Oldbie but newbie looking for comments

[Spartyon]

Hello everyone, I am in the process of researching a reef tank and trying to come up with why this is a good idea for my wife to buy in to. As winter has taken hold of the great state of Michigan, the itch for a reef tank is very strong again. I will be going by Spartyon. I gave it a try in the 80's but a winter power outage lasting days did me in. I'm probably too old to start this hobby being 65 but I'm very fortunate to have been able to retire early. Everything I read, going down many rabbit holes, has lead me to believe size matters. I am looking at a 200 gallon reef tank from Innovative Marine with all the goodies. Orphek lighting, classic Octopus protein skimmer a couple of Helio 700 heaters, a ChaetoMax refugium light, a couple of wave powerheads to be decided on and a auto top-off reservoir. I'm confused on whether I need a UV sterilizer, calcium reactor, ozone generator and algae reactor. I understand I need a dosing pump but I don't read much positive about a controller and reliability. Oh yea, I also need a RO/DI system and a quarantine tank. As much as these fish and coral are, I want absolutely no reason for failure. I need to find if my main floor will support this beast. Sounds like cutting the carpet and putting a 3/4" sheet of plywood down to spread the weight is the way to go. I need the RO/DI system to be in the basement and a person I was talking to says he has the same situation and ran PVC tubing through the HVAC ducting up to his tank.
Please weigh in, I want to make the learning curve as smooth as possible
Spartyon

 

[revhtree]

Welcome to your new home for saltwater reef aquarium resources and fun! Welcome to the family! :D

 

[JonoH]

Welcome to Reef2Reef Spartyon

Similar tank size to mine, so feel free to check out what I did in the built thread (whole thing is documented)​

 

[Spartyon]

Welcome to Reef2Reef Spartyon

Similar tank size to mine, so feel free to check out what I did in the built thread (whole thing is documented)​

Thanks, I appreciate it. How do I get there

 

[fishface NJ]

Welcome to R2R

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[Utubereefer]

Welcome to the club

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[kingranch2003]

 

[JonoH]

Thanks, I appreciate it. How do I get there

Large Build - 220 Gallon SPS Reef Build

EDIT 19.08.25 with FTS at the start - Now back to the Build Thread! Finally starting a post for my tank upgrade! Have been working on this for about 3 months now very slowly building up everything i need to start getting it in place and at a point now where i need the brainstrust's help to...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Sam7]

Welcome

 

[B&CinB.C.]

Hi . Welcome to Reef 2 Reef

 

[FrugalReeferJon]

It’s never too late to start a reef tank.

 

[jsmkmavity]

I would run it along side the ductwork, not in it.

 

[Evil1]

 

[kevgib67]

Welcome, glad you are here!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[EnterName]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

This thread will be full of welcome messages. I suggest you post your questions here, or here.

You are right that a sizeable tank will (in the long run) offer more stability, but if you are just starting your first tank, you will make mistakes (as we all do), and it's is far more tedious to fix mistakes in 200gal than it is in 100gal. It's still perfectly possible to start with 200gal, but if something is wrong and you need to take matters into your own hand (e.g. water changes, siphoning off algae/bacteria, etc.) it will be much more work (and is more expensive).

• You don't need a UV sterilizer. It can help with certain bacteria outbreaks, but during the first year of a tank it might be better to let nature do its thing.
• You don't need a calcium reactor. It's just one of many ways to add calcium. As you will need to wait quite a while until the tank is ready for stony corals that drain calcium levels, you won't have to worry too much about this for now.
• You don't need an ozone generator. A decently sized skimmer for your tank will get rid of excessive nutrients without needing ozone to improve efficiency. If you are planning on heavily overstocking the tank in the future you can still think about it, but I wouldn't advice to overstock a tank anyway.
• You don't need an algae reactor. It's nice to have an algae refugium in the filter tank or an algae reactor if you are dealing with excessive nutrient levels, but I would worry about that once it actually happens.
• You don't even need a dosing pump, it's just more convenient. In the first months of your tank you won't be dosing much any way, as there is nothing that would drain calcium or alkalinity significantly.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Besides learning about the hardware/equipment you need, I highly advice you to learn about the nitrogen cycle and "the ugly phase", as it often catches newcomers off guard and they start messing with their tanks, even though it is sometimes best to leave it alone.

 

[BonnieB]

Welcome to our R2R family!

 

[Spartyon]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

This thread will be full of welcome messages. I suggest you post your questions here, or here.

You are right that a sizeable tank will (in the long run) offer more stability, but if you are just starting your first tank, you will make mistakes (as we all do), and it's is far more tedious to fix mistakes in 200gal than it is in 100gal. It's still perfectly possible to start with 200gal, but if something is wrong and you need to take matters into your own hand (e.g. water changes, siphoning off algae/bacteria, etc.) it will be much more work (and is more expensive).

• You don't need a UV sterilizer. It can help with certain bacteria outbreaks, but during the first year of a tank it might be better to let nature do its thing.
• You don't need a calcium reactor. It's just one of many ways to add calcium. As you will need to wait quite a while until the tank is ready for stony corals that drain calcium levels, you won't have to worry too much about this for now.
• You don't need an ozone generator. A decently sized skimmer for your tank will get rid of excessive nutrients without needing ozone to improve efficiency. If you are planning on heavily overstocking the tank in the future you can still think about it, but I wouldn't advice to overstock a tank anyway.
• You don't need an algae reactor. It's nice to have an algae refugium in the filter tank or an algae reactor if you are dealing with excessive nutrient levels, but I would worry about that once it actually happens.
• You don't even need a dosing pump, it's just more convenient. In the first months of your tank you won't be dosing much any way, as there is nothing that would drain calcium or alkalinity significantly.

I hope this answers some of your questions. Besides learning about the hardware/equipment you need, I highly advice you to learn about the nitrogen cycle and "the ugly phase", as it often catches newcomers off guard and they start messing with their tanks, even though it is sometimes best to leave it alone.

Thanks for the advice. Do you have any thoughts on controllers?