- Joined
- Aug 26, 2019
- Messages
- 222
- Reaction score
- 206
Hello everyone! I've been reading the R2R forums endlessly for the last month and I thought it was finally time to create an account. In full transparency, I am also looking for a bit of advice.
I’ve been a reef lover for the past 15 years. I had a small nano-cube back in college (early 2000s) that I kept for ~4 years until I had a full tank crash and decided to take a break for the hobby. At the time, I was just starting my career and family life and I did not have the resources to start up a new tank.
Fast forward ~15 years later until early last year when my 1st grader asked for a ‘Nemo’ for his birthday. I literally pulled my car into the nearby Petco (ouch) and 30 minutes later came out with a 16 gallon LED Biocube, Fiji live rock, sand and a single Blue Chromis. I really didn’t want to put a fish in a new tank, but sometimes six year old’s have a way of getting their wish!
As soon as I got the Biocube setup, I realized that my time and budget were in big trouble. I started searching for LFS’s in the metro Atlanta area and found a couple of great options. Pure Reef in Alpharetta and the two Nemo shops around town have very friendly owners and clean/well-stocked collections. I found myself purchasing new corals 3-4 days each week. At the time, I was frequently visiting Orlando for work, and I stumbled across a small/unknown local shop called “World Wide Corals” and it was all over
.
I quickly outgrew the Biocube and upgraded to a IM Nuvo 30L, but I should have gone A LOT bigger. I think the Nuvo 30L is an awesome nano tank but I’m looking for more.
I plan on moving the Nuvo 30L to my home office (maybe a QT tank or I might just keep it going) and starting a new tank build.
I tried to insert a couple of images of my existing setup to this thread, but since this is my first post it might come out completely wrong.
FTS in early May:
A few weeks ago, I made a huge mistake and completely gutted my live rock. This is what happens when you are home alone on a Sunday afternoon and start messing with things.
Here's a high level list current equipment:
I would like to keep the build between $5k-$8k equipment only but I'm flexible in either direction. My favorite tanks are the lifted aquascapes packed with SPS and I also really like some of the minimalist SPS tanks. I realize a lot of these are "works of art" that I won't be able to recreate, but these tanks are my initial inspiration. I'm currently leaning towards a production tank (Red Sea Reefer, Innovative Marine, Planet Aquarium, etc.). I started going down the custom path and I became quickly overwhelmed. I also started seeing a lot of horror stories with poor build quality. Here are the 3 main tanks I'm considering:
What do you guys think from this list? Am I looking in the right direction? Do you guys thinks this size is a logical step from my current 30L? I know bigger is better, but we will probably move in about 4-5 years and I don't want to setup something that will be too cumbersome to deal with at that time.
Thanks everyone. Sorry for the long initial post. I appreciate everyone's dedication to this site. It hass been very helpful as a new reefer.
I’ve been a reef lover for the past 15 years. I had a small nano-cube back in college (early 2000s) that I kept for ~4 years until I had a full tank crash and decided to take a break for the hobby. At the time, I was just starting my career and family life and I did not have the resources to start up a new tank.
Fast forward ~15 years later until early last year when my 1st grader asked for a ‘Nemo’ for his birthday. I literally pulled my car into the nearby Petco (ouch) and 30 minutes later came out with a 16 gallon LED Biocube, Fiji live rock, sand and a single Blue Chromis. I really didn’t want to put a fish in a new tank, but sometimes six year old’s have a way of getting their wish!
As soon as I got the Biocube setup, I realized that my time and budget were in big trouble. I started searching for LFS’s in the metro Atlanta area and found a couple of great options. Pure Reef in Alpharetta and the two Nemo shops around town have very friendly owners and clean/well-stocked collections. I found myself purchasing new corals 3-4 days each week. At the time, I was frequently visiting Orlando for work, and I stumbled across a small/unknown local shop called “World Wide Corals” and it was all over
.I quickly outgrew the Biocube and upgraded to a IM Nuvo 30L, but I should have gone A LOT bigger. I think the Nuvo 30L is an awesome nano tank but I’m looking for more.
I plan on moving the Nuvo 30L to my home office (maybe a QT tank or I might just keep it going) and starting a new tank build.
I tried to insert a couple of images of my existing setup to this thread, but since this is my first post it might come out completely wrong.
FTS in early May:
A few weeks ago, I made a huge mistake and completely gutted my live rock. This is what happens when you are home alone on a Sunday afternoon and start messing with things.
Here's a high level list current equipment:
- IM Nuvo 30L sitting on a piece of Pottery Barn furniture my wife had in our living room (she HATES aquarium stands).
- 3 AI primes set to BRS's suggested setting. I rented par meter and I'm getting between 250-350 par from top to bottom.
- as a side note, I believe I have watched every BRSTV video numerous times over the last few months.
- I just upgraded to 2 AI Nero 5 pumps that were on clearance from my LFS. Maybe overkill for this tank size but I've been happy so far.
- I have a Tunze 9004 skimmer and a Tunze ATO.
- I also have one of the cheap 4 head Jebao dosing pumps currently dosing DKH, CA and a bit of NOPOX (not sure why since I can never get a Nitrate or Phosphate reading). I manually dose Mg each week.
- I have a small Neo-therm heater and I upgraded the return pump to a Sicce 2.0 a few months ago when the stock pumps started making a lot of noise.
- I run marine pure balls in media bags in the back and I have filter floss and Chemi pure elite in a media rack.
I would like to keep the build between $5k-$8k equipment only but I'm flexible in either direction. My favorite tanks are the lifted aquascapes packed with SPS and I also really like some of the minimalist SPS tanks. I realize a lot of these are "works of art" that I won't be able to recreate, but these tanks are my initial inspiration. I'm currently leaning towards a production tank (Red Sea Reefer, Innovative Marine, Planet Aquarium, etc.). I started going down the custom path and I became quickly overwhelmed. I also started seeing a lot of horror stories with poor build quality. Here are the 3 main tanks I'm considering:
- My LFS has a Planet Aquarium Crystaline
- 60L x 24W x 21H
- tank includes sump, stand, external overflow and most plumbing.
- I love this tank, but wish it was a bit bigger (more like 150 to 180 gallons)
- My heart was initially sold on the Innovative Marine INT 150. I loved the 36 inch width but I wish it was 60 or 72 inches. I'm also not crazy about the stand. We don't have anything black in the room.
- I also like the "ease" of the Red Sea Reefer 625xxl or 750xxl. Again, the aesthetics of the stand does not really match our home. I've also read some recent post concerning the quality of Red Sea's bigger tanks, but in general, my gut tells me these are very well built and I would be totally ok.
What do you guys think from this list? Am I looking in the right direction? Do you guys thinks this size is a logical step from my current 30L? I know bigger is better, but we will probably move in about 4-5 years and I don't want to setup something that will be too cumbersome to deal with at that time.
Thanks everyone. Sorry for the long initial post. I appreciate everyone's dedication to this site. It hass been very helpful as a new reefer.
