Super excited to get into this hobby. I've had freshwater tanks in the past and it's always been a dream to have a beautiful saltwater tank so here we go!
Super long story short, found an awesome used Red Sea setup that came with a ton of extras like a pair of Radion XR15 Blue G6s with arms, sump, etc. etc. Plenty of extras to make the $500 purchase worth it. Well, had the LFS come out to do setup and as soon as they saw the tank they said it looks like the seal could leak anytime and they dont suggest moving forward. I felt like an idiot since you could obviously see salt buildup in the front seal but honestly I just didnt have experience and didnt know it was an issue.
The seller was a super nice guy who lives just a few streets down on our island so I reached back out to him to see if Red Sea warranty was still valid and it was not, but he ended up just giving me my $500 back and let me keep everything! The tank had been sitting empty in their living room for over a year and his wife was thrilled just to get it out of the house so they weren't too worried about refunding. So that was awesome!
But of course that did mean I had to go find aonther tank and after searching around and researching we went with the Eshopps Mariner 70. The LFS ended up giving us a $200 credit for the tank so we were able to buy it for about $1,800 total. Obviously way more than the $500 we originally thought were spending for everything but its a beautiful tank and we love it so all is good!
Then we went back to the LFS to get all the supplies and spent about another $1,300 between sand, 40 lbs rock, setup fee, 90 gallons of water, etc. etc.
Don't mean to make all this about money, but for anyone new I thought it would be very help to know what kind of realistic costs to expect when mostly all new items.
Now, to the fun stuff! Tank was delivered to LFS on April 3, we picked it up the next day and brought it home. Got it setup (empty) by April 7. LFS setup came out April 10 and its been up and running since! We are obsessed with how beautiful it is so far!
The setup fee was $350 which is definitely steep, but I just wanted that peace of mind since we had never done this before and wanted a pro to make sure it didnt leak. Peace of mind was worth it in my opinion.
My wife has gotten into this as well and she is actually the one who setup all the rock! The LFS guy set it up but was very rushed and she ended up changing things around and its PERFECT now. I love that shes getting in on this and our 3 year old loves it too!
Have added about 5 gallons of freshwater to top off over the last week which is a lot more than I expected, but nothing too unmanageable. Just purchased the cheap RO Buddie RODI system (Amazon product) from Amazon yesterday and am thrilled to no longer need to go to the LFS store for water.
Next steps from here are continue to let the tank cycle, keep the lights off for a few more weeks, and do some significant organization in the cabinet. Haven't done much yet as I have a Red Sea 300 DC skimmer, dual pump controller, Reefwave 45, and Eshopps 5 gallon ATO resevoir all coming in the next week or so. Once I get all of those in and setup I will make things as organized as possible. Goal is to keep EVERYTHING in the cabinet. We will see if that's possible.... I kept the red sea power max powerstrip from the used system I bought and think I might get another for the other top side. Extremely convenient to have the switches front and center and not have to crawl back to unplug if needed.
It will be a pretty tight fit once I get the skimmer in as I will need to move the heaters to the return tank but I think I can make it work.
The beautiful organization in one of the below pics is my inspo. It's a FB marketplace post of a stunning tank currently for sale in Austin.
What do ya'll think so far? Anything I might be doing wrong? Or doing things in the wrong order? Anything you notice in the setup worth mentioning might be in wrong place (like thermometer sensor in return tank, is that ok?) Any tips / advice is appreciated!
Super long story short, found an awesome used Red Sea setup that came with a ton of extras like a pair of Radion XR15 Blue G6s with arms, sump, etc. etc. Plenty of extras to make the $500 purchase worth it. Well, had the LFS come out to do setup and as soon as they saw the tank they said it looks like the seal could leak anytime and they dont suggest moving forward. I felt like an idiot since you could obviously see salt buildup in the front seal but honestly I just didnt have experience and didnt know it was an issue.
The seller was a super nice guy who lives just a few streets down on our island so I reached back out to him to see if Red Sea warranty was still valid and it was not, but he ended up just giving me my $500 back and let me keep everything! The tank had been sitting empty in their living room for over a year and his wife was thrilled just to get it out of the house so they weren't too worried about refunding. So that was awesome!
But of course that did mean I had to go find aonther tank and after searching around and researching we went with the Eshopps Mariner 70. The LFS ended up giving us a $200 credit for the tank so we were able to buy it for about $1,800 total. Obviously way more than the $500 we originally thought were spending for everything but its a beautiful tank and we love it so all is good!
Then we went back to the LFS to get all the supplies and spent about another $1,300 between sand, 40 lbs rock, setup fee, 90 gallons of water, etc. etc.
Don't mean to make all this about money, but for anyone new I thought it would be very help to know what kind of realistic costs to expect when mostly all new items.
Now, to the fun stuff! Tank was delivered to LFS on April 3, we picked it up the next day and brought it home. Got it setup (empty) by April 7. LFS setup came out April 10 and its been up and running since! We are obsessed with how beautiful it is so far!
The setup fee was $350 which is definitely steep, but I just wanted that peace of mind since we had never done this before and wanted a pro to make sure it didnt leak. Peace of mind was worth it in my opinion.
My wife has gotten into this as well and she is actually the one who setup all the rock! The LFS guy set it up but was very rushed and she ended up changing things around and its PERFECT now. I love that shes getting in on this and our 3 year old loves it too!
Have added about 5 gallons of freshwater to top off over the last week which is a lot more than I expected, but nothing too unmanageable. Just purchased the cheap RO Buddie RODI system (Amazon product) from Amazon yesterday and am thrilled to no longer need to go to the LFS store for water.
Next steps from here are continue to let the tank cycle, keep the lights off for a few more weeks, and do some significant organization in the cabinet. Haven't done much yet as I have a Red Sea 300 DC skimmer, dual pump controller, Reefwave 45, and Eshopps 5 gallon ATO resevoir all coming in the next week or so. Once I get all of those in and setup I will make things as organized as possible. Goal is to keep EVERYTHING in the cabinet. We will see if that's possible.... I kept the red sea power max powerstrip from the used system I bought and think I might get another for the other top side. Extremely convenient to have the switches front and center and not have to crawl back to unplug if needed.
It will be a pretty tight fit once I get the skimmer in as I will need to move the heaters to the return tank but I think I can make it work.
The beautiful organization in one of the below pics is my inspo. It's a FB marketplace post of a stunning tank currently for sale in Austin.
What do ya'll think so far? Anything I might be doing wrong? Or doing things in the wrong order? Anything you notice in the setup worth mentioning might be in wrong place (like thermometer sensor in return tank, is that ok?) Any tips / advice is appreciated!
if you haven't already.
