Noober questions

[LPPTundWRX]

Hey everyone, I am Bo. I currently have a freshwater 55 gallon tank Ive had for awhile now. I have always wanted to do a saltwater setup but I had 2 full time jobs, am a full time single dad, semi-pro football player, 1 of my jobs requires some decent travel during the good riding season and I have a short-long distance engaged/relationship... Now that my life is calming down a little.. I got rid of my second full time job!! I feel I have the time to do this..

I picked up an 80 gallon tank with stand off of craigslist for 80 dollars. I went down to my LFS and talked with him about what I need to do to get started. He asked if the tank was drilled or not or if I was going to drill it.. The tank is not drilled.. Is it better if it was? Could it be drilled?

He mentioned if it isnt I need a hang on back skimmer?? Roughly $200 Is this correct? Any idea on brand preference?

He mentioned 80 lbs of sand and said it was roughly $1/lbs I cannot find sand anywhere for this price so I am wondering.... Maybe he sells it at that??

He also said I need 80 lbs of live rock.. Well he sells 3 different styles ranging from 3.99-6.99/lbs. What is the difference in the 3 grades? I have seen dry rock even for 1.99/lbs would that work?

He also told me that my biggest expense to get started is a nice light he told me roughly 400-500 dollars for a good light. He said I could buy all the stuff to build it myself... Does that save a fair amount of money? Obviously for me time is usually money so sometimes DIY things dont really pay off for me.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.. I guess I just got really confused on what I should or should not use for the build. Thanks everyone, beautiful site and tanks!

[Arkayology]

Ok, first off, you don't need your tank to be drilled though an 80 gallon would benefit from drilling and plumbing in a sump. Do a google search on sumps/refugium designs too see if it is something you want to do.

There are many brands of skimmers out there. Look around at members aquarium threads and see what they use. Reef Octopus, Eschops and Tunze are good brands, but you should not limit yourself to these. Do your research and see what works for you.

As for live rock and sand, that seems like a decent price for the highest grade your LFS has. Craigslist is a good place to try and find LR also. You could start with dry rock and "seed" it with a few pounds of LR from your LFS. Either way you will get the desired effect.

Ok, lighting next. It all depends on what you want to keep. You can defiantly spend 400+ on a light. Again, it depends on what kinds of corals you want to keep. If you mainly want a soft corals tank with mostly zoas, mushrooms, leathers and some LPS like frogspawn, torch and hammer corals, you could very easily go with T5HO and keep most anything you want if you get the right fixture. What you are looking for is a T5HO ficture with individual parabolic reflectors to get the maxiumum PAR possible. TEK are good fixtures to look at as well as ATI. If you want to go with metal halides that would allow you to keep some more demanding corals down the road as well as anemones and clams. Now, I use T5HO and keep both nems and clams but my tank is not that tall and I have a good fixture. Do your research on what you want to keep, what other people with similar tanks as yours use for their lighting and what they keep with it.
If you don't want to keep high light requiring corals, you can spend less on your lighting but I would recommend not cheaping out on lighting as you will want the cooler stuff eventually lol.

Bottom line, do your research and take things slow. You will be glad you spent the money early to get the good stuff rather than cheaping out and having ot replace things later on. Good luck.

[Ron Reefman]

1) Your tank does NOT need to be drilled. I have a 75 gallon reef that has been running for 4 years that isn't drilled. HOWEVER, If I were doing it over again, I would get it drilled. BUT, tanks that aren't ALREADY drilled should only be drilled thru the back or side glass (I'm assuming a glass aquarium... if it were acrylic why would you even ask the question). Tanks that aren't drilled need everything as either a hang on back or overflows with siphons (this is what I've done). They work fine but need regugar monitoring... kind of a pain in the long run, especially when you aren't at home and need somebody else to watch over your system).

2) You might also watch Craigslist for skimmers and any other 'stuff' you'll end up needing for your system (live rock, lights, sump, pump, powerheads, whatever). I'm setting up a new system with 2 aquariums (a 180g and an 85g sharing water), a 55g sump and a 50g refugium. I bought almost everything used from one place or another. I have what I wanted and don't have $1500 spent (including a $500 light).

3) Live rock... unless you are going to be a fanatic about how the rock looks, go for the less expensive rock. It's just rock with 'stuff' living on it. And 1 pound of rock per gallon of water isn't a magic number. You don't need 80 lbs, but that's a good place to start.

4) SoCalDude is pretty much right on about lighting. I wanted killer lights for my new set up. I found a 'new in the box' 6' long AquaMedic metal halide fixture with 5 bulbs at a 'garage sale' for $525. Best price I could find online was $1150 for the same light. My old 75g tank has 6 VHO bulbs that I built myself with 'used' parts (along with the canopy) for under $300 (the new bulbs cost $150). And I can keep anything except SPS corals. But you said DIY isn't worth the time or effort for you and I can understand that.

5) For most people, keeping an aquarium goes one of two ways. You start, try to rush it, get frustrated when 'stuff' dies and quit. Or, take your time, learn all the time and enjoy the process of constantly evolving hobby. I started with a 30g tank, switched to a 75g, added a 35g estuary tank to the 75g reef, and now I'm switching to a 180g reef and an 85g estuary. The more I learn and have fun, the more I want bigger tanks.

Good luck and always keep asking questions. I've been doing this for 6-7 years now and I still ask questions every day!
Ron

[LPPTundWRX]

Yes this tank I am looking at is glass. I went down to my LFS and he has a 90 gallon tank, stand and hood for 599 on clearance. It is already drilled and ready for equipment. Is that a better way for me to go? Im deffinately not against spending money correctly, I am however against spending money incorrectly . Thanks for your guy's time answering my questions.

If I am taking my time with this build can I simply go down and purchase the 80lbs of sand and get the dead rock for 2.99 versus spending the extra $4/pound for the premium rock?

What is the big difference between the 4.99/5.99/6.99 per pound live rock?

Is 1lbs/gallon a good amount of sand or do you recommend more/less? I kind of like the look of the thicker sand sitting on the bottom.

[Fibinotchi]

Does semi pro football player mean that you play for the Raiders or Lions? I wouldn't go too cheap on the live rock, get the good stuff. You can get 20lb bags of sand from drfosters and smith for about 20 bucks a bag.

[fleming3]

I will say that I prefer a "reef ready" tank, but you have plenty of options if it's not. As long as it's not tempered glass, a glass shop could drill whatever size holes that would fit your equipment. Or, if you like, there are always DIY overflow boxes you can build if you're handy with acrylic. Here's an example: http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/overflow.html

Also, I'd check this calculator to double check the amount of sand you'll need:
http://www.reefcentral.com/calc/SandBed.php

When it comes to live rock I usually go for the less expensive too. I built my 90G with dry marco rock and love it. I've seen some local LFS's here in Tennessee selling live rock for as much as $12.99/lb! And it's covered in all kinds of nuisance algaes and who knows what else. Coral won't grow onto that, so go for something that's relatively clean looking and free from any kind of carpet looking creeping algae.

[bertoni]

There are good hoods and bad hoods. We'd need to know more about the 90g setup before saying much. Is it a full canopy? Does it have, or is there room for, some good reflectors for MH or T5 HO?

I agree that drilling the tank is optional, but I would have it drilled, personally. A sump or refugium is nice, and I never trusted hang-on overflows, personally.

[LPPTundWRX]

Originally Posted by Fibinotchi

Does semi pro football player mean that you play for the Raiders or Lions? I wouldn't go too cheap on the live rock, get the good stuff. You can get 20lb bags of sand from drfosters and smith for about 20 bucks a bag.

bah dum ching hahaha pretty much

yea the lfs here has live sand $1 per lbs. Yea the canopy would house the lights and the piece that covers the tank is acrylic

[bertoni]

Hmm, an acrylic tank cover might be a bad thing. They can reduce aeration and hold too much heat (by reducing evaporative cooling). Maybe a picture would help.

[LPPTundWRX]

Im not sure if I can source a pic. It really is mainly an acrylic lip for the light to sit on. But I see your point about the heat, the canopy might be too much.

This is my LFS I have gone too so far.. Not like a petsmart or petco. Dont know if that really matters much www.reef-tech.net

[Sk8r]

If it's acrylic, piece of cake to drill it. You get a downflow box INTERNAL to the tank, put the outflow pipe through the bottom of the tank, ditto the inflow hose, and you end up with a nice compact neverleaks situation.
Difference with fresh water:
1. no lid. Our stuff is already too hot. You can melt the seams on an acrylic tank, besides killing coral. 80 degrees is the approximate limit and you may have to run fans to keep it that cool in summer.
2. no filter. Your live rock and skimmer are your filter.
3. skimmer---very good idea. The bigger the tank, the more necessary. You'll have a healthier tank with a skimmer.
4. you need a ro/di filter: putting conditioned tap water into a marine tank is a future battle with bad algae.
5. You need a refractometer: precise measurement of salinity is critical, down to .001. Do not bring a fish or snail into a higher salinity difference than that.
6. A spare tank for quarantine: these fish and critters come from the ocean: so do parasites. It is a major PITA if mostly-invisible parasites get loose into your tank and start breeding in the sand. A 4-week observation is for your TANK's protection, never mind the fish. If they haven't broken out in spots after 4 weeks they're safe to put in your tank. PS: you can NEVER medicate a marine tank: it lives and dies on its bacteria, and any antibiotic will start killing off your sandbed and live rock. Copper in salt water is very harsh: it dissolves and kills off bacteria and inverts for starters: never ever let a drop of coppered water into your tank.
7. read those notes marked with a * up at the top of this forum and you will save yourself a lot of money and angst. There is a pretty-well-mapped course toward success, and you should have no trouble. Just read up, and if it were mine, and acrylic, I'd drill that tank and get a nice simple gravity-driven downflow box, no mucking about with siphons that lose their prime and make you crazy: I've had both kinds, and I will never ever rely on another U-tube siphon.