putting together a budget, need some help

[tsmom]

I am getting a 130 (or maybe 145) gallon tank soon and I am trying to figure out my equipment budget. I already have a skimmer, and I have a 100gph power head in my 55 gallon. The tank is 72" long, and I think it is 25" high, and 18" deep. (I lost my paper with the measurements) My brother had said that the tank is a 130 gallon, but the measurement calculator on another website said 144.5 gallons. Anyway, we are wanting to do a full reef. We already have live sand and rock, but will need more because the tank is almost triple the size of what we have now. Those I can figure out, what I need help with is the power head(s) and lighting. We are building our own stand, so we can customize how we do the lighting. I am at square one in my knowledge of lighting for a reef tank. Right now we are FOWLR, and just using the regular lighting that we had. What kind of lights do I need and what size? Do I get regular hoods or the kind that sit above the tank, or the kind that would hang from above. If I don't do the regular hood lights, what do I cover the tank with, or do I?

Sorry this is so long. I really do appreciate any advice I can get!

 

[gstuman]

With a 25" deep tank I would look for Metal Halide lights to properly light the bottom of the tank. I would probably go with 3 x 250W double ended pendants and choose a bulb you want.

Also, you will want a pretty big and efficient Protein Skimmer to keep the water quality up. Hopefully, you are looking at a drilled tank so that you can utilize built in overflows and a sump under the tank in which to keep the equipment. I know I wasn't very detailed but hopefully others will chime in with m

 

[tsmom]

Thanks for the info so far. I have a protein skimmer already. And yes, we are going to get the tank drilled. It also needs to be resealed. We have a local contact for the drilling and we're hoping that he can also do the resealing.

Does anyone have a recommendation for where to get the lights and fixtures for a good price? Where should I start looking?

Also, what size power heads will I need? Will the 100gph one be sufficient as one of the power heads or will I need to get all new ones?

Thank you again for the help. Everyone here is so fantastic!

 

[jag1979]

i would go t5's or Mh's for the light. 250's if you go mh's

as far as power heads you should shoot for about 20-30 x turnover to begin with. 100 gph really won't do much or anything for a tank that big. You should either look at tunze, seio or some mj mods depending on your budget.

 

[McCrary]

You are going to have to upgrade the powerheads, but the powerheads you will need will depend on the corals that you plan to keep. SPS coral need very vigorous flow (my 110 has about 5000gph-6000gph). LPS need a lot less vigorous flow and soft corals tend to need the least flow of all.

 

[tsmom]

I'm not sure yet what type of corals I want to keep. Since I have never done corals before, I would like to start off with easy ones.

I had posted on a thread in the 'new to the hobby' forum a little while ago asking for stocking suggestions for this size tank. Nobody would give me any ideas because they said that was too far down the road. However, my point in asking this right now is so that I can plan and research. And now, I need some suggestions so that I can figure out what kind of equpiment I need.

I started looking at the lighting options, and they are high! Can anyone recommend some good places to look for the lights?

Thanks for all the info so far!