Modern ReefKeeping

“There was a hole in the market between the cheap poorly made products and the expensive products out of the range of the average reefer”.

When I asked Dave and Amanda of NextReef about why they chose to manufacture media reactors that was the answer I got. They saw that for not much more money than a cheap, poorly made product they could produce themselves a high quality affordable product that any reefer even on a budget could afford. With thousands of units sold thus far its easy to see why these are quickly flying off the shelves.

Lets start with their signature piece the MR1 Media Reactor. This is 100% hand assembled, and completely made in the United States. Wait What?! yep you read that right, hand made in the U.S.A., that’s a rarity for most things especially in our hobby. Quality doesn’t just come from being made in the U.S. though, you have to have people that care about their product and this is exactly what we saw on our visit to their facility.

The MR1, MR1 Shorty, MR1XL and MR1 Monster all have what can only be described as perfection in media reactors.

The bases and top plates are channel cut. This allows the media tube to perfectly seat itself INTO the plates and then welded. These welds on every single unit are electronically tested for leaks. I got to see how they do this and saw that their testing shows even the slightest imperfection, so precise in fact that water wouldn’t pass through what this testing finds, but even those with these slight imperfections are rewelded to ensure you get a perfect product ready to go without worry.

They come with hang on adapter, so yes you CAN finally hang a reactor on the outside without worrying about flooding your floor.

Speaking of all this manufacturing, we were impressed to see that everything about these products was done in house. This stems from their investment in machines to produce prototypes to introduce to other companies to manufacture. But quickly realized for quality purposes they could more consistently produce them themselves and actually have a perfect piece go out every single time. We got to see their vacuum 5′x10′ CNC router at work as well as their CNC laser cutter for those intricate pieces. Even the sponges inside the reactors are laser cut!  Not even their stickers on their boxes are outsourced they use their very own Roland sign plotter to produce their box labels. Each machine in the shop has its own job, there is no tool used if it isn’t the perfect one for the job.

“We didn’t want to sacrifice the quality of our product because we didn’t have the right tool to do the job” Dave said as he pulled out a custom laser cut piece being used on a pre production hang-on refugium.

Beyond manufacturing is the design. A 4″ reaction chamber maximizes the water to media contact time, which is important for increased efficiency from your media minimizing deadzones. You can run large amounts of media or multiple products in a single reactor. Being ozone safe and perfect for exactly what you would want, phosphate control, de-nitrification or even fluidized sand filtration.

We figured if they were so concerned with us reefers when it comes to quality and affordability we would ask :.

“What is lacking in the hobby”?

No cooperation between various companies even though their products are used hand in hand together by us aquarists. They aren’t taking the effort or time that we as hobbyists put into seeing what works best together, and when we do find what works good together we as consumers  have no line to convey that to the companies. Dave stressed the fact that this is really a disservice to us hobbyists. For instance, they contacted a company with an impressive media for filter applications and they were thrilled to hear that a company was actually wanting to work together, matching a product with their media to work hand in hand to make both products even better.

We discussed this as some length and secrecy or bottom dollar line seems to affect what we as reefers get and what we more often than not cant afford. With companies like NextReef who put their knowledge, resources and experiences into their products few and far between it often falls on us reefers to trial and error products, they don’t think that’s the way it should be and we would all agree.

With all this said about NextReef we were quick to ask whats next!? The MR1 series are a hit and we were anxious to see what else we could look forward to

“We are working on pre production hang on refugiums, as well as prototyping a hang on skimmer…..quality takes time”. I for one appreciate the time being put forth to make it right and not rush something to market.

And of course they are always open to custom work on sumps, or other acrylic needs for your aquarium.

Be sure to visit Next Reef and check out more of their quality products. Got a question for Next Reef? Visit their forum on Modern ReefKeeping.

Click Here to Find Out Where You Can Purchase NEXTREEF Products