SR Unfiltered Gear Reviews

Are $15 DFC Refractometers Better Than $75 Pro Tools? One Beat Them All We got a very specific question: if most reefers are not buying the whole middle range of salinity tools, what actually happens when we compare the cheap Amazon refractometers against a more expensive branded option?

ATI Straton X Review: Does This Ultra-Thin Reef Light Deliver? The ATI Straton X is one of the most interesting reef lights we have tested in a while. On paper, it sounds like someone designed a light for reefers who are tired of bulky fixtures, fan noise, harsh shadows, glare, and the never-ending obsession with raw wattage.

We commit to identifying the best of the best, not a single crown champion, but the best for specific reefing styles.

Kalkwasser has been around forever for a reason. It is cheap, effective, simple in principle, and it can give us one of the biggest side benefits in reefing, which is a meaningful pH boost. Plenty of great tanks have run on kalkwasser alone or used it as part of a larger supplementation strategy.

Ryan scored it a 7/10—with a caveat that could bump it to a 10. Terence went straight to 9/10 out of the gate. Time to find out why the Nyos Ion-B surprised us.

It's been around longer than either of us, yet there are surprises at every turn. How can something that contains trace elements effectively not replenish them? Today we review ESV and find out the answers together.

Red Seas CRC wasn’t our favorite among the additive systems we reviewed, and it comes with a fairly significant price tag. But would we still recommend it to Serious Reefers? Let’s find out together.

NAF is a sodium hydroxide based two part with double the pH lift of most two parts. Is the pH juice worth the squeeze? It’s not dangerous but is it safe? Do you need a monitor or controller to use NAF? Time to give an unfiltered look!

Triton 4 part. Does it live up to expectations? This one turned out to be better than both of us remembered on a variety of fronts but cost was #1.

Time for an unfiltered review of AquaForest 1+, 2+, 3+. Upfront, this wasn’t our favorite additive solution for intermediate to advanced reefers, but there is one group we would recommend it to, newer reefers.

Baseline kalkwasser is nearly free, and even the highest-quality options are only marginally more expensive. Calcium hydroxide delivers a stronger pH boost than most two-part systems, can help reduce phosphate, supports coral growth, and doesn’t alter salinity. Despite these benefits, kalkwasser is often dismissed. The reason isn’t the chemistry—it’s the outdated ways it was traditionally used.

Time for an unfiltered look at an old friend, BRS two part. True to form, Terence gives his opinions raw. And since I am the one who helped create this kit, I am about as biased as it gets. But with the unfiltered hat on, we take a fresh look at it and see how it really stacks up. Let’s find out where BRS two part lands compared to the rest..

Time for an unfiltered review of Aquaforest’s 3-in-1 calcium formate one-part reef tank additive. Spoiler alert: it’s exceptionally clean, noticeably cleaner than its main competitor, and it costs less. But is it something we’d actually use on a reef tank? Let’s find out.

Time to take an unfiltered look at Brightwell’s Reef Code Two-Part. We learned a lot in this review, not just about the additive itself, but about how bias quietly shapes every review. Come along for the ride and decide for yourself whether Reef Code is the right two-part for your reef.

This one surprised us. All-For-Reef earns a 9.3 for most reefers and still lands around a 7 for intermediate to advanced setups—making it one of the most versatile options out there. We break it down from every angle and share exactly what we learned along the way.

A dozen unfiltered additive reviews. Each one taught us something, but the real test came after seeing them all side by side. That perspective reshaped how we view reef additives and made one thing clear. There are definite winners.

ATI Essentials is not just another two part. Once we dug into it, the chemistry turned out to be genuinely different from most of the dosing systems we have looked at before. That was the surprise.

Time to dig deeper into the catalog in search of tools that outperform the usual go-to options. In this case, a carbon, phosphate-media, and QT solution that many reefers have overlooked — the Sicce Shark.

We tried the Fiji Cube drop-in all-in-one (AIO) box kit that turns an inexpensive glass tank into a contained, built-in filtration setup. The idea is simple: you drop the box onto the back of a compatible aquarium, and it gives you the overflow area plus a chamber for the heater, filter media, and common AIO-style plumbing and media placement.

For a lot of us, the barrier to making a custom sump is not the concept. It is the execution. We can plan chambers. We can picture where the skimmer goes, where the return goes, and where the refugium lives. But getting acrylic cut cleanly, making sure dimensions are right, and ending up with something that does not look like a garage experiment gone wrong is where the project can fall apart.

Honestly, no need to hit play. Ecoscapes just strolled in, hit us with the best artificial rock we have seen, and called it a day. We loved it. Hard stop.

We spent time tearing into Tropic Eden Morroca live rock to see what makes it different, where it shines, and where it might not be the right choice. Instead of old-school per-pound math, we evaluated cost by volume, measured porosity, checked color stability, and walked through every available shape. If you are deciding what rock to use for a new build or a refresh, here’s what we found and how to put it to work.

Pukani rock is back after being unavailable for nearly a decade, and that gives us a chance to look at it with fresh eyes. A lot has changed since it was last widely available from Fiji. We have more options now, more experience with dry rock, artificial rock, aquascaping methods, and the realities of starting a modern reef tank.

Tunze built the oscillating pump reefers have wanted for decades — but does it live up to the promise? Would we buy it, and would we recommend it? Let’s find out.

There is a special kind of reefing task that feels completely fine until we are standing there waiting for a bucket to fill. Then suddenly two minutes feels like a lifetime.

SR Unfiltered Review: Avid Aqua MTO & MPO magnetic organizers. Short story is both Ryan's already use them so they are easy to recommend but why? Are they something you would use?

This is our very first SR Insider. We find out three things. What problem does the AvidAqua Insight solve, and how does it work.

Some reef gear solves a huge problem. Some gear is clearly optional but still makes us stop and think, “Okay, that’s actually pretty slick.” The Avid Aqua Traveler lineup lands squarely in that second category.

There are a million frag racks out there, so the real question is simple: is the juice worth the squeeze? Most of us have used egg crate, acrylic shelves, or whatever we could quickly modify and stick to the side of the tank.

Serious Reefs is giving away the gear we recently explored. Thank you all for your support!