Back in after 12 years away

crusso1993 · May 7, 2019

Welcome to R2R!

reef lover · May 7, 2019

Welcome to r2r and back to the salt life !

Mudder · May 7, 2019

Welcome to R2R!!
This is a Great place for info and Help

Ruben's Reef · May 7, 2019

!!! Welcome to R2R !!!

xaflatoonx · May 7, 2019

Welcome back to the hobby and R2R.
My vote would be with an AIO - but keep in mind - if you have the slightest of a chance for upgrading - then get THAT tank instead.
OR - buy everything used for the small AIO - so that when you upgrade - the financial hit is minimized.

Rjukan · May 7, 2019

N2950H said:
Thanks everyone!

Can I ask for a little more info behind your suggestion? I'm leaning the same direction but man the prices on the AIOs are tempting.

Sorry it took so long to reply, but here are a few reasons why I like a sump over a AIO. First off I have both, my reef is a RR tank with a sump, and I have a FW cichlid tank that's a AIO. I think that's a 34g or thereabouts. It's got the in-tank media basket (I bought the setup used) which is a nice add on, but to me the back "sump" area is just too tight for a SW, for fresh it's fine since there is no need for a skimmer or a refugium. That brings me to the main reason I say sump over a AIO, the refugium and the additional water volume, I have at least 15g of water in my SW sump which is a sizable % of the total water in my system. While sumps aren't the easiest things to access and work on, they are still easier than getting around to the backs of most AIO setuos unless they are peninsula style. Plumbing a auto top off is also easier to do in a sump imo. The addition of reactors down the line, or even more tanks (I have a remote nano thats plumbed into my sump).

Bleigh · May 7, 2019

Welcome! One thing is you may love your frag tank and decide to keep it running forever. That doesn't mean you can't get a second bigger tank if you decided you wanted to go in a different direction in ADDITION to the frag tank. Can't wait to see where you land!!