Starting back after 9+ years. Go gentle on me.

[darren241]

So I have been out of the hobby for quite a while. My last aquarium was a 55 gallon FOWLR. I was running two bio wheel hang on the back filters. I was very successful for about 3 years before moving to Key West, so I had to break it down.

Fast forward to 9 years later. My wife told me if I ever bought her (us) a house I could start up another aquarium. Well we bought a house and a deal came across the table were our neighbor upgraded his reef from 125g to 300g, and he had no where to put his old tank so......... He handed it down to me! Not a bad deal if I say so my self. Well after weeks of work on it. Here is what it looks like today. (Before and after pictures)

Into week 3 of cycling, nothing added just love sand and one actually piece of live rock the rest is reef rock from BRS. About 120lbs total.

What do you guys think? Any idea where I should start with live stock and coral? I have a 30g sump. I do have a cheap seaclone 150 running as protein skimmer ( I know, I know) but even with no bio load this thing is pumping out some nasty skim every 3 days. It's a work horse.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Glad you joined us! Nice start! I have a 6" 125. I would definitely add some live rock with the dry rock. It will help with bacterial strains!

I run a reef octopus nwb 150 from 2010 on my system with a total water volume of 180 gallons. Works well.

What lights you using?

 

[darren241]

Glad you joined us! Nice start! I have a 6" 125. I would definitely add some live rock with the dry rock. It will help with bacterial strains!

I run a reef octopus nwb 150 from 2010 on my system with a total water volume of 180 gallons. Works well.

What lights you using?

It came with 3 Chinese black boxes. I plan on upgrading eventually. I have been eye balling the radion g5 but can't fork out that kind of money just yet.

 

[Jaebster]

Welcome!!!

 

[Flippers4pups]

It came with 3 Chinese black boxes. I plan on upgrading eventually. I have been eye balling the radion g5 but can't fork out that kind of money just yet.

I've been running 3 165w Mars Aquas now since 2016. Couldn't be happier:

I like Radions, but not for that price! Lol

 

[DeniableArc]

G’day from Australia! Get some wet stuff in there mate

 

[Niteowl]

Looking good and welcome to R2R.

 

[Leemcg]

Welcome to R2R and back to the hobby. I just came back a few months ago after being out for about the same amount of time.
Set up looks good.

 

[Dolelo96]

Welcome to the R2R family. Make sure to head over to the “member tanks” forum and start a build thread. Great way to journal your progress

 

[Mikeltee]

I have a 130gal and recently purchased a bubble magus 10 year anniversary off ebay for $130. Do yourself a favor and order it now! Dont buy into all this new age crap that people tell you you need like dosing refugium etc etc. All you need is a skimmer and once your corals get big, get a kalk reactor.

If you want to splurge get yourself a USED apex classic on ebay for $200. All you need is an EB8, temp probe and pH probe.

 

[Mikeltee]

It came with 3 Chinese black boxes. I plan on upgrading eventually. I have been eye balling the radion g5 but can't fork out that kind of money just yet.

You dont need that kind of money. Many people that went LED came back to t5 and metal halide. 2x 150w MH and 4x 48"t5s would be perfect for you. You can find a used fixture for a couple hundred. If you wanted, you could add a reefbrite blue led strip to show off your corals when you felt the need.

I personally run 2x 150w MH, 4x 36" T5s and 2x blue led strips. I paid well over $1000 10byears ago. I've literally seen people give these fixtures away over the past few years. My tank is 40"x24"x30"