Funny How This Happens Huh..

[sputnick]

Well I went to the LFS just to talk. Not even buy anything, I just wanted to talk with the owner as she is a very nice lady and I like to talk about fish with her. Well I mentioned that I like saltwater and was thinking about doing a nano tank but then was thinking about converting my 45 gallon aquarium over to sw and one thing let to another and she told me that she could get me a brand new marineland 75 gallon aquarium for $100. My mouth dropped. I thought about it for a few minutes, only because I told myself that it was the right thing to do. I knew the first 3 seconds that I was going to buy it. So then we were talking about how she has her tanks set up and I told her I wanted to do a sump on mine. Well she has a brand new sump that hasn't been used but has no packaging on it and it is always sitting there. So I asked her if she was going to use it and if not how much. Its an Eshopps R-100 2nd Generation Refugium, she said she would include the hang-on over flow box for free and she gave it to me for.. wait for it... $75!!!!! BRAND SPANKEN NEW!!

 

 

  I'm so stoked right now!! So I just dove head first right into the salty side. The tank wont be here until October but thats ok because that gives me time to break the news to my parents and have them get over it 

 Also I figure that I will buy a little at a time so I don't cry as much over the money 

 but I'm going to need a lot of help from the salty side.. I need lighting, heaters, pumps, plumbing, skimmer, the works. Right now this is what I'm thinking for a set-up:
 
Tank: 75 gallon
 
Sump: 20 gallon Eshopps R-100 Refugium
 
Lighting: Marineland Reed Ready Light
 
Skimmer: Not sure yet, I heard the octopus brand was good? I need help on this.
 
Water Pump for sump: No Idea. need help here too as far as g/hr
 
Circulators: 1x Marineland maxi jet pro 1200 2x koralia/ hydor circulators
 
Heater:  300W Aquatop Heater
 
and I think thats its.. Now its time to go do even more research that the hours that I've done in the previous months 

 

[Donya]

What livestock are you planning to keep? The Marineland LED fixture, although it has "reef" in the name, will not be enough for many of the more demanding corals and photosynthetic animals.

 

[sputnick]

What livestock are you planning to keep? The Marineland LED fixture, although it has "reef" in the name, will not be enough for many of the more demanding corals and photosynthetic animals.

Fish (clearly) with just the basic softies. The LFS uses this light fixture with great success, she keeps anenomies and hard corals with that light, but I'm not sure If I'm willing to spend $400 on a light 

Instead I may go with one of these. 
http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13822+23758&pcatid=23758
 
Would This be an alright light? Like I said I just want some easy to care for good looking corals. Nothing too major.

 

[Donya]

You'll be alright with softies - no issues there. What I was meaning is that many SPS and some other things like Tridacnid clams would be off the list, and a lot of other things might still need to be placed fairly high in the tank to show good growth. 
 
The output from LED fixtures like the Marineland reef one and a similar Fluval reef one I have seem not too far off 4xT5HO to me - although the spread of light can be a problem with narrow fixtures and thick tanks. When I junked my failing 4xT5HO for the Fluval reef LED fixture, I saw no changes in the livestock for growth rates and such, which is what makes me think there's not a lot of difference - but 4xT5HO makes a lot of heat. For the price range you're looking at, unless you want to play with the spectrum by swapping out specialty bulbs (that being the perk of T5 really, easy mix and match to make colors pop or to simulate shallower/deeper water environments), you will probably find similarly priced "reef" LED fixtures to perform similarly but with much less heat and maintenance. 

 

[sputnick]

Thanks for the help Donya 

 I couldn't find any LED light fixtures that were even near the price point of the coral life fixture I linked. So if you could give me some pointers on what to look for in a LED light unit or even a brand or model that would be awsome! As far as the heat, I'm not worried by it. The room it will be in is cool in the winter so I could use the help. During the summer here if its really hot we use the AC but I also have plans for a DIY chiller that I was going to build this summer but it turned out to be an extremely mild summer so I didn't build it. 
 
As far as flow for the tank should I aim for 10x or more towards 20x? Also For the return pump on the sump how do I find out what size pump I need for that? Is it up to the pipe diameter, or the overflow itself? I'm not sure how that works yet. Thanks for all your help so far! 

 

[sputnick]

Well I did some quick searching and I think I found the light that Just might be the perfect fit for my Budget. Dimmable, and separate power cords. I like that 

 It also has excelent reviews. I was thinking about two of these hanging over my tank? Or would I only need one? Should I start off with one and then if I need too I can always order another one? Or is it complete junk lol 

http/www.amazon.com/TaoTronics%C2%AE-Dimmable-Aquarium-Seaweed-TT-AL09/dp/B0092LXQRM/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1379126470&sr=1-1&keywords=LED+reef+light
 
As for flow Would two of these plus a Maxi jet pro 1200 do the trick? 
http/www.amazon.com/Aqueon-06135-Circulation-Pump-8-3-Watt/dp/B003C5LPPE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1379127288&sr=1-1&keywords=wave+maker
 
2x500gph+1200gph+600gph(rough estimate of the sump)= 2800 gph 2800/95= 29.5 turn over rate.. wow.. is that over kill? lol

 

[Donya]

I paid very close to that Coralife fixture's price for my Fluval fixture (a 48" Fluval Full Spectrum Marine & Reef). It was an emergency purchase since my older T5 fixture fried itself. It was on sale when I got it, but later I saw them in-store at a non-sale price of just under $300, which is still quite a lot less than the Marineland. I actually got mine from Dr. Fosters & Smith, but their listing for it seems to be gone now...strange. The main downsides to the fixture I've got are that there is no built-in timer, it is thin, and it doesn't make colors pop in the same way that T5s and more expensive LEDs can (and it won't grow corals the way those can). The LEDs are supposed to be angled to try to offset the narrow beam effect to some degree, and I use it with a timed power strip. It feels like a decent budget option for softie and LPS tanks, just not a super SPS reef with all sorts of amazing neon colors.
 
From the proportions on the TaoTronics, I would think you'd need two. If you want to go for a 2x hanging LED setup rather than a lower end single strip, then hopefully tcamos will pass through here. He has had experience with more of those sorts of things than I have and knows the brands better. I don't know anything about TaoTronics and how they stack up relative to the other fixtures discussed so far and/or higher end fixtures.
 
 

As far as flow for the tank should I aim for 10x or more towards 20x?

 
Go for 20x to start with. Some even go higher but you certainly don't need it to start. Lower than 20x and you're in sort of specialty territory.
 
 

Also For the return pump on the sump how do I find out what size pump I need for that? Is it up to the pipe diameter, or the overflow itself?

 
I'll have to leave these to someone else as I've never had a sump on any of my tanks.

 

[sputnick]

Alright Thanks Donya so much! I should be able to achieve almost 30x turnover pretty easily. I do hope more people will come across this thread and help with the sump. I also need advice on the refugium part. For Lighting I like the multiple cords, and dimmability of those TaoTronics and think I will order two of those. Two of those arn't that much more than the coralife fixture and by the sounds of it I should be able to keep even more demanding corals with those lights. Most people said they were running theirs at 50% power so they didn't bleach their corals! 

 

[sputnick]

Alright well I think I've got everything for the tank figured out. Now I want to get some sort of Idea of what to tell the LFS to order for me 

Now my two favorite fish are the Mandarin dragonets and Flame Angelfish 

  I don't plan on getting Mandarins until I've got at least a year or so of experience and maybe a different tank. But I do what a flame angelfish. I've bee drooling over them every time I walk into the LFS. Granted I also want coral and inverts and I know that they can be compatable with caution but I'm not sure if that means I can't have certain corals and inverts or what? So I've been looking through liveaquaria to get an idea of what fish will fit in my tank and be happy. Here are two lists I've compiled so far.
 
LIST 1:
 
Fish:
Flame Angelfish 
Kole Yellow Eye Tang
Orange Stripe Prawn Gobby
Kaudern's Cardinal
Marine Betta
Pair of Clown Fish Probably Snowflake's or maybe blacks
Fire Fish
Purple Fire Fish
Whip Fin Fairy Wrasse
 
Inverts:
Emerald Crabs
Some Snails (which ones?)
a few Hermit Crabs
and a couple cleaner shrimp
 
LIST 2:
 
Fish:
Flame Angelfish
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Bicolor Angelfish
Potter's Angelfish (are this many Angels compatable or is it a one per tank thing?)
Coral Hog Fish
Zebra Lionfish
Pinkface Wrasse
 
Inverts:
I don't think I'd be able to have any?
 
 
I'm leaning towards List 1 for obvious reasons of I'd like Inverts and corals but I'm not sure If I've got too many fish or a few that are not compatible or what, so a little help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!! 

 

[Donya]

I can't help much on the fish since I haven't kept or even looked into keeping most of those. I would avoid marine bettas with munchable inverts. For the lionfish, from talking to people about those in the past, I have been warned that if some other animal can even mostly fit into the mouth, it's a snack risk. 
 

Inverts:
Emerald Crabs
Some Snails (which ones?)
a few Hermit Crabs
and a couple cleaner shrimp

 
Do you have a species of hermit in mind? If you have a small species of hermit, you'll need quite a lot of those eventually (not right away). Emerald crabs should be stocked sparingly. For snails, you will want grazers like Trochus, Turbo, Tectus, etc. as well as some to go into the sand like Nassarius.

 

[sputnick]

no clue on the species of hermits.. I only planned on getting a few emerald crabs, 2-3 maybe and for snails the LFS has snails that go everywhere and plow under the gravel and have a little perascope looking thingy sticking out. I assume those are Nassarius snails. Thanks for the tip on the marine betta, like I said I will most likely go with list 1 and I can always change it about. 

 

[sputnick]

Alright well I talked to the LFS last night and she said that my tank will be here the middle of October so about the 18th. 

Can't wait! While I was there I also ordered a pump and heater. The rest I will get online probably. I'm pretty convinced I'm going to try those TaoTronics as they seem to fit the bill pretty well. I Plan on getting some lumber with my next paycheck to build the stand. For placement in the room I think I'm going to have it stick out of the wall. But I'm not sure if this is ok or not for the fish. I think it will as long as I give them enough hidding places in the LR but I'd like more oppinions on this. For the stank I'm thinking of bringing the sides of the stand past the sides of the tank and up. So that I can Up my overflow on one side of the tank and the Inlet on the other side and all the pipes and wires are hidden. I also want to eliminate the equipment as much as possible from taking up viewing glass area. So this will also allow me to put my water circulators on the sides of my tank and create a chaotic current in the tank without having the circulators in the way of viewing.