Mike Bivens
Member
Looking to buy a Red Sea max -s 650 ... Any advise pros/cons. I had many salt tanks 30 years ago and the technology is so different. Just need some advise before I jump in head first. I will want a reef tank soft corals etc.
Welcome to Reef Sanctuary,
I have little experience with those systems so if I was going to setup one of those up I would start reading the Reef Chronicles here on those aquariums.
We have quite the community of RSM keepers
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?forums/red-sea-max-owners-club.180/
Looking to buy a Red Sea max -s 650 ... Any advise pros/cons. I had many salt tanks 30 years ago and the technology is so different. Just need some advise before I jump in head first. I will want a reef tank soft corals etc.
30 years ago in SW reef keeping is a long time ago and quite a lot has changed. The way of doing things has really evolved. If you haven't already done so, get yourself a couple of modern books on reefkeeping and study them. Yea, it's fun to read all the nice web pages, but a lot of this information is inaccurate or obsolete. Also, while the information is on the web, it's all over the place, and it's easy to miss a few key points.
A Red Sea Max-s 650 is a great system, but it is large and going to be expensive by the time you get it all stocked and everything. Consider starting with a much more modest system. In your case this isn't as much for the experience as it is to make sure you really want a reef system and all that goes with it.
This great advice.
I will add I’ve been running a Red Sea C-250 for about 4 years and I think it is amazingly awesome. In fact, I’m bummed they don’t make it anymore.
Personally, I hate rimless, which is all they do now. But, that’s 100% a style thing. Red Sea tanks are top notch aside from that.
I dislike open top mostly for style reasons, nothing practical. So, I wouldn’t worry about. That said, I like the look of the S-650. It does it absolutely as well as it can be done. MUCH better looking than many of the open top tanks IMO.
One of the practical reasons Red Sea did that is because they feel it’s better to give some distance between the LEDs and the water. So, they have at least one practical reason to do it. Now, since I’ve run a C-250 for years with LED upgrade, I’m not sure how much that matters to me, but I don’t doubt their research.
Tl;dr: There is nothing wrong with open top at all, many people like it, and the S-650 does it as well as it can be done.
Hi Mike and welcome to Reef Sanctuary.
I’ve got the 2016 Red Sea Max S 650 which you can take a look at on my build thread below if your interested.
They are open top, but they are stunning, and more importantly everything is hidden away. So no power heads, pumps or anything else on show other than the small return nozzles. So you can put them in your living room and have a thriving coral reef by your side. Just don’t look at the wires in the back lol!
The hoods are personal choice, but I like them open top. I only recently added a mesh cover as I now have Wrasse which tend to want to ‘fly’! But even the Red Sea mesh cover looks nice as it’s custom made for the tanks.
If you have time on your hands, just read and learn as much as you can about the hobby. Just think of yourself as a ‘keeper of water’ and if you can keep all the water parameters stable and at correct levels you should do fine. The bigger the tank volume, the easier it is to control as you can less dramatic swings.
The S650 is a big beast when it comes to filling it with fish and corals so you will need a big wallet, but it means it’s big enough to ‘feed your addiction’ as it grows lol!
Just a note to say beyond all the technological changes, the basis wil always remain the same, consistently great water with all parameters on point, stable, and the ability to maintain those parameters on the long term.