Checking to see if I have missed anything

[BarbH]

I am getting ready to start my first saltwater tank and I wanted to run by those who have more experience everything that I have so far to make sure that I am not missing anything. I will be starting the tank off as a FOWLR and will sometime down the road maybe add corals. I will have to decide what I want to do for my lighting, leaning towards leds and thinking about doing something like one of the rapid led plug and play kits. Been spending a lot of time reading the different posts on here about led lighting. Until I make that decision and depending on what it is how long it takes to save up the money, I will be using extra t8 fixtures that I have laying around.

The tank is a 72 gallon bowfront with stand. 80 lbs of substrate, about 90 lbs of rock which is dried out, so I know that will have a longer cycle time. A bubble magus nac5 hob skimmer, a heater. I have a cover for the tank, due to a very curious young kitten that I have an open top is not an option, or screen top. I have coming in sometime this week two korila 1050 powerheads, reef crystals salt mix, and a test kit for ammonia nitrites and nitrates. I also have a refratometer for measuring salinity. For my rodi water I have a unit that I have hooked up, a 20 gallon brute container to store rodi water for top offs and when needing to make sw. I have various buckets to use for water changes, and also 2 5 gallon buckets that I will be using for mixing up my saltwater. I will probably change to using another brute container for mixing my saltwater, want to first see how it works for my ro water. I have a couple of small powerheads for mixing my saltwater and also some small heaters. For cleaning I have a magfloat for the glass. To make sure that I am being safe electrically I have a gfci that I picked up today that a friend will be helping me to install.

I think that is everything, and I think that once I have everything delievered that I will be ready to go on setting up my tank. But I just want to make sure that I haven't overlooked anything.

Thanks

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

Sounds good to me, but I would not use reef crystals, but rather regular instant ocean mix. Reef crystals can half bad batches with the wrong doses or ca/alk etc. The rapidled kits look okay to me, but I have never used them. I would go dimmable, and I believe that they also sell a dimming controller. I would also look into a sump, they are much better for hiding equipment, but I did not start of with a sump either, however I would reccomend at least leaving space for an hob overflow down the road. Great start, and GL!

 

[Anthrax15]

I agree about adding a sump. My first tank didn't have one but my next one did. There is no way I won't have a sump. Just makes everything easier IMO. I wouldn't add all that sand and rock unless you want a specific look. Less is more in this hobby.

 

[blackx-runner]

Looks like you have a good list to get you started. Best advice is just take your time. Don't rush anything or try to make any type of fast, or drastic changes to the tank. Sounds like you have been doing all kinds of reading and research, just keep that up and enjoy the new hobby.

 

[BarbH]

Sounds good to me, but I would not use reef crystals, but rather regular instant ocean mix. Reef crystals can half bad batches with the wrong doses or ca/alk etc. The rapidled kits look okay to me, but I have never used them. I would go dimmable, and I believe that they also sell a dimming controller. I would also look into a sump, they are much better for hiding equipment, but I did not start of with a sump either, however I would reccomend at least leaving space for an hob overflow down the road. Great start, and GL!

Interesting about the reef crystals, from the reading I have done in different forums had not seen that before, will have to check into that more.

For the leds whatever I do decide to do I will definitly be going with dimmable leds. Other than that lots of research to do.

I agree about adding a sump. My first tank didn't have one but my next one did. There is no way I won't have a sump. Just makes everything easier IMO. I wouldn't add all that sand and rock unless you want a specific look. Less is more in this hobby.

The rock and sand I got from the same person that I got the tank and stand from. I will probably not use all the sand and rock, but the prices where too good to pass up.

Looks like you have a good list to get you started. Best advice is just take your time. Don't rush anything or try to make any type of fast, or drastic changes to the tank. Sounds like you have been doing all kinds of reading and research, just keep that up and enjoy the new hobby.

Luckily with having started with freshwater tanks I have learned to have patience, and I am sure I will gain even more patience with coming over to the salt sde of the hobby. Fortunately my budget will help to keep me from doing any thing too fast, such as addin livestock. Which I figure it will probably not be until the end of May or June before I can even start doing that. Will have to wait and see how long cycle decides to take once I have everything set up. Plenty of time to research what fish I exactly want to keep and come up with my stocking list.

 

[IBEW41]

agree with the sump if you are going to have a glass top on the tank for gas exchange are you going to have a fish only or coral also?

 

[BarbH]

At this time it is going to be a fish only. Researching on corals and might try some lps or softies. Depending on if the kitten figures out a way to get onto the top of the tank, I might be able to change over to doing a screen top. Will not have anything near the sides of the tank so it might work, but than he is going on 6 months old and is determined to find ways to get on top of things. Luckily I have not found him perched on the top of the doors yet, so I might end up being safe will have to wait and see. I am hesitant about going with a sump on this tank since it is not drilled and I don't have anyone local who does do drilling for tanks. For doing it myself I don't own any power tools and living in an apartment does not give me much space for doing anything outdoors. I know that some people use the hob overflow boxes but from my understanding that can increase the chances of having something go wrong.