What do I need??

[Ian1986]

I plan to start a reef tank in the next 4 months and I need to know what I have to have. I plan to have a 75 gal. tank and a 20 for the filtration system. I need some information on skimmers and such.

After reading the replies I have decided that I would like to have some live rock, clams, sand bottom, brain coral, clowns, etc.

 

[moortim]

Well lets see, the answer to your questions are not short ones. You will first need to decide what kind of reef you want and then plan your tank accordingly. The subjects you need to be familiar with are: lighting (metal halide, VHO fluorescent, T5 fluorescent, power compact fluorescent or a combination of them), flow (powerheads or closed loop, are you planning on drilling your tank?), live rock, skimmer, refugium, return pump, heater, chiller, refractometer, RO/DI, sand/bare bottom as you can see there are a few options. Each one of the things I mentioned can ocupy your mind for quite some time. I guess to get you started we could use a little more information. First thing, what kind of reef do you want to have? Softies, lps, sps, clams? This will determine what many of the things you will need. Tell us everything you want to do and we can help you through it. I think it is great that you want to get into this hobby, we all started somewhere and a 75gallon is a great place to start.

And
Welcome to Reef Frontiers!


Tim

 

[mummra]

those are the basics right there. do not go cheap on lighting or the skimmer. buy a skimmer rated at least twice as big as the tank and never under estimate your need for water flow.

 

[MarineTeng]

plan what you want, and state it here and how much you're willing to spend perhaps and that sort of info

 

[Krish]

Welcome to RF! A 75gal is a great tank to start out with. It has one of the nicest dimensions

Tim (Moortim) said it all. A bit more info on what direction you are heading will make it a lot easier for us to steer you in the right direction as well as if you are working on a budget. You don't need to spend a lot to have a reef tank so don't worry, but you would want to do it right the first time and not cut corners. Good luck and let us know a bit more on your plans

 

[mmkeeper]

As you are making your plans remember one of the most important things about setting up a reef. Go slow, don't look for instant satisfaction or you will double or triple your cost,and kill alot of stuff.

 

[james734]

As you are making your plans remember one of the most important things about setting up a reef. Go slow, do look for instant satisfaction or you will double or triple your cost,and kill alot of stuff.

OOPS... Do or Don't? I think you meant Don't