New salt on the block. :)

[thewarbrd]

Hello everyone!

I thought I'd join up even though I'm wayyy over in Athens so I have some more local people to interact with vs other far reaching forums.

I've kept a 55g freshwater planted community for a year or so now and have loved the look of salt critters so I'm deep in the middle of researching what I need to get a tank going! :yay:

I was pointed in the direction of Fenners Conscientious Aquarist book and I'm about 100 pages into it so far. I thought I'd go ahead and post the bare minimum equipment I believe I need to see if there are any tips or opinions on what I've come up with and if the numbers I'm seeing are realistic or not.

My ultimate goal is to have softies (I love the wide variety of zoos out there!, maybe some mushrooms and other assorted low to medium light critters), shrimp, and probably a clown and other appropriate compatible fish or 3.

I started off liking the Red Sea Max system but was convinced by others that building my own would get me better quality, and more importantly, more room! So I think I'm settled on a 75g set up, here's the parts list if you will...

								Qty	Ea
	75 gallon
	Tank + stand			 					$300.00
	Bio-Activ Live Aragonite Samoa Pink Reef Sand - 20 lb.	2	$36.00 	 $72.00
	Marine Substrate - Samoa Pink Gravel #0 - 20 lb.	4	$23.50 	 $85.00
	48" Coralife Lunar Aqualight 4X65 with 4 LEDS				$295.00
	AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer w/ Maxi-Jet 1200				$162.50
	100w Heater 						2	$10.00 	 $20.00
	Koralia 3 Powerhead					2	$38.49 	 $76.98
	Seachem reef salt (160g)						 $40.00
	Reefmaster test kit							 $20.00
	Refractometer			 					 $31.50
	Rock							110	$3.05 	$335.50
	RO system								$101.49
									      $1,539.97

Thanks for any feedback/input

 

[ralph atl]

looks good to me except your test kit. Actually, even that's OK, except I would upgrade the nitrate, phosphate, and I'm not sure if it includes ALK or not. API ALK is fine.

 

[thewarbrd]

Thanks for the tip. I've used the API freshwater kit (plus a gh/kh and phosphate test) with my 55g so I just added their salt kit to my list as a place holder. Admittedly I didnt even look at the tests in it as I havent got that far into what parms are most critical in salt that I don't keep up with in fresh other than salinity. I assumed that kit had all the same test but formulated for saltwater, I see now that it's not!

Is there a particular test kit manuf that is considered more accurate in the salt world?

 

[thedeper]

Check around these forums and on ebay (I got Current PC lighting 4x65 for 100 bucks) for some good deals. Especially on the forums, people are always throwing out awesome deals on equipment. That is unless you have already purchased everything...

 

[stickx911]

reefmaster only has alk, calcium and mg. I believe. the SW master kit has PH nitriate nitrite and ammonia.

as far as most accurate. You'll get a lot of different opinions, but in my opinion it usually seems the more you spend the more accurate the test.

 

[jaydm93teg]

yeah man you can easily find half of that stuff used on this forum......post a thread in the Want to Buy section and i can almost promise you that you can knock out half of that stuff especially if you are not wanting it right now and you have the patience to wait for it to come to you used.

 

[thewarbrd]

Have not purchased anything yet, still doing all my research. I jumped into my 55g without any research and it cost me a little $$$ and some headaches that I could have avoided. But I do think we've finally settled on the size so not much should change in the realm of lighting. My only thing is I want to avoid MH lights because we've got cooling issues in the house as it is and I'm not positive I can get them fully resolved by next summer when hopefully the tank will be well on its way to being nice and established.

I'm all about finding a deal, I've been scouring craigslist, but quality tends to worry me there. There have been a couple of nice looking complete systems posted but I don't really care to move an entire system an hour and a half drive. But I'm going to start keeping an eye out here for parts for sure!

Thanks again, talk about feeling welcome!

 

[basscyn]

Welcome to the forums!
I wish I'd have found ARC before I took the jump. The knowledge of this group is priceless. Enjoy!

Oh yeah...your list looks great. If you plan on keeping corals (and you will) and you have to buy lights anyway, you may consider T-5's over PC. Cost you a bit more now, but it will greatly increase the variety of animals you can keep.

keep us posted!

 

[reeftankjunkie]

Are you looking for new or something used. Im kind of tossing around the idea of selling everything I have. Starting a new business and dont think I'll have time for it anymore. PM if you are intersted at all.

 

[thewarbrd]

I've been looking for a used tank and stand+canopy here, craigslist, and ebay but it's hard finding anything that's not fully stocked being sold as a complete system. I'll barely get the stand and tank in our van, there would be no room for hundreds of pounds of rock/sand and water+livestock too all the way to Athens in one trip. The empty ones I'm coming across are usually not on a stand the Mrs. will allow in our living room (no metal, must be stained finish) :bash2:

 

[james s_]

I would switch out the PC lights with T5 fixture or retrofit. The skimmer you should buy a Octopus or an ASM to replace the Remora on your list.Are you planning to use a sump? Make sure you a buy a reef ready tank if so. If your going to get serious about saltwater tanks use a sump. Keeps the water surface clean and allows the lights to do there job. Also gives you plenty of options to run chemical/physical filtration without being seen.

 

[thewarbrd]

I plan on starting up "Berlin" style for this system and keep things basic. I know I'm headed down the "upgrades will cost you more money in the long run" path but I'd rather make sure I'm even going to be in this for the long haul by starting out and running basic for a year or two. At the point things get crowded enough to need a sump we'll probably move everything to a 120g with all the bells and whistles.

 

[thewarbrd]

Well, I pulled the trigger today! Imagine Ocean up in Canton had a pre-owned system on craigslist and I took a shot at offering lower than asking and they agreed to it, woohoo! Not a bad assortment of goodies I think. I hadnt planned on a sump, but gonna have one now! Gonna be a couple of weeks before I move it in and get it going. I'm going to probably paint the inside of the stand to help with moisture, and fill er up in the garage and run it through a leak test.

Anyway, here's what I ended up with:

<span style="font-size: 12px;">AGA 75-Gallon Reef Ready Aquarium
Glass Tops
Modern Oak Cabinet + Canopy
All-Glass Megaflow Model 2 Wet/Dry Sump
Mega-Flow Overflow Accessory Kit
2 MaxiJet Powerheads
Kent Nautilus TE Protein Skimmer
2 Supreme Mag Drive Model 7 pumps (one for return, one for skimmer)
Mag Float 125 Cleaning Magnet
Aqueon Heater
2 Marineland Light Timers
Coralife Aqualight 4 x 65W Compact Fluorescent Light Fixture
Instant Ocean Hydrometer
Battery powered air pump

So I guess now I need to join up so I can start my own thread over in the members tanks section :yay:
</span>

 

[lifestudent]

Congratulations! :up:

 

[dough]

Congrats on the purchase. Jenn should have been a real help explaining everything.

I would suggest you go to MACNA this coming week and spend some time walking around, ask questions and learn even more.

 

[bobz]

Welcome! You are off to a good start. This community was very helpful to me when I got back in to SW almost two years ago. Don't be afraid to ask for help!