Totempolez
Community Member
Beautiful!!! i can wait
Hello, new to the hobby
- Thread starter Totempolez
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It's going to be a great time!
Nice you'll love the club, lots of people to help you get started.
For what it's worth, my best tank at the moment runs with almost zero equipment just lights pumps and heaters. Can always start with what you have and add equipment as you go. Just don't add a bunch of livestock.
Add fish last and quarantine from the start. With a tank that size the last thing you'll want is to let an easily avoidable parasite in. Marine fish taken from the reef have an average of 30 different types of parasites.
For ro equipment I've had good luck with spectrapure. Com make sure you know the right size ro membrane (gpd) and read up on flow restrictors. Also may need a booster pump (like 50 bucks on ebay) to make it run at the correct psi. Running in the right psi range will boost your output and maintain the life of the ro membrane. What you'll save in membranes over the course of a couple years will more than pay for the pump. Also replace the carbon, sediment, and di resin while your at it those are cheap and you'll know where your at.
Frankyrivera
Active Member
A 180 gal tank to start wow that's not gonna be cheap. Lights rock flow skimmers heaters etc. make sure you register at a lfs for your wedding registry lol. Welcome to the addiction. Good luck
Totempolez
Community Member
CT Aquatics Chat | Buy | Trade | Sell | Saltwater Reef Fish | <=== is this the group
that is the only facebook group i can find
This FB group is great too, but follow this link for the group that @Kvinal was referring to.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/403440946491521/?notif_t=group_name_change¬if_id=1474645594311753
Buying used is always a great way to cut costs, as this hobby can get very expensive, especially with the larger systems such as yours. If you need to buy new, Bulk Reef Supply (BRS) is a top notch online vendor and they offer a great program with rewards to both individual reefers as well as local clubs. Take a look at the link and see how the rewards program and group buys work.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sign-up-for-a-brs-group-buy-to-save.267271/
Joining CTARS will give you immediate access (with club card) to discounts at A LOT of the local fish stores (LFS) and will be a tremendous benefit of being a club member. Congrats on taking the dive into saltwater and we look forward to seeing you at the meetings. Also remember to check out Octoberfest. The BOD has pulled together what looks to be a killer event!
Totempolez
Community Member
I hope so, you will recognize me at the frag fest, i will be the guy with the note book writing everything down. i just started researching this less then 3 or so weeks ago. i have not had much interaction with real enthusiasts yet. I want to soak it all in!
P.S. joined the facebook group
Welcome to the hobby and soon the club!! That's a great tank. It will definitely be a bit expensive. Lots of good people i the club and on R2R to ask questions. Make sure you get in on the raffle at Fragtoberfest (it's getting bigger by the day)...maybe get some of the equipment you need
Totempolez
Community Member
How do you join the raffle, can i join at the fest? That is where i am going to pay my membership dues as well.
Tickets for the raffle will be available for purchase at the event.
GobyApparatus
Active Member
Welcome to the hobby! Lots of great people here.
ytsejam02
Active Member
My $.02 on building the tank...
If you don't mind upgrading over time, there are specific areas you can omit, or go cheaper up front to get your tank up sooner. The downside is that you'll definitely pay more in the long run. Some examples...
I eventually bought an Apex. I love it. Certainly didn't need it up front (or at really!), and can really be brought into the system at any point in time. You just might want to consider what equipment you intend to buy long term, because it might make sense to get something like the Apex before other things. So it really depends on what equipment you think is worth spending money on, and the roadmap you have of how to get your tank from A to Z. For example, I originally started with a Marine Orbit 48" LED. I like the programmability of it, but it really was kind of a beginner light. My softies and LPS seemed to like it alright. But I ultimately decided I really wanted Kessils. They don't come with programmability out of the box. I had to decide if I wanted to get an Apex or the controller that Kessil sells. I ultimately decided on the Apex for additional automation and cloud control, but the Apex had to come before the lights for me, because I didn't have any other way to control the lights short of manually turning them on/off every day.
There are certainly other areas that are much more difficult to change if you start up too fast. An example of that is that I wish I drilled my tank. Instead, I end up using a canister filter, because I don't trust external overflows. To be fair, I've had no issues at all with the canister filter, so at the moment it's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other for me.
Anyway, some food for thought. I'm pretty new to the community as well. I'll be at fragtoberfest, so with any luck, I'll see you there!
If you don't mind upgrading over time, there are specific areas you can omit, or go cheaper up front to get your tank up sooner. The downside is that you'll definitely pay more in the long run. Some examples...
I eventually bought an Apex. I love it. Certainly didn't need it up front (or at really!
), and can really be brought into the system at any point in time. You just might want to consider what equipment you intend to buy long term, because it might make sense to get something like the Apex before other things. So it really depends on what equipment you think is worth spending money on, and the roadmap you have of how to get your tank from A to Z. For example, I originally started with a Marine Orbit 48" LED. I like the programmability of it, but it really was kind of a beginner light. My softies and LPS seemed to like it alright. But I ultimately decided I really wanted Kessils. They don't come with programmability out of the box. I had to decide if I wanted to get an Apex or the controller that Kessil sells. I ultimately decided on the Apex for additional automation and cloud control, but the Apex had to come before the lights for me, because I didn't have any other way to control the lights short of manually turning them on/off every day.There are certainly other areas that are much more difficult to change if you start up too fast. An example of that is that I wish I drilled my tank. Instead, I end up using a canister filter, because I don't trust external overflows. To be fair, I've had no issues at all with the canister filter, so at the moment it's 6 of 1, half dozen of the other for me.
Anyway, some food for thought. I'm pretty new to the community as well. I'll be at fragtoberfest, so with any luck, I'll see you there!
