Is this a good setup? Equipment, stocking, etc.

[679x]

So I've been doing lots of research in preparation for my first saltwater tank -- I think it's going to happen, I just don't know when it'll be set up. I considered starting a build thread but thought it was a bit premature, since the tank won't be set up for a while still, I'm not through the planning phase yet (e.g. I still have questions to ask, equipment to decide on), and as a result I have no tank or equipment yet.

This will be my first saltwater tank, and I want to do everything right. I want it to be easy and stress-free to maintain. However, I want all of the coral to be hard coral, with the only exception being a certain soft coral that I like: neon green nephthea. I know hard corals - especially SPS - can be difficult, but I would like to try it, because I much prefer them over MOST soft coral, and I don't want the 'beginner' corals that are going to take over a tank like Xenia or Kenya Tree in my system.

I can't get too big of a tank, because weight, physical size in the room, and of course price are the limiting factors that I have to consider. The problem is that even though I'm concerned about the cost, I also want to get the best equipment so that I don't run into as many problems along the journey of reefing. And the best equipment can cost a lot.

With all that said, I'm going to go with the Red Sea Reefer 250 tank, and below is all the equipment I currently have on my list:

Lighting:
-Current USA orbit marine Pro LED, 24-36"

System-related equipment:
-Apex Jr controller
-Tunze osmolator universal 3155 ATO
-UNKNOWN DOSING PUMP! What dosing pump should I get?

Pumps:
-Vortech mp40 pump (can I get away with just one?)
-Syncra silent 1.5 pump (357 gph) RETURN pump

Heater:
-Aqueon Pro Heater: 50 and 100 watts, 1 of each

RO/DI unit:
-BRS 4 stage value ro/di system (75 gpd)

Salt, rock, and sand:
-Red Sea coral pro salt
-Aquamax Eco dry reef rock (of unknown volume)
-Caribsea aragamax sugar-sized sand (of unknown volume. I want a very very shallow sand bed because I don't want stuff building up in the sand, and in order to reduce maintenance stress, I don't want to have to clean the sand bed all the time. I'm not planning on going bare-bottom because I do like the look that the sand gives, even if it's only a tiny amount.)

Other:
-Salinity refractometer, dual scale
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That's currently my equipment list. From reading it you may have noticed that I don't know which dosing pump I want yet. Going to have to do some googling about that. I have unknown volumes of rock and sand on my list currently, because I'm going to decide on the amount of rock later when I know what the aquascape is going to look like. As for the amount of sand, there's that calculator online that shows how many pounds of substrate you need for a certain depth -- I'll look at that tomorrow and come up with a number.

My main reason for posting this is to have the answer to the big question:
1. Does my equipment list look good? Is there anything that you recommend or do NOT recommend?

In addition, here are the other questions I had:
2. What dosing pump do you recommend?
3. Is a single Vortech mp40 pump sufficient for this size tank? The Reefer 250 is 35.5" long, and the display tank has a 54g volume I'm pretty sure.

Thanks for reading, I hope I'm not forgetting anything. I'm getting pretty excited for this tank. I just need to get through the planning phase and wait a bit before I can get the tank set up. I was going to put my fish stocking list on here but decided not to, because I was mainly focused on the equipment aspect when writing this, especially since I'm posting this in the Equipment forum section.

Anyway, thanks again for reading.

EDIT: Darn, I forgot to change the title to remove the fish stocking part when I removed it from my thread! Oh well...

 

[Maacc]

I would consider different lighting, an sb reef light or photon v2, maxspect ethereal or ai hydra if cost is a major factor. If your budget has a bit more room, maybe a fixture from reefled.
You will also want more flow than 1 mp 40, either a second mp 40 or gyre.

Dosing pumps have a lot of options, I use a jebao dp4 with the apex as backup to stop sn alk spike. If you aren't comfortable with that then there are a ton of options in the 200-600 dollar range depending on the brand what you want to dose, control integration etc.
Is there a particular reason you want sugar sand? You may want to consider something a little more coarse to avoid sand storms.

 

[Jimbo662]

I would consider different lighting, an sb reef light or photon v2, maxspect ethereal or ai hydra if cost is a major factor. If your budget has a bit more room, maybe a fixture from reefled.
You will also want more flow than 1 mp 40, either a second mp 40 or gyre.

Dosing pumps have a lot of options, I use a jebao dp4 with the apex as backup to stop sn alk spike. If you aren't comfortable with that then there are a ton of options in the 200-600 dollar range depending on the brand what you want to dose, control integration etc.
Is there a particular reason you want sugar sand? You may want to consider something a little more coarse to avoid sand storms.

+1 on everything Maacc said. If you're doing SPS you want good random flow. I'd do two power heads. I've got two MP10's on a 66g SCA with similar dimensions. Right now the tank is mainly LSP and I max them out at 50% with really good flow around the tank. I'm in the process of converting it to SPS and plan to keep them since I've got more power to ramp them.

I'd also stay away from the sugar sized sand. Too much flow and /or fish will cause sand storms all the time. I now only use the agri-live special grade sand.

I would also look at a bigger return pump. The pump that they sell with the tank is 660gph. Have you considered a DC pump? I just got a reef octopus Varios 2. It's dead silent and running 58%. Going with the smaller pump you listed it's going to be working at 100% all the time. It's 357gph. Head room on the tank is about 4 1/2 ft so you'll be getting less gph than the 357.

My last two cents...are you dead set on the Red Sea? Have you looked at SCA aquariums? If you're concerned about price they are great tanks at a reasonable price. I've bought two of them from Amazon and just got a custom tank from them direct.

 

[679x]

Thanks for the replies.

On the sand, I didn't think it was going to float around much anyway, so I just picked the sugar sized sand. I guess I thought it'd be better for sand-sifting creatures and didn't give it much thought. For the sand, I'm looking at what my LFS has on its website. There are some others that I found: CaribSea Seaflor Special Grade reef sand, which has a 1-1.7mm grain size (the sugar-sized sand doesn't actually tell me what the grain size is in a number, so I can't compare them). There's also the Arag-Alive ones but it looks like those are live sands which I don't think I need. Which one do you recommend?

On the light, this was an area I was never very confident about... I considered the AI Hydra a few times, but it's quite expensive and I thought the light I picked would be just as good. I did look at the sb reef lights too. Since the Red Sea Reefer can be purchased with AI Hydra light(s), I thought maybe I would do that, but it added like $1000 to the price which seemed a bit ridiculous considering I THOUGHT I could get the same quality and effect with a cheaper light. I will say that the light is the part I wanted the most input on when I posted this thread. I don't want to have to switch lights or anything when I decide to dive into SPS. I guess I should do more research on the light.

On the flow, yea, I figured I'd probably need another pump for flow. Gonna add that to the list.

On the return pump, I read on a website or two that people were saying 10x flow wasn't really necessary, and might be overkill, and 3x-5x would be fine, so that's how I came up with the GPH for the return pump. I originally was looking at the same brand with more GPH since Red Sea recommends 660 gph. I was a bit uncertain, but ended up deciding to put the lower GPH one on my list.

On the Red Sea topic, yes, I am pretty dead set on the Red Sea. I like the fact that it comes with the sump and plumbing and stuff, because I wasn't sure how well I would be able to do that part myself. I did consider constructing my own sump in the early stages of planning, and I changed my mind on that as well (notice a trend?) because when it comes to something like a sump that can overflow or leak if not done right, I wanted a good quality one so that I can potentially avoid those issues. In addition, everyone in my family likes the look of the Red Sea tank -- it's very modern looking. The only complaint I would have about the Red Sea system is the size of the ATO reservoir, because everyone says it's too small and needs refilling often, so to solve the problem I plan on getting a larger reservoir and hooking that up to the system.

I think that addresses everything. Looks like I had a few more issues that I anticipated. Well, I suppose that's why I posted this thread in the first place, lol. Thanks again guys

 

[679x]

Ok, so I've been doing a lot of thinking...

I debated creating a new thread about this. I think I'm going to keep this all condensed into this thread, since it's mostly equipment-related.

So I've calculated it, and considering the changes I've just made to my list since after posting this, my total is at $5000 Canadian, which does NOT include livestock, food, etc., and also does not include a dosing pump / auto water changer because I'm still researching on those. I wanted the Apex DOS because it does both, but read mixed reviews.

The problem is that I'm a kid living with his parents and I don't have a job, so I'm trying my best to save money and still get good-quality equipment so that my tank can thrive. My family is hoping I can get all equipment for less than $5000, so that's my new goal.

Anyway, I've often looked at the Red Sea Max e260, wondering whether it is the tank for me. I can save $1000 by going with it compared to the Reefer and my equipment list for it. Still has the auto top off reservoir thing to address like the Reefer does, since apparently the Reefer's ATO reservoir is too small, so that won't change, and the rear sump thing is interesting but not very practical for a tank against a wall, which is what mine was going to be, but an easy fix is to just move it away from the wall a bit, since the room it's going in will have the space for that, luckily. But I don't know if there are any problems with this tank system from reading, which makes me think it's fine, but I'd like to get some input on the subject just in case.

Next I want to address the dosing pump issue. At one point I was reading about the Apex DOS but read some mixed reviews about it. As I write this I'm looking at the LiterMeter III dosing system. The biggest thing for me is automatic water changing; I want an easy, low-stress system for doing maintenance on this tank, and I think it would be beneficial to spend money on an automatic water changer. I don't know if the LiterMeter III can be used for automatic water changing. I looked at the Genesis brand, which makes auto water changers, but they're simply too expensive. Are there any other options? I'm considering making a DIY auto water change system, but I don't know how to do it so that I can press a button and it takes out a set amount of water, and then fills it back up by the same amount. I know the Genesis system does that... but I don't want to spend that much if I can help it.

Basically, I have a few questions:

1. How can I do automatic water changes without spending a fortune?

2. Does the LiterMeter III do automatic water changing? e.g., can auto water change be done using a LiterMeter III?

3. Are there any issues with the Red Sea Max e260 that I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance.

 

[679x]

Ok, I'm thinking about how to make my own DIY water change system to make it a bit easier than what it'd otherwise be, so that I won't have to spend too much money on an actual auto water changer. Here's my current idea:

I'm looking at the Red Sea Max e260, with 50 and 100 watt Aqueon Pro heaters, Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO, Caribsea Seaflor special grade sand, Red Sea coral pro salt, a salinity refractometer, and whatever other bits and pieces I'll need, such as materials for the water change system.

How's that sound?

I also just found a $1500 tank on Kijiji with a bunch of decent equipment, rock, sand, and more that looks good, and the seller says the retail price for everything would be $4500-$5000... tempting, but it's like 6 hours away from me, and I'd have to ask the guy to run it with water and see that everything works properly without leaks. Probably just gonna stick with my RS Max e260 idea. With the max e260, it looks like the price will be $4100 for all equipment (including sand/rock/salt), so I COULD save $2600 by going with the Kijiji one, but I'd have to figure out how to get the tank to my house, and then factor in the price of transport and consider that we'd be driving for 12+ hours there and back... guess I'll have to pass on this one.

 

[ciscomania]

I don't know how old you are but if you are unemployed, I don't really understand how you can justify saving$2600 vs doing 12hr drive??? Unless your parents were going to pay for everything anyways from the beginning. You haven't even considered the amount needed for livestocks.

 

[679x]

I don't know how old you are but if you are unemployed, I don't really understand how you can justify saving$2600 vs doing 12hr drive??? Unless your parents were going to pay for everything anyways from the beginning. You haven't even considered the amount needed for livestocks.

We justified saving $2600 with a 12hr drive because the tank is located in Ottawa rather than in the middle of nowhere, and we can make a trip out of it. I already told my parents about it, and they'd be fine with going there, even though it's a far drive.

And yes, we haven't considered the amount for livestock, but I already know I'm not getting super expensive fish/coral. Very small coral frags, small/cheapish fish.

On top of that, my parents are starting to get excited for it so it's not like they don't want me to get this tank, and even from the start they didn't mind the price. Since I am unemployed it's not just my money that's going into this, but my parents seem to be fine with it. And if they aren't, they haven't told me.

I don't know what else to tell you. Basically even though I'm an unemployed kid, my family is on board with this tank.

 

[Maacc]

I think there was confusion with the wording of your post. It reads to me and probably the poster above that you didn't think a 12 hour drive was worth saving $2600. However your last post looks like you are going for the tank. After all your last sentence was I think we are going to pass on this one, i.e. the tank saving you $2600. Not sure, but I think that's what ciscomania was trying to convey.

 

[679x]

I think there was confusion with the wording of your post. It reads to me and probably the poster above that you didn't think a 12 hour drive was worth saving $2600. However your last post looks like you are going for the tank. After all your last sentence was I think we are going to pass on this one, i.e. the tank saving you $2600. Not sure, but I think that's what ciscomania was trying to convey.

OHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I think I understand. So ciscomania is saying he'd do the 12 hour drive in order to save the money? I read his reply as saying that it SHOULDN'T be done, but I think I understand now...

I said "I think we will pass on this one" because of the risks involved with a used tank. I think the problem with my original wording was that I was also considering the risks of getting a used tank IN MY HEAD, e.g. does the equipment work, are there any leaks since the tank has been dry for a while according to the seller, and just didn't write down what I was thinking in addition to the comment I made about the drive. But then in my reply, I once again debated buying the tank.

So basically in my brain I was considering the risks in addition to the drive, and just didn't write down my thoughts properly, so it looked like when given the option between driving for a day, or not doing that and losing thousands of dollars, I'd pick losing the money.

That is not the case, and in my reply to ciscomania I thought he was saying that "12 hours is not worth $2600". I didn't think it made much sense that he was saying that. After all, that's thousands of dollars! I feel dumb now. Lol.

sorry ciscomania, hope you see this reply so that things make a little bit more sense. And thank you Maacc for clearing that up for me.