Review: Red Sea MAX 250 Coral Reef System (65 Gallon)

By Luke • Jan 17th, 2011 • Category: Hardware and Supplies

Red Sea MAX 250 Plug & Play Coral Reef System

The Red Sea MAX 250 coral reef system aims to make life a lot easier for those that want to set up a 65 gallon reef system in their home or office. This is a beautiful system that contains all the hardware and supplies that you need to get started. An all-inclusive system like this takes the guesswork out of selecting the right hardware, which can be great for beginners and advanced aquarists alike.

In this review, we will take a look at all the features, specs and buyer opinions of this system. If you want to learn the ins and outs of the Red Sea MAX 250 system, keep reading.

What the Name Means

First of all, this system is referred to as the “250″ because it’s 250 liters in volume, which is roughly 66 gallons. Red Sea says that this system has a total capacity of 65 gallons and the aquarium tank itself has a volume of 60 gallons (with the remaining five gallons being the filtration volume). All of the components in this systems have been specifically designed to work as part of the larger whole, ensuring that this system provides the ideal environment for a reef.

This system contains the right lighting, filtration, skimming and circulation required for a reef system, so you can be sure that this is a “reef spec” system right out of the box.

Water Circulation, Filtration and Skimming

This system will fully circulate the water in the aquarium 3 times per hour. The integrated protein skimmer is Turbo injected and has a foam adjustment feature which let’s you adjust the foam volume as needed for varying conditions. There is also a surface skimmer that helps to pull water from the surface, where the majority of the proteins exist. This helps to make the protein skimmer very efficient in how it works.

The filtration utilizes biological media, filter bags and foam filters. The foam filters have been designed in the latest rendition of this system to provide more efficient water flow through the filters.

Expandability

There is also an accessory kit that includes extra fittings to attach any other aftermarket hardware, such as chillers and external filters as needed. This might seem a little trivial, but it allows you to add any other hardware as needed without making the system look likes it’s been patched together.

The Lighting

What about the lighting on this system? The included lighting is reef spec, at 4 watts per gallon. The lighting can be controlled by an on-board light timer. The lights have a total output of 234 watts. The lighting fixture holds 6 T5 Linear Power Compact 39w lamps.

It’s easy to replace lamps when needed, and you can be sure that you have the correct lighting for a reef setup right out of the box.

The Cabinet

When you buy this system, you will get to choose between a black cabinet and silver with pearl white. This may also be a little trivial, but with a light and dark color option, you should be able to match this up with the interior look of your home or office.

The cabinet is also designed to provide good air flow – so if you need to use a chiller you will find that it will be a little more efficient with this cabinet design.

A User Friendly Design

This system has been designed so that it’s easy for you, as the aquarium operator, to maintain it.

The hood can be opened in 3 stages, and it can also be opened fully to give you easy access during aquarium cleaning. If you had used previous renditions of this system, you will find that this is a welcome change in design.

The main power cord also runs out the back rather than the side of the aquarium, another welcome change from previous renditions.

In addition to these 2 features, this system comes with a DVD that shows you the details in regards to using this reef system, leaving you with no guesswork in regards to setup and maintenance.

The Starter Kit

This also comes with a start kit that contains many of the basic testing tools and supplements that you will need when you start up your reef tank. This is really nice if you are a beginner aquarium owner or if you don’t have any of these supplements and testing tools already. If you are already an experienced aquarist, you may have many of these items and not find much need for this.

What does the starter kit include?

26 lbs of salt mix
A Hydrometer
Nitro Bac bio starter
Marine Lab master test kit with: Alkanlinity test, Calcium test, Magnesium test
Coral buff
Calcium and magnesium supplements

How the Filtration Works

The filtration that it integrated with this system works to keep the water in top quality condition. How does it work?

The water is initially pulled into the filtration system through the surface skimmer into the protein skimmer. The protein skimmer removes organic compounds from the water before they can turn into harmful chemicals. The turbo skimmer provided an air to water ratio of 1:3, which is ideal for reefs.

The mechanical filtration is next in line, and this part of the process will further remove organic substances from the water. Biomedia and sponge media (like activated carbon) can be used to nitrify bacteria and absorb other organic compounds.

As we mentioned earlier, there are fittings included to allow you to add more hardware to the filtration process, such as a chiller, a reactor or other filtration devices. If you need something more specialized for your system than what you get out of the box, the fittings make it easy to do so.

The Specs

Here is a quick rundown of the specs for this aquarium system:

Tank dimensions of 38″ x 21″ x 26.2″
Cabinet dimensions of 38″ x 21″ x 32″
Total water volume: 65 gallons
Tank water volume: 60 gallons
Filter volume: 5 gallons
One 320 gph circulation pump
One 640 gph circulation pump
Skimmer throughput: 240 gph
Heater: 200w
Glass thickness: 0.4″
Lighting fixture: 3 x 39 watt 10,000 k T5 power compacts / 3 x 39 watt actinic T5 power compacts
8 Blue LED lights
Analog lighting timer
5 outlet power center

Where Can You Buy This Reef System?

We like to recommend buying from PetStore.com – they have really good prices and they offer free shipping on orders over $175 – meaning that this system will be shipped to you for free.

The Reviews

What are some of the opinions from people who have bought this reef system?

Removes the Guesswork…

One buyer comments that this is a very well done system and it really does take a lot of guesswork out of setting up a reef. They say that because of this it can be a great system for a beginner. This person also comments that you may want to consider adding extra power heads for circulation if your tank needs it, and that it’s also important to clean the lamp covers and change the lamps as needed to keep optimal lighting conditions.

Easy to Reach The Controls…

Another buyer mentions that he has had the tank for a few months. He likes how it’s easy to reach the controls for this system. He thinks that the skimmer is a bit loud, but then also mentions that it’s easy to turn stuff on and off as needed if noise becomes an issue.

Starter Kit is Nice…

One person that bought this aquarium found that the starter kit helped them out immensely by providing all the initial stuff they would need to condition and test the water. They also mention that there are no pumps/cords or anything that can be seen, it’s all hidden very well in the structure of this system. It’s a very clean system in terms of hardware presentation. This same person also mentioned that they liked the customer support and found Red Sea phone support to be helpful.

Easy to Maintain…

Another buyer who has had this system for several months found it very easy to setup and find it very easy to maintain, and is overall very happy with it. And another compares this to buying a luxury car where all you have to do is buy it, drive it, and maintain it from time to time, all the while experiencing a sweet ride.