My wife said We need an aquarium!

[hobanwashburne]

was in the FW game for many years, but had to take an extended leave of absence do to frequent job relocations. Well we just bought a new house and plan to stay put a while so I am ready to take the plunge into a colorful SW tank. I own several marine aquaria books including Frenner's The Conscientious Marine Aquarist that I plan to dust off but was hoping you all could kickstart me in the right direction.

My wife loves bright colors, to the point that they affect her mood. She was never a huge fan of FW because the fish are not nearly as bright and colorful (for the most part) and I know that keeping her excited about this tank is going to be the key to the bank account.

I want something that is not going to be terribly challenging to upkeep, but I am not sure if that means FO, FOWLR, or reef.
Aside from craigslist, where do people purchase their tanks these days? Equipment? Lighting?
Not set on size yet, but maybe 75-100g?
No fish room so everything needs to fit inside the stand. I'm OK with doing my own plumbing.
If i remember correctly, basic requirements are going to be tank, stand, filter, skimmer, heater, and power heads. I know people use dosing pumps, reactors, etc, but I don't think I need all that right out the gate.Now that we live in Atlanta, I need to go check out some of the local fish stores I think. Anyone else live in the area that can provide recommendations?

 

[dball711]

Hi and welcome aboard! Start searching the for sale posts here and if you don't see the tank you want, try our sponsors (I have found some pretty competitive pricing as some of our sponsor). Plenty of sumps, lighting, skimmers and other equipment are available through the for sale posts here. Consider coming out to our next club event, pretty sure its going to be very close if your in Marietta.

 

[hobanwashburne]

Great idea. Where can I see a schedule of the meetings and the locations?

 

[ff337]

 

[dball711]

Check the club announcements forum. We haven't posted the November meeting yet but it will be up soon. Check it out and you can see what we have been up so far this year. Consider joining as a member, some decent benefits and sponsor discounts...

 

[rdnelson]

Welcome to the club. First advice is go slow. Before you drop ANY money, tell us what you are thinking of buying so people can help you make a good decision. We love spend other people's money. (Insert political joke here).

 

[hobanwashburne]

rdnelson99;1055895 wrote: Welcome to the club. First advice is go slow. Before you drop ANY money, tell us what you are thinking of buying so people can help you make a good decision. We love spend other people's money. (Insert political joke here).

Exactly my plan. Thanks for the support!

 

[bobz]

Welcome! Great to see some one getting started and asking the right questions. I'm in Marietta and you and your wife are welcome to come by and look at my setup some time. I'm running a fairly basic config on my 110g and a separate system with a 65 and 40 cube. LMK if you would like to come by some time ... bob

 

[hobanwashburne]

bobz;1055898 wrote: Welcome! Great to see some one getting started and asking the right questions. I'm in Marietta and you and your wife are welcome to come by and look at my setup some time. I'm running a fairly basic config on my 110g and a separate system with a 65 and 40 cube. LMK if you would like to come by some time ... bob

Thanks bob, might take you up on that if for no other reason than to pick your brain. Where in Marietta are you? I'm on the northwest side, near Canton Rd and New Chastain.

 

[bobz]

I'm on the west side as well near Kennesaw Mountain and barrett parkway. Happy to talk with you but not much of my brain left!

 

[snowmansnow]

if you're gonna keep coral you'll need lights .. i didn't see that on your OP

 

[rdnelson]

bobz;1055901 wrote: I'm on the west side as well near Kennesaw Mountain and barrett parkway. Happy to talk with you but not much of my brain left!

Don't believe this. Bob was doing this when the Dead Sea was just sick.

 

[kevinathom]

Welcome to the obsession. My one piece of advice fwiw is get the largest tank you want or have room for. I just got into this a year ago with a 65 and wish I had gone larger. It's a lot harder to justify a second tank at this point.

 

[myreefclub0070]

Welcome to the club and the hobby.
Lots to learn, lots more to buy and lots, lots of friends to be made.
All that being said, your in the right place.

 

[fishtank]

welcome to the club and hobby! I have only been doing this for 2 years and I can honestly say the 1 thing I did right was take it slow and research! I made a lot of other mistakes but we wont go there . I think I was on here for 4 months before I switched from FW to SW and I had my tank cycling (all dry rock) for 2 months before adding fish. I qt'd all fish etc etc and have had good success.

I will say I started with a nice 60g cube which I loved but have sold and now I am building my dream tank! granted it will only be 125g but it is as big as I can go. While it will save you dollars for sure to go big upfront I think it was easier for me to start smaller (and used) and learn the hobby then upgrade later and buy all new toys .

The sites sponsors will help you a lot as well. Im all the way up in Dacula but im working with a sponsor in Marietta to get me setup and they have been very helpful. Hopefully in a month I will have build pics.

 

[hobanwashburne]

SnowManSnow;1055909 wrote: if you're gonna keep coral you'll need lights .. i didn't see that on your OP

haha, oops. Yea, I know lighting it incredibly important (and equally expensive).

 

[hobanwashburne]

fishtank;1055932 wrote:

The sites sponsors will help you a lot as well. Im all the way up in Dacula but im working with a sponsor in Marietta to get me setup and they have been very helpful. Hopefully in a month I will have build pics.

Which one in particular? Creation Pet is pretty close to me, I was thinking about stopping by after work tomorrow to scope the place out. Optimum Aquarium is also on the way home, more or less.

 

[bkostuch]

if you decide to run corals a must have in my opinion is a GFO reactor, its the one item I wish i would have bought out of the gate. Also welcome aboard and as previously stated you're in the right place, everyone here is very helpful.

 

[russ-iv]

welcome aboard.
every tank is different so i would run bare bones until you need a piece of equipment.

eg: i thought id need gfo like my last setup, but now it is just an activated carbon reactor.

skimmer, tank, water, pump, flow, light, sump is a good start.
looking forward to pics

 

[muhast]

HobanWashburne;1055935 wrote: Which one in particular? Creation Pet is pretty close to me, I was thinking about stopping by after work tomorrow to scope the place out. Optimum Aquarium is also on the way home, more or less.

I live in Cartersville so I frequent Creation and Optimum. Creation is the better of the two imo. Very knowledgeable and much friendlier associates. Optimum is hard to even get assistance most days. Employees always seem to busy to help(even when they are slow)

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