150 gallon tank

[Davidkirschenbaum]

I am thinking about moving and wanted to get a bigger tank. i am stll crossed between a fish only or a reef set up but i intend on having this tank for years so i want something that can handle both or be upgraded but will still look neat since it will be in my living room. I was looking a maybe spending the money and going with a marine ready tenecor or a oceanic tank. I wanted to know if anyone had the complete set up and is it better to buy a tank seperalty and then putting everything together. Also do these 2 systems have water motion.
Thanks
david

 

[House of Laughter]

David,

Typically, reef ready tanks are designed for return flow from the overflow. As for if it is better or not to buy all or piece by piece, I think is a personal preference.

You can find good deals here and RC, but I think all this depends on your tolerance and timing needs. If you're not in a hurry and have space, you might want to wait until someone sells their system and buy it instead of making the "all new" investment. The downside of buying previously owned, you don't know the headaches. The downside of buying new, is retail costs, timing and delivery.

I did a combo of both with my setup. I bought the tank and stand reef ready from AGA. It was a few months before I was going to set it up, so I had time to design and build a hood as well as look for lighting, a sump and good skimmer. Lighting and skimmer I bought brand new as I didn't want to skimp on equipment so critical to the success of my reef. The sump I bought used for $40 from a guy in the bronx and modified before I installed it.

So, in short, it depends on what your tolerance levels are.

Hope this helps.

House

 

[pecan2phat]

I probably would'nt buy an acrylic tank ever again. I've always had Oceanic glass (any retailer) and custom built standard sized glass tanks from World Class aquarium in Bklyn. I bought a used Clear for Life acrylic tank to satisfy my reef needs and though the tank already had some scratches, a lot more got put on from using a "acrylic safe" magnet cleaner. I since stopped using the magnet cleaner and resorted to an acrylic safe scrub pad by hand & I think it's still adding new scratches daily. The tank also bows from front to back. I think bowing is inherent with acrylic tanks unless it's 1/2" thick.
I would go take a ride out to World Class aquarium on Flatbush Ave or go with a RR Oceanic setup. The Starfire tanks are just too cost prohibitive!

 

[marrone]

I'm not going to comment on what David asked, as I given him some of my thoughs already and ask him to get other people as well before making a decision.


I would like to comment on acrylic tanks though, as I have 2 of them. They do scratch, as do glass tank, but you can easly take out the scratches with some of the scratch kits. That being said you do need to be very careful and keep up, almost daily, cleaning the front of the tank glass.

I wouldn't use them for Reef Tank as with the heavy lights you get a quicker build up on algae on the front glass, also when you do get scratches the algae fills in thoses scratches and you need to scrub harder to get the algae off. And not to mention coraline algae that will grow on the front of the tank also which can give you more scratches.

As for acrylic tanks bowing alot of this has to do with heavy lights being placed on top of the tank. The heat from the lights can cause the top of the tank to melt and either warp it or cause it to bow out. If this happens you need to brace the top of the tank or it could break. This is just another reason not to use acrylic tanks for a Reef tank, but they're fine you fish tanks.

Michael