New guy

[Gost]

Hello all,
I would like to say first great site.
ok, I'm one of many that is getting ready to go from Fresh water to Marine. I have done quite a bit of home work so far. I just wanted to run
my set up by you guys and see what you think. I have a 55 gal tank to start with I've been eye balling a 230 8O. I'm going to do a reef,fish tank.
Ok this is what I've been looking at for Equipment.
1. Proclear Aquatic wet/dry w/ prefilter for up to 75 gal
2. Coralife Super Skimmer Needle Wheel Protein Skimmer up to 125 gal
3. Rio 2100 pumps times 2
4. Rio 600 Powerhead x1
5. Gamma UV Sterilizer (one question about that how many watts 15 or 25?)
6.Coralife 48 inch. Aqualight with 2-65w Actinic 03 and 2-65w 10k
7.live rock Fiji and Kaelinin (spelling?) 100-120lbs
8.Live sand
Well what do you guys think?

 

[ChrisRD]

Hi and :welcome:

It sounds like you're off to a good start. My recommendation is to skip the wet/dry. With the live rock/sand + a skimmer you'll have plenty of filtration. Take the money you were going to spend on the wet/dry setup and get a good RO/DI unit instead.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Rio powerheads - I much prefer Maxi-jets. Also, be forewarned that when it comes to the larger Rio pumps like the 2100s some have complained of catastrophic failures where they have wiped out an entire tank.

Many would consider the UV optional. There are many successful reefs out there without them, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend against one (they do have potential benefits).

You're going to have a lot of rock in that tank (which is fine if that's the look you are after). Personally, I would go with about half of what you're considering to allow for future coral growth and swimming room for the fish. That and the fact that I don't find a tank that is full of rock to be visually appealing.

Don't forget to check out our library for additional resources (link at top of page).

Anyway, welcome aboard and good luck with your new setup.

 

[Anonymous]

I second skipping the wet/dry.
Its nice to have more Iowa reefers here. Welcome!

 

[Gost]

I'm thinking of dropping the LR to about 80-90 pounds. I was looking at maxi pumps there not that much more so I'll go with them. Which size would you go with on the pumps? On the filtration subject, I can get away from the wet/dry system and not have any problems. I wounderd about that with the LR and live sand.

 

[Gost]

O' I've been looking at Marinedepot and there alot cheaper than my lfs.
What do you guys and gals have to say about there service. The only reason why I'm asking cause there ALOT cheaper than my store. :?

 

[Anonymous]

Marine Depot is great, I have never had anything but good experiences with them. Premium Aquatics is also great, and since they are located in the midwest, shipments tend to get to Iowa the next day, even if you just pay for regular ground shipping.

 

[LA-Lawman]

marinedepot is great. i have been a customer since they opened. I have used premiumAquatics too. and they are great also...

 

[Gost]

Cool,
Thanks guys for the help

 

[cjsrch]

id recomend RUNNING WHILE YOU STILL HAVE MONEY!
^^ jk only us crazos feed our tank befor our selfs

anyways

a while back TAAM sent me some pumps ( rio) a box load

i had them circulating water in my tank.. al that is in it is SALTWATER no fish no sand no nothing..

first rio locked up

next rio shorted out.. ( gfi blew and now i cant get the gfi to come back on)
3rd rio locked up
4th rio shorted
the other rio's threw out didnt wanna waste time with there cr.. again

only thign taam makes that kinda works is the sio pumps

stay away from rio unless you want a dead tank

and to think they sent me the pumps free to test out ... rule 1 never give a bad product out free. rule 2 buy a mag pump youll be alot happier
and im a fan of quietone also
when draining my old tank i pumped SAND slurry ( sand and water) with the quietone pump for 5 minutes befor it finialy locked up.

 

[cjsrch]

oh yeah also about the online stores

i love MD i love customaquatics im ok with drfostersmith and i ABSOLUTLY HATE championlighting and supply. worst customerservice EVER

but marine depot is great and has alot of hard to find items

 

[Gost]

I have one more question then im going to start ordering stuff.
I dont have a very good lfs's around here being in a corn and bean state.
Do alot of you guys buy you LR online. I've been looking around here for two days know around town and dont like what i see. Well i did find one store but they wanted eight dollars a pound for cured fiji 8O ..ouch eh.

 

[cjsrch]

tampabaysaltwater.com best lr iv everseen. its cheep for what it is. you have to pick it up at airport tho

also they aquaculture it so that it dosnt hurt the enviorment

 

[Anonymous]

Gost,
If you want to have an lfs (even a crappy one) around, you'll need to support them whenever you can. Get some rock localy and online. Try to have them order rock for you and you can cure it yourself and it should be cheaper than full on retail prices.

 

[drdave1]

I second "cjsrch", run while you still have folding money in your wallet. I am in the process of changing from FW to SW and it is a lot more $ than I thought it would be. Oh well, I'm still in.

With FW, a good filter is vital. With SW, a good skimmer and some biological filtration will do the job. Live rock and/or sand will take the place of the filter media we used in FW. In fact if you use a filter, every time you clean or replace the media, you are losing a good part of your bio-filter.

Good luck and hang in.

 

[cjsrch]

hobby dosnt need to be all that expensive just depends on how much work you wanna do.

you can keep a tank with light , a cheep skimmer ,lr,sand, and waterchanges with a low fish load. cheep

dont support your lfs if the prices are high. save the money for your self. unless this store hired smart employees ( and i bet they didnt) it wouldent be worth the price

 

[drdave1]

Absolutely agree on the LFS comment. My LFS guy said I could add livestock 2-3 days after adding water!!! Then he told me sillica sand was okay (maybe?). Last straw was when he told me he had never heard of the Mag series of pumps (Danner Mfg.). I realized that even as a raw recruit I knew more about reefkeeping from reading these posts than the LFS guy did. Goodbye LFS, hello on-line shopping.

I have kept costs down buy staying FOWLR for now. No need for MH lights etc. But you just know it's coming!

 

[ChrisRD]

If you're looking for Fiji rock, Premium Aquatics is a good place to get it.

 

[Gost]

Thanks for the input guys I need it.
Well I went today and bought some stuff 50 lb. of LS,salt and I decided to buy the wet/dry system just for some more filtration. Know Im going to buy a pump online, a Mag-Drive how big of pump should I get? And a LFS told me not to buy the 125 gal skimmer it would be to much for my tank, and could make it hard to feed invert. Is this true or should i stay with the 125 skimmer?


(I feel better after buying some stuff not so egar, for today anyway)

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input guys I need it.
I decided to buy the wet/dry system just for some more filtration.

Wet/drys are detrimental to reefs IMO, not just unneccessary. You are worse off running one if you wish to keep corals, IMO.

 

[ChrisRD]

I agree. I also recommend sticking with the skimmer size you had picked.