Hands on review: "Reef Buddies"

[Zack]

So today I picked up a bonded pair of photon clowns and two zoa frags from Rob, and I was given two Reef Buddies to try out and provide feedback of my experience.

First thoughts:

Literally my first thought with seeing the Reef Buddies were "dang... those are HUGE".. maybe that is a slight overstatement but they are much, much larger than I had thought initially from the teaser pictures. I was given a blue and yellow reef buddies and an instruction sheet with how to use the product. Rob had mentioned that the Reef Buddies stickers were faulty and that he would swap out my units when the new ones arrived with the logos pressed onto the bottle.

Usage:

Each Reef Buddies I recieved had a clownfish and a frag of zoas in them. I made the 30 minute drive back to SM from Rob's house and have put the clownfish into their breeding box for the night. Acclimation was a breeze with the exception of one thing. Every time I tried to empty water into the tank, the lip protector of the bottle would flip into the water and splash water all over the glass or out of the tank. Other than that, everything was great and I felt that this is a great way for someone like myself with a smaller tank to acclimate corals, rather than having a bag half the size of my tank knocking over my rocks.

One great thing about this Reef buddy is that they fit in the cup holders of my car.. in the past, once or twice I've forgotten frags in the car due to having them in the center console out of view and with the reef buddy providing a nice, sturdy shape to hold them in, I don't forsee this problem any longer.

Also, I did notice a slight temperature decrease as the water bottles did not provide enough insulation.. I'll discuss this later.

Pros:
Fits in cup holder
Very controlled acclimation, almost fool proof
Floats well, and is small enough to not knock over my rock work
No more carrying around urine sample containers to peoples house

Cons:
Water bottle cap splashed water everywhere
Larger fish or coral frags might not fit very well (maybe a Reef Buddies XL?)
Temp decrease due to ambient temp

Suggestions for improvement:

I would like to see a reef buddy with a much darker color as to not light shock my purchase. Also, a removable cap that comes off completely without unscrewing the lid would be a huge plus. A Reef Buddy XL would also be nice for small colonies.. And last but not least, maybe a matching reef buddy coozie to insulate the bottle a bit better.

All in all, a great product and I can't wait to see the "finished manufactured" version

Rating: 8.5/10 would buy again

[Mr Cob]

Thanks for the product review Zach. We appreciate you taking the time to post honest feedback. You have offered up some great suggestions that we will surely consider implementing. I totally agree about the cap, it does get in the way and really offers no utility to the product other than aesthetics.

I would also like to add that when I ship or pack fish that I use an oxygen tab called Bag Buddies. It reduces stress on the fish and releases oxygen. I have been using this product since before I got into the reefing hobby.

Here are a few pics I snapped of Zach's order before he picked it up. The shelves not in use (The REEF BUDDY comes with 3) were simply pushed up to the top of the rod, they can also easily be removed.

[ramsey]

How does this thing work exactly?

Edit: nm, the next post explained it. It sounds cool!

[Mr Cob]

This picture helps show how it works with multiple frags Ramsey...