nim6us
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2017
- Messages
- 507
- Reaction score
- 374
- Location
- UK
- What state or country do you live in
- United Kingdom
Hey all! Back again for some advice. A few months ago I took over a 50 gallon tank with a canister from a friend, I've managed to clean the inside up and it really looks fantastic. However... I think I'm getting the tinkerer's itch. Now that it's all up to scratch I find myself wondering "what now"?
Well the whole setup was in rough shape, and while I've got the inside looking good, there's nothing I can do for the rest. The cabinet is just old falling apart, rusted hinges, water damaged shelving, and the laminate falling off in numerous places. The killer is the hood though, the guy who had it before me drilled all sorts of holes, used hot glue dripped all over, put a patchwork of odd plexiglass and duct tape, and of course the rust.
I say all this to say, the wife has green lit operation new tank!!
So of course I want to go bigger, everything I've read says there's just numerous advantages to going as big as you can, and for me a 100 gallon is about my limit for the space I have. Unfortunately I thought picking out the tank would be the fun part, but the prices are absolutely dizzying!
I want to save most of my money for my sump and lights, but I don't know what's my best value. The all in one kits are attractive because you get lights, tank, cabinet, sump and pipework all together in a neat package. Obviously you pay for that convenience, so I was looking at trying to piece it together myself. I found a great tank, and then some lights that I fell in love with, I then started looking at sumps when it hit me, I need to pick a cabinet out before a sump.
That's where I hit the wall.
For a tank that big you can't just plop it down on an IKEA stand. And finding a purpose made tank stand that's the exact size of my tank also is proving very difficult, so then I looked a custom made cabinets and for the price it makes more sense to get an all in one!
So my question, being that I'm still new to the hobby, what's going to be my best value. Am I missing an easy solution for my cabinet problem? Or does it just make more sense to buy an all in one until I'm a more accomplished reefer? I'm interested to get some feedback, let me hear your stories!
Well the whole setup was in rough shape, and while I've got the inside looking good, there's nothing I can do for the rest. The cabinet is just old falling apart, rusted hinges, water damaged shelving, and the laminate falling off in numerous places. The killer is the hood though, the guy who had it before me drilled all sorts of holes, used hot glue dripped all over, put a patchwork of odd plexiglass and duct tape, and of course the rust.
I say all this to say, the wife has green lit operation new tank!!
So of course I want to go bigger, everything I've read says there's just numerous advantages to going as big as you can, and for me a 100 gallon is about my limit for the space I have. Unfortunately I thought picking out the tank would be the fun part, but the prices are absolutely dizzying!
I want to save most of my money for my sump and lights, but I don't know what's my best value. The all in one kits are attractive because you get lights, tank, cabinet, sump and pipework all together in a neat package. Obviously you pay for that convenience, so I was looking at trying to piece it together myself. I found a great tank, and then some lights that I fell in love with, I then started looking at sumps when it hit me, I need to pick a cabinet out before a sump.
That's where I hit the wall.
For a tank that big you can't just plop it down on an IKEA stand. And finding a purpose made tank stand that's the exact size of my tank also is proving very difficult, so then I looked a custom made cabinets and for the price it makes more sense to get an all in one!
So my question, being that I'm still new to the hobby, what's going to be my best value. Am I missing an easy solution for my cabinet problem? Or does it just make more sense to buy an all in one until I'm a more accomplished reefer? I'm interested to get some feedback, let me hear your stories!
