Introduce myself...

[Daniel Strickland]

Hello Guys and Gals.. my name is Daniel, I am totally new to the aquarium hobby. I have been interested for years, but between wife, kids, small home, no money, and all the other things in life it has never been the right time.. UNTIL NOW.. My wife and I just bought a new larger home with plenty of room for my dream tank (but she won't let me build that). So this is the tank I have planned.. I thought I would drop my base plan on here and see where it leads. I want a Fish, Softies, LPS. Maybe SPS but that will be a ways down the road..

Five foot tank and stand.. probably around 150g
Project reef rock 2.1 110lbs
Biomedia plate in sump as much as possible
Some type of dry large grain substrate
A 40g trigger systems sump..
Theiling automatic roller mat
ATS. Probably a DIY (plumbed in from the DT drain)
ATO not sure of brand yet (suggestions)
Some type of carbon filter.. I think????????
Seneye reef pack web server
Tunze turbelle nanostream powerheads x2
Good quality heaters and a pump looking to my LFS for these..

Now a few issues I know I will have.
Not real sure I will trust my LFS for livestock. Store is pretty dirty and doesn't seem maintained very well. Algae in tanks, crap all over the place just not a clean well maintained store.. I know I need a relationship with him for emergencies but I don't think I'll buy fish there. Though he does seem knowledgeable..
I live in the middle of nowhere so most of what I buy will be online.
Our home is in the country, on well water. Very hard water, I have a water softener in my home to limit calcium deposit on shower heads and in appliances. I have 3 friends who run reef tanks and none run RO/DI units, but I am pretty sure I will need one due to my hard water..

This is pretty much how I want to start, I know there are lots of incidentals. i.e. Water testers, glass scrubbers and other things..

I need suggestions on lighting.. I want LED. I keep reading that T5 is the way to go but LED is more my style..

Also I'm sure most of you noticed no protein skimmer.. I want to build this and maintain it with the roller mat and the ATS only.. is that unrealistic for a beginner??

Once I recover a little I really want a apex controller, and to automate as much as possible. But those things will be down the road a ways when I can come up with some more "momma don't know" money.. :-)

Well that is about all I can think of for now, except that I want to thank everyone on here. I have been reading for a long while now, but as most newbies know the information is so diverse and spread out it is very hard to make sense of some times.. being able to jump on to a place like this and ask questions is invaluable.

 

[stevo01]

Youll find lots of great help here!

 

[Mike_J]

R2R is a wealth of knowledge and the friendliest place around. You'll definitely learn a lot and meet some very helpful fellow reefers. :) It seems as though you're off to a great start and have a clear vision for you tank. Welcome to the R2R gang and happy reefing! When the time is right, start a build thread and document your progress. We love to follow along. ;) Best of luck!

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Wow, for being new to the hobby you sure seem to have things sorted out. There is SO much to learn in this hobby it's impossible to take it all in in one sitting! Go slow and enjoy the process of expanding your knowledge :)
This is a great place to be with great people. Welcome.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Welcome to R2R, glad to have you.

 

[4FordFamily]

Welcome home, you will love it here!

Keep us posted on your build!

 

[mkutsch]

Hey! I was scrolling down, then saw your mention of pumps and heaters-- I would suggest Sicce for pumps, and Cobalt (NeoTherm) for heater. Welcome!

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Thanks for the suggestion.. I will definitely look into those..

 

[Brew12]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I did pretty much what you are doing. I picked out the equipment I wanted then jumped on a used system that met what I thought my needs were. In hindsight, I wish I had taken a slightly different approach. I wish I would have started by planning my stock list and then working to make sure the equipment I had would work with what my end goal was.
This article goes into this concept. It's a good read.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/how-to-plan-a-livestock-list.105/

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Thanks for the suggestion, good read. While I am mostly interested in the corals, the fish we are looking at at this point are. (And I am prepared to be slapped down because I have only done minimal research into fish so far)

Clown fish
Yellow tang
The goby that cleans the sand
I like the look of the lion fish but have done NO research on it
My son wants a dragon mandarin but I have already warned him this is a fish that will be down the road
I like the Foxface breed but did read somewhere they nip at LPS
I also like the butterflyfish but again read they are not very reef compatible...

Maybe that will give you a idea of the direction I am headed and give me a heads up if I am headed for a cliff..

Going to talk to a different fish store tomorrow.. out of town for the holiday, and see what happens. Might spend some money you never know...

 

[mkutsch]

Well, if you're talking about the scooter blenny/dragonet, you have to get pods... get chromis, they're great schooling fish, or a shoal of darts.

 

[mkutsch]

(If you want schooling fish, that is.)

 

[Salty1962]

Welcome to R2R David!

 

[sbash]

I am on a well, with pretty hard water. I have not tested the hardness, but I know the RO/DI strips it right out due to the < 10 PPM on the TDS meter (My membrane is pretty old so it is above 0).

For LEDs, I have four 165 watt fixtures over my 6' 220g. They were $120 USD from China. The trick was finding the ones with the right LED spec. Not quite as fancy as the units out there today, but to light my tank with retail prices at the same LED spec, it would have cost over $2000. I get fantastic growth out of my SPS.

I doubt the foxface will nip at corals, as far as I know, they are herbivores. My foxface picks at the rocks for Algae, no issues with any of my corals (I have the full spread of softies, lps and sps). It is my understanding the lionfish will eat all the crabs, shrimps and snails and other misc inverts. I would love to have one as well, but it is not worth it to me without completely changing gears on my tank. It is my understanding that yellow tangs are aggressive, so add it last. Do some reasearch on the sand gobies available to you. I have a Fusi, which digs a bit, but will not tumble rocks. However, I have a friend with a Sifting Goby and if he did not do his rocks the way he did, the goby would have trashed his tank.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks for the suggestion, good read. While I am mostly interested in the corals, the fish we are looking at at this point are. (And I am prepared to be slapped down because I have only done minimal research into fish so far)

Clown fish
Yellow tang
The goby that cleans the sand
I like the look of the lion fish but have done NO research on it
My son wants a dragon mandarin but I have already warned him this is a fish that will be down the road
I like the Foxface breed but did read somewhere they nip at LPS
I also like the butterflyfish but again read they are not very reef compatible...

Maybe that will give you a idea of the direction I am headed and give me a heads up if I am headed for a cliff..

Going to talk to a different fish store tomorrow.. out of town for the holiday, and see what happens. Might spend some money you never know...

Not to get too much into the fish side, but the Lionfish will eventually eat the clowns. Foxface are one of those fish that can go either way with corals, same with Copperband butterflyfish.
Even though that article specifically applies to fish, the same concepts also apply to coral. If you want all SPS then you will need higher flow so more or more powerful powerheads and plenty of shelf rock. If you want softies and some LPS then you probably want smaller rocks scattered on the sand where there is less flow. Figuring this out will give you an idea of if you will be better off with 2 larger powerheads or 4 smaller ones (or other combo).

I would also recommend going with a RO/DI system. You may not need it, but it will eliminate any doubts about water quality. If you go with well water you won't know if it is causing an algae bloom or overfeeding. Is something in it stunting your coral growth? It's a very uncontrolled variable that can be eliminated.

I really think you have a great plan in place. I would run a skimmer but if you have very few fish and do regular water changes you can get away without one. Especially running an ATS. Oh, and you will love an Apex when you get it. Makes life so much easier!

 

[helen ann]

Hello Daniel!!

 

[Chrisfish]

Welcome to R2R, you've come to the right place:D

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Hey thank for the warm welcome!!!

So a little bit of a update. We went to Oklahoma City over the weekend and hit pretty much every reef/pet store we could get to, just couldn't find the DT that was "that" fit....

Did pick up some stuff on Black Friday specials... Got 55lbs of Reef Rock(will need more), a water test kit, and from BRS my Theiling Roller Matt, and a RO/DI UNIT.. Also picked up some cheap heaters and power heads for curing rock then later a QT tank..

Came home last night and this morning got on the phone to more local stores looking for a DT.
The pic at the top is what I am looking for in 72"x24"x24". 180g, supposed to be getting a couple quotes Monday..

 

[Bronc]

Welcome aboard!! We've got some great LFS down in Tulsa if you get down this way.

 

[Daniel Strickland]

Welcome aboard!! We've got some great LFS down in Tulsa if you get down this way.

In Tulsa every April for the Gun show.. will definitely check some out then.