Please help get me started

[Komisar]

Hi all. I haven't had a tank for about 10 years, since I moved to my current home. In the past I had a 55 gal. freshwater tank with african cichlids. I'm ready to start over again but this time I think I would like a saltwater tank. I'm thinking live rock and fish.

I've been doing a lot of reading but I need some guideance. What would be your recommendations for an ideal setup for someone new to saltwater? Tank size, good quality brands to use for lighting, filters, pumps etc. Price isn't a big concern and I have a 10' wall I can center a tank on so I have plenty of room.

Thanks for the help.

[chrisANDbarb]

welcome to 3reef

if you just want to do fish then lighting wont be a problem. but think down the road a little, if you think you might want to do corals sometime then this will change things, both for your lighting choice and fish choice.

IMO a good size tank to start out with is a standard, reef ready 75g. i would forgo the regular filters and build your own sump. a 20g or 40g breeder with a few baffles would work great.

[muecyl]

Welcome to 3reef! This is a great site there is more knowledge that you can imagine. Anyway, another factor that was not mentioned was time hoe much time do you want to spend on this???. You can get sucked into a lot of time depending on the live stock you decide to invest in and/or equipment you choose. Regardless, as I was advised when I came here and it paid off, check out any of the trusted sponsors that are listed here on 3reef. Hope your reef tank works out well…

[JediReefer]

If price isnt a concern ( i assume you mean overall price ) i would got for a 120RR, it will give you many options farther down the line. I started out with 60 long and i love it, but if i had the room i would have gone with a 120 or 125RR.

[coral reefer]

Welcome to 3reef!
Your best bet is too go with the biggest tank you can. I would go with an Aqua C EV series skimmer, and metal halides. I would also incorporate a refugium and sump into the over all system with good water movement either through a wavemaker of Wave2K or similar approach.
Tunze, Seio and Maxi's make good water powerheads and Mag drive pumps work very well for the skimmer and return pump needed for a sump.
Coralife and Hamilton make good lighting fixtures and pendants IMO!

[djnzlab1]

Hi,
save some heartache and get a basic water test kit before you buy any animals.
Its really sad when things go bad and you can't check Kh, or Ca, Ph.
Doug

[Peter@JAX]

Welcome,

I started with a fairly basic setup last March - WOW 1 YEAR ALREADY !!!!1

90gal AGA
Proclear 125 - Wet/Dry
Cap 5000 return pump
Coralife Superskimmer 220 (goof by online store, ordered a 65 got a 220 - )
60lbs of substrate.
50lbs of live rock from LFS (cured)
2 - 100w heaters
2 - Coralife dual blub T-5 PC (10k + Actinic)

I get my water from LFS (RO/DI) - 30gal water changes every 28 days (lunar cycle.

Hope this helps a lil

[Komisar]

Thanks for all the responses.

I went to my nearest aquarium store just to check out what they had. They don't carry reef ready tanks so I think I'll have to find a vendor online that sells tanks. I did buy a book from them to learn more before I get started.

Does anyone have a favorite online vendor?

One more thing, Peter what is LFS?

[Peter@JAX]

LFS = Local Fish Store

[Sayce08]

Im new to saltwater to!!

I would find a store, shipping can be expensive from what I've seen, it may be worth an hour drive or so to find the tank your looking for. See if your LFS will order you a tank, I really like the ALL GLASS tanks, just because they have a nice reef ready system with inlet holes bigger then 1 inch! which I think helps with the noise issues Ive been having!!:mad:

All-Glass Aquarium - Quality Fish Tanks, Hoods, Lights, Stands and Accessories

go to this site, in the bottom right hand corner they have a retail store search, you might find something useful

Best of luck