any ideas or help let me know and thanks in advance. dan
Dan,
Welcome to the URS! My advice:
1. Do LOTS of reading before you buy ANYTHING. ReefCentral (RC) is a great place for information.
2. Buy an RO/DI unit. You WILL be sorry if you don't. You'll either be constantly fighting algae blooms, or will get sick and tired of running to the store to buy water.
3. Ask LOTS of questions on here. Everybody here is friendly, and everybody was new to this hobby at one point in their lives. There are some people with an immense amount of knowledge on RC (and more specifically in the URS section), and they are always willing to help. If you're not sure, ASK!
4. Where possible, buy used equipment. There are always people on here and on Craigslist that are getting rid of their stuff for one reason or another (such as, they're upgrading). You can save yourself a ton of money by buying used. Some stuff may not be the prettiest, but in almost all cases a little elbow grease can fix that (you can even polish out scratches on glass - who knew?)
5. Buy the highest quality equipment you can afford. I know this is somewhat contradictory to #4, but buying something cheap isn't necessarily always the best idea. Sometimes, you're just better off saving up a little more money to buy the right piece, than to buy the cheap one.
6. Plan EVERYTHING before you start building. I just finished building my 90g reef tank, and though I am happy with it, there are still things that didn't come out the way I would have liked. I feel like if I would have read and planned more before building, I could have built an even better system.
I'll stop there. I'm not an expert so I won't go into details about what RO/DI unit you should buy, or which lighting you should use. Just giving you some of the basics to help you get started with your research and planning.
Welcome again, and enjoy the ride!
