New to saltwater

[neilsarah]

Hey everyone,

I am wanting to get into the saltwater hobby. I have been keeping African cichlids for many years and am ready to make the switch. My tank is a 195 with a large sump. I am looking for help on what extra equipment I am needing to buy. Most specifically I need help with lighting. I plan to start out with fowlr but I do want to get into corals. So I don’t want to skimp on lighting only to have to change it out a year from now. I would prefer to go with LED lighting but am clueless where I should start. Also any help on extra equipment I may need would be helpful. Protein skimmer, uv sterilizer, dosing pumps etc…

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

 

[kstaley12]

Welcome!!

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

The best place to start is right here on R2R! Read and research about best practices to start a saltwater aquarium.

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

This article was sponsored by @MarineDepot at www.marinedepot.com. Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is no...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Gedxin]

Welcome to R2R! So many resources for your needs it's gonna be overwhelming. Would highly recommend BRS 5-min reefing videos as a good starting point.

 

[ying yang]

Welcome to r2r and hope all is ok.
I remember setting up my tank and after buying what I thought was 95% of equipment and telling Mrs we only need spend another £ 200 or so pound the list kept growing lol.
All stuff like coral feeders and epoxy and activated carbon ,test kits and the likes all adds up so the £ 200 turned I to more like another £ 500 lol and still not finished but some of the test kits may not be needed till later or epoxy/ coral feeders until you buy coral ( I ran tank 4 months just fish)

Write a list and tick ot off once bought imo

 

[Dbichler]

As far as protein skimmers go you want just bigger than your heavy bio load so if it’s says light bio load 450 gallons medium 350 and heavy 250 that’s what your looking for. Better to size it by heavy imo. You will need an Rodi system probably capable of 200gal/ day especially on a tank that size. As for lighting there’s many good choices between leds. AI Orphek radions reefbreeders vioarspectra noopsyche. T5 any ho ones will work. Metal Halides. There’s a lot of options and you really need to research and find what price point you want and what your expecting out of each light.

 

[piranhaman00]

IMO it’s not smart to buy high end leds now for a Fowlr that will eventually be corals, by then you will want the new led.