You have $14000 to spend on a tank...

[BlennyBabe]

Thanks so much for all the great advice.
That is a pretty conservative budget, and does not include the tank itself, or the yearly maintenance. Ectra bulbs, meds, salt, etc will come from another budget. The actual budget is more like 17-18 thousand, but I always expect that we will forget something and have to spend more later. So I gave you $14,000 as a very safe estimate.


I love the idea of a cold water reef, but we already have one showing off the neah bay coral reef. This tank will be next to the large tropical sharks. (I wish we could have live coral in the shark exhibit, but there isnt enought light or current)

We can do a diy skimmer. We have done custom acrylic work before, and repaired our own, but I think it would be too time consuming and frustrating to build one. Especially for the aquarist taking over. She has tons of experience with flow through cold water, but none with closed systems or warm water tanks.

I have about 10 years of hobby experience, and some of that with large systems, but not a great ammount. I usually have to scrape parts together and do everything as cheaply as possible.

As far as stocking the tank goes, we can get things wholesale, but only through certain dealers. Im looking for more all the time so if you can recommend a good supplier, Ill look into it and see if we can work with them. We can also get coral frags from other aquariums, but not from hobbiests. Corals are animals and so they are subject to the AZA rules. Basically the same rules as a sea otter acqusition.....

That is not to say that we cant get good corals. We have been recieving coral confiscations from fish and wildlife and have gotten some cool things so far. And we have a good size holding tank with lots of show size (basketball or larger) corals.

Ill try to get on more frequently, to reply to this thread. Sorry for the late responses.

 

[Doahh]

Don't skimp on a skimmer... DON'T get an ASM G5

 

[wmilas]

From the skimmer standpoint, I just went through the choice for picking for my 600+ gal display/1k gal \system.

Its a commercial system. You will probably overfeed to keep everything plump and happy and you WANT high Orp for clear water. Don't skimp on the skimmer, but be reasonable with your budget. Only 2 ways to go.

1) Upgraded Orca with Cup, knowing you MIGHT have to add another down the line. The orca is undersized for a system of my size, under heavy load, and is pusing capacity on your system.
2) ATB Cone skimmer. A Large would probably work for you, I went with an XL. People make fun of this skimmer because they dont understand how it works.. its new. Basically the whole skimmer is the upper part of the reaction chamber on a traditional needlewheel/meshskimmer. Its where all the work is done. The cone maximizes the work space.

I went with the ATB even though it was more than the orca (but less than 2 orcas!) because I want ease of maintenance (1 skimmer, not 2). In your setting I'd weight the cost difference with the hassle of maintenance. I'd also recommend running the skimmer inside a larger sump., or above the sump, if its a external. The most common mishaps are when the skimmer goes nuts and empties half the tank on the floor.

As far as lighting, I'm a t5 fan, but in your case I'd go lumenarc with at least 400w 12k bulbs. If you have the height above the display you could go 1kwatt bulbs and light the lights higher to give more spread and use less bulbs, which is less maintenance. The key in a commercial setting is the maintenance, I can't stress that enough.

If you have the room, go with a sump thats not under the tank. More room, easier maintenance.

Closed loop is expensive from an electricity standpoint. Tunzies are the same upfront cost as a serious closed loop system and cheaper to run. You have to hide them though. If you go closed loop consider that the oceans motions do need to be taken apart and cleaned as they do clog. More maintenance.

Go with multiple smaller heaters on a separate heat controller to guard against failure.

 

[Phillybean]

Keep in mind the option to do MODs to your skimmers, and DIY. With that budget, I'd do that a lot.

DIY Lumarc will save some money.

A ASM G6 with meshwheel mods, gatevalve and plumbed directly from the overflow would be good, cheap and would work.

DIY Sump would be cheaper then buying one.

Macro Rocks are a great idea. If you can do a LR to MR Ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 you would save a lot. Of course if your getting the LR at a good wholesale price, it might be better just stick with LR.

There are lots of ways to reef on a budget and DIY is one of them. The good thing about that for you, is that money is better spent to you, than someone else.

 

[kdblove_99]

I think the Reeflo250 is a real good start for a skimmer

 

[tangers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13097969#post13097969 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Doahh
Don't skimp on a skimmer... DON'T get an ASM G5

x2!!!!!!
I'd go with the ORCA 250 PRO!

 

[dvmsn]

IMHO, $ 1500.00 seems crazy for a tank with softies and mushrooms. I would even argue that she could do the tank she wants without a skimmer at all.