I’m rico — an engineer, and I’m planning my first reef tank.
That’s the honest starting point. When I began pricing out equipment, I expected the hard part to be the money. Instead it was the information. Every forum thread contradicted the last one. Half the “best skimmer” posts recommended gear that’s been discontinued for years. Sizing advice arrived as rules of thumb with no math behind them, and the prices were always someone’s memory from two seasons ago.
I didn’t want opinions. I wanted a system: tell it the tank, and get back a complete, compatible equipment list where every number traces to something real.
So I built one. ReefRig turns the buying decision into an engine — the same way you’d spec any other system. It sizes gear from published rules, checks that the pieces actually fit together, and prices them against data with a date attached. It’s the tool I wanted before spending a few thousand dollars on a glass box of saltwater. I’m not a reef veteran, and ReefRig doesn’t pretend I am. Its value isn’t hard-won tank wisdom — it’s discipline with specs, prices, and sources, applied consistently so you don’t have to reconcile ten conflicting threads yourself.
How the data works
Every recommendation ReefRig makes is only as good as the data under it. Here’s the discipline that data follows.
- Prices carry a date. Every product price is recorded with the date it was verified. Reef gear pricing drifts, so a number you can’t date is a number you can’t trust. When a price goes stale, it gets re-checked — not guessed.
- Calculator constants are checked against the source. The numbers behind the calculators — salt-mix ratios, salinity conversions, dosing strengths, cleanup-crew densities — are cross-checked one by one against manufacturer specifications and published references, not copied from other calculators.
- Compatibility rules cite their reasoning. When ReefRig says a skimmer won’t fit a sump or a heater is undersized, that call comes from a stated rule with a source behind it — not a hunch.
- Discontinued gear is flagged and benched. Once a product goes out of production it’s marked discontinued and kept out of recommendations, so you’re never pointed at something you can’t buy.
ReefRig isn’t a reviews site — nothing here comes from running gear in a tank and rating it. The claim is narrower and checkable: specifications and prices, compared systematically and verified against official manufacturer sources. That’s a smaller promise than “I tried them all” — and a more honest one.
It’s just me
ReefRig is a one-person project. I write the guides, build the calculators, gather and date the pricing, and maintain the compatibility rules. There’s no team hiding behind a mascot name — when the site says something, that’s me saying it, and my name is on it. A small operation has a real upside: the data stays consistent because one person is accountable for all of it.
What ReefRig won’t do
ReefRig decides equipment, and only equipment. It sizes and matches the gear that goes around your tank — filtration, flow, heating, lighting, chemistry, cost.
It deliberately stops there. It won’t tell you how to treat a sick fish, dose medication, or keep a coral alive. Livestock health depends on judgment, observation, and context that a spec engine has no business faking. Keeping that line bright is part of how ReefRig stays trustworthy on the thing it does cover: the buying decision.
Contact and money
Questions, corrections, a price that’s drifted, a spec that’s wrong? Email hello@reefrig.com. Corrections are especially welcome — dated data only stays honest if the errors get caught.
On money: right now ReefRig runs no ads and earns no commissions. Nothing on the site is placed or ranked because someone paid for it. If that ever changes — an affiliate link, a sponsorship — it will be disclosed here, in plain language, before it goes live. You’ll always be able to tell what pays for the site and what doesn’t.