40 gallon tank supply list and places to buy?

[cypike]

Im looking to get into the hobby and have watched a lot of videos on saltwater tanks and read a lot on them, but clearly there are some gaps in my knowledge.

Is there a way to get a tank set up to be able to make a reef tank for under $500? What are the most minimal supples needed in order to get a 40 gallon tank up and running without any stock? I get most confused when it comes to pumps and filtration.
There seems to be an infinite number of ways to do things and I need a dumbed down version.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nuxx]

Should be able to easy.

More than likely over time if you stick with the hobby you'll be upgrading a lot

 

[cypike]

NIce, thanks for all the advice in this thread, I'll keep updating as I add things. Probably going to go get rocks and sand tonight if I can find some at the local fish stores or pet stores.

I'm a software engineer by trade, so I'm wondering where I can throw that skill into the tank .

Going to get an AI prime light (just one for now and add one more later on).

Looking at this for the powerhead.

Ordered Dr Tims and some Ammonia off Amazon for cheap

Also ordered a refractometer for testing salt levels and a test kit for the water, though the one I purchased seems to have a lot of haters haha.

Going to get 40-50 lbs of sand and 40ish lbs of rock.

Still need a nice heater, going to look at Amazon for a couple that were suggested.

Still need RODI filter for creating my own water.
If you want to check out my water quality report: Here's that

Still need Salt for actually making the saltwater.

And still need a HOB filter (any suggestions are welcome here)

 

[nothing_fancy]

Ive been pretty excited about the SICCE shark filters. Great little portable filter. You could start there and its something that you can also reuse down the line if you setup a QT. The (2) things I would be careful with are flow and temp. You wanna get a powerhead that you can rely on and actually having (2) not just for better flow but for when one of them inevitably gets stopped up or fails in some way is sort of crucial in my opinion. Id rather have a filter timer go out and leave my tank unfiltered than a powerhead fail inside the DT. I have a Jebao that has not been reliable but for me its not an important powerhead. As far as a counting on gear same goes for temp, the ink bird controllers are reliable and cost efficient and the BRS Titanium heaters in my experience are both affordable and very reliable. Lastly you will need an ATO straight away during your cycling phase otherwise you will make yourself go crazy constantly topping the tank off. A tank that size will probably go through around 3 gallons of fresh top off per week. Most LFS will sell RODI as well as plastic containers. Get (8) 5 gal containers of RODI from them to start your tank and ask them what salt they reccomend if its a shop you're going to revisit (it will probably be instant ocean) Later on you can throw a pump inside one of those RO containers and connect it to an ATO sensor of your choice.

 

[cypike]

What are some good reliable powerheads that aren't $300? I plan on getting two.

 

[nothing_fancy]

What are some good reliable powerheads that aren't $300? I plan on getting two.

Sicce X stream 5000 or voyager 4 for your sized tank would be my move if I didn't want to spend 300 bux. Alternatively You could get a couple of Hydor Koralias if you aren't planning on keeping SPS. I had one of those that ran continuously for years.

 

[cypike]

Sand purchased, next rocks. And maybe more sand. Maybe a different type of sand mix?

 

[cypike]

On second glance I might return this sand because it might be too fine

 

[Cichlid Dad]

On second glance I might return this sand because it might be too fine

You want carib sea special grade. It's 1-2 mil, the one you have is .25-1 mil

 

[cypike]

Time to try to find some sand that actually has larger grains tonight, and some rock.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Time to try to find some sand that actually has larger grains tonight, and some rock.

Don't pay over 2.99 per pound new dry rock. I showed you an Amazon rock 40 pounds for 58.00 total. I just checked and it is now 98 I think it comes from Petco and takes 4 or 5 days. The rock In my tank, see picture I uploaded before, that is the same rock 6 months old

 

[cypike]

Don't pay over 2.99 per pound new dry rock. I showed you an Amazon rock 40 pounds for 58.00 total. I just checked and it is now 98 I think it comes from Petco and takes 4 or 5 days. The rock In my tank, see picture I uploaded before, that is the same rock 6 months old

I’m going to check around at some local fish shops tonight for both. I’ll keep this in mind though.

 

[cypike]

I think I got more correctish sand now

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I think I got more correctish sand now

Im running that in my tank I'm happy

 

[FIN&BONEZ]

And so it begins…..

Not sure if it was mentioned but make sure everything is level before water and that cabinet is sturdy enough to take spill's and hold 300 lbs 24/7 365. It sucks when a fish goes carpet surfing, but really sucks when the whole tank does. Just thinking out loud, good luck!

 

[cypike]

Not sure if it was mentioned but make sure everything is level before water and that cabinet is sturdy enough to take spill's and hold 300 lbs 24/7 365. It sucks when a fish goes carpet surfing, but really sucks when the whole tank does. Just thinking out loud, good luck!

So this is a cabinet that is specifically for tanks bigger than this, I leveled everything, thanks for the thoughts though!

 

[cypike]

No rocks locally so going to order online…. Next purchase will be heater and HOB filter.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

No rocks locally so going to order online…. Next purchase will be heater and HOB filter.

What heater and filter are you thinking?

 

[cypike]

What heater and filter are you thinking?

Looking at the tidal 75 by seachem and an eheim heater. Still unsure of size of heater.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Looking at the tidal 75 by seachem and an eheim heater. Still unsure of size of heater.

Good choice on both, you could go with the Tidal 110 if money allows, if you can pull it off financially, by 2 heaters for smaller tanks. The idea is one goes bad on it will take longer to over heat tank or if one failed to heat, you will still have one heating your tank somewhat.

 

[cypike]

I’ll probably do both those things.