New to Saltwater, need help

[Dinger McDingus]

I recently scooped a 150 gallon aquarium and don't know where to begin. I know I'm going to need a whole new lighting system. This is my first salt water tank and I want to do corals. I really like softies and zoas so I figured I'd start there.

I have a RO unit under the sink that has 800 GPD capabilities. It comes out between 2-5 PPM dissolved solids. Should I go ahead and add a dionizer stage or 2?
What kind of lights do I need. I was recommended to buy radion but $$$$$$$$. I was wondering if there were maybe cheaper options or should I just splurge on the radions. Also as for the sump.. Where to begin there? What sort of hardware do I need to be adding? Skimmer? Refugium? Automatic fillers? Dosing equipment?

Attached are pics of the tank.

Really hope to get this thing up in running in the next couple of months.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef and to saltwater tanks!

#WelcometoR2R

Congrats on the new tank!

YEs, I would add dual DI canisters to your existing RO. You don't know "what" that remaining 2-5 TDS is, it could be copper from your pipes, which would not be good. We like to start with zero TDS RODI water, especially if/when keeping corals.

Your lights looks like a combination of metal halide supplemented with some LED strips and some LED "PAR Bulbs". You may be able to use the metal halide if you wanted to, there's nothing wrong with metal halide lighting, except that's it's electrically very inefficient, and they produce a lot of excess heat that must be vented away. But if your ballasts and reflectors are good, and you have proper ventilation built into that hood, you might be able to use the metal halides. The PAR bulbs look kind of hammered, and I can't tell when the LED strips are just form the pictures. I don't know if any of those would be worth try to use, but I'd likely just replace them.

The Radions are often thought of as the gold standard in reef lighting and as such they do carry the premium price tag. There are other options for sure, I like Kessil lights, many use Noopsyche or NiCrew as budget alternative, there's ReeFi and others. A little searching would give you some more ideas I'm sure.

If you're totally new to saltwater tanks I like to suggest this guide and video series:

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is nowhere near simple. This task is going to take patience, a...

www.reef2reef.com

I hope this helps and good luck with your new tank!

 

[Dinger McDingus]

So

Welcome to Reef2Reef and to saltwater tanks!

#WelcometoR2R

Congrats on the new tank!

YEs, I would add dual DI canisters to your existing RO. You don't know "what" that remaining 2-5 TDS is, it could be copper from your pipes, which would not be good. We like to start with zero TDS RODI water, especially if/when keeping corals.

Your lights looks like a combination of metal halide supplemented with some LED strips and some LED "PAR Bulbs". You may be able to use the metal halide if you wanted to, there's nothing wrong with metal halide lighting, except that's it's electrically very inefficient, and they produce a lot of excess heat that must be vented away. But if your ballasts and reflectors are good, and you have proper ventilation built into that hood, you might be able to use the metal halides. The PAR bulbs look kind of hammered, and I can't tell when the LED strips are just form the pictures. I don't know if any of those would be worth try to use, but I'd likely just replace them.

The Radions are often thought of as the gold standard in reef lighting and as such they do carry the premium price tag. There are other options for sure, I like Kessil lights, many use Noopsyche or NiCrew as budget alternative, there's ReeFi and others. A little searching would give you some more ideas I'm sure.

If you're totally new to saltwater tanks I like to suggest this guide and video series:

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium Introduction The marine environment is one of the most complex systems on the planet. The aquarium you are about to set up is only a tiny sliver of the vast ocean, but it is nowhere near simple. This task is going to take patience, a...

www.reef2reef.com

I hope this helps and good luck with your new tank!

So if you had acquired this tank, what all encompassing hardware would you purchase to get the thing up and running in your expert opinion.

 

[Fish Fan]

So

So if you had acquired this tank, what all encompassing hardware would you purchase to get the thing up and running in your expert opinion.

I don't consider myself an expert, but it would be hard for anyone to suggest exactly what you'd need. There's a lot of ways to run a tank, depending on what you want to keep. The video series I linked goes further into each piece of equipment, and what you may want to consider before adding it.

At the very least, I might look into pluming and a good return pump or two. I think first things first you'll want to be able to fill and run the system, you can then get it "cycling" even before you have things like lighting in place.

Now is a good time to decide if you're going to use dry rocks or live rocks. In my opinion, using real, wet live rock is the best way to go to get your tank up and running and stable as quickly as possible, but there are some that prefer to use dry rock out of fear of adding pest organisms.

Research is really key in this hobby, you need to decide for yourself what kind of tank you'd like to have, and what livestock you hope to keep. This is help guide your equipment selections

 

[Dinger McDingus]

I don't consider myself an expert, but it would be hard for anyone to suggest exactly what you'd need. There's a lot of ways to run a tank, depending on what you want to keep. The video series I linked goes further into each piece of equipment, and what you may want to consider before adding it.

At the very least, I might look into pluming and a good return pump or two. I think first things first you'll want to be able to fill and run the system, you can then get it "cycling" even before you have things like lighting in place.

Now is a good time to decide if you're going to use dry rocks or live rocks. In my opinion, using real, wet live rock is the best way to go to get your tank up and running and stable as quickly as possible, but there are some that prefer to use dry rock out of fear of adding pest organisms.

Research is really key in this hobby, you need to decide for yourself what kind of tank you'd like to have, and what livestock you hope to keep. This is help guide your equipment selections

Sounds good thanks for the insight. I really need to get under there and figure out what I'm working with.

 

[Fish Fan]

Sounds good thanks for the insight. I really need to get under there and figure out what I'm working with.

I think that's a good first step