Help setting up my first reef tank

[sevenflaws]

Hey yall. Long time lurker. I’ve been in fresh water for a few years. Started a 14 gallon FOWLR a year ago and finally pulled the trigger on the IM EXT 75 with the 39g sump included.

I want to do this tank right from the start. I don’t plan to do coral for 6 months or so and I’m not even sure what kind of reef I’ll do yet either. I’m really looking for recommendations on equipment however. I’m wondering what lights are recommended, wave pumps, heaters, etc and if anyone has experience with my same set up I would love to hear equipment recommendations from them as well.

Any advice or tips is welcome too! Super excited to have a large beautiful salt water aquarium

 

[RocketEngineer]

I have an IM 100EXT. I went with brands that have been around a while. Sicce return pumps, Tunze powerheads and ATO, Eheim heaters, Radion lights. I have a build thread but it’s kind of drawn out.

 

[edsbeaker]

Hello and welcome to Reef 2 Reef

I recently upgraded from the IM EXT 75 to an IM EXT 170
I can share the equipment that I used. I’m assuming that you got the reef set up that so you have the return pump.

Protein Skimmer-Reef Octopus Classic INT 150
Powerheads- Jecod DMP20 powerheads (two of them)
1 Jebao SOW6 powerhead behind rocks
Lights- 2 Radion XR15 Gen 6
Heater- Eheim Jaeger 250W
I would recommend you look for a heater that is shorter, though. The area in the sump that is dedicated to a heater is barely deep enough for the eheim heater to fit. On my 170 I went with the BRS titanium heaters and they have worked well so far.

Here is a link to that build thread that has more info.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/edsbeakers-eighth-“i’m-never-starting-another-tank”-build.1077508/Hope this helps. Please feel free if you want any more info about the tank package.

 

[sevenflaws]

I have an IM 100EXT. I went with brands that have been around a while. Sicce return pumps, Tunze powerheads and ATO, Eheim heaters, Radion lights. I have a build thread but it’s kind of drawn out.

Thanks for your reply

 

[sevenflaws]

Hello and welcome to Reef 2 Reef

I recently upgraded from the IM EXT 75 to an IM EXT 170
I can share the equipment that I used. I’m assuming that you got the reef set up that so you have the return pump.

Protein Skimmer-Reef Octopus Classic INT 150
Powerheads- Jecod DMP20 powerheads (two of them)
1 Jebao SOW6 powerhead behind rocks
Lights- 2 Radion XR15 Gen 6
Heater- Eheim Jaeger 250W
I would recommend you look for a heater that is shorter, though. The area in the sump that is dedicated to a heater is barely deep enough for the eheim heater to fit. On my 170 I went with the BRS titanium heaters and they have worked well so far.

Here is a link to that build thread that has more info.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/edsbeakers-eighth-“i’m-never-starting-another-tank”-build.1077508/Hope this helps. Please feel free if you want any more info about the tank package.

This is really helpful. Thanks for your reply