Over the past few decades I’ve had many different style marine aquariums and have used various brand test kits and additives to help maintain these sometimes complex reef systems. And there is no doubt many excellent brands exist in today’s marine hobby and I continue to use a variety of products by different manufactures to stay up-to-date on the ever-changing and improving marketplace.
One of these companies continuing to move forward is Red Sea, which has made large, if not humongous leaps forward with the quality of their equipment and other various products over the past couple of years.
As to their aquariums, i.e., Red Sea Max units, have setup the 130D and found it to be an excellent overall system and in fact, was so impressed wrote an entire article about it and posted it on this website for all to read. Then came their highly improved Protein Skimmer, the C-Skim 1800, which proved to be all one could ask for in a unit that can efficiently skim systems up to 450 gallons! Also posted a product review of it to inform others about what I experienced when reviewing/testing this excellent product. And now, late 2011, their new Red Sea Max ‘S – Series’ systems include the C-Skim 1800 ‘and’ a freshwater top off system as standard equipment besides all the other equipment their predecessors came equipped with! Definitely a ‘complete’ system you may want to checkout before purchasing your next aquarium and its associated equipment!
Also quite recently, Red Sea continued their march forward and introduced a highly defined Reef Care Program that consists of not only greatly improved seawater testing kits, but also additives designed to enable optimal coral health, accelerated growth, and enhanced coloration. And to further those aspects, Red Sea has vastly improved their website, which now includes video clips of how to properly use their Calcium, Alkalinity, Magnesium, Iron, Potassium, Iodine, Nitrate, and Phosphate test kits (which I found to be very accurate!) along with tutorials on various reef care subjects such as algae management, reef nutrition, coral coloration, etc. And much of this new vast information base is downloadable in PDF formats in various languages!
I’m sure you’ll find the information at redseafish.com quite enlightening to say the least, and highly recommend not only trying their new seawater test kits, but also their other new products.
Bob Goemans