Finding the right tank: FYI

[Sk8r]

Step one is not to run to a store and look; step one is to go online and start looking at fish species that can be kept in a home tank.
Step two is to investigate the size requirement for the species, and incidentally any shape requirements, such as 'deep' or 'long' for the tank.
Step three is to go to the store and look, and to go online and look. You CAN get a tank made to your requirements, and they can be shipped. More about this in a moment.

Considerations are now about reef-ready or plain, or you-drill-it. Drilling is not hard for somebody who's actually run a drill. If you haven't, practice on a piece of 2x4" and then with glass before you set a drill bit to your tank. Also be aware that some tank glass is tempered and if you drill it, you will break it. Into a thousand little pieces.

Consider too, that a tank is in many instances the CHEAPEST part of a marine rig. Not so as you get larger tanks of nice glass, but...consider that you need lights, possibly more than one kit, at up to 300.00 a kit; a skimmer, from 100 to 300 and up; a return pump, which can range up to 300.00 and more; pipes, hoses; heater (get a good one: a bad one can burn your house down: don't skimp on this and don't ever trust a used one.) And the live rock: easiest to culture your own off a starter rock, but good rock is expensive. You also need buckets; several test kits @ 20.00 each. And in the very rare instance you need a chiller or a UV, those aren't cheap either. You need a quarantine tank, plus its pump/filter [the qt takes a filter: a reef with live rock doesn't]. In short, the necessary gear FOR your glass box can be pretty spendy.

It is not kind or economically smart to get a glass box and start throwing fish into it. Prioritize an appropriate sized tank, THEN the gear to make it work, THEN start thinking about fish. Learning you need certain equipment AFTER you've lost 200.00 worth of fish is sad on so many levels, including the unfortunate fish. Don't let your sparkly bright dream of a functioning tank get ahead of the stuff AND THE TIME it takes to make that tank work.

Can you use used tanks? Yes. White vinegar can dissolve away the white crud overnight and leave it sparkling glass. Or plastic. Scratches---not so much. Used gear? Yes: two exceptions: heaters and lightbulbs. Pumps, light kits, pipe, hose, all good, with vinegar. See it hold water. See it run before you believe it. Join a reef club even before you have a tank and get their help picking gear Members may have equipment their tank has outgrown that would be great for you, at a very low price. Check out the listing of clubs in your area that we have here on RC, and don't be shy. We were all novices once.

 

[hann1bal]

thanks for the post!

FWIW, I bought a used tank for $150 with stand and after 6 months (and $2000+) it sprung a leak - pain in the ***.

I never intended to be a "reefer" and if i never bought that first tank at such a cheap amount I probably never would have been one. It can get you hooked.

Just be careful - you sometime get what you pay for. I would carefully select my tank and stand (if you want a sump) because having access to all your equipment is crucial!

 

[GimpyFin]

Good info. Once you tally everything up equipment and livestock-wise, the tank itself really is one of the cheapest parts of this hobby in most cases. Having a solid plan up front with lots of research before just running out and buying stuff definitely pays off later on.

 

[Sk8r]

I also strongly advise a sump and drilled tank with internal overflow even for a fish-only, if you can swing it. A canister filter can do it---we ran a successful undrilled ordinary 30 gallon long with a 2-pad Penguin for multiple years, but it was inverts with 2 dartfish.

The reasoning in the sump approach is that you get to have a full-sized skimmer and the extra water volume: 30 more gallons tacked onto a 50 is significant, eg. You have the advantage of doing your dosing there, and tucking all the less lovely equipment there, too. Takes up little more room than a big canister, and with a lot of rock rubble, you can reduce the amount of rock 'upstairs' if you need more swimming space. What it contributes is flexibility.
Plus if you run your fish-only like a reef, granted you have moderate poopers and the rock is enough, you don't have filters to wash. If the live rock and potent skimmer can do it for you, it's just less work. Dumping a skimmer cup is nothing to a full canister washout.
It also makes dosing less one-spot: it spreads out and circulates. And you can wow visitors with your fish, not having them visually distracted with 'what's that thing?' re the skimmer, etc.

 

[Sk8r]

Next point: canopies.
Many marine tanks don't have them. Mine does, plus it has a full, glued in glass top with feeding and access ports covered in glass. I do not have an overheating problem. LEDs make heating from the lights a thing of the past. If you're using MH, however, a bank of fans (there are such units sold, that mount in the hood)---will make it work for you. Try fans directly on the water surface before you spring for a chiller. They're generally quite capable of handling major heat, about 10 degrees of it. Remember that if your house AC goes out.

 

[Butch01]

Is there somewhere that has some simple schematics of a drilled tank vs. other setups? In my perfect fantasy world, there would be *nothing* in the tank but the livestock and rock.

 

[Sk8r]

And: depth.
You can trade depth for length---same gallonage, but more running room for your fish. Possible more light kits to keep it all even the full length, where a deeper shorter tank can get by with one kit. All tradeoffs.
I will say 30" or over in depth is entering another problem realm: how do I reach anything? I have a tank deeper than my arm is long. I use a net to access the sandbed or anything on it. And the Tunze Care magnet is the only one I swear by: it can actually be used safely to plow through that line at the edge of the sandbed where I can't reach, to get that nasty row of algae on the edge. That one magnet cleaner is made so that NO sand grain can get trapped between scraper and glass: if that happens, as it does with other magnet cleaners, it can rip a nasty scratch even in glass, let alone acrylic---serious bad news!

 

[Sk8r]

Butch, the downflow box is the only thing 'in' the tank besides sand and rock. It IS the back wall of the tank, or in some tanks, the corners. My wedge tank has a rounded one at the apex of the pie slice. Water flows through its slits and over its teeth to enter the plumbing intake and flow down to the pump, also back up: there is a nozzle atop that spits the cleaned water back into the tank. Downflow box styles and shapes vary, but they have a double wall that operates sort of like a dam, and the intake operates as a limiter: once the water behind the dam sinks too low for the intake (usually a couple of inches below the tank surface) there is no possiblity of the water continuing to drain. This is why your sump will never flood: ONLY 2" of tank water can flow out. The tank then sits and waits for the pump to cut back on and put 2" of water back in, from the sump, so that the drain can start working again. It's a very neat arrangement: no siphons, nothing but gravity taking water out, only to a fixed and safe level, and a powered pump putting it back in. You put a valve on your 'up' line so you can throttle the pump back a little to balance the flow. And it's disaster proof. The multitude of water slits and teeth on the downflow box means that the chance of a clog is just nearly impossible. Someone somewhere has managed to do it, I'm sure, but the safety features are just hard to overcome with goofups.

 

[Sk8r]

Now the 'shipping' part. Learning by experience. Best situation is to talk your local lfs, and get them to order the tank for you, and most will, tanks of a sort they don't normally carry in stockb; yes, you'll pay for it, but let me tell you about ordering direct: first, FINDING the pallet in transit was an adventure: it had 'interlined', meaning one carrier passes it to another. And we're talking about 800 lbs of glass tank and stand on some truck somewhere between Massachusetts and Washington state.
Second, the manufacturer had no idea where it was. I thus had NO idea when or even what DAY it was going to arrive, which, if you have a job you have to be at---is a bit of a pita. Even when I finally got the specific carrier, THEY had no idea when it was going to get there. Furthermore, their 'tariff', the rules of operation, did not allow them to deliver to a house. Or even a driveway.
So they set it in the street. I couldn't lift it. I had to call in the kind of friends that will help you move bodies---or in this case, a really heavy object. I had to sit out there and make sure traffic didn't hit it for several hours until we could get everybody together. After that, yes, it was a cinch.
Contrast that with asking an lfs to receive it at their dock, phone you, and you being able to load up a U-Haul with a lift platform and get it to your place in a far more organized fashion. I do heartily recommend the lfs solution.
Am I glad I got a custom tank? Yes. I love this thing. It's a piece of furniture, tank of a lifetime. But omg, it was an adventure. Had I not been so cavalier about 'sure, they'll get it to my living room'---I'd have had a far easier time.

 

[CarrieB]

Is there somewhere that has some simple schematics of a drilled tank vs. other setups? In my perfect fantasy world, there would be *nothing* in the tank but the livestock and rock.

I think closed loop systems are intended to do that.


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[CindyK]

Join a reef club even before you have a tank and get their help picking gear Members may have equipment their tank has outgrown that would be great for you, at a very low price. Check out the listing of clubs in your area that we have here on RC, and don't be shy. We were all novices once.

Best advice EVER. I have been a member of our local reef club for several months and my tank has yet to see a drop of water. They have been a constant source of encouragement and solid advice (I did get a couple of really good deals too; but the support has been the BEST)

Cindy