Thinking about a reef tank and need some input

[salinero]

My husband and I are thinking about a reef tank. He has had freshwater tanks for all of his life and is interested in switching over. We are neatfreaks and have been looking a lot of information on the web. It seems like saltwater tank setups are messy, noisy and space intensive. It could be that we are seeing the wrong stuff. I just want to get a sense out there from other neat freaks whether this is a hobby that can be contained in the cabinet holding the tank (we are talking about a 120 gallon tank) and if it is necessary to have all of the brown stuff growing in the water resevior underneath. Is it very loud to run in a family room?

The tanks are fantastic and I think he would be great at it but if it really requires a "fish room" or plumbing sitting outside the cabinet to create the beautiful tanks then we need to really think about the idea and location we are considering.

I would really appreciate any thoughts....

 

[azgard1]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers.

You will find this to be not all that much different from your freshwater experience.

Generally speaking the fish only category is very similar. If you go with a full Reef i.e corals and other non-invertebrate life then the pluming and other things begin to get more intensives.

Come join us ask questions, no question is to small, we all share the same passion.

Again, welcome and enjoy the journey.

 

[jedimike]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers! It's great to see people researching first before jumping in.

The loudest and dirtiest piece of equipment, the skimmer, would reside in the sump inside the cabinet. My fish tank is in my living room. It really isn't that loud. Frankly, the light coming off the tank is more distracting than the sound. All of the equipment should fit inside the stand. Reef tanks will be louder than fish only tanks and will potentially have more equipment.

If you are ok with water changes and algae, then I think a saltwater tank would pass the "clean" test. You will get some saltwater creap, but it is just dried salt. Good luck and see if you can find someone around you to visit some saltwater tanks in person.

 

[DonW]

I'll be honest it takes alot of work and planning to have a "neat" system. Your going to have powercord ballast and other assorted junk unless it carefully planned out. Personally I'd just buy the new porsche and drive to the seattle aquarium, youll save money in the long run. Just kidding it will take alot of planning but it can be done. It took me months of design to have such a system.

Don

 

[mmkeeper]

Welcome to RF. Where in California do you live? Elk grove here. Near Sacramento.

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF!!! You can rest assured that you can have a quiet neat setup switching over to salt. Many people do it and it does not require a dedicated fishroom and so forth. Yes, there will be a bit more equipment in some cases over a freshwater setup, but with careful planning it will not pose a problem for you. Best piece of advice would be to read read read all you can and also ask as many questions as you like. This is not one of those forums that despises repeat questions so don't feel bad if you've asked a question that has already been asked before. A good section for you to check out though would be the member's showcase forum where member's showcase their setup from planning stages to having them come to life. That way, you can get a few ideas on what you'll be looking forward to and also, may spark a few ideas for you guys. Good luck!

 

[Krish]

Just thought I'd toss in a few pictures of one of my past setups to show you that a lot can be out of view and everything still function properly. I'd have to say that the noisest thing I've ever had was my chiller, but personally for me it wasn't so bad. This was my 75gal before I took it down to switch to a smaller setup (38gal cube). The tank was ready for corals, but I decided to downgrade in size a bit to make space to accomodate a new addition to the family (child).

Maybe some of the others will chime in as well with a few pics of their setups to give you some more ideas. I know there are tons of members here with very clean installs

Attachment 1 - The tank
Attachment 2 - Filtration under the stand
Attachment 3 - More under the stand
Attachment 4 - Full shot of the tank with stand, chiller, canopy etc. I didn't have fishroom so I had to make due and build something to house the chiller. Came out not too bad (LOL)

 

[ecobalance]

Something tells me

Krish75 might be one of them neat freaks that they are speaking of.Nice job dude,now that's neat.

 

[Scooterman]

Tomorrow I will be taking a few updated pics of my tank, I'll post you a few, & link to my tank build, may help with some ideas. You can put it in the living room & have it work neatly but coming from experience, I have a few things to consider. This does take planning & can get expensive, take the advise of learning & planning way ahead, this is very important when first starting out. One would be power, you will need to supply electrical power to several lights, high intensity, If your going to be doing a reef, depending on the type of corals you want you will have certain requirements, lighting is one. I'd suggest sticking to the easier corals for starters & slowly learning & upgrading as your experience goes. One reason is you don't need all of the high power lights, flow & other equipment as a full blown SPS reef. Along with power consuming intense lighting, you will need several types of flow requiring pumps, power heads etc. these also consume a constant power, heaters, skimmers the list can go on. So you need a circuit or circuits that you can use that will not be overloaded, even though you can limit your power & get somewhat efficient with your set-up if designed properly. Another problem in the family room is noise, until you can set up your plumbing & other equipment to be quite, you will have to deal with some noise issues but you can get it down to the sounds of water & not so bad. Last problem I had was location, changing out water & spills etc the living room turned out not the best place, ease of dumping water & replacing it within the tank every so often means you'll be hauling water around, something to consider.
Last, ask many many questions, learn all you can & practice patients, it is important.

 

[Krish]

Krish75 might be one of them neat freaks that they are speaking of.Nice job dude,now that's neat.

Thanks man...Slightly touched with OCD so...

 

[salinero]

donw- My husband likes the Porsche idea, but still wants the tank.
krish75--OCD yes, but exactly what we were hoping to achieve.
scooterman- did you get a circuit installed to handle the power?
mmkeeper -- We are north of Berkeley.
Thanks to all of you who so quickly responded. We have more questions and will post them shortly. We are off to the fish store to keep the fire burning.

 

[Scooterman]

I added a circuit myself & located the tank in a location easier to move lots of water! I have a backward fish room, Instead of a room for the tank & all the equipment all over, I have a viewing couch & the equipment is all hidden, well most of it, I still need to finish the trim work & hide the RO/DI tank!:doubt: