Coming back to the hobby

[abhishek@1985]

Hi friends,

It has been 4 years since I moved out of the hobby due to my change in work location from India to USA , family commitments.
But slowly am planning to come back to the ever elusive hobby of reef keeping .
Things have changed a lot in 4 years with so many new options in the hobby world.
Hence am looking for advice.

My choice for tank is Red Sea reefer 250 , loved the look and assembly options of it and fits within my budget .
Its gonna be sps dominant and this time am try with 100% zeovit to start with.

My wishlist is as follows :-

Tank - Red sea reefer 250
Lights - ATI sunpower with 6 x39W tubes .
Pumps - Maxspect Gyre 130 (may be will add controllable Tunze later) , return pump Sicce syncra
Dosing - 2 part system manually dosing in the beginning and later plan to add auto doser (Bubble Magus)
Controller - Neptune Apex controller with lab grade

Reactor - Vertex zeovit reactor with starter kit of zeovit .. will add pohl's extra, coral vitalizer and sponge power later

Biggest question is the skimmer .. with limited space available in the sump for red sea reefer 250, what skimmer to go for with vertex zeovit reactor in the sump.

Advice appreciated

Regards,
Abhishek

 

[Greybeard]

Can't advise you as to skimmers... I ended up with a Reef Octopus, which I'm very happy with. Don't know a thing about Zeovit...

That said... welcome back I started back up about 7 months ago, after a 10 year hiatus. I _really_ missed having a reef. Changes over the last few years? LED lighting has come a long way, but watching growth rates over the last 6 months, I'm already considering a return to metal halide. Automation equipment has gotten way better, but I guess I'm kinda 'old school'... not really interested in automating much. I'm an automation engineer... I do that for a living. Don't really want to do it as part of my hobby, too.

Enjoy

 

[abhishek@1985]

Thanks for the reply Greybeard. Mind if I ask you which Reef Octopus you have chosen for 60 gal?

 

[Greybeard]

SRO1000SSS

Picked it up used from a local reefer that was shutting down a tank.

I'm _very_ happy with it.

 

[MeghanisradxD]

Can't advise you as to skimmers... I ended up with a Reef Octopus, which I'm very happy with. Don't know a thing about Zeovit...

LED lighting has come a long way, but watching growth rates over the last 6 months, I'm already considering a return to metal halide.

As somebody who has run LEDs for the last year and recently went back to metal halides...I suggest starting with the latter. LEDs are great for color, but I never had great growth with them.

 

[Greybeard]

As somebody who has run LEDs for the last year and recently went back to metal halides...I suggest starting with the latter. LEDs are great for color, but I never had great growth with them.

Agreed. There's a hundred page thread devoted to the subject around here somewhere, but yeah, I'm seriously considering a 250w de HQI pendant to replace my Halo.

 

[Bent]

Same, next set of big lights I buy are going to be halide.

I enjoy having the control of the lights with the LED, so I may do a custom job with all three types, LED T5 and Halide. LEDs for moonlights and sunrise/sunset, T5s for morning/afternoon, and Halides for high noon.