FANTASY REEF BUILD

Sorry Mucho. I was putting my own stuff in there as a "push the thread along" thing. I'm excited about a pending tank around Summertime of 2009. Did mean meant to take it off track or change things. I must admit I was a bit unclear myself as to what was the expectation to add on the thread. I haven't gone through any of the stuff entailed so that's why i've not really contributed in that way.
Anyway, sorry long winded today :p . I haven't been on here in a few days and am therefore chatty.
Anyway, didn't mean to take the thread off track is all i meant to say with this post.

Carry on. :)
 
Stop that, we're all just trying to move this thread along my friend. I'm just jumping for joy that you're back. :bounce2: See.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13619653#post13619653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MUCHO REEF
Stop that, we're all just trying to move this thread along my friend. I'm just jumping for joy that you're back. :bounce2: See.
Thanks Mucho. :D
 
Interesting thread.

Can I back it up a bit. One problem I see is that eveyone will always have a different idea of a dream system with different preferences and ideas.

I don't think there are a few clear first steps. I would think that while you are researching you would have already decided on some of the other steps. One of the best ways to research is easily on reefcentral and by looking at TOTM builds, both the large ones and the nanos they show varous successful methods, and each description always breaks a system down by its components. Its alsoway shelpfull to have some inspiration when setting up the tank and to see what works already.

I would say while you are doing that you have to look at placement. If you have limited space you obviosly you cant build a large tank. So you may be confined by spacial limitations.

I think also during the research phase you would have seen what type of reef you want to have softies, zoos, sps mixture, and these decisions will shape the next steps.

Based on these decisions you can start designing a system and you would have to decide what type of system you want.

As far as budget goes, if this is fantasy it shouldnt matter. And budgets really have limited room in reefing lol, they are broken all the time, and its better to bust a budget early than to buy substandard equipment and replace it later or have to upgrade it. I am sure we all like to believe in budgets but we are in a hobby where people pay (me inlcuded) hundreds of dollars to stock a tank with 1" corals and 4 polpy zoo frags.

But then again I have the expensive 20G Long lol....

I think for this thread to move maybe we should pick the size of the tank, scrap the budget and build a dream/fantasy tank.

I know I would like to upgrade some day to custom made starfire rimless tank aroun 75G or so.
 
I don't mean to sound rude at all my friend, and I'm not, but this was suppose to be a fun thread for everyone to get involved with. I have stated this several times on previous pages and I most recently clarified it some more on page 4. I explained what the FANTASY meant and what the Rock Family was looking to accomplish. We are wasting a lot of time of dream tank, Fantasy tank, what could or might happen. The Rocks are the fictious/fantasy family, not the tank build itself. If it were a true fantasy tank, there would be no constraints at all on the selection of anything in this system. I sincerely apologize to everyone for the use of the word FANTASY as I can clearly see now how it might have thrown this thread off. My bad.

I have received private responses that this build is taking too long, it keeps going off topic, why can't we all just state what we would do next as this will help someone who's reading it. I'm tempted now just to lock this thread and let it fade away, or let someone else handle this. Maybe I shouldn't have used the word fantasy, maybe I should have stayed out of the thread, maybe I should have let someone else post it. I just wanted to post something different.

You wrote,

"I would think that while you are researching you would have already decided on some of the other steps"

I could have researched and decided on half of the setup, but that would have been my ideas and opinions, this threads is for the forum, not for me and what I want, that's why I made up the story of The Rocks. I just wanted something more in this forum to discuss than names and pictures for those who are wanting something else. I simply made the attempt to do that.

Lets discuss what's next in the order of importance and watch the system grow. I think it could become very interesting. No offense, just sharing my thoughts.

What's our next choice, lighting, budget etc?


Mucho
 
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I suggest Skimmers next.

For the 'real' person I would say lighting because it is such a large percentage of the cost. However, the Rocks make $100K a year and they should be able to afford any lighting needed on a 75/90G zoo tank. So, for debate sakes I suggest next item should be skimmer. Since external vs internal skimmers will dictate sump selections.

BTW, has tank size been chosen?
 
Well skimmers. I'm out of this one because I have only had ones that sit in my sumps, I find that they have always worked for me.
But???????
 
I will go with set budget next. Then we can move onto skimmer sump and lighting. The type of skimmer is going to determine the sump size .
 
What kind of tank are we getting again?
Reef ready? pre-drilled?
Overflows? Custom overflow?
Starfire low-lead glass? If so, low lead glass on 3 sides or just one side? How thick?
Which tank vendor?
Stand? From the same vendor or custom made?
Rimless?
Shallow? If not, how deep?
 
I vote All-Glass RR 90G from LFS. One place online shows them at $310 which it could be more or less in your neck of the woods.
 
So does this mean what cthedaytrader suggested goes or are there other opinions? If we go with his suggestion would this mean the tank would not be an inwall tank and would be somewhere in the room?
If so could the tank be a 3 or 4 sided viewable tank? That would be pretty interesting I think having a tank that is not attached to any wall so that a person could walk around the tank and seeing different angles.
 
If budget is next, #3, does this family have an bottomless pit of funds? Unless they have a house payment that is helped by the Federal resue plan, and autos and student loans paid off, there is a limit on funds available.

With a family income of 130K per year, the intial startup budget should be at least $3,000.00 maybe more.

Of course, if they have lots of credit cards, the sky's the limit. :dance: Let's try to keep them solvent and use some reasonable amount. Budgets are starting points, and can be adjusted as more information about costs are discovered.

Maybe a range of costs option can be explored i.e.
1.0 K
1.5 K
2.0 K
etc.
Let the discussion and voting begin. Hey, just in time for the Presidential election too!
 
This thread is going to take of sooner or later if it's the last thing I do, LOL.

If we focus on every minute detail we will never get to the end of this build. For the sake of moving this thread along, I think everyone agrees that a predrilled system associated with a future fug/sump if you guys want one, is the type of tank we'll have here. If we discuss and debate who makes it, what sight it comes from etc, this thread will take forever. So, lets put this thread in over drive.

So far we have,

#1 Read, research, purchase some good books, join a reef club.

#2 Purchase a tank, in this case you've chosen a 90 gallon predrilled, placed against a wall.

#3 ?


Lets move on to # 3. Any more ideas on the next decision the Rocks should make?

Mucho
 
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