have had tanks long term very successfully in fact there is a long running thread in this forum dedicated to RSR.

I am not saying others have not had problems, obviously they have. From everything I have read (nearly daily over the past 3 years) RSR and WB owners have similar experiences, mostly good, some bad.

Another option for you, and full disclosure I am Australian so am shamelessly promoting an Aussie product, is the Cade series. There are lots of very good reviews and reports of them out there. Good luck whichever way you go.

 

[Rit6942]

Red Sea makes cheap junk........most the $ you invest into their equipment goes into their marketing dept or exec pockets..........

 

[Peach02]

to my knowledge it is not a common issue if it was they wouldn’t be able to continue as a business, that being said they have had issues with their stands, silicone and ease of filling ato units etc

As for alternatives I’d look at waterbox or Cade I don’t know enough about planet aquariums or other brands not available in Aus to reccomend them.

Waterbox is essentially Red Sea tanks but different dimentions, better quality and a little cheaper from memory

Cade is like waterbox but aluminium stands and white base glass pannel and aio style ato tank.

Imho both are worth checking out if you can find a supplier

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Red Sea makes cheap junk........most the $ you invest into their equipment goes into their marketing dept or exec pockets..........

As a previous owner of a reefer I second that statement. They are not even close to being with the premium.
The tanks aren’t that bad (unless they pop) but the stands are freaking atrocious.
For that price you should get something with a powder coated steel frame and not some flimsy crap that can’t handle moisture and has a risk of sagging.

I went custom due to the fact that I couldn’t find anything ready made that I felt was worth the asking price and the step up to something really nice wasn’t that steep.

 

[tas]

Innovative Marine makes some nice tanks up to 150 or 200 gallons
Planet Aquariums makes nice tanks
Cade aquariums are now in the us and have nice looking tanks but I haven’t seen it in person
Glass cages is under new management, tanks look very nice and now offer stands

 

[RVA REEF]

for the people saying their tank and silicone looks good at the shop or out the freight box...thats not the problem. Its once it goes on the stand that it starts to fail because the stand is garbage. Red sea is like the rimless version of marineland, except marineland doesn't delete failure stories on facebook lol I get that there will be a few failures from every product but the way the handle things isnt ok and there are other manufacturers out there (cade innovative marine and waterbox)that have better stands and customer service.