preparing to start...

bwaller76

Love my tanks!
Ok so I need some assistance. I have been running around asking ppl, researching, and looking and it seems that so many ppl have a different idea of what is ideal. Let me set up what my wife and I are after. We are getting a 75 gallon tank and my wife is wishing to go mainly reef tank with just a few fish. I need some ideas and checklists if I may of things to buy and setups that may potentially work well for this. Bear in mind I have no idea what I am doing and or talking about so be patient plz :D
:bowdown::bounce:
 
Salt water is a lot more involved than fresh water...but very rewarding.

As for a set up, you will basically need about 1.5 lbs. of live rock per gallon, sand of some sort to cover the bottom about 3 inches, several powerheads of your choice. Heater, sump, protien skimmer. You have a tank that is drilled? If not you can use an overflow box so you will need one of those. YOu can shop at Dr Fosters and Smith online for a lot of stuff, heaters, overflow box, powerheads. The live rock and the protien skimmer will be your first major purchase items, so figure on spending some money here. The sump can be made easily so that saves major bucks, but you will need to buy the overflow box. There are several articles here you can read. YO need to read, read, then read some more until you know what you are getting into.
 
Last edited:
+1 SeaBee

Salt water is a lot more involved than fresh water...but very rewarding.

Not to mention addicting! A lot of people who went from freshwater to saltwater don't look back. I know I did...I was strictly freshwater for 15 years, then switched to saltwater....when I tried to start 10g freshwater, I turned it saltwater instead LOL

We recommend using Aragonite for your sand. Some people go with bare bottom, some people go w/ just enough sand to cover the bottom, and others go with a deep sand bed (5 inches)..it's your personal preference. I prefer just enough to cover the bottom because you might cause levels spikes if you stir up a deep sand bed too much.

If you are going reef, you need to have good lighting (t5's or metal halides are recommended). And of course, water movement (enough to keep water below moving, and to make ripples on the water surface for good gas exchange) is a must.

Sumps are optional, but I like having a sump. Allows me to keep all my equipment out of site -- like the skimmer and heaters.
 
yea, if your planning it all out up front, i would really suggest drilling the main tank, and then running a sump, the sump not only adds a place for you to hide your equipment, but it allso adds to the total water volume in the system, and thats a good thing cause it adds stability, and the name of the game is stability... the more stable your system, the easier it is to care for, the more likely you are to be successfull, and the more slowly bad things happen, and this gives you more time to react and catch them before they get too bad...

you can build your own sump if you can operate a tape measure and a tube of toothpaste, just find yourself a tank(i get mine from craigslist) take it to a glass shop and ask them to cut you some baffels, then take that home and silicone them in, TADAA you have just built yourself a sump...

we can discuss all the details on where to put the baffels and how tall they should be if and when you get to that point...

something else that you should really think about now, is what exactly are you gonna keep in the main tank? you said reef, ok, thats a good starting point, but do you want animones, or corals, or mushrooms, or what, these are the things that you should know now, so that you can get the right lights, and stuff the first time, rather than doing what i did, and starting out with the cheap lights, and now i have to upgrade, when, i knew from the start that i wanted to go in a specific direction...

so, welcome aboard, please feel free to ask questions, we were all new at this at one point or another, and we all have to learn... and you cant really learn if your not asking questions...

something else that you might think about, pick up a couple books, 2 that i really liked were the "consciencious aquariust) or something like that, and then i also got the "saltwater aquariums for dummies" yea i admit it, i read the dummies book, and you konw what, i learned stuff from it, and it only cost me $2 at a used book store... SOOOOOOO worth it!
 
Welcome to the world of reefing. The best advice is to do your research. Then research some more. (Kinda like carpenters and paperhangers. Measure twice and cut once.) Plan everything and don't rush things once you get going. If you're like most you will love it and will find it very rewarding. Good luck, we look forward to seeing your system come to life!
 
Lotsa good advice for you so far.
I also like using a sump... for the extra water volume and someplace to put equipment like skimmers, heaters, etc.

As far as getting your tank stocked with rock/sand/clean up crew, try looking at Live Rock - Tampa Bay Saltwater Aquacultured Live Rock
Look at the chart they have for "The Package".
Even if you don't buy from them, it will give you a good idea of how much of what you should buy for your size tank to have a healthy system. Some may disagree, as there are tons of ways to do things in this hobby, but TBS is pretty adamant about their ratio being correct and from what I've seen their customers end up with very healthy systems. If anything it's a place to start.
Good luck!
 
I don't have any advice (except maybe make sure to rinse your sand really really really good)

I can tell you I did tons of reseach all over the place until my head was ready to explode. I got the best consistant answers here.
 
Thanks for the advice. I was reading in other sections of the forum that mushrooms, zoanthids and leathers are the best way to start and expand from there. My biggest issue is actually getting all of the materials in a timely fashion due to the cost of most of it. I think the placement of the tank in our house is not going to allow for drilling. We are arranging it so that you can see through from both sides. Are there any fish that would be more compatible with a mainly coral based tank?
 
Back
Top