Setting up 60 gallon saltwater tank!!

[Taylor N]

Hello guys! Im fairly new to the saltwater hobby (I only have had a 15 gallon cube reef for around a month now) Me and my parents want to set up this 60 gallon cube tank we've had sitting around.

So far all we have is sand, a stand, and the tank.

I wont have many corals, just some fish. Maybe some large anenomes.

Right now I'm building an AIO system in the back of the tank but I was wondering what lights I should get and how many watts for a heater is sufficient?
Also, does anyone know where to get plan dry white reef rocks for reasonable prices?

thanks!! (I will update with pictures when I start the building process)

 

[Mebbid]

Looking forward to seeing it!

Bulk reef supply is a good place to get pretty much anything for reefing, including dry rock.

Thankfully, many lights are made to cover a 2ft x 2ft area, but without a budget it's really hard to give suggestions. Could go from $200 for a chinese light to $1000 for a radion r30. You'll need some power to the lights for the nems you want.

As for heater, I prefer redundancy. Two heaters controlled by an inkbird temperature controller is the go to for many people. 2x 200w heaters should be enough to manage the temperature of the tank. I use 2 300w eheim jaegar heaters for my 60 cube, but I had the heaters already and my house gets fairly cold in the winter so wanted a little more power.

 

[Fish Fan]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

There's lots of choices for lighting, and I'll let others offer their suggestions.

For heaters, generally it's suggested to shoot for 3 to 5 watts/gallon. It's a very good idea to use some kind of heater controller to prevent catastrophic overheating of the tank. The InkBird controllers start at about $40, and are well worth it.

For dry rock, you can look for Caribbsea South Seas base rock or Marco Rocks are popular choices.

That said, I'd suggest using some to all real, wet live rock from a good local fish store or a mariculture facility such as Tampa Bay Saltwater. Using established live rock goes a long way to speeding up the maturity of your new tank

https://tbsaltwater.com/
Good luck with your build!

 

[Taylor N]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

#WelcometoR2R

There's lots of choices for lighting, and I'll let others offer their suggestions.

For heaters, generally it's suggested to shoot for 3 to 5 watts/gallon. It's a very good idea to use some kind of heater controller to prevent catastrophic overheating of the tank. The InkBird controllers start at about $40, and are well worth it.

For dry rock, you can look for Caribbsea South Seas base rock or Marco Rocks are popular choices.

That said, I'd suggest using some to all real, wet live rock from a good local fish store or a mariculture facility such as Tampa Bay Saltwater. Using established live rock goes a long way to speeding up the maturity of your new tank

https://tbsaltwater.com/
Good luck with your build!

thanks!!

Looking forward to seeing it!

Bulk reef supply is a good place to get pretty much anything for reefing, including dry rock.

Thankfully, many lights are made to cover a 2ft x 2ft area, but without a budget it's really hard to give suggestions. Could go from $200 for a chinese light to $1000 for a radion r30. You'll need some power to the lights for the nems you want.

As for heater, I prefer redundancy. Two heaters controlled by an inkbird temperature controller is the go to for many people. 2x 200w heaters should be enough to manage the temperature of the tank. I use 2 300w eheim jaegar heaters for my 60 cube, but I had the heaters already and my house gets fairly cold in the winter so wanted a little more power.

thank you!!

i will look into it

okay cool im don’t really have a budget but anything that is worth the money and will keep the anemones happy, is good for me. I’ve had a 45$ light and surprisingly it’s been growing my softies nicely i’ll do some more research fs

okay perfect!!

 

[Mebbid]

Here's a few lights to look at:

Kessil A360 - A pendant light, so can create some shadowing issues but they are great lights. I've always been a fan of kessil, have had their lights in the past and they are fantastic.

Nicrew Hyperreef 200 - Chinese LED, have heard really good things about them have never seen them in person. ~$400

Aipai A8 Pro II max: Chinese LED, knockoff of the radions. Apparently extremely well made lights, using Cree LEDs. The app is a bit of a PITA but they cost ~$300. Be sure to look at the pro version, the non pro is cheaper but made with worse LEDs. This is probably what I'm going to upgrade to in the near future. Get this on alibaba for the best price.

Radion Xr15: The smaller of the two radion models. This gives coverage to a 2ft x 2ft area but can't supply enough power for sps corals to the entire area reducing that to roughly an 18"x18" area, it should be enough for what you want. Apparently the gen 6 is a little bit of a step back from the gen 5, but I don't have any personal experience with them. Ecotech was bought by a private equity firm in 2021, at which point in my eyes they stopped innovating. I'm very meh about the brand. ~$500

There's soo many brands of light out there, most of them can do what you need as long as they are made for a reef. My suggestion: plan for the future. You might not need super high light right now, but you never know what your desires for the tank are going to be in the future.

 

[Taylor N]

Hello guys! Im fairly new to the saltwater hobby (I only have had a 15 gallon cube reef for around a month now) Me and my parents want to set up this 60 gallon cube tank we've had sitting around.

So far all we have is sand, a stand, and the tank.

I wont have many corals, just some fish. Maybe some large anenomes.

Right now I'm building an AIO system in the back of the tank but I was wondering what lights I should get and how many watts for a heater is sufficient?
Also, does anyone know where to get plan dry white reef rocks for reasonable prices?

thanks!! (I will update with pictures when I start the building process)

So i’m looking at these I know the lights aren’t like super amazing or anything whatsoever but I have a friend who might give me his AI lights, but we’ll have to see.

I’m also probably gonna go to my lfs for the rock if he has a lot in stock