Must have's

[Imback]

With your experience what would you guys say are "must have's" equipment items for a 150 DT.

 

[Fishy212]

That’s a really loaded question! Depends on what you want to keep. I would say for the long term success of the tank a great lights, skimmer, UV sterilizer and natural filtration (live rock and live sand ) is definitely a must. For something of that size, you need a good heater/ controller maybe 2, multiple power heads and controllers. Dosing units if you plan on keeping certain sps corals.

 

[ReeferSteve]

Depends on what you want to keep but MUST haves would be your choice of filtration and a heater. Everything else is really optional depending on your plans.

 

[Imback]

This is what I have so far.

-Trigger sump 35” (3 bays)
-Red Sea skimmer
-Apex w/ dos (for water changes), trident, pump, 4-wav, leak, ph, salinity, temp and orp. A second temp and salinity for saltwater mixing station
-2-600w heaters
-3-Kessil A360x Tuna Sun
-1-Kessil A360x refugium
-RODI

A little history... This all started from Santa bringing a 2.5 gallon betta tank. I have two daughters and the plan was for them to share the betta tank. That didn’t go as planned. We ended up with 2 completely different gold fish. The larger gold fish required a min 10 gallon tank. So we came home with a second tank. A few weeks in and I started reading on the hobby to insure my little girls fish didn’t die. That’s when it started kicking in. I soon started researching larger tanks. That started at the local Petsmart but soon lead me to a reef shop here in Dallas called “Dallas North Aquarium”. That hit the spot. I bought this aquarium. The plan was freshwater and I could combine the goldfish into one tank and get rid of the two smaller ones. Then as I started researching fish I kept finding myself looking at saltwater fish and coral. So I switched gears.

I soon became a little overwhelmed with all the info readily available and can’t get enough. I soon realized I could use a saltwater mixing station so I started clearing a spot in the garage. In researching saltwater mixing I realized I should’ve filled my tank with RODI water but I didn’t have the DI. So I needed to upgrade to DI and drain the initial fill. We will call this fill a “leak test”. In clearing the space in the garage I decided I might as well re-paint the walls and epoxy the floors. I figured I could do this while I waited on the “DI” and the 2 75gal tanks for my mixing station. They will finish the floors tomorrow and after spring break I will start the assembly process. So that’s where I’m at. I have to drain the tank to fill with RODI and I feel I should go ahead and put in a larger sump for growth/items other than the slimmer which is about all you can fit in the Trigger I bought. So that’s why I ask the question, I’m ready to start getting this thing together but would prefer to not have any setbacks. So I asked, what would you guys have. I’m Really enjoying all this and I’m already addicted.

 

[jerrod]

I think you're covered on all the must haves at this point lol. Now you just need to ride out the cycle and slowly stock it.

 

[rfgonzo]

Must have Heater, Lights and Pumps. Everthing else personal preference. Depends on how basic or elaborate you want to be.

Nice system you have so far.

 

[Bigbadfishy]

Must is a hard word but a reactor is nice for carbon or to run GFO if needed. I have a 40 AIO that only has a heater lights and a skimmer but I do 50% water changes every 3 weeks. But I would never do this on my 2 120 gallon tanks they are sps and would do that well.

 

[sp1187]

welcome to the show.
there are multiple ways/opinions on how to do this hobby, and what's "must have".
QT? no QT?
skimmer? skimmerless?
sand? bare bottom?
live rock? no live rock?

nice scape.

 

[btmedic04]

For the most part the basic equipment list for a tank is readily available. Things like lights, return pumps, heaters, powerheads, skimmers, dosing systems etc but after the initial set up and excitement that comes with a new tank wears off, the minutiae of maintaining the tank will begin to wear on you so must haves for me are things that make maintenance and testing easier for me. Things like a reliable ATO, hanna checkers for alk, phosphate ulr, cal, ph and salinity, tongs and a reef monitor of some sort such as a seneye or apex.

 

[Sirspeedy77]

Buy the best of each item you can reasonably afford now. Quality equipment now means quality happy livestock and room for growth. You may not run those lights on 90% now, but there may be a Avenue you go down in a few months that requires more wattage. Same applies to all equipment, in my experience. I’d rather have the best skimmer I can get and not have it working itself to death to keep up etc. read read read if you find a store that sells patience let me know where... that seems to be the only thing I’m short of lol!

 

[Imback]

Thanks for all the input. Those suggestions are exactly what I’m looking for. I’m going to hard plumb the sump and just don’t want to have any surprises that requires a redo. Like needing a larger sump!

 

[vetteguy53081]

QUALITY sand, salt, lighting, heater, skimmer, test kits and-an RO unit

 

[radsdad]

You must have patience.
Or you will have issues.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Good magnet cleaner
Auto top off
Long tongs!

 

[bevo5]

Rodi. Salt. Heater. Pumps. Lights. Rock.
That’s all you just have.

Skimmer. Apex. Ato. Dosers. Uv. Those Re my next in line.

then comes all the fun stuff....

 

[Tastee]

My next would be ATO - just get an ATK and feed from your RO barrel.