Advice... Please Help

[Chef Mateo]

Hi, my name is Mateo, I live in Canada and am only 14 years old. I first started to look into the saltwater hobby in March after my eight trip to Hawaii. I've always loved the fish there but, now that I'm slightly older I've been thinking about creating a Hawaii inspired tank. So, over the past 5 months I've been researching long hours about the saltwater hobby. Now, most places say the bigger the better as smaller tanks are harder to maintain. I decided to go with a 120 initially but, after advice and more consideration I decided to pick a 180. I haven't purchased anything yet and I am worried about the financial side. I'm not worried about the month to month cost just more about the initial cost. I'm currently looking at the Red Sea Reefer XXL 200 Gallon Complete System and a Miracles Aquariums 180 Gallon. Since I live in Canada I can get the Reefer for about $8300 + tax, the Miracles tank w/stand(custom) and holes will be $2777 + shipping & tax. I'm not at all worried about the maintenance, as I've kept many pets including: 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 axolotls, 3 mice, several guinea pigs, a spider, 300 stick bugs, a gecko & some tetras and goldfish(although when I was much younger). I'm pretty knowledgeable on most of the fish and inverts requirements. I haven't looked at the equipment as much as it doesn't excite as much, as the livestock. My LFS is J&L Aquatics, so I have great selection in livestock and it only takes 30 mins to drive there. What do you guys think is a good cost to spend on all the equipment not including the tank and stand. What is better custom tank or Red Sea, I would prefer less maintenance but, is Red Sea too much more? Just worried about costs a bit.

Thanks for all of your guys advice!!

 

[AlexStinson]

It really depends on if you are keeping coral or not. Also a lot of Hawaii livestock is becoming harder/more expensive to get. You could easily spend an extra 5k to get the tank up and running with coral or you could possibly spend under 1k to get it going with fish only. I hope it doesn't discourage you, I love seeing younger people come in to the Hobby!

 

[Chef Mateo]

It really depends on if you are keeping coral or not. Also a lot of Hawaii livestock is becoming harder/more expensive to get. You could easily spend an extra 5k to get the tank up and running with coral or you could possibly spend under 1k to get it going with fish only. I hope it doesn't discourage you, I love seeing younger people come in to the Hobby!

I will be doing a mix of coral.

 

[mcarroll]

I'm not at all worried about the maintenance

I would prefer less maintenance

What do you mean about this in the context of the aquarium purchase?

I'm not too sure since maintenance is what you make of it....defined by what animals you keep and how you take care of them. Little to do with the tank or plumbing.

 

[Chef Mateo]

What do you mean about this in the context of the aquarium purchase?

I'm not too sure since maintenance is what you make of it....defined by what animals you keep and how you take care of them. Little to do with the tank or plumbing.

The first point I meant cleaning the tank and feeding and testing the water. The second I meant setting up the tank as red sea is much easier than buying all my own parts and setting it up.

 

[PatW]

A 180 gallon tank is a nice tank to have. With the 6’ length, you can have some of the smaller tangs. You could have three tangs that frequent those waters: Kole, yellow and powder brown.

The thing is a tank is just the start. I am familiar with Miracles and they have a good reputation.

You need a stand. You can do a DIY and it is not that hard. There are plans out there. Cost $. Now you can make it look better by putting a nice skin on the framework.

You should get a sump. That is a tank in the stand to stick your equipment into. For a 180, something like a 40 breeder might be good. You can put in baffles for the different chambers just by using silicon caulk and glass panels and it is fairly easy. Be sure the stand is high enough so you can get your skimmer out for maintenance.

Skimmer, really good to have and not cheap. See if you can get a used one and that will halve the price.

RODI system, again not cheap but just about essential for top off water and mixing salt water.

Power heads for maintaing flow in the tank.

Return pump to pump water from the sump to the tank.

If you want photosynthetic corals, you need powerful lights. T5 s do a good job and are reasonable in price.

Auto top off. Really, really good to have. You can get an inexpensive one from autotopoff.com.

Quarantine tank .... necessary and reasonable.

Heaters.

Dry rock.

The thing is to make a list of what you need and see what the approximate whole system price is. You might have to scale back or wait.

Good luck to you.

 

[Chef Mateo]

A 180 gallon tank is a nice tank to have. With the 6’ length, you can have some of the smaller tangs. You could have three tangs that frequent those waters: Kole, yellow and powder brown.

The thing is a tank is just the start. I am familiar with Miracles and they have a good reputation.

You need a stand. You can do a DIY and it is not that hard. There are plans out there. Cost $. Now you can make it look better by putting a nice skin on the framework.

You should get a sump. That is a tank in the stand to stick your equipment into. For a 180, something like a 40 breeder might be good. You can put in baffles for the different chambers just by using silicon caulk and glass panels and it is fairly easy. Be sure the stand is high enough so you can get your skimmer out for maintenance.

Skimmer, really good to have and not cheap. See if you can get a used one and that will halve the price.

RODI system, again not cheap but just about essential for top off water and mixing salt water.

Power heads for maintaing flow in the tank.

Return pump to pump water from the sump to the tank.

If you want photosynthetic corals, you need powerful lights. T5 s do a good job and are reasonable in price.

Auto top off. Really, really good to have. You can get an inexpensive one from autotopoff.com.

Quarantine tank .... necessary and reasonable.

Heaters.

Dry rock.

The thing is to make a list of what you need and see what the approximate whole system price is. You might have to scale back or wait.

Good luck to you.

Thanks for the response! Was planing to get a couple yellow tangs possibly a powder one. I definitely want a sump, I have found pretty cheep lights that apparently are pretty good for coral growth. I have a spare 29 gal tank I can use for quarantine as I'll most likely get the fish at 1-2" then keep them one at a time in there for 4-6 weeks.

 

[Chef Mateo]

Can I just add my LFS is J&L Aquatics and they say I can give them a budget and they can tell me all the parts is $2000 CDN($1529.58 US) good for all equipment not including lights, tank and stand. Do you think that's a good budget if not what is? THIS IS JUST FOR EQUIPMENT NO ROCK/LIVESTOCK

 

[mcarroll]

I'd say it's probably decent for a 180 Gallon setup.

 

[PatW]

Let me think.

Power heads. If you go with a gold standard 2 mp40s about $800 but you could do it for half that easily so $400.

Return pump $200

Heater $100 and that is generous. But you need a safety back up to turn it off if it gets stuck on.

Auto top off $100

RODI system $300

Quarantine tank $100

Skimmer $400...

Dry Rock and sand could be $500 or almost nothing.

So just my off the top of the head, I am getting $1600 and you still need to get the misc... algae scrapers, nets, buckets, test kits.

I would feel better with $2500 but a good store with your budget and make it work.

 

[Chef Mateo]

I'd say it's probably decent for a 180 Gallon setup.

Let me think.

Power heads. If you go with a gold standard 2 mp40s about $800 but you could do it for half that easily so $400.

Return pump $200

Heater $100 and that is generous. But you need a safety back up to turn it off if it gets stuck on.

Auto top off $100

RODI system $300

Quarantine tank $100

Skimmer $400...

Dry Rock and sand could be $500 or almost nothing.

So just my off the top of the head, I am getting $1600 and you still need to get the misc... algae scrapers, nets, buckets, test kits.

I would feel better with $2500 but a good store with your budget and make it work.

Thank you both so much! That sounds like my budget excited to start up!