New to the forums looking for a little advice

[Krish]

If I had to choose between one of those 3 tanks, I would be going for the 125 gal. Not because it is the biggest, but I just love the dimensions with the 6ft length. Same thing if I had to choose between a 75 gal, 90 gal or 120 gal. I'd go for the 75 gal because of it's dimensions. As Kirk pointed out, it all depends what your plans are for this tank.

 

[vegita51]

I would go with the 120 because it has the capacity to house many cool fish and the more important reason is the cost of lighting. The bigger the tank the more it is going to cost to light it
and keep it lit. Good luck.

 

[baker89]

I guess I should start in on that book... it just arrived at my doorstep today! I do love tangs, anemones and just about everything else in the hobby.... I think I'm going to take my 55g planted and turn it into a sump and I might have already bought a skimmer :tape2:. Looks like I have a lot more research to do and figuring out what I want and what goes well together... Thanks again guys this gets me back on the right track!

 

[Paul B]

Welcome, as you discovered you will get a lot of opinions all right and all wrong. It is mostly a matter of preference as there is no one way to do this.

I might point out that I do know this is an expensive hobby and that I am pretty well off financially. It is merely my thrifty personality that likes to save money where possible,

I personally would buy mostly dry rock that looks nice and add some live rock. In a couple of months you will not tell which is which and in a year it will make no difference at all. All of my rock was dead because I collected it myself but had to bleach it to bring it on the plane. (It was legal then) The bacteria is what you need on the rock and it will grow no matter what you do.
As for the size of the tank, that is up to you, mine is 6' long and only 14" high, it works fine.
Some people like sand, some gravel and some nothing, it all works and is what you like looking at. There is no need to clean the substrait, you may want to suck out dertitus if it forms and you will see that much more with sand although all healthy tanks make the stuff. Most of it comes from dead bacteria and rock boring organisms. You will be amazed at the amount of detritus those little guys can dig out of rock. The stuff is not bad and won't hurt anything as it is mostly inert.
You will read that it contributes to nitrate and maybe global warming but I don't think it does anything, if it did my tank would have crashed decades ago. But you may want to eliminate it for looks.
Read everything, then use common sense and look at the age and looks of the tanks of the people giving you advice.
There is a lot of talent on here but an awful lot of information, not all of it 100% correct as it is all opinions and there are no experts because it is a hobby.
Have a great time on here.
Take care.
Paul

 

[baker89]

Okay so a little bit of an update. I bought a decent set up off craigslist to get me started. It definatly needs some attention to get it where I want it. I got a 60"L,18"W,24"H Acrylic tank. It has 2 deep scratches on the exterior and a lot of little ones on the interior that I need to buff out. Any good threads or recommendations on this? Or not to do's on this?

Also I got about 100lbs of rock and sand that was once live, but has been sitting out of the tank for I'd guess about 2 weeks. How should I go about curing the rock and sand? I would like to do it in the garage or on the patio out back to keep the smell from stinking up the house. I'd also like to keep the tank empty while I do some work on it to get it up to show quality. I know its going to take some time to get it cured so I want to get this going as soon as possible. I'm just not sure if I should scrub it, bleach it, boil it or just through it in a plastic trash can and let it do its thing. Does it need a heater? should I put an air stone in it?

Thanks for the help guys maybe ill take some pictures...
Dennis

 

[NaTe R]

There is threads out there about buffing acrylic use the search feature on here or other boards out there if you want. What you will find on those boards is alot of information leading back to a product called NOVUS Plastic Polish you can do some reading on there website and find out more information or there is a forum sponsor here called Clear Fabrications that does this thing for customers wanting it done.

One thing you will need to do first if you haven't already is get a Ro/Di unit installed in your house so you can start making water/ doing water changes to cure rock.

For the rock i would get a Plastic feed tub or a garbage can if you wish and let the rock soak in R/O water with alot of water movement in it for a 3 weeks do some 100% changes on that to get rid of as much dead matter that will fall off as you can. And personally would only add a small amount of salt to the water changes after that to keep everything sterile and run 3 weeks or so with this some salt. All this should take place in a cool or cold dark environment.

if you have the tank fixed and plumbed and wired by then you could think about mixing water for the tank and put the rock in there for curing.

One more thing i would consider is were ever you are planning on running the tank, does it have enough available power in the circuit for what you want to do or if you will need a dedicated circuit for the tank itself. Personally i run a dedicated 30A circuit to my tank and split that in to two power groups one solid state and GFCI Circuts for anything plugged in that sits in the water. This way you dont have to worry about somebody plugging soothing in to the wall in the room and blowing the breaker and having your tank shut down. It also gives you options for shutting the breaker off and plugging a generator in to the circuit as well in case of extended power failures.

confused yet? keep asking questions have a great weekend

 

[baker89]

Nate thanks for all of the advice I really appreciate it! I would love to hear more about having a dedicated circuit for my tank. I dont have a very strong electrical back ground and to be honest dont even know where to begin with this. I'm going to do a little more research to get some answers, but I think this would be a great idea and would really like to do it. If you know of a good write up or something please let me know . My house's electricity tends to be a little finicky at times and could probably use some help.

Thanks!

 

[NaTe R]

first thing to look for is if you have any room in your electrical panel for another breaker. open it up and see if there is any break out tabs covering an unused hole for an additional breaker. as far as write ups don't know of any reef related off the top of my head but post a picture of the panel if you are not sure and we can help you identify if there is in fact room.

 

[baker89]

Alright well I tried to post a picture but the file size was always to big. I dont think I'm a "Member" yet, maybe thats why... (I took the file size all the way down to 55kb and still couldnt load it) Anyway it looks like there are 4 slots at the bottom that are available. They are covered by 4 metal pieces that I would assume I just break away and then I can add breakers.

 

[NaTe R]

for this forum it works best if you upload your pictures to photobucket first then copy the link to here. much better picture. sounds like you may have room

 

[baker89]

This is my control panel. Yeah. Kind of old.

 

[NaTe R]

yes it is a bit dated but no problem. do a count of how may amps the breakers are currently representing each one will have the numbers right on them i can only make out a few so you will have to do the math there and see how loaded your pannel really is

 

[baker89]

Okay here is what I found. Starting from the big red one...

200A
30 blank
30 50
30 20-20 (red)
30 20-20 (red)
30 15-15 (blue)
30 20-15
20 20
20 20

Hope my little diagram makes sense. If I add it all up (not incuding the big red one) its 455.

 

[NaTe R]

your fine then. Try and find a brand name of the breakers that have the little red pulls on them. If you hire an electrician you will need to tell him that brand name and tell him you need a 15 amp double pull breaker with that brand name so he know what you need. the only down side is some of those uncommon breakers can be expensive. What you do from here is all your deal.

 

[fall0n]

Recently I updated some of the breakers in my box, Home Depot had a good assortment of brands and options. I replaced a few with double pull 15 amp breakers.