First. Build. Ever. 150 gal. Reef Set Up

[dskibs]

Hello Reef Central!

The time has come to start my 150 gallon reef project after three+ years of planning and reading, and for the last year taking care of a reef tank at my college. Unfortunately, no pictures yet, because tonight will be the first purchases of equipment. The place in the house has been selected, and we are ready to go, but first I wanted to throw out the initial plan in regard to equipment. PLEASE feel free to suggest/validate this list in any way. This has been a loooooong process and I really want to get things right! Anyway, the plan is as follows:

Tank: 48x24x31 (150 gallons) from glasscages.com. Starfire glass, reef ready, and all the fixin's. Also wondering if anyone has used glasscages before and would recommend their sump that they offer with the tank?
Lights-AquaticLife T5 HO 6-Lamp Light Fixture w/ Lunar LEDs
Powerhead "“ Hydor Koralias either the three or four series, and probably three of them!
Heater-2 300w Jaegers
Protein Skimmer "“ AquaC EV-180 Protein Skimmer With Mag-Drive 7 Pump
Test Kits: Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph, Alkalinity, Phosphate, and Calcium
Liverock: Tampa Bay Saltwater's "The Package" in the 150 gal. version
Salt-175 gal mix of Red Sea Salt
Return Pump- Dolphin Amp Master Diamond External Pump (4750 gph)-would appreciate any advice on a return pump that is maybe cheaper but still effective. Also, is that too much flow?
UV Sterlizer-looking for a recommendation here based on my tank size
Refugium-would a hang on work if hung on to my sump?
And then the various odds and ends of PVC, Buckets, Syphons, RO/DI Unit (could use a recommendation for one that would attach to a sink with a high gallons per day output)

Appreciate any help, and look forward to a nice, full bodied build thread once I get everything purchased! Keep on rocking.

 

[tkeracer619]

Tank:
Some will scarf at glass cages but I have always had good luck with them. Its not an elos but its still a glass box that holds water. You might have to take a razor blade to clean up a bit of silicone but its really no big deal.


Lights
Sounds good

Powerhead
Not a fan. You might check out the new maxijet prop pumps coming out. You will still need a magnet mount for them but they are sure to be better quality and roughly the same price after mounts.

Heater
Thats more then I have on my 360g. If your in a warm climate you won't need close to that much. Also you need to put these on some type of controller. Go with one of many reef controllers or a dedicated temp controller such as a ranco. IME this is a must. I would probably go with (2) 150w.

Protein Skimmer "“ You can do a lot better then that. Look at a SRO or XP series skimmer. The 2000 or 3000 series depending on how you plan on stocking it.

Test Kits: Nitrate, Alkalinity, Magnesium, and Calcium are all you need. Get salifert brand. Anything else can be tested by your LFS. No point in getting the others. If you want a phosphate test kit get the digital one made by hanna. The hobby kits are practically useless. Treat the tank as if you always have phosphates by running GFO in a media reactor. If you feed the tank you have phosphates. Not a whole lot of point testing for it.

Liverock: No idea but don't pack the tank out. Give room for corals. Choose the nicest pieces and then put the rest in the sump.

Salt- I personally use instant ocean because its cheaper. Try to get a couple buckets on sale from Drs Foster and smith. You can save some real cash here.

Return Pump- Way, way, way too big. Go with a ehiem 1262. You won't regret the decision.

UV Sterlizer-
Dont need it. Spend the money on an RO/DI.

Refugium
Don't need it. Spend the money on reactors, carbon, gfo and other odds and ends. You can always add it later.



Bulkreefsupply.com can save you some cash on a lot of this stuff.

 

[dskibs]

Thanks for the tips! Had a feeling that the return pump was too much, but couldn't find any pump that was consistently well reviewed besides it! As well, thanks for the skimmer reference. On the heaters, it is funny you'd say that was too much wattage for the heaters, at least 5 different people told me that 2 300w would be ideal for a 150!

 

[L98-Z]

I agree with pretty much everything tkeracer619 stated. The only thing I may disagree with is the Hydor powerheads. I don't think they're bad powerheads at all. In your tank I'd go with 4 series and 4 of them though. I have 2 and a wavebox on a 75, a 150 could certainly tolerate more.

The biggest downside I've found to them and this was in their older models... after awhile they started shocking me.

 

[L98-Z]

oh, I don't care much for Ehiem either. I had 2 of them die on me. Drsfostersmith replaced the first one but the second was past the warranty. Many people love them though. I've had better luck with Panworld or Blueline pumps.

 

[dskibs]

It seems experiences with return pumps vary greatly from tank to tank to say the least! Are the Carbon+GFO reactors as simple as just buying the pellets, attaching a pump, and setting it in the sump?

 

[L98-Z]

Yes. That's all there really is to it.

 

[tkeracer619]

after awhile they started shocking me.

I had a 75% failure rate with koralias including a shock that put me against a wall. IMO that is enough to cross a company off the list. It isn't an isolated event and the solution was... Cut the cord and we will send you another. A recall would have been the proper thing to do.

There are just too many options available for flow for me to consider purchasing one again or even swapping out the defective ones for new ones. There is no point. :thumbdown

Wow two ehiems dead? Many people have reported 10+ years out of them. I have one that is so old the paint has worn off. Works like new. Wonder if it was a bad batch and you got two out of that batch.

Panworld and blueline are good pumps but need to be cleaned more frequently. They seem to get pretty hot and calcium wants to precipitate onto them. Overall they have been pretty good but if I was going to go the external route I would choose a japanese iwaki.

 

[beastrx]

A word of warning on the "aquacultured live rock"

They are putting dry rock out in the gulf and letting things grow on it. And since they are shipping it in water you are guaranteed to have any bad hitchhikers still alive when it gets to you.There is almost no way to make sure you don't get a mantis or gorilla crap in your tank since they can come in so small and in six months cause mayhem in your tank and eat your cuc.
You might want to think about going with plain dry reef rock (you can get it for about $1-$2 a pound in fl) and not risk all the bad that comes with the good.It will take longer for the tank to mature but in my opinion its worth it.
I have seen first hand how many mantis can come in from rock out of the gulf and I have to say be careful with it.

 

[beastrx]

Oh yeah, wait on the heaters until you see how your tank runs with the temp. I have MH and a chiller and don't need a heater at all, even in the winter, runs 78-79 all year.

Haha, nvm you will prob need a heater, just saw you were in washington lol.

 

[dskibs]

Tank:

Powerhead
Not a fan. You might check out the new maxijet prop pumps coming out. You will still need a magnet mount for them but they are sure to be better quality and roughly the same price after mounts.

Heater
Thats more then I have on my 360g. If your in a warm climate you won't need close to that much. Also you need to put these on some type of controller. Go with one of many reef controllers or a dedicated temp controller such as a ranco. IME this is a must. I would probably go with (2) 150w.

Protein Skimmer "“ You can do a lot better then that. Look at a SRO or XP series skimmer. The 2000 or 3000 series depending on how you plan on stocking it.

Return Pump- Way, way, way too big. Go with a ehiem 1262. You won't regret the decision.

UV Sterlizer-
Dont need it. Spend the money on an RO/DI.

Powerheads-Is a maxijet gph to be the pump for a Carbon/GFO reactor? Looking at doing the BRS Carbon/GFO reactor but they only recommend it for up to 120 gallons and the "Jumbo" reactor seems overkill, so what is the adivised path there?

Heater-I wanted to avoid it because of the $$$, but is getting the Apex Controller more or less "necessary"?

Protein Skimmer- How heavily stocked would the tank need to be for me to warrant the 3000 series? That thing is a beast.

Return Pump-Will the Eheim 1262 be big enough for a 150? It seems like I only see people using it on 90s.

RO/DI- Is there one out there that doesn't require me messing with the sink plumbing to install? I know it isn't too hard, but I remember hearing about units that could attach the end of a faucet? Or is that just folklore passed down from anti-plumbers?

Thanks for the help with the list, shuffled some things around and the final equipment order will be up soon. Glasscages should be calling me today to talk about the tank order!

Heres to spending a ton of money but having it all worth it! :beer:

 

[dskibs]

A word of warning on the "aquacultured live rock"

I have seen first hand how many mantis can come in from rock out of the gulf and I have to say be careful with it.

I wouldn't be too mad about a mantis or two, one of my buddies really wants one actually (what a loser!). As well, one of my LFS will buy them from me or do trades. I just like the life that TBS will put into the tank. As well, dry reef rock is a little more expensive up in WA. Apparently it can't be harvested from the Puget Sound. Who knew?:lol2:

 

[Palting]

Heater
Thats more then I have on my 360g. If your in a warm climate you won't need close to that much. Also you need to put these on some type of controller. Go with one of many reef controllers or a dedicated temp controller such as a ranco. IME this is a must. I would probably go with (2) 150w.

Salt- I personally use instant ocean because its cheaper. Try to get a couple buckets on sale from Drs Foster and smith. You can save some real cash here.

Refugium
Don't need it. Spend the money on reactors, carbon, gfo and other odds and ends. You can always add it later.



Bulkreefsupply.com can save you some cash on a lot of this stuff.

I pretty much agree on what was said here, except for these points.

I use 2 300W heaters on my set-up. True, when all my lights are on, the heaters don't do anything. But, when the lights are out and the tank room goes cold (the heater shuts off in this section of my house at night), the 2 heaters kick in. I don't use a controller. Maybe someday i will.

I use IO Reef Crystals. IO is good enough for the first several months, but can make you need to do calcium, alk and mag dosing once your coraline and corals start blossoming, using up these elements quicker. ReefCrystals, or other salts that have a higher concentration of these elements, will extend the time before you need to do dosing, and make your dosing requirements less.

When I did my second build, I started the refugium the same time I started the tank. I also started the GFO reactor. Ran out of GFO several months ago, and just took the reactor off line. The refugium is keeping my phosphates, as well as my nitrates, at zero. IMO, a well stocked and well maintained refugium is cheaper, better, more natural than reactors. HOB refugiums are marginally OK, but it would be best to have a dedicated remote refugium. I have a 20 gal plumbed into my sump.

 

[Palting]

BTW, I delayed in getting an ATO. Should have gotten one early on. Big help in maintaning a 150 gal tank, total 200g gal system, that evaporates 2-3 gals a day. If you have the cash, get it now, and plan on where to place the reservoir.

 

[dskibs]

BTW, I delayed in getting an ATO. Should have gotten one early on. Big help in maintaning a 150 gal tank, total 200g gal system, that evaporates 2-3 gals a day. If you have the cash, get it now, and plan on where to place the reservoir.

I would love to do the reservoir with an ATO, but there is no good place for me to have a reservoir anywhere near the tank location. And running a tube across the house to the garage is not an option either haha!

 

[zach jay]

you don't need the hugely expensive apex controller for your heater. I just use a reefkeeper lite I got for $99 to set my temp. works great, never had a problem.

also my koralias have been fine. I've bought 5 or so used in the past couple years, never had a problem with any of them.

and for ro/di machines, they definitely can screw into your faucet. mine does. usually it's another $8 adapter, but that's nothing. I have one from buckeye field supply that works perfectly (makes ~75g a day or so). I also just bought my friend one from air water ice that screws into the faucet. both are great units with amazing customer service. good luck

 

[dskibs]

New tank dimension is 60x24x25, decided to go for length in order to have less demanding lighting!

 

[TrojanScott]

If you don't get an Apex for your heater, then get a controller of some sort. ABSOLUTE MUST, IMO. Heaters can and do fail. Search threads here, you'll find some horrifying pictures of complete tank meltdowns due to faulty heaters, and even a fire or two. Pretty much avoidable with a simple controller or a ReefKeeper or equiv controller. If tank temp reaches a particular temp, it will shut off the circuit.

One thing I didnt' notice mentioned, with a 150, are you having an internal overflow box? If so, and using a sump, my advice is to plan the biggest sump you can fit under your stand. I wish I'd have done so my first go round. You can have a nice sump built for maybe $400, or even shop around, they pop up used all the time. The bigger the sump, the better. You can have a refugium there, and more water volume the better. I have a standard 6x2x2 180, and my sump is 5 ft long, and fills almost my entire stand. It's awesome to have, I highly recommend it.

Look, if you're jumping into this with a 150 gallon tank, which is a big tank by most people's standards, you are going to spend money. It's an expensive hobby. My best advice is to spend wisely, yes, but also, do not skimp. Spend right the first time around. Buy the best skimmer you can within reason, buy good quality pumps, and be patient with anything you can't afford right off the bat. I've wasted thousands of dollars over the year on crap, and if I only knew then what I know now....

Keep posting with questions too, plenty of help here.

 

[dskibs]

There will be internal overflow, and I was most likely going to use the Glasscages 38 gallon sump. Bring total water volume to about 190 gallons which I feel is good for first time. This isn't my first tank, however, just my first build. I run the 75 gallon tank at my college. Figured for MY first tank I should double the volume for some reason (my wallet wasn't happy).

 

[Palting]

I'm getting dizzy bouncing from your two exactly the same threads , one here and one in newbie. You should close one, otherwise the mods will do it for you, and give you a black mark to boot .