Help with wishlist items for a 9 gallon eheim reef, possibly overkill?

Bryce Mazloum

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So I've had my Eheim 9 gallon aquarium set up as a reef for about 7-8 months, in terms of equipment I've had: the standard filter with a strip of activated carbon, a corallia powerhead (the kind you see on pretty much every nano aquarium), and an Eheim heater.

I have nothing in terms of dosing or ATO, so my chemistry probably isn't the most stable, and I have next to nothing in terms of testing kits, I dose haphazardly with kents marine essential elements and vitamins about every other week and my coral seem fine (a collection of zoas, lps, and sps, as well as an anemone and a gorgonian)



But with my birthday approaching in august and with a growing urge to improve upon my skills as a reefer I decided that I'm going to get some better equipment for my birthday, but the question is what?



What I did was go on BRS and look around for a fair chunk of time, I even called them and had a great talk with someone for about 20 minutes, and end the end I found quite a few pieces that I'm now looking into in more depth, these are as follows:

Reef Octopus classic 90 HOB skimmer

Reef Octopus octo pulse 2 wave pump

Xp Aqua duetto dual-sensor ATO system

CPR Aquatics small aquafuge 2 HOB refugium with LED lighting

Hanna Instruments professional reef test kit



All in all this is nearly 1 grand, which is a terrifying thing to think off, so my question to you all is this: Would it be worth it in the long run to get all of this equipment? I know getting a skimmer and an ATO are practically necessary for a thriving reef tank, but would it be overkill for a tank as small as mine?



and with a refugium and skimmer, how exactly do they benefit the tank? I know they both kinda serve as filtration but I'm having a hard time seeing the benefits that they hold over the classic HOB filters.



and would it be easier to get all of these things online? since I did find all of them on BRS, or would it be better to try and find them in my LFS? Which one would be more cost effective?



And finally, would all of this benefit the health of my corals? or would the difference be negligible?



Any and all feedback is welcome, I really need some advice from fellow reefers.
 

Tyler Bullock

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This is how I look at thing the the reefing hobby. First...I don't think it is overkill for your tank. I was also in your shoes about 6 months ago. I was looking at upgrading all my stuff for my fluval 13.5. I started to realize I'm spending all this money on a 13 gallon reef. So I upgraded. Yes I am spending slightly more on stuff. You ever think about upgrading your 9g? If so might want to hold off and get a bigger tank!!
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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This is how I look at thing the the reefing hobby. First...I don't think it is overkill for your tank. I was also in your shoes about 6 months ago. I was looking at upgrading all my stuff for my fluval 13.5. I started to realize I'm spending all this money on a 13 gallon reef. So I upgraded. Yes I am spending slightly more on stuff. You ever think about upgrading your 9g? If so might want to hold off and get a bigger tank!!

My plan is this:
since I'm still a sophomore in high school I wanna keep this tank until I graduate, and then when I go to college I plan on keeping a much more serious reef tank, maybe a red sea reefer all in one system

and plus I have no idea how I would go about upgrading my aquarium, I've never done something like that before, this little 9 gal is the first and only reef that has done well in my care
 

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This is how I look at thing the the reefing hobby. First...I don't think it is overkill for your tank. I was also in your shoes about 6 months ago. I was looking at upgrading all my stuff for my fluval 13.5. I started to realize I'm spending all this money on a 13 gallon reef. So I upgraded. Yes I am spending slightly more on stuff. You ever think about upgrading your 9g? If so might want to hold off and get a bigger tank!!
I was gonna say... for $1000 you could get a nice upgrade. Do as much as you can by yourself and save money. Use the equipment you have already.
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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I was gonna say... for $1000 you could get a nice upgrade. Do as much as you can by yourself and save money. Use the equipment you have already.
got it, that's what someone over on nano-reef said, but I think I'm probably going to spend about half of that price for a few upgrades just so I can get comfortable with this stuff, and then when I get to college I'll get a bigger tank.
 

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Hrmm, in your case I would go with test kits (remember to include a budget for refills). The Hanna is a nice set, but I think you'd get more test for your money with a full set of Salifert kits (alk, cal, mag, PO4 and Nitrate).

It's a nano, so get the ATO. A small amount of evaporation will have a big effect on your salinity even if you're topping off daily. And get a refractometer if you don't have one. With a bottle of test solution.

Test kits and an ATO are hardly the most glamorous of birthday presents, but I think they'd do the best at helping you learn to stabilize the parameters in a controlled way, rather than haphazardly complicating the system.

A refugium and skimmer benefit the tank by removing excess nitrates and phosphates, but in the case of a nano that size, a half full 5 gal bucket is already a massive water change, so I'd just stick with a weekly water change. Nano skimmers are notoriously wonky. They're just too small to be both effective and reliable.
 

Jon Fishman

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I think those things are very important....... but my hesitancy would be in the fact that if you ever have plans to upgrade to a larger tank (even a 40g breeder and sump) you're HOB fuge and skimmer etc. will pretty much be useless..... and that's a lot of money. Testers etc. are never a bad investment..... I didn't look it up, but an ATO can be used on any tank.... if you get one with a reservoir, make sure the reservoir is big enough to "future proof" you....


EDIT: also.... check the "For Sale" sections here..... $1,000 will get you a LOT..... Heck I'm gonna sell my 75 with a Marine Orbit Pro, a 30g sump, plus extra drilled 55g sump, and crappily painted stand..... probably end up selling it for about a buck-fifty. Find something like that close-by, and you will have $850 of your budget left-over for all sorts of skimmers and ATOs!
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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Hrmm, in your case I would go with test kits (remember to include a budget for refills). The Hanna is a nice set, but I think you'd get more test for your money with a full set of Salifert kits (alk, cal, mag, PO4 and Nitrate).

It's a nano, so get the ATO. A small amount of evaporation will have a big effect on your salinity even if you're topping off daily.

Test kits and an ATO are hardly the most glamorous of birthday presents, but I think they'd do the best at helping you learn to stabilize the parameters in a controlled way, rather than haphazardly complicating the system.

A refugium and skimmer benefit the tank by removing excess nitrates and phosphates, but in the case of a nano that size, a half full 5 gal bucket is already a massive water change, so I'd just stick with a weekly water change. Nano skimmers are notoriously wonky. They're just too small to be both effective and reliable.
so you're saying to focus more on balancing parameters, that way when I upgrade to a bigger tank it would be an easier task? since I would assume balancing a 9 gallon would be much harder than doing the same with a 90 gallon haha
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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I think those things are very important....... but my hesitancy would be in the fact that if you ever have plans to upgrade to a larger tank (even a 40g breeder and sump) you're HOB fuge and skimmer etc. will pretty much be useless..... and that's a lot of money. Testers etc. are never a bad investment..... I didn't look it up, but an ATO can be used on any tank.... if you get one with a reservoir, make sure the reservoir is big enough to "future proof" you....
I plan on keeping the ato up until college so that I can use it in the tank I get there, and if I do get the HOB skimmer and fuge then I probably would just sell them later on. I've never actually purchased/sold something directly from other reefers though.
 

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You don't need any of that stuff with a 9 gallon tank. Get a set of Red Sea, or one of the other proven brand test kits. You should be able to get everything you need for the cost of one Hanna tester. Start with Nitrate, Phosphate, Calc, Alk and MG (optional).

Start testing and doing weekly 2 gallon water changes. Get a baseline for all parameters and see if you actually need a skimmer or refugium.

The Smart ATO is nice to have if you are not topping off regularly, but not 100% necessary if you are keeping easy corals and they are all doing well. Having said that, it's nice to have. Make a DIY reservoir to keep the total cost down around $100.

Now you are at about $200 plus a few bucks per week in salt. Start there and see where it takes you...
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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You got it ;)

understood, I'll make sure to run all of this by my LFS before I set anything in stone, plus I might actually start working there so who knows, maybe I could get some good deals on future products!
 

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Going off to college, I'd stick with water changes and better test kits, and stay small. You'll be moving probably 5 times in the next 6 or 7 years in dorms and rentals where you can't expect tons of outlets and ideal plumbing
 
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Bryce Mazloum

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You don't need any of that stuff with a 9 gallon tank. Get a set of Red Sea, or one of the other proven brand test kits. You should be able to get what you need for the cost of one Hanna tester. Start with Nitrate, Phosphate, Calc, Alk and MG (optional).

Start testing and doing weekly 2 gallon water changes. Get a baseline for all parameters and see if you actually need a skimmer or refugium.

The Smart ATO is nice to have if you are not topping off regularly, but not 100% necessary if you are keeping easy corals and they are all doing well. Having said that, it's nice to have. Make a DIY reservoir to keep the total cost down around $100.

Now you are at about $200 plus a few bucks per week in salt. Start there and see where it takes you...
well in terms of salt that brings up another point, I actually don't mix my own water, I just get premixed jugs from my LFS, but I did get a big bag of salt from my chemistry teacher so I could start using that.
 
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Bryce Mazloum

Bryce Mazloum

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Going off to college, I'd stick with water changes and better test kits, and stay small. You'll be moving probably 5 times in the next 6 or 7 years in dorms and rentals where you can't expect tons of outlets and ideal plumbing

Yup, I was kinda thinking about following in the footsteps of coralfish12g, though with less tanks.
 

Jon Fishman

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well in terms of salt that brings up another point, I actually don't mix my own water, I just get premixed jugs from my LFS, but I did get a big bag of salt from my chemistry teacher so I could start using that.


What do you keep in your tank? Salt they sell (Instant Ocean, Red Sea, Marin Pro etc) have trace-elements in it that may be needed..... I'd be careful using salt if I wasn't sure of it's intended purpose.

I kept it simple in College with Chinchillas, a Ferret, a Doberman, and a 14' albino burmese python....... Saltwater would have been too much responsibility for me.....
 

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Mystery salt from the chem prof wouldn't be my first choice.

well in terms of salt that brings up another point, I actually don't mix my own water, I just get premixed jugs from my LFS, but I did get a big bag of salt from my chemistry teacher so I could start using that.
 

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They are pricey but the Hanna checkers are legit. I love mine so far. I have salinity and copper atm. I will get Alk, and phosphate. I would get some test kits and an ATO. Everything else would be fine with just doing simple 20-30% water changes weekly.
 
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Bryce Mazloum

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What do you keep in your tank? Salt they sell (Instant Ocean, Red Sea, Marin Pro etc) have trace-elements in it that may be needed..... I'd be careful using salt if I wasn't sure of it's intended purpose.
In the tank I have quite a few things:
Zoanthids (about 6 frags)
Lps (2 acan frags, two gonioporas, one micro and one red one)
Sps (seriatopora, encrusting montipora)
Softies (gorgonian, pulsing xenia)
Inverts (rose BTA, 3 snails, 1 Nassarius snail, 2 scarlet hermit crabs, and one pom pom crab)

and one clownfish that is currently in quarantine for ich
 
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