Seriously upgrading. Need advice.

[CrewePD210]

Just picked this up, a 150 marineland with about a 40 gallon sump. Stored inside, never had water. I'm stepping up from a biocube 32 that I have had for about 6 months. Couldn't pass it up for 600.

Full disclosure, I've had tanks since I was 16, now 55, I had saltwater about 25 years ago and the biocube was my first step back into it.

I'm going to have to piece out the equipment, and have no idea how to size it. I will need
Lights
Pumps
UV
Skimmer
Wave makers
Netting.

The tank has 2 quarter round overflows in the back with 2 holes per drain. Am I missing anything? I would appreciate any recommendations on quantity and sizes for the equipment, as well as brand recommendations. The light bar that came with it is a combination metal halide and led. I'll probably trash that

 

[backbayreef]

Congrats - that's very exciting! If this was my dream tank, I'll do the following:
1. Buy/build a stand!
2. Unless this is a room divider, get a black vinyl background - amazon
3. Return pump: dual returns (2xVectra M2) here
4. Heaters: dual BRS 300w titanium heaters with WiFi Inkbird controllers - here
5. Skimmer: Reef Octopus - sample here
6. Wavemakers: 2xVortech MP40s here
7. Lights: 3xRadions G6 Blues here
8. UV: (optional) 57W Aqua Ultraviolet UV here
9. Ask for forgiveness from the Boss later... :)

Good luck!

 

[LPS_guy]

Congrats - that's very exciting! If this was my dream tank, I'll do the following:
1. Buy/build a stand!
2. Unless this is a room divider, get a black vinyl background - amazon
3. Return pump: dual returns (2xVectra M2) here
4. Heaters: dual BRS 300w titanium heaters with WiFi Inkbird controllers - here
5. Skimmer: Reef Octopus - sample here
6. Wavemakers: 2xVortech MP40s here
7. Lights: 3xRadions G6 Blues here
8. UV: (optional) 57W Aqua Ultraviolet UV here
9. Ask for forgiveness from the Boss later... :)

Good luck!

Radions are low par high cost($1000 112 par). The best lighting is quanta atlas $ 500 Per light no crapy unreliable Bluetooth instead 1-10v dimming and you can get a GHL Wi-Fi light controller
With 4 channels of 1-10v dimming $100.

 

[exnisstech]

Welcome back. I expect you'll get as many opinions as there are products lol.
Skimmer and UV are optional. I run a skimmer on my heavily stocked 330g. 4 tanks currently running none with UV. Everything pretty much depends on on your budget and how much control you want to have and if your into tech.
I love my jebao dcp return pumps . I have three, 15000, 5000, and a 3500 . They are silent and cheap enough I buy two of each so I have backups or if I want to clean them which I never do. The 3500 was in service over 6 years before I broke down the tank. It was never cleaned and still worked fine. The 5000 has been running 2+ years and the 15000 1+ year. No Wi-Fi but i have no need for wifi on a return pump.
Powerheads I like my vortechs but there are many less expensive options.
Lights I've ran black boxes AI Hydra and currently running 3 Reef breeder photons, 6 noopsyche k7 III pros, Gen4 XR15s 1 running 2 stored. Photons are my favorite overall with the noops being my favorite budget option. I'm not a fan of Mobius turning lights on in the middle of the night and the K7s make the XR15s look pathetic in a par test so the radions are my least favorite.
Like bakbay I too like my brs titanium heaters coupled with and inkbird controllers.
ATO I have tunze, kamoer, discontinued JBJ and a $49 Amazon unit and they all work.

 

[LPS_guy]

In my experience Bluetooth is awful. Get Quanta atlas for lights

 

[mmodo]

The tank has 2 quarter round overflows in the back with 2 holes per drain. Am I missing anything? I would appreciate any recommendations on quantity and sizes for the equipment, as well as brand recommendations. The light bar that came with it is a combination metal halide and led. I'll probably trash that

I don't think you are asking about the drains but I will put it out there in case someone else needs it because it took me a lot of brainpower to figure it out. My drains were set up the exact same way when I bought a used tank.

Two holes in each corner means an intake and outtake per corner. The holes will have a bulk head that drains into some pipes to go to the sump. The holes will be larger than the bulkhead/pipe. For example, I have 1.5" and 1.75" holes. When I bought bulkheads, I did not need 1.75" and 1.5" bulkheads. I needed 0.75" and 1" bulkheads. The 1" hole is for draining into the sump, the 0.75" hole is for returning water to the tank. It seems like the consensus is to get a slip x thread bulkhead (slip in tank, thread to the sump) but it really depends on the way the piping is planned out.

 

[backbayreef]

Welcome back. I expect you'll get as many opinions as there are products lol.
Skimmer and UV are optional. I run a skimmer on my heavily stocked 330g. 4 tanks currently running none with UV. Everything pretty much depends on on your budget and how much control you want to have and if your into tech.
I love my jebao dcp return pumps . I have three, 15000, 5000, and a 3500 . They are silent and cheap enough I buy two of each so I have backups or if I want to clean them which I never do. The 3500 was in service over 6 years before I broke down the tank. It was never cleaned and still worked fine. The 5000 has been running 2+ years and the 15000 1+ year. No Wi-Fi but i have no need for wifi on a return pump.
Powerheads I like my vortechs but there are many less expensive options.
Lights I've ran black boxes AI Hydra and currently running 3 Reef breeder photons, 6 noopsyche k7 III pros, Gen4 XR15s 1 running 2 stored. Photons are my favorite overall with the noops being my favorite budget option. I'm not a fan of Mobius turning lights on in the middle of the night and the K7s make the XR15s look pathetic in a par test so the radions are my least favorite.
Like bakbay I too like my brs titanium heaters coupled with and inkbird controllers.
ATO I have tunze, kamoer, discontinued JBJ and a $49 Amazon unit and they all work.

I like Ecotech gear - reliable and cool but on the pricey side. Honestly I never had issues with Mobius. I like the UPS option the most since I don't have full-house battery backup solution, at least not yet. Yup, agreed that there are many options out there and it depends on the OP's budget & goals.

 

[exnisstech]

I like Ecotech gear - reliable and cool but on the pricey side. Honestly I never had issues with Mobius. I like the UPS option the most since I don't have full-house battery backup solution, at least not yet. Yup, agreed that there are many options out there and it depends on the OP's budget & goals.

I loved my ecotech stuff when I was running a reeflink but when I needed a couple new MP40s I found out they will only run on mobius so I upgraded everything, 3 xr15s and 8 vortechs and the time date issue in mobius that doesn't affect everyone had my lights blasting at 3am one time too many so I shelved the lights. I think mobius is better now but the lack of ecotech to even admit the issue and to say just sync the app when it happens wasn't what I wanted to here so I moved on to the the photons. I still love my MP40s and 10s some that have been running for probably 6 or 7 years but its not a big deal if they change up in the middle of the night because of a time sync issue.

 

[CrewePD210]

Thanks for all the feedback. I have a pretty good list, now just a little worried about getting the sump right

 

[CrewePD210]

Haven't posted in a while. Been busy with this one to say the least. I've got my water rocks and sand in. The rocks were cycling in the Garage with salt water, a pump, bait shrimp and bacteria. They seem to be processing nicely, taking the ammonia out within about 36 hours from 3.0ppm .

I've decided to make this a FOWLR, and keep my 32 cube as a small reef style. Maybe a snowflake eel, a smaller puffer, and a hogfish.

Looking froward to getting a few mor odds and ends, maybe a fish or two in a few weeks. Would appreciate any feedback or thoughts, as well as anything that may be a good inhabitant of this aquarium.

I have increased my rock amount to about 140lbs total, and have glued them to make arches and caves.
Waiting on a custom lid to arrive next week.