Hey there,
so I just decided to document my way here on this forum. Im already in the middle of the process (I would say) so why didn't I started earlier?
Well... To be honest my head was already this close to explode from all the things in the reef tank world, that I had no more capacity to write stuff down (A little bit overdramatized)
But now I see things differently and thought why not, might be fun and could lead to new things. And also for anger management
Anyhow first things first:
I'm Marvin from germany and 28 years old. Except for a small aquarium in my childhood, that my parents kept going, I had no prior experience. Regarding to how I even ended up here... It all started with the idea of a bottled terrarium half a year ago (not sure if thats the right english word, I mean basically a big bottle where you put in a few plants and a bit of water ,then close it and see how things unfold.) To inform myself about it I watched some YouTube videos and from there on it escalated quickly. A few days later my recommendations on YouTube went from those terrariums to reef tanks and I was like oh...oh my. Aaaand yeah here we are
Over the past half year I was digging all kind of information on forums, youtube, books or whatever and I have to admit, that the entry in this hobby ain't easy at all.
Espacially with the forums available in germany. I tried my best to get the the theoretical knowledge but I was absolutely clueless about what kind of hardware to use. So I tried asking in a german forum what hardware is recommended for an newbie and all I got was "Everyone is doing it differently, there is no recommendation".
I was like what the heck, thats it? I mean I dont wanted a perfect to-buy-list, but just a tip in what direction I had to go. So I had to admit, that the german community is probably just to small and I looked for internation forums and found r2r.
After I had a general glimpse on how much $$$ I had to spend, my goal was to get as much as possible used. So a big part of the past half year I spend searching/waiting for offers on a big german used-market. But after so much time (for me it felt like decades) I had again to admit, that the community and thus the used market is too small. There where good used offers with complete packages, but way to far away. So the big dream to save a huge amount of money with buying a complete package was gone. But the individual parts market was not so bad after all, it just meant the amount of savings for me are less. For example a complete and well equipped RSR250 was offered between 1100$ and 1600$. Individual parts where obviously cheaper than new ones, but all-in-all still a good chunk more expensive than a complete package
Okay enough chit chat:
Thats the hardware I got:
Tank
- Red Sea Reefer 250 in white (new + good deal)
Light
- Kessil AP9X (used)
Pumps
- 2x Tunze 6055 + Controller (used)
- 1x Tunze 6015 (for mixing water, used)
- 1x Royal Exclusive Red Dragon x85 (new + good deal, I know its way to op for my tank, but running it throttled should be fine)
Skimmer:
- Deltec 400i (used - almost new)
Rodi
- Aqua Medic Platinum Line Plus (new in a really good offer)
Small stuff
- CaribSea Special Grade sand (new)
- Tropic Marine Pro Reef salt (new)
- Tunze Magnet Cleaner (used)
- Red Sea testing kit (new on a used markt)
- Red Sea water cycle kit
- Hydrometer (new)
- 3x Preset heaters (2x for tank, 1x for mixing water, new)
- Aqua Medic Twin Controller (used)
- Arka Reef Rocks
Theres a lot more small stuff I think, because there is so much more needed that you didn't think of. And what I learned the most:
In the areas where you dont expect anything difficult/challenging, its going to be the worst part -.-
I'm planning to go with a mixed reef. To be honest I currently have no fixed list on what corals or fish I want.
All I know is that I want to go with breeded fish as much as possible. I think I have to accept that this is not possible for the most of the CUC. But as far as I could see it, there are many breeded fish here and I only want to go with them.
Reason for that is, that Im recently saw a renowned german marine biologist who stated that most of the saltwater fish are captured in their origins and transported to us. That alone is quite sad and what's worse is, that about up to 80% of fish die on this way.
To be continued
Edit 17.02.22:
Current view:
so I just decided to document my way here on this forum. Im already in the middle of the process (I would say) so why didn't I started earlier?
Well... To be honest my head was already this close to explode from all the things in the reef tank world, that I had no more capacity to write stuff down (A little bit overdramatized)
But now I see things differently and thought why not, might be fun and could lead to new things. And also for anger management
Anyhow first things first:
I'm Marvin from germany and 28 years old. Except for a small aquarium in my childhood, that my parents kept going, I had no prior experience. Regarding to how I even ended up here... It all started with the idea of a bottled terrarium half a year ago (not sure if thats the right english word, I mean basically a big bottle where you put in a few plants and a bit of water ,then close it and see how things unfold.) To inform myself about it I watched some YouTube videos and from there on it escalated quickly. A few days later my recommendations on YouTube went from those terrariums to reef tanks and I was like oh...oh my. Aaaand yeah here we are
Over the past half year I was digging all kind of information on forums, youtube, books or whatever and I have to admit, that the entry in this hobby ain't easy at all.
Espacially with the forums available in germany. I tried my best to get the the theoretical knowledge but I was absolutely clueless about what kind of hardware to use. So I tried asking in a german forum what hardware is recommended for an newbie and all I got was "Everyone is doing it differently, there is no recommendation".
I was like what the heck, thats it? I mean I dont wanted a perfect to-buy-list, but just a tip in what direction I had to go. So I had to admit, that the german community is probably just to small and I looked for internation forums and found r2r.
After I had a general glimpse on how much $$$ I had to spend, my goal was to get as much as possible used. So a big part of the past half year I spend searching/waiting for offers on a big german used-market. But after so much time (for me it felt like decades) I had again to admit, that the community and thus the used market is too small. There where good used offers with complete packages, but way to far away. So the big dream to save a huge amount of money with buying a complete package was gone. But the individual parts market was not so bad after all, it just meant the amount of savings for me are less. For example a complete and well equipped RSR250 was offered between 1100$ and 1600$. Individual parts where obviously cheaper than new ones, but all-in-all still a good chunk more expensive than a complete package
Okay enough chit chat:
Thats the hardware I got:
Tank
- Red Sea Reefer 250 in white (new + good deal)
Light
- Kessil AP9X (used)
Pumps
- 2x Tunze 6055 + Controller (used)
- 1x Tunze 6015 (for mixing water, used)
- 1x Royal Exclusive Red Dragon x85 (new + good deal, I know its way to op for my tank, but running it throttled should be fine)
Skimmer:
- Deltec 400i (used - almost new)
Rodi
- Aqua Medic Platinum Line Plus (new in a really good offer)
Small stuff
- CaribSea Special Grade sand (new)
- Tropic Marine Pro Reef salt (new)
- Tunze Magnet Cleaner (used)
- Red Sea testing kit (new on a used markt)
- Red Sea water cycle kit
- Hydrometer (new)
- 3x Preset heaters (2x for tank, 1x for mixing water, new)
- Aqua Medic Twin Controller (used)
- Arka Reef Rocks
Theres a lot more small stuff I think, because there is so much more needed that you didn't think of. And what I learned the most:
In the areas where you dont expect anything difficult/challenging, its going to be the worst part -.-
I'm planning to go with a mixed reef. To be honest I currently have no fixed list on what corals or fish I want.
All I know is that I want to go with breeded fish as much as possible. I think I have to accept that this is not possible for the most of the CUC. But as far as I could see it, there are many breeded fish here and I only want to go with them.
Reason for that is, that Im recently saw a renowned german marine biologist who stated that most of the saltwater fish are captured in their origins and transported to us. That alone is quite sad and what's worse is, that about up to 80% of fish die on this way.
To be continued
Edit 17.02.22:
Current view:
Last edited: