Back into hobby, equipment review questions.

[Corwise]

Hello. I've been out of the hobby for about 10 years as I retired from the military and moved around a bit. I finally decided to jump back in and bought a IM INT 150gal. Used to have a 90 gal w/sump. Did coral tanks and fish only over the years. Going to do a coral tank again and while most of the equipment is the same I wanted to make sure I had everything. Other pieces of equipment I need to buy:

Lights: No more T5s, need to do some research on what kind.
Heater: The IM website has a pair of 200W heaters it recommends for this tank. I thought the rule was not to have more then one heater because they'd interfere with each other? Is that no longer a factor?
Protein Skimmer: Gotta research
Power Heads: Does the return pump provide enough water flow for this tank (will be rock heavy). Or do I need extra power heads?
Filter Socks: The IM sump says it "Accommodates 4” Filter Socks." I assume these are basically bags you can put charcoal in? Are these necessary in most tanks? Last tank just had the bioballs and protein skimmer.
UV Sterilizer: Never used one of these in a tank before, now every website is pushing them? Useful? Overkill?

Other then the basic test kits, thermometers, type of basic stuff am I missing anything big? Appreciate the help.

Dave

 

[Fenral]

Corwise/dave
Consider what you want to stock for life - it will guide what you need for flow, filtration, and lighting decisions. Make your dream list, and then you may be able to get some helpful feedback.

 

[C_AWOL]

I've been in the hobby for a very long time and always use multiple smaller heaters over one (max 300w) without worry of interference. Better redundancy with 2+ than 1 bigger one by far.
I use basic eheim jagers with various controllers (mostly ranco/aqualogic) and dont over think buying X or Y "premium" heater brands

Lights: Noopsyches are very budget friendly for great performance, kessils look great (best looking in my opinion) but very pricey. Fortunately many options work here so pick based on your preferred balance of cost + looks (from the light)

Powerheads: Vortechs are my primary recommendation due to no motor being in the tank and wetsides being ultra easy to service. The jebao dmp line is a fantastic cheaper alternative (from my preliminary use) ethics aside.
A return pump usually isnt enough flow on its own especially after factoring rocks for most corals.

Skimmer: anything with the motor outside of the skimmer body. There is no skimmer pump that is maintenance free and not having to lug out the whole skimmer body to access the pump is a life saver.
I personally suggest the reef octopus regal/elite models

Filter socks are basically the mechanical filtration for the system. It certainly is possible to put media like carbon in there but that may cause carbon fines which is known to cause head and lateral line erosion in a lot of tangs+angels.

Uv sterilizers under most use cases is for water clarity + dinoflagellate elimination/reduction. I consider them useful when water changes and/or carbon (and changing of carbon) becomes cost/labor prohibitive to maintain clearer water.
Best not to rely on them for disease elimination or mitigation and put that money towards improving actually important equipment such as flow/lighting/skimming in my opinion.

Some non mandatory but nice gear would be controllers like hydros (preferred) or apex which helps with monitoring various parameters and controlling various equipment remotely. A better investment than a UV in my opinion.

 

[Fenral]

I've been in the hobby for a very long time and always use multiple smaller heaters over one (max 300w) without worry of interference. Better redundancy with 2+ than 1 bigger one by far.
I use basic eheim jagers with various controllers (mostly ranco/aqualogic) and dont over think buying X or Y "premium" heater brands

Lights: Noopsyches are very budget friendly for great performance, kessils look great (best looking in my opinion) but very pricey. Fortunately many options work here so pick based on your preferred balance of cost + looks (from the light)

Powerheads: Vortechs are my primary recommendation due to no motor being in the tank and wetsides being ultra easy to service. The jebao dmp line is a fantastic cheaper alternative (from my preliminary use) ethics aside.
A return pump usually isnt enough flow on its own especially after factoring rocks for most corals.

Skimmer: anything with the motor outside of the skimmer body. There is no skimmer pump that is maintenance free and not having to lug out the whole skimmer body to access the pump is a life saver.
I personally suggest the reef octopus regal/elite models

Filter socks are basically the mechanical filtration for the system. It certainly is possible to put media like carbon in there but that may cause carbon fines which is known to cause head and lateral line erosion in a lot of tangs+angels.

Uv sterilizers under most use cases is for water clarity + dinoflagellate elimination/reduction. I consider them useful when water changes and/or carbon (and changing of carbon) becomes cost/labor prohibitive to maintain clearer water.
Best not to rely on them for disease elimination or mitigation and put that money towards improving actually important equipment such as flow/lighting/skimming in my opinion.

Some non mandatory but nice gear would be controllers like hydros (preferred) or apex which helps with monitoring various parameters and controlling various equipment remotely. A better investment than a UV in my opinion.

Powerheads, the OctoPulse aren't bad either for a budget option. Vortechs are a bit pricy if budget is a concern. Skimmers are all junk these days - it's all marketing hype. None of them are going to give you a good bombardment and contact time and fit in the space you would probably allocate (better off building your own out of PVC, frankly, if budget is a concern ;) So I wouldn't fall for most of the overly fancy skimmer stuff hiding out there these days - unless you are going high end...they are all going to perform pretty much similarly - although an external recirculating skimmer is a plus for adjustability/tuneability.

Still waiting on your dream list ;)

 

[Corwise]

Powerheads, the OctoPulse aren't bad either for a budget option. Vortechs are a bit pricy if budget is a concern. Skimmers are all junk these days - it's all marketing hype. None of them are going to give you a good bombardment and contact time and fit in the space you would probably allocate (better off building your own out of PVC, frankly, if budget is a concern ;) So I wouldn't fall for most of the overly fancy skimmer stuff hiding out there these days - unless you are going high end...they are all going to perform pretty much similarly - although an external recirculating skimmer is a plus for adjustability/tuneability.

Still waiting on your dream list ;)

Thanks for the info. The fish list is still a bit of a work in progress. Will have mixed hard and soft corals, but no real plan. The current fish plan:
2-4 Chromis
1 Coris Green Wrasse (yes, will eat/nip things as it gets bigger)
1 Flame Angel
2 Maroon Clowns
3 Tangs. Powder Blue first (yes, not the easiest fish, hope to get a small one, let him get comfortable a bit). Then add a Purple Tang and Orange Shoulder Tang together.
Maybe that blennie that eats the sand to clean it, name escapes me at the moment. :)

Then the standard cleaning crew, probably a cleaner shrimp.

 

[Fenral]

Thanks for the info. The fish list is still a bit of a work in progress. Will have mixed hard and soft corals, but no real plan. The current fish plan:
2-4 Chromis
1 Coris Green Wrasse (yes, will eat/nip things as it gets bigger)
1 Flame Angel
2 Maroon Clowns
3 Tangs. Powder Blue first (yes, not the easiest fish, hope to get a small one, let him get comfortable a bit). Then add a Purple Tang and Orange Shoulder Tang together.
Maybe that blennie that eats the sand to clean it, name escapes me at the moment. :)

Then the standard cleaning crew, probably a cleaner shrimp.

Good luck with the flame angel. I've tried to get 2 recently, but unfortunately, they are still sometimes caught with cyanide.

Your stock list for that size tank is not heavy. I'd get a media reactor or canister filter and run charcoal as needed to get rid of the stink, but not all the time - and a protein skimmer won't hurt with that bioload, but I wouldn't say you need to get something insane - reef octo also makes some decent skimmers at a reasonable price. It would be best if you still had an idea of the coral population you are thinking about for lights and flow through - but until then, just friendly advice - (as I have four sitting in a bucket right now trying to get cleaned ... most of the gyre pumps are a nightmare pain.. I yanked them and replaced with 4 octopulse 2s just to make my maintenance easier.) But Tunze, Vortec, and the octopuses are all good pumps - though if you end up with an aquarium controller, they don't all play well together (tunze plays well with everyone).

Question: With the lighting, do you want the shimmer effect? If not, the AI Blades do a decent job at a fair price. If your budget is higher, the sky is the limit for options.

 

[Corwise]

Good luck with the flame angel. I've tried to get 2 recently, but unfortunately, they are still sometimes caught with cyanide.

Your stock list for that size tank is not heavy. I'd get a media reactor or canister filter and run charcoal as needed to get rid of the stink, but not all the time - and a protein skimmer won't hurt with that bioload, but I wouldn't say you need to get something insane - reef octo also makes some decent skimmers at a reasonable price. It would be best if you still had an idea of the coral population you are thinking about for lights and flow through - but until then, just friendly advice - (as I have four sitting in a bucket right now trying to get cleaned ... most of the gyre pumps are a nightmare pain.. I yanked them and replaced with 4 octopulse 2s just to make my maintenance easier.) But Tunze, Vortec, and the octopuses are all good pumps - though if you end up with an aquarium controller, they don't all play well together (tunze plays well with everyone).

Question: With the lighting, do you want the shimmer effect? If not, the AI Blades do a decent job at a fair price. If your budget is higher, the sky is the limit for options.

For lighting I was thinking of getting the Blade LED Hybrid mounting kit. When building the tank I'd fit it with two AI Hydra 32s. After a year and funds have settled I'd add a pair of 48" Blade strips. Or should I go the other way around?

 

[Fenral]

For lighting I was thinking of getting the Blade LED Hybrid mounting kit. When building the tank I'd fit it with two AI Hydra 32s. After a year and funds have settled I'd add a pair of 48" Blade strips. Or should I go the other way around?

Either option works well; the AI 32s will give you a shimmer effect but may cast some shadows. The blades are more challenging to get the glimmer effect (You'd have to have the surface of your tank very wavy.) If blades - do you mean to grow or glow? All of them together, you'd probably have to run them turned down for a mixed tank ;) (I run one 32,2x 21 blade grows, 1x "11" blade grow, and 2x 11 blade glows over a 60 cube - at full power, the PAR in most of the tank that is not in direct shadow exceeds 300...)

 

[Corwise]

Either option works well; the AI 32s will give you a shimmer effect but may cast some shadows. The blades are more challenging to get the glimmer effect (You'd have to have the surface of your tank very wavy.) If blades - do you mean to grow or glow? All of them together, you'd probably have to run them turned down for a mixed tank ;) (I run one 32,2x 21 blade grows, 1x "11" blade grow, and 2x 11 blade glows over a 60 cube - at full power, the PAR in most of the tank that is not in direct shadow exceeds 300...)

I'll admit to not knowing the math (and I had to google what PAR meant). Last time I did this it was "turn on some T5s and more is better." So I'm behind. I was thinking of going with growth, but if that would be to much I could just stick with the AI 32s and be happy. Looks like would probably need three overall across the tank.