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Post by brandon on Jun 13, 2013 17:08:27 GMT -5
I have recently got a 125 gallon tank and am going to be creating a saltwater reef tank. Im going to be building my own sump/ refugium to save some money.
I've already done a lot of research and talked to my local fish store but i'm just looking from some extra advice/ tips from you guys who are experienced and know what your talking about.
Some info i'm looking for is basically what is everything I will need to get it just cycling and the things you guys would recommend. Also how many gallons should I have the sump and what should be included in it.
Thanks
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Post by scoobnoob on Jun 13, 2013 17:31:49 GMT -5
There are a million different answers for your set of questions, it really depends on what your trying to do with your tank. Is your goal a mixed reef? SPS? Softies? What LFS are you getting your advice from? We've dealt with all of them and can probably elaborate the strengths and flaws of the methods recommended by each one. You want your sump to hold as much as possible but save some room for overflow from the display if there is an outage.
With that said if I were in your shoes
Lighting a 125 will probably be your most expensive peice of equipment, LED's are great they are bright, don't use a lot of energy and you don't have to replace bulbs every 6 months they have the highest up front cost and the quality among brands differs the Maxspect Razor, Echo tech, and Kessils are the most popular options
you need some sort of filtration Get a good quality skimmer, the reef octopus, eshopps, tunze are all proven units, the vertex omega also has been getting good reviews
you need power heads for water circulation in your tank
you need a good drive pump to bring the water from your sump to your display at a 10x turnover so 1250 gallons per hours (that's a big pump).
I'm missing a lot but there are so many ways to go for a reef tank all the above are things you'll most likely need regardless which way you go. Let us know your goals and we can give you many options. Keep in mind most reef tanks cost about $30 per gallon to setup completely some of this cost can be offset buying used items on forums and ebay.
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Post by scoobnoob on Jun 13, 2013 17:36:04 GMT -5
to save on lighting up front many people are going LED so you can get some great deals on Metal Halides they produce excellent light but at the expense of potential added heat and electricity.
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Post by scoobnoob on Jun 13, 2013 17:47:21 GMT -5
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Post by brandon on Jun 13, 2013 19:57:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the info.
What type of lighting would I need for the refugium and main tank tho? wouldn't I need a grow light for the plants?
And i'm building the stand, sump, canopy and already have plenty of rock to get it going so from my understanding the primary things I would need to buy to get it going is -
Skimmer
power heads
lights
pump
sand
heater
Is there anything i'm missing?
also I don't plan for a overflow because i'm going through the bottom for connection to my sump.
With just the primary things to get it cycling what would you estimate the cost at (not including the stand, lid, sump, rock and tank itself.
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Post by scoobnoob on Jun 14, 2013 6:13:08 GMT -5
If your going to have a fuge depending on size a simple 6500k to 6700k light would be the right spectrum for macro algea. You can probably skip the canopy to keep heat out depending on the lighting you choose.
Lights $400-$1,200
Skimmer $300-$400
Power heads $100-$500
Drive Pump $150-$300
Heater $30
Sand (depends if your going live sand or not) $120-$150
Fuge Light $20-$75
Macro Algea $10
Notice the large ranges I went from low end new or decent used equipment all the way to high end new it really depends on what you want to do especially with lighting. What do you want to keep in your 125?
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Post by oceangirl2009 on Jun 14, 2013 8:15:02 GMT -5
If you want to go LED for the display Reef Breeders has excellent fixtures for GREAT prices, and several of us on the forum have these lights and love them.
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Post by brandon on Jun 14, 2013 9:08:53 GMT -5
I plan to keep just a few fish in it once its safe to put them in and then slowly add. I plan to go with smaller school fish and nothing super huge and various plants and coral.
I'm still a little confused on what type of lighting for the main tank. I will have live plants and coral in it so what would be the best type of lighting to really make the plants and fish thrive as well as really bring out the colors of the reef and fish.
Thanks for the tip, ill go check out the site.
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Post by oceangirl2009 on Jun 14, 2013 12:52:55 GMT -5
If you want to sustain coral there's a TON of lighting options, T5s, metal halides, or LEDs are the 3 major categories, and within those you have even more options. You will find proponents for each type on every forum and there's pros and cons of each. I would do a search online and do some research, but if you want a reef, lighting is one of the most important parts of your tank.
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Post by brandon on Jun 14, 2013 13:39:00 GMT -5
Ok thanks. For a 125 gallon reef tank do you think one central grow light and some LED lights would be sufficient or would there need to be more?
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Post by scoobnoob on Jun 14, 2013 17:06:53 GMT -5
Corals flouress under bluer light 10000k is almost white 20000k is very blue its a matter of preference 6500-6700 is sunlight. You can mix the spectrums to your taste and livestock needs very few do planted reefs I assume there is a reason maybe overgrowth on the corals most keep plants/algea in their fuge you might be more prown to algea if you run a growlight over your display this said I dont keep plants so dont take this advise too seriously
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Post by gotareef on Jun 15, 2013 7:43:31 GMT -5
for a mixed reef go with 3x 120w led (reefbreeders value fixture $179 each shipped) basically what I have on my 180g
cheap way out minimum of 3x 150-175w mh with t5 actinics (cost 5x in the long run)
if you had a fish only lighting dosnt matter
to get the tank cycling put the sandbed and rock in with a couple powerheads
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Post by brandon on Jun 15, 2013 12:33:48 GMT -5
Ok thanks for all the help. I think im going to go with just fish and coral reef
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Post by industry on Jun 19, 2013 6:36:01 GMT -5
Where are you located? I have the same tank and you are welcome to check out my setup. I was in your shoes about 7 months ago. There are some very helpful and generous people here. They have helped me get this far.
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