Opinion Please

[Bones12]

I saw a Red Sea Max 130d listed on Craigslist for $450 and am curious to what your thoughts are regarding this system? I know its better for newbs to start off with larger volume tanks, but was thinking of storing it for later use once I get some experience under my belt? The ad says the setup is almost mint other than a small scratch on the tank, and nothing is missing. I poked around here on the forum but noticed there is not a lot of info on it!

[TomTheWicked]

If it were me, I'd try to talk them down a few bucks to get a better deal. Personally, I don't think 34 gallons is a bad start size wise. It's big enough to have some stability, but not so large it's a lot of work to do maintenance.
I would however, stick to FOWLR for a while until you get to know the personality of the tank, and until the tank is established.

A local friend of mine has had a 130D for about a year (FOWLR so far) and he enjoys it quite a bit. He buys a 5G jug of water (~$4) a week to do his water changes, so his initial investment was rather affordable (although now he's "upgrading" to a 120G and has started investing in RO/DI filtration). IIRC the PC lights are a bit of an odd size though.

Here's a pretty good review of one.

[Bones12]

Originally Posted by TomTheWicked

If it were me, I'd try to talk them down a few bucks to get a better deal. Personally, I don't think 34 gallons is a bad start size wise. It's big enough to have some stability, but not so large it's a lot of work to do maintenance.
I would however, stick to FOWLR for a while until you get to know the personality of the tank, and until the tank is established.

A local friend of mine has had a 130D for about a year (FOWLR so far) and he enjoys it quite a bit. He buys a 5G jug of water (~$4) a week to do his water changes, so his initial investment was rather affordable (although now he's "upgrading" to a 120G and has started investing in RO/DI filtration). IIRC the PC lights are a bit of an odd size though.

Here's a pretty good review of one.

I would definitely talk them down if I were to proceed, I never pay asking price. I saw the big version set up at the lfs and fell in love, the wife saw the $4800 price tag and laughed at me! What I really liked about it was the clean look of glass with no seems on the front. I'm just concerned/unsure if the all in one systems are as easy and foolproof as they claim? As far as maintenance goes, I don't mind doing wc or tank cleanup, everything needed to do the job will be very close by. I am definitely going with an RODI setup no matter what tank I get to start......Thanks for the reply and link!