Hello from Conyers!!!

[Reefchef]

Hello everyone, I am finally looking to getting into the hobby after several years if wishing! I have had fresh water tanks growing up and as an adult, but I always loved salt water set ups. I finally have the wife's approval, and hoping to get up and running within the next month or two. Here is the set up I have in my mind so far for a mix tank, I want a nice set up. Some things will be on the more economical side and I will splurge on some things. Im not looking at dosing or controllers until maybe later after im up and running and can slide it by the wife!!! Please share any feedback or suggestions. I am trying to stay below 150 gallons I think! Thanks



125gl marineland tank
Eshopps x220 protein skimmer
Aqua top 500 watt heater
Aqua top reactor Orbit LC pro lighting, eflux wave makers, and eflux return pump
Trigger emarld 39 sump

 

[AquariumSchmo]

I don't have experience with any of that equipment, so I can't give you any feedback on your choices; however, I would go with two smaller heaters (2-300 watts each) for redundancy, instead of just one. And put the heaters on some sort of temperature controller; at least something like an Ink Bird.

 

[camellia]

Hello & Welcome!
Sorry I don’t have any experience with the above equipment either.
I would recommend an Ehiem (quality) heater. Many of the cheaper ones will cause huge problems and go out sooner.
Hope you decide to become a supporting member, there are many great benefits ;-)
Deb

 

[Reefchef]

Thank you for your feedback, I planned on becoming a supporting member once it came time to get our tank. I made the mistake of taking my wife to pure reef with me yesterday. We have now changed our mind to go with a 180 gallon tank. So we will have to wait a few more months. We found a nice one there with cabinet and canopy. So I may start picking up pieces slowly and then the tank. The lights are the hardest decision so far. Pure reef recommended hydra 26 but I saw USMC reefer running sbreef 32 lights. This proces has already been a lot just trying to decide on a tank!

 

[firethorn77]

Can't go wrong with reefbreeder lights in my experience. How is Conyers these days? I grew up there but moved about 17 years ago.

 

[Reefchef]

Can't go wrong with reefbreeder lights in my experience. How is Conyers these days? I grew up there but moved about 17 years ago.

Thanks, I will check them out also. It's nice, we moved down here from missouri about 8 years ago right around ga20 and honey creek. Its peaceful!

 

[jcook54]

I've never used SB Reef lights but they are certainly on the list of potentials when I need to but some new one's. "Need" That's a funny word in this hobby. I don't "need" any new lights but I sure do need a better coral QT system and said coral QT system really does "need" good lights.

 

[firethorn77]

Glad to hear! That's only a couple miles from where I was at.

 

[Mom2Many]

Hello, welcome, and that sounds like a whole lot of fun to plan and huge amount of area to fill with fun corals!

 

[Reefchef]

Hello, welcome, and that sounds like a whole lot of fun to plan and huge amount of area to fill with fun corals!

Thank you, it has been fun planning out the build so far. It should be a lot of fun and work once we get there, hopefully before work starts getting crazy other wise I will have to wait until after summer when the kids go back to school.

 

[Reefchef]

I've never used SB Reef lights but they are certainly on the list of potentials when I need to but some new one's. "Need" That's a funny word in this hobby. I don't "need" any new lights but I sure do need a better coral QT system and said coral QT system really does "need" good lights.

Thats funny, when you describe need!!! I'm trying to get as many ideas as I can so hopefully I won't have to change anything too soon after it's set up.