Doing it right....the first time.

[chaaban]

I always wanted a saltwater reef in my room, for about 10 years now and the time has finally come and I wanted to make sure I did everything right, the first time. I wanted all high end equipment and I didn't want to cheap out on anything but perhaps shop for deals or buy used when possible. And I didn't want to leave anything out that i would later have to add.

Below I have a list of everything I have slowly, but surely been buying and before I start adding rocks/sand/water I want to know I have everything, please help me look over this list! Thankyou.

Tank:
- 65 Gallons Glass Cylinder

Light:
- Lumen Max Elite Reflector
- AquaMedic Reeflex 250w Cube ballast - M80 ballast
- 250w Radium bulb 20000K

Filtiration:
- LifeReef Sump with 2 cylinder reactors
- LifeReef Refugium
- LifeReef Skimmer
- Blueline 40 Hdx external pump
- Custom external pre filter

Filter/Reactor media:
- BRS Bulk GFO Granular Ferric Oxide - High Capacity
- BRS Bulk large particle lignite Carbon

Powerheads/ATO:
- 2 x Tunze 6055
- Tunze Universal Osmolator

Controller:
- Neptune Apex controller with temp/Ph probe and wave controller.

Substrate/Rock:
- Tropic Eden reef flakes
- Tropic Eden mini flakes
- Marco dry rock

Testing and measuring:
- Hanna Phosphorus checker
- Hanna Alk cecker
- Red Sea Foundation Pro kit (Ca, KH, Mg)
- Red Sea Nitrate Pro (N-NO)
- Refractometer

Dosing:
- Automated Dosing Pump
- B-ionic 2 part for Alkalinity and Calcium
- B-ionic Magnesium

Water/Salt:
- Reef crystals salt mix
- RO/DI filtration


Thats the list, I appreciate your help. Also being new to the hobby with just a bunch of reading behind me, what would be my next steps when filling the tank and adding rocks/sand and setting all the equipment up?

 

[Painted skin]

Are you asking or bragging? lol Looks like you have all good stuff to me.. After you have all assembled with rocks, sand and water making sure SG is where you want it and cycle with a piece of raw shrimp. It just a a matter of the waiting game..

Actually one thing I didn't notice is that it's 65gal cylinder, one thing is if you planning having fish that like it's swimming space I'd probably would of went with a 65gal long tank instead.

 

[chaaban]

not bragging at all lol....I just want to be sure everything is right before i start, Ive heard of many stories of people loosing there money from forgetting about something or something done wrong or went wrong. I just don't want to make a mistake that will cost me.

I have a couple more questions, when filling the tank, sump ect... Is it ok to fill the reactors with the filter media from the start or am i supposed to wait until it is needed?

 

[chaaban]

Double post

 

[Painted skin]

Is it ok to fill the reactors with the filter media from the start or am i supposed to wait until it is needed?

You will want to wait until you either test your water for it or have some load, there is no need to run it while cycling.

 

[chaaban]

Ok, so at the start I can forget about the reactors and dosing pumps and later figure those out when i figure out whats needed and at what amount....

Should I also keep the Refugium filled with just water at the start? Im not using any live rock or live sand because i don't want any hitchhikers, is there anything I need to add to help speed up the process of the beneficial bacteria in the tank?

 

[r-balljunkie]

looks like a good start. look at some of zeo products, namely zeostart for startup.

i would also suggest starting with some real live rock. it seems real live rock has gotten a bad rap as of lately. nothing beats the real thing some times.