Greetings,
I've been lurking the forums for quite some time now so I figured it was probably time I made a formal introduction.
I've been reading as much as I can about saltwater tanks on the internet and was going to wait until I fully understood everything before I dove in, but I eventually concluded that I'm probably not going to understand some of the techniques and concepts until I actually dug in and started. So after a couple of visits and questions at "The Fish Store" and a tank sale at "Pure Reef", I've got myself a Marineland 150 gallon tank (48x24x30) and stand. A lot bigger than the 67/75 gallon I had originally planned! I plan on starting with just fish and live rock and progress over to some low maintenance soft corals.
So anyhow, here is a rough draft of what I have planned for the tank:
<u>Hardware</u>
- membership to ARC
- Trigger Systems Sump/refugium (leaning toward 36E to fit the protein skimmer)
- Reef Octopus Protein Skimmer (not sure on the model yet)
- eheim 3000 return pump
- 2 heaters
- 2 powerheads (leaning toward Hydor for pricepoint not sure what model though)
- generic ups back-up for powerheads and return pump
- MaxSpect Razor 200W when it becomes available
? Possibly some egg crate underneath the rocks.
<u>Filtration</u>
- 150+ lbs of dry rock from marcorocks or reefrocks.net
- 100-120 lbs of dry sand from marcorocks or reefrocks.net
- Live Rock Rubble to seed the dry rock
- Chaeto Algae and Copepods for the refugium
<u>Planned Livestock after cycling</u>
- clean up crew
- a pair of tank bred oscellaris clowns (one black and one orange if possible)
- foxface rabbit fish
- Goby (not sure which one yet)
- yellow tang
- fire fish
<u>Down the Road</u>
- One or two more tangs that are suitable for the tank size
- Mandarin Fish
- Soft Corals
Unfortunately, I do not have space in the condo for a RO/DI system so I will have to make do with buying salt water and RO/DI water from the LFS which fortunately is right around the corner (Fish Store).
My next planned purchase (as soon as my credit card statement rolls over) is the sump so right now I'm trying to wrap my head around how to do the plumbing set up. It seems simple and hard at the same time. Also have a few gift cards for amazon or 1800petsupplies which I will use to purchase some of the equipment like the heaters, return pump, and powerheads.
So, that's what I got planned right now. More than likely it's going to get revised as I go along and get advice on what I'm doing wrong or what I can do better.
mike
I've been lurking the forums for quite some time now so I figured it was probably time I made a formal introduction.
I've been reading as much as I can about saltwater tanks on the internet and was going to wait until I fully understood everything before I dove in, but I eventually concluded that I'm probably not going to understand some of the techniques and concepts until I actually dug in and started. So after a couple of visits and questions at "The Fish Store" and a tank sale at "Pure Reef", I've got myself a Marineland 150 gallon tank (48x24x30) and stand. A lot bigger than the 67/75 gallon I had originally planned! I plan on starting with just fish and live rock and progress over to some low maintenance soft corals.
So anyhow, here is a rough draft of what I have planned for the tank:
<u>Hardware</u>
- membership to ARC
- Trigger Systems Sump/refugium (leaning toward 36E to fit the protein skimmer)
- Reef Octopus Protein Skimmer (not sure on the model yet)
- eheim 3000 return pump
- 2 heaters
- 2 powerheads (leaning toward Hydor for pricepoint not sure what model though)
- generic ups back-up for powerheads and return pump
- MaxSpect Razor 200W when it becomes available
? Possibly some egg crate underneath the rocks.
<u>Filtration</u>
- 150+ lbs of dry rock from marcorocks or reefrocks.net
- 100-120 lbs of dry sand from marcorocks or reefrocks.net
- Live Rock Rubble to seed the dry rock
- Chaeto Algae and Copepods for the refugium
<u>Planned Livestock after cycling</u>
- clean up crew
- a pair of tank bred oscellaris clowns (one black and one orange if possible)
- foxface rabbit fish
- Goby (not sure which one yet)
- yellow tang
- fire fish
<u>Down the Road</u>
- One or two more tangs that are suitable for the tank size
- Mandarin Fish
- Soft Corals
Unfortunately, I do not have space in the condo for a RO/DI system so I will have to make do with buying salt water and RO/DI water from the LFS which fortunately is right around the corner (Fish Store).
My next planned purchase (as soon as my credit card statement rolls over) is the sump so right now I'm trying to wrap my head around how to do the plumbing set up. It seems simple and hard at the same time. Also have a few gift cards for amazon or 1800petsupplies which I will use to purchase some of the equipment like the heaters, return pump, and powerheads.
So, that's what I got planned right now. More than likely it's going to get revised as I go along and get advice on what I'm doing wrong or what I can do better.
mike
