Any equipment or accessories to make maintenance easier?

[Oberst Hajj]

What a difference a day can make! Apparently, the wife has been thinking about this more on her own and has give thought and decided that we could move a large book shelf/display case she has to the basement... freeing up a 78"x28" area for a tank!! So, looks like I could be looking at up to a 200 gallon tank now! Man, does that change everything!

I knew pumping water up to the main level would not be easy, and for that I'd actually look at non-aquarium pumps. You can get larger pumps for cheaper on the "industrial" side. The new tank location would make the draining portion of the water changes easier, as it would be right next to the patio door going to the back yard. The mixing station is still and issue and would be further way still.

IF I did the water changes once a month, I might be able to get way with mixing in the master bathroom. That would put it on the same level as the tank and only about 15 away. I could then store everything else where when not in use.

 

[Theclutziestspazzofaninja]

Sounds like a cool project you got going!
You mentioned doing a water change once a month and I wanted to warn you that (depending on your set-up) this can cause a little more work for you down the road.
the reason I say this is that if you're going down the reef route the corals will use up the different stuff in the water that you replenish with water changes and you'll be having to either A. Manually add buffers every few days or every week depending on how much you need (this can end badly though...I don't know too much other than it really isn't ideal and is usually advised against)
B. Buy reactors that can do this for you.
Another thing (that I noticed when I didn't do weekly water changes) is that the nutrient build up was insane! Depending on the fish you're going for/how many you want will also help determine the amount of water changes as fish that need frequent, multiple day feedings will need to have their tank cleaned more than species with minimal feeding requirements.
Overall I think that skipping out on a few water changes here and there caused the algae breakout I have now because the phosphates had a chance to build.
I'm sure others have different info to go along with more/less water changes that was just my personal opinion after my experience with my tank.
Good luck on the build!

Ps. I wanted to add that I am getting into keeping NPS corals so my tank needs to be fed much more than what you may be planning to do (just because that is another factor)
But I still think more frequent water changes are helpful in keeping things under control.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Yes, the water change subject seems to vary from person to person. If my final system requires more frequant changes, that's fine and they will get done.

 

[Blue face angel]

I think the best way to make hobby more enjoyable is to make water changes as easy as possible. The more simple it is the more you are likely to do them. Which is why a lot of people have trouble with their tanks, not staying on top of water changes. My first set-up was just a 50 gallon brute trashcan that would mix saltwater in. Then used a cheap sump pump that can get at any home improvement store to pump water to tank . From one end of basement up a flight of stairs to other end of house. So much better then carrying buckets. I now have plumbed in a mag 12 and 3/4 pvc through whole house to make it even easier. Let me just say to do water change on my 90 gallon reef now only takes 1/2 hour tops. And I enjoy doing them. I have a controller and ATO but by far the best investment I have made is the water storage/change system I set up .

 

[Cherub]

My reef angel made my aquatic life vastly easier! Does temp and ph monitoring. Does sunrise/sunset for my leds, does ATO, lets me see my parameters even when I'm away. Get a controller to help

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Thanks Blue Face. We've been talking about easy water changes in another thread and pumping it up from the basement mixing station was an idea that sounded good to me.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

My reef angel made my aquatic life vastly easier! Does temp and ph monitoring. Does sunrise/sunset for my leds, does ATO, lets me see my parameters even when I'm away. Get a controller to help

Yes, a controller is high on my list.

 

[specvjeff]

My controller has made water changes far more easy. No more following cords to the power strip. Just set up a standby to turn everything off and that's it! Dosing pumps have been a huge help as well. No more daily dosing.

Sent from my Kindle Fire HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[Singlefin]

Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down buddy. Most of these suggestions are great but probably something you would need to worry about when you're more into the hobby. Jumping straight to a 200g 1st tank is crazy. What's your budget like? If money is no object, then it will be easier, but your cost for equipment is going to skyrocket. How much free time do you have? I would think taking care if a 200g is going to take away a lot of your free time. Good luck.

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Well, I have 3-4 days a week off and the wife stays at home. So time is not too much of an issue. As for costs, local members have pointed me to some really good deals. Even a 230g complete setup for $1k. We were initially looking to spend about $1700 on just a 90g tank and stand and another grand on the rest of the equipment. This was when were were thinking of going with all new stuff (before joining this site and a local reefing forum).

What we don't want to do is buy a smaller tank now and 8 months from now be looking at something larger and have wasted some of that money.

 

[Singlefin]

That's great. If you can hook up with local reefers and see what it takes. 230g. Is kinda extreme. 90g is manageable. See how much time and Money you'll be spending on a monthly basis and if you are okay with that then right on. Are you going FOWLR or reef?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

I've got a couple of "monthly cost" threads going on and I've ran sample equipment through some wattage/cost calculators to get a better idea of the hidden fees. We'd love to have a reef tank, but being practical, we are going to start with a FOWLR tank that we will add nems to after it is well established and we have somewhat of a clue as to what we are doing. lol

 

[Theclutziestspazzofaninja]

Like mentioned above it may be better to go with a slightly smaller tank to start, but it's really your call. You were saying that your budget is $1700 for something closer to a 90 gal so make sure to at least tripple that to just get everything set-up to how you want it. I have a 72 gal and I've spent as much as you're hoping to spend and I'm still not done upgrading. I also got my whole aquarium set-up already used and running from a fellow reefer. What are you wanting to keep that is making you want such a large tank? It would be a beautiful set-up but it might drain more money rather than feel like a success to start with.

 

[1Der9_3hy]

Anyone know if a Mag drive pump will draw (suck) water up the intake if i put PVC on it (without priming it otherwise)? I have a sumpless setup, and have a Mag 5 & 40' of hose with fittings...i was wondering if i could set the mag 5 on top of the tank, then have it draw from the tank and pump the water out? Will that work?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

Like mentioned above it may be better to go with a slightly smaller tank to start, but it's really your call. You were saying that your budget is $1700 for something closer to a 90 gal so make sure to at least tripple that to just get everything set-up to how you want it. I have a 72 gal and I've spent as much as you're hoping to spend and I'm still not done upgrading. I also got my whole aquarium set-up already used and running from a fellow reefer. What are you wanting to keep that is making you want such a large tank? It would be a beautiful set-up but it might drain more money rather than feel like a success to start with.

The size increase is fit a better location in our house and due to the wife's (and kid's) enthusiastic response to a possible setup. The wife has wanted a hobby that we could all enjoy (she does not like any of my other ones. lol), and the tank seems to be the perfect hit. She has already gone online and looked at all the fish she likes, and pinned them on her Pintrest board to make sure we don't leave any out when we finalize out stock list.

We are really leaning towards a clownfish & anemone tank as well. Having a larger tank will give a lot more room to place the anemones and allow us to have both BTA and LTA (one side of the tank would be mostly sandy area for the LTA and the other rocky for the BTA).

The $1700 that I mentioned above was for the tank and stand only that we saw in one of the local stores. We figured our initial "buy in" into the hobby would be around $2500 -$3000. Upgrades, additions and repairs are all down the road and will be budgeted accordingly.

 

[Theclutziestspazzofaninja]

Seems like a fun project and I hope it goes well! I want to warn you that the anemones will most likely move and end up other than you had expected. My RBTAs are on the sand LOL also more than 3 pairs of clowns even in that size tank will probably kill each other, but with other fish in the tank that'd probably be enough clowns anyway.
What are you planning to keep fish wise?

 

[Oberst Hajj]

That's interesting. I've been reading quite a about nems and most of the time it seems BTAs stay out of the sand for the most part. My plan is to start with the BTAs and add any LTA later on. Hopefully the BTAs will have settled where they want and things will be good. If they continue to move around, we'll have to rethink the LTA I guess.

The number of clownfish you can safely keep also seems to differ a lot. I see tanks with 4-6 pairs of them doing fine, and others with just 2-3 pars. As for the other fish, not really sure yet. The family likes Tangs and I like Triggers (which don't do well with anything from what I've read. lol). Most likely we'll end up with an assortment of other fish that have "jobs" around the tank. I'm open to suggestions on those... but perhaps that should be a different thread.

 

[tinkerman]

That a pretty big first tank. I think what others are tring to warn you of is there is a big price jump going from a 90 to 230 gal. I have a 125 and have about 7-8k invested in it and there is other stuff I would still like to upgrade or add. Some may post and say they have multipul clowns or tangs but you never hear 2-3 yrs down the road if they are stil playing nice. You can have multipuls and it might work long run or may last a couple yrs and then they start fighting. Nems never stay where you want them too. I added a sabea and it decided it was going to sit behind my big clam so you couldn't see it, so I moved the clam to a different spot.

 

[mcarroll]

BTA's are relatively more trouble than LTA's due to their penchant for releasing from the rock to drift and find a new location - which almost surely places them at the intake of a powerhead. With corals, this also means he would be banging into, and killing, any it touches while drifting. Even on a FOWLR it means a dead anem. and a huge mess of shredded anemone. This is not a guaranty, but it's not unlikely either.

If you are dead set on BTAs then I would, at minimum, wait to add them until you are more established in caring for the tank so it will be unlikely you will want to make further changes to the tank layout, flow or lighting. These are some of the things that can prompt a release.

Personally I do not recommend them as it seems an unnecessary risk to take.

 

[mcarroll]

Also, on the cost front: If you make the same mistake that so many make of jamming as many animals in the tank as possible, then you will indeed have significant ongoing costs - not the least of which wil be livestock death.

OTOH, if you can keep a handle on self-dicipline - go slow and maintain a moderate population - there's no reason that your ongoing costs can't be quite low, even close to zero. Having a large tank can actually make this easier to achieve.

Thought I'd throw this out as its kinda forgotten in the conventional wisdom.

-Matt