Natural Blue
New member
Hi all, starting back in the hobby after a couple year break and only having about 6-7 months of experience prior due to kids and dogs making life extremely busy.
I just purchased a white Red Sea Reefer 250 on Sunday and it should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.
I had a thread started in the sponsor forums but figured I'd start an official build thread.
I'm looking for a little advice in two areas, equipment and cycling specific to the live rock I purchased.
Equipment:
Return Pump - Waveline DC-6000
Skimmer - Leaning towards a Skims SM163 but curious about Bubble Magnus or Reef Octopus. Also, is there a Skims knock-off that's just as good? It seems a lot of the products out there have knock off competition for half the price and some just as good.
Powerhead - I just got a killer deal on a Jebao RW-8 so I'll have that and possibly purchase and MP40 to go along with it.
Lighting - This is the hardest to decide, I'm leaning now towards an Kessil AP700 or two 360a's.
RODI - What's a good unit for under $150. I see some people using a 4 stage amazon/ebay 100 GPD unit for $50-$60. We do have Chloramines in our water here in OK.
Cycling
I lucked out and purchased 55lbs of really nice live rock and 40lbs of Carib sea agri alive sand for $100. The guy I bought if from on craigslist just happened to be the same guy I sold my RODI unit to years ago when I stopped the hobby. Thought that was pretty a pretty crazy coincidence.
Anyway, he already cycled the live rock and sand for approximately 8 weeks and purchased everything new before quickly getting out of saltwater due to finding out they are having another kiddo. I currently have it all in a covered brute trash can with heater and powerhead until my tank is setup, which brings me to my questions.
1. Should I continue to ghost feed the rock or am I okay just topping of evaporation with RODI?
2. If I get new sand, does new sand need to be cycled? It's nice that my live rock is already cured and cycled so I'd like not to cycle again but it wouldn't be a big deal since I need to let the funds recover before stocking.
Oh, just for having pictures, I've already repainted an accent wall in the home office where the tank will reside.
Before:

After:

Thanks for the help and for following along!
I just purchased a white Red Sea Reefer 250 on Sunday and it should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.

I'm looking for a little advice in two areas, equipment and cycling specific to the live rock I purchased.
Equipment:
Return Pump - Waveline DC-6000
Skimmer - Leaning towards a Skims SM163 but curious about Bubble Magnus or Reef Octopus. Also, is there a Skims knock-off that's just as good? It seems a lot of the products out there have knock off competition for half the price and some just as good.
Powerhead - I just got a killer deal on a Jebao RW-8 so I'll have that and possibly purchase and MP40 to go along with it.
Lighting - This is the hardest to decide, I'm leaning now towards an Kessil AP700 or two 360a's.
RODI - What's a good unit for under $150. I see some people using a 4 stage amazon/ebay 100 GPD unit for $50-$60. We do have Chloramines in our water here in OK.
Cycling
I lucked out and purchased 55lbs of really nice live rock and 40lbs of Carib sea agri alive sand for $100. The guy I bought if from on craigslist just happened to be the same guy I sold my RODI unit to years ago when I stopped the hobby. Thought that was pretty a pretty crazy coincidence.
Anyway, he already cycled the live rock and sand for approximately 8 weeks and purchased everything new before quickly getting out of saltwater due to finding out they are having another kiddo. I currently have it all in a covered brute trash can with heater and powerhead until my tank is setup, which brings me to my questions.
1. Should I continue to ghost feed the rock or am I okay just topping of evaporation with RODI?
2. If I get new sand, does new sand need to be cycled? It's nice that my live rock is already cured and cycled so I'd like not to cycle again but it wouldn't be a big deal since I need to let the funds recover before stocking.
Oh, just for having pictures, I've already repainted an accent wall in the home office where the tank will reside.
Before:

After:

Thanks for the help and for following along!