First and foremost - the wealth of information on this site is absolutely amazing. The funny stories about "Evil murderous Clown Fish" and "Gobies who love to irritate you by spitting sand all over your rock work and corals" has shown me just how engaging and enjoyable this community is.
For just a bit back of back story, I mentioned that this will be my first reef tank, and that is true - but I do have some experience in the fresh water world as I have kept a planted tank (35 gallon AIO Red Sea Max 130d) for the last 2 years or so. With that said, my passion has always drawn me into the marine world, but due to the overall cost and just a general feeling that it was much more complicated, I didn't pursue it - until now.
I've been lurking around for a month or so, reading others build threads, and just generally trying to get a grasp on all the different science/best practices around keeping a healthy and successful reef tank.
My initial plan was to convert the 130d back to what it was designed for - an AIO reef tank, but that came along with some challenges, primarily that the original t5's were gutted to make room for an led fresh water light and the tank never came with the original skimmer. To achieve my goal of as successful reef - This meant some amount of investment into that tank that would likely just end up being scrapped and I am sure I could hack together some creative solutions to make the 130d work. The limitations such as Its small size, general lack of flexibility, I think, would just end up frustrating me.
So the "Go Big or Go Home" and "Buy Once, Cry Once" mentality that I have always had has ultimately lead me down a different path, and while I think I have most of the correct pieces picked out to achieve my goals, I am still not 100% certain on others.
So without any further ado - My goals.
Stability and Sustainability: While I understand that I am probably going to be this tanks worst enemy while I learn what to, and not to do, I don't want to worry about something stupid like equipment failure (within reason) killing thousands in live stock.
Flexibility: I am sure that my tastes in livestock and coral will change as I mature in this hobby. I want a tank that can handle the ebb and flow with me, meaning that I dont want to have to worry about not getting a fish (also within reason) because my tank isnt large enough. Likewise If I want to change from softies to LSP with some SPS, I dont want to have to completely gut my lighting and flow to support this.
Maintenance: I'm not lazy but I also don't have endless hours in a day to dedicate to this tank. Some level of automation or at least creature comforts around checking params, ATO, dosing and maybe even water changes would be nice.
Easy right? ;Happy
Current parts list to accomplish these goals.
Tank: Red Sea Reefer-S 850 (cant go with a 1000 due to the space its going in)
Reason: This system seems to be very well made with the marine aluminum cabinet, euro-bracing, low iron 19mm glass on all but the bottom, and pretty well designed split sump seem to check a lot of the boxes. Also the warranty of 5 years is nice, knowing that if something goes wrong im covered.
Display Lighting: 4 Ecotech XR 15's
Reason: Little up in the air here but I think that going with XR 15's will tide me over for awhile, knowing that my goal is LSP and maybe some SPS in the first year or two. I was also thinking about doing two of the Atlantik iCon by Orphek.
Fuge Lighting: Ai Prime - Kessil H160 or A360x (probably overkill)??
Flow: 2 Ecotech Mp40's (display)
Return Pump: 2 Ecotech Vectra L2's
Reason: I want redundancy (sort of) and these seem to have good reviews. I was planning on using one for the main return and the other for various items such as UV.
UV: 57w Aqua Ultraviolet
Reason: Shorter than the 40w. Outside of that having UV as needed would be nice.
Battery Backup: DIY or Ecotech???
Reason: Ideally I would prefer to install a Generac but that will have to wait a bit. Just need something to keep me going for a few hours incase of an outage. It doesnt happen often where I live and I can use a generator for longer outages.
Skimmer: NYOS 220
Reason: Even though the NYOS has an AC pump it seems to be very well regarded.
ATO: Tunze 3155 Osmolater & Litermeter paralytic pump combo into a 15 gallon reservoir.
Reason: Also seems well regarded and provides me with two layers of leak prevention (one on the tunze and one on the litermeter)
RODI: 7 stage BRS Pro Water Saver (overkill?)
Open to some suggestions here. My local water company doesn't use Chloramines so not sure if 7 stage is needed.
Mixing Station: Just gonna have one because I hate lugging jugs.
Probably 2 55 gallon graduated containers with a pump strong enough to get it upstairs. Im not looking for full automation here just something to make life easier.
QT: My 130D will live on to be a nice quarantine tank.
Heating / Cooling: 2 500w titanium heaters (not sure about brand) as for cooling - do I need a chiller? I actually havnt looked much into this.
Parameters: Stumped ??
Here is my biggest question mark. There is so much hit or miss reviews on controllers that I am not sure what do to. I understand that learning this from the beginning is beneficial and not depending too much on tech is probably the right way to go from the start. With that said, something to help with dosing and at least getting notifications when something isnt going right is preferred.
For power this can probably easily be accomplished with smart plugs and my smart home stuff, but for other things like flow maybe something minimal? Open to some suggestions here.
- Dosing: Red Sea 4 ReefDose ??
More to come later....
If you made it this far thanks - I know that I left off things like substrate, aquascape and sump media as well as others that I cant think of right now. Im absolutely open to suggestions, your experiences etc..
For just a bit back of back story, I mentioned that this will be my first reef tank, and that is true - but I do have some experience in the fresh water world as I have kept a planted tank (35 gallon AIO Red Sea Max 130d) for the last 2 years or so. With that said, my passion has always drawn me into the marine world, but due to the overall cost and just a general feeling that it was much more complicated, I didn't pursue it - until now.
I've been lurking around for a month or so, reading others build threads, and just generally trying to get a grasp on all the different science/best practices around keeping a healthy and successful reef tank.
My initial plan was to convert the 130d back to what it was designed for - an AIO reef tank, but that came along with some challenges, primarily that the original t5's were gutted to make room for an led fresh water light and the tank never came with the original skimmer. To achieve my goal of as successful reef - This meant some amount of investment into that tank that would likely just end up being scrapped and I am sure I could hack together some creative solutions to make the 130d work. The limitations such as Its small size, general lack of flexibility, I think, would just end up frustrating me.
So the "Go Big or Go Home" and "Buy Once, Cry Once" mentality that I have always had has ultimately lead me down a different path, and while I think I have most of the correct pieces picked out to achieve my goals, I am still not 100% certain on others.
So without any further ado - My goals.
Stability and Sustainability: While I understand that I am probably going to be this tanks worst enemy while I learn what to, and not to do, I don't want to worry about something stupid like equipment failure (within reason) killing thousands in live stock.
Flexibility: I am sure that my tastes in livestock and coral will change as I mature in this hobby. I want a tank that can handle the ebb and flow with me, meaning that I dont want to have to worry about not getting a fish (also within reason) because my tank isnt large enough. Likewise If I want to change from softies to LSP with some SPS, I dont want to have to completely gut my lighting and flow to support this.
Maintenance: I'm not lazy but I also don't have endless hours in a day to dedicate to this tank. Some level of automation or at least creature comforts around checking params, ATO, dosing and maybe even water changes would be nice.
Easy right? ;Happy
Current parts list to accomplish these goals.
Tank: Red Sea Reefer-S 850 (cant go with a 1000 due to the space its going in)
Reason: This system seems to be very well made with the marine aluminum cabinet, euro-bracing, low iron 19mm glass on all but the bottom, and pretty well designed split sump seem to check a lot of the boxes. Also the warranty of 5 years is nice, knowing that if something goes wrong im covered.
Display Lighting: 4 Ecotech XR 15's
Reason: Little up in the air here but I think that going with XR 15's will tide me over for awhile, knowing that my goal is LSP and maybe some SPS in the first year or two. I was also thinking about doing two of the Atlantik iCon by Orphek.
Fuge Lighting: Ai Prime - Kessil H160 or A360x (probably overkill)??
Flow: 2 Ecotech Mp40's (display)
Return Pump: 2 Ecotech Vectra L2's
Reason: I want redundancy (sort of) and these seem to have good reviews. I was planning on using one for the main return and the other for various items such as UV.
UV: 57w Aqua Ultraviolet
Reason: Shorter than the 40w. Outside of that having UV as needed would be nice.
Battery Backup: DIY or Ecotech???
Reason: Ideally I would prefer to install a Generac but that will have to wait a bit. Just need something to keep me going for a few hours incase of an outage. It doesnt happen often where I live and I can use a generator for longer outages.
Skimmer: NYOS 220
Reason: Even though the NYOS has an AC pump it seems to be very well regarded.
ATO: Tunze 3155 Osmolater & Litermeter paralytic pump combo into a 15 gallon reservoir.
Reason: Also seems well regarded and provides me with two layers of leak prevention (one on the tunze and one on the litermeter)
RODI: 7 stage BRS Pro Water Saver (overkill?)
Open to some suggestions here. My local water company doesn't use Chloramines so not sure if 7 stage is needed.
Mixing Station: Just gonna have one because I hate lugging jugs.
Probably 2 55 gallon graduated containers with a pump strong enough to get it upstairs. Im not looking for full automation here just something to make life easier.
QT: My 130D will live on to be a nice quarantine tank.
Heating / Cooling: 2 500w titanium heaters (not sure about brand) as for cooling - do I need a chiller? I actually havnt looked much into this.
Parameters: Stumped ??
Here is my biggest question mark. There is so much hit or miss reviews on controllers that I am not sure what do to. I understand that learning this from the beginning is beneficial and not depending too much on tech is probably the right way to go from the start. With that said, something to help with dosing and at least getting notifications when something isnt going right is preferred.
For power this can probably easily be accomplished with smart plugs and my smart home stuff, but for other things like flow maybe something minimal? Open to some suggestions here.
- Dosing: Red Sea 4 ReefDose ??
More to come later....
If you made it this far thanks - I know that I left off things like substrate, aquascape and sump media as well as others that I cant think of right now. Im absolutely open to suggestions, your experiences etc..
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