I Want To Start A My Own Reef

[Rubio Jr.]

Hello, i am Adrian

I am thinking about getting an aquarium, and housing my own little saltwater world.

but I need to enlist the help of you fine, fantastic, hardworking, party supporting, comrades. I need you to answer my inquiries, since I am, while patient, kind, smart, loving, selfless, fantastic; a complete novice.


so if you would be so kind as to help me, then a thousand thank yous to you sir/sirs and or mam/mams.

Here are my goals, and questions conserning them:



1) I want a large tank, 110 gallons or over.

- How much would that cost?



2) Water.

- Where should I get my water from?
- How much will water cost?



3) Water support machines.

- What type of filters, and or other machines, will I need?
- How much will it cost?


4) I want to house fish, live rock, coral, anemones, and other inverts.

- What do all these things require?
- How much will these requirements cost me?




Please help me out here, thank you kindly.

 

[SkiFletch]

Hey Adrian, to the salty side of life . When starting a big tank like this, check your wallet and your kidneys at the door . I'll try to answer your questions and give you an idea of what you're up against here. If I may suggest that you read the stickies at the top of this section and then research research research. Remember this old salty saying: "Beauty takes time but disaster happens fast". Dont rush too quickly into things here

1) Tough to say in Jersy. For the tank only I'd say around $400 new or $200 used, but I may be WAY off there. I know things in Jersey are way more expensive than they are in upstate NY so dunno If it were me, I'd buy used every time, saves oodles of money on most hardware that is quite re-usable.

2) If you want a tank that big, I would HIGHLY reccomend getting yourself an RO (reverse osmosis) unit. A 100GPD model will almoast be required to give you enough water for topups and water changes so you still have your sanity. 100GPD RO units cost about $80-100 new off ebay and/or buckeye field supply, or around $60-80 used. You'll want a TDS meter to go along with your RO unit so that you can diagnose its functionality (TDS meters are like $10)

3) I assume by water support machines you mean filtration and other tank hardware. You'll need pumps or powerheads for flowrate and your filtration is done via Live Rock. You'll need 1lb of LR per gallon of tank capacity so that will depend on the size tank you choose. LR goes for about $3/lb from local reefers breaking down tanks, $4-6/lb from online vendors, and $6-9/lb at most LFS' around my area, may be different in Jersey. Powerhead and/or pump selection depends entirely on livestock decisions.

You'll also need a protein skimmer and using a sump would be MOST convenient. An appropriate skimmer would run you in the neighborhood of $150-250 and a sump depends on how handy you are.

4) Fish, LR, and Invertebrates are pretty non demanding. Anemones however are EXCEPTIONALLY demanding. You'll need very good turnover in the tank (30 times the volume turned over per hour or more). You'll also need high-powered lighting. Either a bank of 6 full-length T5 bulbs with individual reflectors or Metal Halide lighting depending on what size tank you choose. This lighting is very exotic and can range from $200-$500 for a tank that size depending on how fancy you want to get.

You'll NEED to invest in good water flow systems. Although oppinions range on this, I personally would never use a series of submersible powerheads in a tank with an anemone for fear the nems get sucked into the powerheads. Instead I'd use internal overflow boxes with a "closed loop" system if it were my tank for an anemone.

Thats probably allready a LOT to digest and you've got tons of reading ahead of you so I'll let you sort all that out and come back even further confused . If I may leave you with this link to show you what you can accomplish with a big tank. This is the tank of one of my local club members, DrTango. Figured that might wet your appetite

 

[Rubio Jr.]

thank you, thank you very much.

 

[Betta5]

like the 'workers' avatar. Also used tanks are eayser to clean algea off of the glass.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Also used tanks are eayser to clean algea off of the glass.

Dont know where you got that idea from, but algae's going to be annoying to clean from any surface, and it wont make any difference if the tank is new or used. goodluck in the hobby, hope to see you post more. Ski knows his stuff, he probably answered everything there!

 

[Betta5]

I HAVE PUT IT TO THE TEST. I HAD A NEW AND OLD TANK AND THE OLD TANK IS MUCH EAYSER TO CLEAN THE ALGEA OFF OF. DONT ASK ME WHY. IT JUST IS.

 

[Rubio Jr.]

3) I assume by water support machines you mean filtration and other tank hardware. You'll need pumps or powerheads for flowrate and your filtration is done via Live Rock. You'll need 1lb of LR per gallon of tank capacity so that will depend on the size tank you choose. LR goes for about $3/lb from local reefers breaking down tanks, $4-6/lb from online vendors, and $6-9/lb at most LFS' around my area, may be different in Jersey. Powerhead and/or pump selection depends entirely on livestock decisions.

You'll also need a protein skimmer and using a sump would be MOST convenient. An appropriate skimmer would run you in the neighborhood of $150-250 and a sump depends on how handy you are.

ok,

what exactly is a sump?

assuming im not all that handy, but willing to work and learn, how do i put a sump together? and how much will it cost?

 

[SkiFletch]

melvsreef.com explains sumps better than I can . You can buy sumps retail and they tend to cost around $150-200 for a moderately sized sump. Melev builds his own sumps, but you can also create your own sump out of a standard glass tank.

 

[Rubio Jr.]

thank you, you are very helpful.