Adv4Justice
New member
So I think we are ready to set up the tank after months of research and reading ( I have devoured the available info in Books including Salt water for dummies, Reef Secrets, Saltwater Aquariums make a great Hobby & my favorite The New Marine Aquarium.) I have read online blogs and forums, numerous articles and magazines and spoken with the LFS employees. (':eek1:')
We finally bought a 75g tank thats 48" long ( more water to air ratio) and stand, then we decided to pick up the acrylic refugium. We determined that for us it would be better to leave the fabricating your own refuge to others since for the 200 dollars I would spend hours of time and probably almost as much money on a refugium system that in the end would likely not fit under my stand. We found a system at the LFS that also had a made to fit protein skimmer (For an addtn'l cost) , it also integrated 2 prefilter socks and a light. Skimmer came with a pump so then we had to buy the return pump. LFS also had the 700 Mag pump which we purchased as the return pump and an all in one hood with a 250 Watt Metal Halide, True Actinic Blue and LED Blue moonlight. Since we did do some research we braced for the sticker shock. (':eek2:')
We were at $2100.00 and not the first living thing yet. We told ourselves that will come.
In order to reduce costs we proceeded to the Local Pet Superstore for a less expensive set up for the quarantine tank we settled on a 20g Long with fluorescent light strip and two 10g rated in-tank filters, we also purchased reef crystals, 3 heaters, 2 thermometers, 2 hydrometers, two test kits (saltwater and reef). Went to a box store to get a few 5g plastic bins w/ lids and a 32g bin for premixing water and that bin may work for curing live rock if we cant find sufficient live rock that has been cured at a reasonable price. So we should be ready to go Right? ----Wrong.
We are still debating location of the tank and are concerned about Tap water vs. Distilled store-bought water or getting a system to make our own RO/DI water to start the tank.('
')
I'm guessing we will likely replace 7.5 gals. or (10%) of the saltwater every two weeks as a normal water change. Also, we will need perhaps as much in freshwater evaporation. At about a dollar a gallon we would buy the distilled water for approximately $15 a month right? My LFS sells water at $1.75/Gal ( if its premixed saltwater that may end up being cheaper?) The RO/DI costs $165 for a 100gpd system which is really not a lot of money and would pay for itself in less than a year but---there is a tremendous amount of waste water that I would be paying water & sewage for and I don't have enough plants to water to use that much in waste water. Has anyone really done the math on this yet? How bad can the tap water be?
Since here in Florida we get our water from the Florida aquifer ( Same place where Zephyrhills and Aquafina bottled water comes from) So, I looked it up and after removing the chlorine there are no listed Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates nor Copper listed in the local water quality report.
I could test the water with my new water testing kits but they are "saltwater" tests do I need freshwater tests?
Should I premix a small batch of saltwater then test that?
We really wanted to be able to at least set up the water in the tank this weekend and possibly put in the base rock to skim off any debris. (Did I forget mention the fossilized coral /?limestone? base rock we were going to integrate with live rock to reduce costs?)
Any Ideas?? Thoughts??:eek1: Starting to feel overwhelmed.
We finally bought a 75g tank thats 48" long ( more water to air ratio) and stand, then we decided to pick up the acrylic refugium. We determined that for us it would be better to leave the fabricating your own refuge to others since for the 200 dollars I would spend hours of time and probably almost as much money on a refugium system that in the end would likely not fit under my stand. We found a system at the LFS that also had a made to fit protein skimmer (For an addtn'l cost) , it also integrated 2 prefilter socks and a light. Skimmer came with a pump so then we had to buy the return pump. LFS also had the 700 Mag pump which we purchased as the return pump and an all in one hood with a 250 Watt Metal Halide, True Actinic Blue and LED Blue moonlight. Since we did do some research we braced for the sticker shock. (':eek2:')
We were at $2100.00 and not the first living thing yet. We told ourselves that will come.
In order to reduce costs we proceeded to the Local Pet Superstore for a less expensive set up for the quarantine tank we settled on a 20g Long with fluorescent light strip and two 10g rated in-tank filters, we also purchased reef crystals, 3 heaters, 2 thermometers, 2 hydrometers, two test kits (saltwater and reef). Went to a box store to get a few 5g plastic bins w/ lids and a 32g bin for premixing water and that bin may work for curing live rock if we cant find sufficient live rock that has been cured at a reasonable price. So we should be ready to go Right? ----Wrong.
We are still debating location of the tank and are concerned about Tap water vs. Distilled store-bought water or getting a system to make our own RO/DI water to start the tank.('
')I'm guessing we will likely replace 7.5 gals. or (10%) of the saltwater every two weeks as a normal water change. Also, we will need perhaps as much in freshwater evaporation. At about a dollar a gallon we would buy the distilled water for approximately $15 a month right? My LFS sells water at $1.75/Gal ( if its premixed saltwater that may end up being cheaper?) The RO/DI costs $165 for a 100gpd system which is really not a lot of money and would pay for itself in less than a year but---there is a tremendous amount of waste water that I would be paying water & sewage for and I don't have enough plants to water to use that much in waste water. Has anyone really done the math on this yet? How bad can the tap water be?
Since here in Florida we get our water from the Florida aquifer ( Same place where Zephyrhills and Aquafina bottled water comes from) So, I looked it up and after removing the chlorine there are no listed Nitrites, Nitrates, Phosphates nor Copper listed in the local water quality report.
I could test the water with my new water testing kits but they are "saltwater" tests do I need freshwater tests?
Should I premix a small batch of saltwater then test that?
We really wanted to be able to at least set up the water in the tank this weekend and possibly put in the base rock to skim off any debris. (Did I forget mention the fossilized coral /?limestone? base rock we were going to integrate with live rock to reduce costs?)
Any Ideas?? Thoughts??:eek1: Starting to feel overwhelmed.
