Setup priced out and decided upon, opinions?

Dakwan

Dakwan

Reefing newb
Heyo! I'm just getting into the hobby and loving how many different facets there are to it. I've read several books on the topic, lurked these forums for ages and feel read to start the slow, process of getting everything in order

I've done some pricing and made up a list of the system
all prices are in Canadian

Show Aquarium
Tank (72-90 Gal w/ built in overflow) 350.00
Live Rock ($250 for 50 lbs) 750.00
Substrate (4 20lb bags) 100.00
Powerheads (2) 110.00
Lighting ( 1 150W MH, 2 65 W blue power compact, 2 1 W 470 nm LEDs, housing, reflectors, fans) 500.00

Fuge/Sump
Tank (30-50ish Gal? As big as the stand will fit) 80.00
Protein Skimmer 200.00
Lighting ( 1x 96W power compact) 150.00
Return Pump (950 GPH at 0' from head) 115.00
Heater (2x 300 W) 130.00
Live Rock (included above)
Substrate (2x 20lb bags) 50.00
Plumbing 100.00
supplies to modify tank for fuge/sump setup 100.00

Quarantine Tank
Tank (30ish gal) 80.00
Filter (hang on power filter) 50.00
Lighting( 1x 96W power compact) 150.00
Heater(1x300W) 65.00
Power Head 55.00

Misc
Stand w/hood 400.00
RO/DI Kit 200.00
Refractometer 50.00
Test kit (pH, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrite,nitrate) 35.00
test kit (phospate,silicate,iodine,iodide) 35.00
Test kit (calcium 30.00
Salt (2 x 23 kg buckets (or 2x150-180gal)) 150.00
Magfloat cleaner 25.00
misc supplies (nets,gloves,therm,timers etc) 100.00

total $4,160.00 CAD

Is there anything i'm totally out to lunch on? The protein skimmer is much cheaper than expected but i couldn't find one at the LFS that was much more expensive than 300. and they were all a German brand so i unfortunately couldn't make out any details. I'm also surprisingly enough have a difficult time finding the right kind of aquarium. I'm looking for a standard box shaped glass with a built in overflow but the LFS only had crazy 2-3000 dollar all in one packages.

Also is a power head required in the fuge? or is the flow of water falling through the overflow sufficient? I don't imagine it needs too much flow, just enough to stir the water?

And one more question! In a setup like i have planned with a combined fuge/sump for the skimmer should i have mostly seen the fuge being feed by overflow directly. Which i assume is to give your macroalgae a chance to grab at the nutrients it wants before the skimmer has its way with the water. But because of this are you loosing/damaging a significant amount of beneficial things like celapods in the skimmer and getting them chopped up in the return pump? Does it really not make a lick of difference and i'm just over thinking it?

i guess my biggest concern is the protein skimmer since you see cheapo hangon power filters called "skimmer" all the time, i want to be sure i'm getting an appropriate product. The sizing also seems funny as some people say that if you have say a 50gal tank you should get a 150 or 200 gal skimmer.

I'm also wondering if i'm going overboard on the main tank lighting. i found a 500 dollar package that contained all that and i'm pretty confident i would like to go the metal hallide with supporting blue power compacts and the night time leds sound like a neat thing. It just didn't seem i could get this as cheap out of the entire package.

Any help would be super appreciated
 
I would suggest looking at different lights -- you are not going overboard at all, in fact you are aiming too low, IMO. One 150 watt MH with PC bulbs for accents? I don't think the lights you've picked out for the main tank are enough. Power compacts are not strong, and are outdated. Look for a MH/T5 combo instead. Or just T5s. Or just MH. I'd just avoid power compacts. They are the weakest of all the lighting types for reef tanks. The lighting system you've picked out for your main tank is probably not strong enough to support anything but low-light corals. A better option is the 48" Current Nova Extreme Pro fixture. It's six T5 bulbs with individual reflectors and will be immensely better than the lights you've selected. The Nova Extreme Pros will allow you to keep anything you want, and cost about $325 USD.

For the refugium light, just get a simple clamp-on light from Home Depot or Lowe's (or your equivalent Canadian Hardware store), with a CFL bulb (the squiggly kind) or two. That will save you hundreds of dollars and will probably work even better than the PC light you were going to buy.

You also don't need a light for the quarantine tank.

I don't think you need phosphate, silicate, iodine or iodide test kits at all. And you will need calcium if you keep corals, but not until then.
 
really good advice Bifferwine!

I've looked at the Nova setup you mentioned and it retails for about 470 USD from canadian retailers. An extra hundred bucks just to be canadian... yeesh. Looks like it may be time for a day trip into seattle.

if anyone else has any inputs on anything i mentioned i'll love you forever!
 
One thing i should also note is that the dollar is almost parity, so any price i list the comparable usd would be about 5% lower
 
Biff's right as usual..The lights for your display need to be changed. For a 90g tank you'll need 2 MH lights...A 90g tank is 48", if the light system is set up correctly you'll have 2 MH on the tank so you don't get a "spotlight effect"..She's also correct on the PC's . I have them and never even turn them on.
 
Thanks again Bifferwine and PRC! I appreciate the help.

couple more questions.
I've seen people do something like 2/3 dry rock and 1/3 live rock. I'm assuming this is to save money? at the collection of local stores i've found live rock range from 5-8 dollars a pound and dry rock at about 2 dollars per found, sound reasonable? I'm assuming you would get more volume per weight since it wouldn't be saturated with water, is that true or am i bonkers? if i were to replace the 100lbs of liverock planned with 80lbs dry would that be reasonable(including the extra 50lbs of live. so 50 live/ 80 dry)?

Sand it seems is sold by weight and not volume and while i realize it changes with the type of sand, how much (in pounds or kgs) sand is needed for say a square foot or metre of 5-6 inch deep sand bed.

If any of these are a bit silly you can feel free to ignore them :mrgreen: I'm an engineer so i tend to get a bit fixated on numbers.

What is your preference in brand name for protein skimmers?
it seems they range from the 200ish dollar area like
AquariumPlants.com Largest online sales / service site for the live aquarium plants & aquarium products community.

to the 400 dollarish area
Super Reef Octopus XP 2000 IN-SUMP Cone Protein Skimmer by CoralVue* - AquaCave

I've heard time and time again you don't want to skimp on a protein skimmer but am just interested in why, like is the needlewheel pump inferior in creating bubbles to the "bubble blaster" pump?
 
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Yeah you can do a little live rock and the rest dry...The LR will seed the dry rock. It'll take a little longer but no big deal...When lookign for rock IME you want to find nice porous rock, not dense..That way it can act as a better filtration system than the dense rock.

I think for a 48" tank you'd be good with 2 to 3 bags of sand..depends on if you want a deep sand bed...I don't use too deep of a bed, about an inch or two past the black frame of the tank.

I can't answer the questions on the skimmers, but it's true you certainly don't want to skimp in this area, you'll just end up buying a different one to replace the 1st piece of junk.
 
Hi and welcome to the saltwater hobby! :mrgreen: Biff and PRC have got you covered pertaining to the lights. Another thing I noticed is I think your going a lil overboard with the heater for your QT tank. A simple 50w or 100w should be enough for a tank that small so maybe you can save a little money there. The Octopus skimmers have great reviews across the board so I would think they would be your best bet. As for sand I have 15lbs in my 29G cube and it fills to about 1/2 inch. And with the Live rock your plan seems great with the 80lbs Base 50lbs live in fact personally I would only start out with maybe 80 lbs total at first. You'll find later that a lot of the corals you will be purchasing come attached to live rock and you might want a little more room in the beginning. Also, the place I purchaed my dry rocks from Macro rocks seemed to give me way more than what I ordered. I ordered 35lbs base rock for my 29G and I had a hard time fitting everything in my tank and even had to throw a large rock away after I got a piece of live rock to make room. Hope that helps!
 
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Really great help all around!
thanks guys!:bowdown:

I've made several posts on different boards trying to find a "home" and i think i just found it!
 
In theory,it only takes a cup of live sand or one piece of live rock to seed the dry rocks.I like the 80% dry/20% live rock just to speed the whole cycle and mature the system.

Why such a deep sand bed?Are you looking to get some NNR(natural nitrate reduction).Personally,I think DSB's looks awful in the display tank.1''-2'' of sand is all that is needed.I hope this link works for how much sand is needed for the depth you are looking for....http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/SandBed.php

Reef Octopus are very popular and very good skimmers.The cones seem to getting rave reviews on the net.
 
Aesthetics is something i hadn't really considered suprisingly! But yes to help with nitrates was the original plan but i do have a fuge planned so the macroalgae should be able to handle the majority of the work? My problem is I don't know what kind of nitrate levels you would get from an medium stocked 90gal system and how effective various methods of removal are. If the tank generated say 10 ppm per week what's needed to get rid of that?

I guess it's all so very very dependant on exactly how you have everything set up. I just don't want to be in a situation where i'm constantly scrambling to get my nitrates down. I'd rather be safe but sorry. Although going from 2' to 6' of sand that would loose about 15 gallons of water which is also very undesirable. Hmmm comparing to other set ups i've seen online that look healthy i think i'll be fine with the thinner substrate..

I have 2 koralia #4's picked out will those 2 with addition of the flow coming from the sump return be allright? too little or too much?
 
I wouldn't put a deep sand bed in your display tank. Like reeffreak said, it takes up space (space that you would otherwise have fish and corals in). Plus, deep sand beds have been known to crash in time. That's why I always suggest they be kept separate from the main tank, so you can disconnect them and perform maintenance on them if necessary. Having a remote DSB as part of the refugium would be a better idea than having all that sand in the display.

I have less than 1 inch of sand in my display. I don't want it taking up any more space than it needs to. If you plan to keep burrowing animals (like gobies) you may want more than 1 inch. But I still wouldn't go any deeper than 2 inches. Anything more than that and you are just creating a trap for waste.
 
Two K4 should give you plenty of flow.

...and like Biff mention.You could do a DSB in the fuge and along with macro-algae,get NNR.
 
Most damsels are at least semi-aggressive to aggressive. An aggressive label can have to do with aggressiveness toward fish or your corals...I generally use

www.liveaquaria.com for researching livestock. I think most reefers generally stay away from damsels because they're a bit unpredictable and can be real SOB's.
 

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