Tank suggestions

[bbarrett2868]

I am going to be starting my first salt water setup and wanted to get some opinions on the users of this forum for what has worked for them. All I have at this time is a 75 gallon tank and some supplies from my former fresh water tank. I will repost with the specific supplies from my fresh water. If am very excited to start my salt water setup, but want to do it correctly, so please let me know what has worked for you. Substrate? Filtration? Water circulation? Lighting? Water? I have read some different topics on a RO/DI filter for the water. How important is this, I can probably pick one up at Home Depot type place I would think.

 

[Aadler]

I like sand bottoms, just looks the best imo.

Filtration is done by your sand and live rock, you can run a filter for carbon to polish the water if you want (i do), you dont run a filter like you would on freshwater. You get a protein skimmer. Everyone has an something to say about them. dont go cheap, dont go way expensive.

water circulation depends on your inhabitants.

Lighting depends on your inhabitants.

I love my airwaterice.com typhoon3 ro/di. They have an even cheaper one now if you want to spend less.

Good luck.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

ro/di cant be found at home depot. it is best to find them online. As said above, you live rock and sand provides all the filtration you need. In fact, they can even take care of nitrates, which in your freshwater tank had to be removed by water changes. Adding a filter just provided nitrates with a safe haven to build up. Ro/di is very important btw. And buying one vs buying water from your lfs would save you money very quickly on a 75g tank. Personally, I like good argonite sand, about 4" deep, but you will see many who prefer a bare bottom also. For protein skimmers, assuming your tank is reef ready, and you will have a sump (also highly recommended), I would get a good euro reef, asm, deltec, octopus, or aquac skimmer. Lighting I would get either 6x54w t5, or 2x250w mh. These would allow you to keep anything you want.

 

[Shagsbeard]

You're going to find that your "fresh water equipment" is pretty much useless in a salt water tank, at least in the model we advise here.

The mechanical filters used (canisters and such) are replaced by live rock, flow in the tank, and a good skimmer. You can run a salt water tank with one, but they become a nuisance to clean, and if you don't clean them they cause problems. Exporting waste via a skimmer is far superior to exporting them by cleaning filters.

You'll also find that lighting a tank is very different as well. Lighting in a fresh water tank plays a completely different role as the plants will work with what ever you give them... corals are more picky.

Along with your present equipment list... let us in on your budget. People who come here often hide this essential bit of info.

For your 75 gal, I'd have very different advice as to how to proceed if your budget was $1000 vs. $2000. If your budget is under $1000, my advice would be to save up... look for those rare deals that come by once in a blue moon on Craiglist. You can do it, it's just time consuming.

For my "Dream Tank", I'd want about $6000 for a 75. There's some lights that run about $2500 I've been drooling over....

 

[bbarrett2868]

My budget is under a $1000. I don't have a problem buying things incrementally until I am ready. I went out and looked at my equipment for the first time since starting my saltwater research and it is quite laughable. I don't think any of it will be reusable. I have a penguin filter, the kind that hangs on the back of the tank. I have a couple of heaters. I have a couple of pumps for aeration. I also have a simple 48 inch florescent fixture for lighting. I realize that I am pretty much starting over and just want to start a game plan for what I need to buy.

 

[bbarrett2868]

Do I need to have everything to get the tank started cycling or are their certain things I can hold off on until I'm ready to start implementing fish. Granted I know I will need my sand and live rock to start the cycling process, but what else should I have in place?

 

[Scuba_Steve]

You can hold off on lights, and use the ones you have. You can even start adding fish with them, just choose reef safe fish, and remember to obviously wait for your cycle to complete. For live rock, to save lots of $$$, buy about 100lbs of base rock, or 50-75lbs of marcorocks, and about 25-50lbs of live rock. Skimmer can wait if you do lots of water changes. Dont even think about adding corals before you get lights and a skimmer though. Personally, with your budget, I would spend about $200 on an ro/di, $250 for 75lbs of marcorocks figi, $150 on some live figi, $100 on sand, $50 on test kits, and the rest on pumps and plumbing.