New to hobby need advice

Thinker1920

New member
Hi everyone,

I've been keeping cichlids in a 55 gallon but, always wanted a salt water setup and I finally took the plung and bought a 90 gallon salt water tank, I got the tank, stand, Refugium, pump for the refugium. I've ordered two 300 watt heaters, 2 powerheads, refractor, and 50 lbs of rock from reefrocks. I still need to get a skimmer, and a light.
Now I'm not sure what skimmer to get and was wondering if I could get away with spending less then $100, I've been reading a lot of forum reviews on some of the cheaper ones, and theres a mixed reaction to them, some say they take a lot of time to get right but they work fine and others are just junk, so any ideas would be helpful.

As for the light I was told that I should probably build myself an LED one, which I could probably do but I feel a little overwelmed with all the different options out there and would need someone to help me pick out the parts. I did see a really good deal on a t5 fixture that I think was 650 watt for $230 but was wondering how long it would last compared to a LED light.

And I was wondering what type of plant should I grow in the refugium, I was told cheto is good? and what type/watt light should be on that and how much a day? Also for starting the tank I was advised that starting with four damsels would be a good idea? and how long after that should I wait before adding any coral?

Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for any help :-)
 
You are going to get a lot of different opinions and I guess I will start. I have used a cheap skimmer on a 75 gal. And a 45 gal. They both where tuned in and got shut off. I don't use one on my bio-cube and corals do better in the cube. However I am going to use a good one on my 90gal. Not saying it was just the protein skimmer. I used 24 hour compact lights on the 75 hated them. I use cheap 24 hour t5 on the 45 hate them also. 24 hour compact on bio-cube would love to change them out but taking it down soon. Built leds for the 90.
 
+1 you should try to purchase that skimmer, or have a fellow reefer do it, i don't think your past the 50/90 rule yet. GL and good start. and welcome to STRS!
 
I ended up getting an Eshopps psk 150 for $127, someone reccomended it to me and it was closer to my budget. I was wondering what everyone's thoughts one Bare bottome tanks are? the guy I bought the tank from had his 180g setup that way and it seems like less maintance?
 
Welcome to STRS Thinker!! I haven't been keeping up on the latest in lighting technology or any of that jazz but what I did to learn about what works and doesn't work is to look at the Tank Of The Month descriptions and see what they use. I would be suprised if you see many tanks that are only lit with LEDs. Most nice tanks are lit with Metal Halide lighting and are supplemented with LEDs or VHO. Check it out...

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index.php/current-issue/article/83-tank-of-the-month
 
Thinker, welcome to the hobby and reef central! I am in the process of tearing my tanks down and getting ready for a move. One of the tanks is sold so I don't have to move it and the light fixture I still have. It's a tek T-5 48" 4 bulb fixture. I believe I paid 250 for just the fixture and about $100 for the bulbs that are about 2 months old. If your interested I could let it go for $175 with the bulbs to help you out.
Matt
 
Matt I wish I had seen your post earlier, I was going to buy a ebay cheapy but my friend talked me out of it but, I ended up ordering a nova extreme 6 bulb for $314 :-P
 
This is probably a stupid question but, here goes, I bought a refractometer and it's labeled 0 - 28% salinity, and everyone seems to talk about specific gravity instead with 1.025 and such, so is 25% aprox. 1.025?
 
Ok thats definitely a percentage/ Brix scale mostly used in wine making to measure the SG of the sugar content before pitching the yeast. 1.025 would equal 7.1 according to the chart. I'm not sure if I can post the link to the conversion so PM coming.
 
Thanks for the info, I think to be safe though I'm going to go to my friends and double check against his to make sure I'm reading it right.... Should have thought of that sooner :-P........
I was wondering if anyone could suggest good fish and coral food and tell me if you buy it local or online.... Thanks again :-)
 
i would recommend nutramar ova , frozen baby brine and some coral smoothie. also formula 1 or 2 ocean nutrition premium flakes or pellets, or both:) oh and cant forget some type of zooplantkon and phyotoplanction. I use brightwell aquatics but DT's and marine snow are about the same thing, i just prefer a food that dosent require refrigeration.
 
yeah the stuff that doesn't need refrigeration sounds nice, I am going to guess its cheaper to buy in bulk online? ........ my tank is ever so slowly getting closer to being setup, I got the salt mix yesterday and put that in, got the powerheads setup and the heater, and bought 2 lbs of live rock to seed the stuff I got from reef rocks. net (I forget what its called) and I bought some chaeto for the refugium. hopefully I'll get the sand and other rock on tuesday :-P it's coming usps so you never know :-P
 
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