First saltwater Aquarium

Schlagel Bagel · Sep 13, 2019

Hello, looking to start my first saltwater aquarium and plan do make it a reef tank. (BTW, I have done tons and tons of research over about a year now and ready, just need to find what I want tank wise) Now I was origanally going to go with the IM Lagoon 25 as it looks real good and I have a great spot for it in my room. BUT, my parents said I could have a bigger one down stairs in the living room so was looking at if it would be better to go with something bigger.

I really like the Red Sea Reefer series and maybe thinking of the 250.

So the questions I have is how much to get a good start? I want to say im on a budget but I know these tanks are $$$ but I really, really like the look. I just want to know if its more than I should spend right now. with this size or the 350 am i going to need to buy the $300 power heads and $300 skimmer and $1ks worth of lights?

Thats where I see the money add up is all the "smaller" stuff turn quickly into thousands. Thanks for the help on this.

Quietman · Sep 13, 2019

First of all... congrats. Secondly...you have a very realistic approach . So I just started with a RSR 170...the tank was a grand. I am just putting in my first corals now which means I'm largely done with build. So not counting fish and corals...I've dropped approx $4k. You can see my build for details as I tried to include costs. You'll need at least twice the lights and flow if you go 250, more if more. I didn't go cheap, but also don't think I went extravagant by any means. Also I may have spent 300.00 on stuff I didn't need or didn't end up using.

Look at mine and others, see what you want, what you need now, what can wait.

I did my planning and costing out. Told my wife I'm going to spend $5k. And after corals, I'll probably be close. Which means careful planning and costing out in advance and you can come close to your budget.

Then it's just a matter of affording the budget you need.

Hope this helps.

toxicshark · Sep 13, 2019

Props to you taking the time to really do your research! Good luck on your journey!

Schlagel Bagel · Sep 13, 2019

Thanks and looking through your builds and others is giving me an idea of what to expect. Sure over time it’s going to cost a lot but getting started I don’t think requires everything! I just like that tank and don’t want to have to get a new tank within a year because I want more. But I also don’t want to blow a ton of money on something I might not be able to or want to stay in. I have always wanted to have 2 clowns sense I was a kid so I think it’s something I’d end up sticking with.