The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

Chris kindley

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smokin'reefer

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I am starting red sea 450. I have bought the tank and hope to have set up and start cycling by the end of April. My question is if it is worth the cost to start with all live water or maybe 50/50 with ro/di mixed or all ro/di?
 

Darbna

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New here. Just installed a 110 Gallon tank yesterday waiting on the cycle and its killin me but I know, Patience. Anyway, noticed today a small snail and what I think is a little button the live rock. Not sure if its coral or not. the rock came out of an active tank that was dismantled and running for a year in an office that the owner moved and didnt want the maintenance IMG_1459.JPG IMG_1460.JPG IMG_1461.jpg
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any more. His loss, my gain. Let me know if you know what the button is.
 

reefwiser

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Looks like a Mushroom coral They will multiply and grow in your tank. Good luck and Ask questions.:)
 

tom reilly

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Frop

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I have a 55 gal. Someone told me today not to do a sump and overflow but to use a skilter instead to prevent flooding problems. Any thoughts

Im going to put a sump on my 10 gallon. If you're worried about water leaking just build it high quality and get some sensors installed to check for leaks.
 

Rafael C

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Sticky for the beginner forum.
Just order my first saltwater aquarium and would like your feedback (My main goal is to have as many colorful fish as possible and I may mix some reef on it but not many as they need more care)
This is what I got
  1. Planet 205 Tank drilled 60x27x29
  2. 2 Ecotechmarine Radion xr30w pro
  3. 1 Seaside ES7 skimmer
  4. 2 Sincra #4 pumps
  5. 1 SCT Tsunami Bio 96x30 sump
  6. 100 Lbs of purple live rock
  7. 50 Lbs of live rock
  8. 8 Bags of Hawaiian black sand
  9. 1 300watts jager heater
  10. 2 sic voyager #3 current pumps
 

Frop

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Just order my first saltwater aquarium and would like your feedback (My main goal is to have as many colorful fish as possible and I may mix some reef on it but not many as they need more care)
This is what I got
  1. Planet 205 Tank drilled 60x27x29
  2. 2 Ecotechmarine Radion xr30w pro
  3. 1 Seaside ES7 skimmer
  4. 2 Sincra #4 pumps
  5. 1 SCT Tsunami Bio 96x30 sump
  6. 100 Lbs of purple live rock
  7. 50 Lbs of live rock
  8. 8 Bags of Hawaiian black sand
  9. 1 300watts jager heater
  10. 2 sic voyager #3 current pumps
That is a huge starter tank..
 

Rafael C

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Yep, it is a good size but actually smaller compare to what I wanted that was a 750 gal. But couple of friends with experience advise me to start a bit smaller
 

ReefCatcher

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The Supreme Guide To Setting Up A Saltwater Reef Aquarium

How to set up a saltwater reef aquarium tank- REEFEDITION
Fantastic article, but too much for me to digest.
Here is a fun scenario...
75 gallon tank with only a canister filter so far. I will soon buy LED lights and powerheads. I dont know what other filtration to get
I live on a small caribbean island where there are no petstores. This is a 100% catch and return tank. Los of experimenting. My snorkeling children will be a primary source of critters.
Substrate will be both coarse sand and broken corals.
All rocks will be live and wet.
I dont have room for a sump
We are not dying for fish, or at least dont have a terrible need to pack them in. We love inverts.

I am wide open for advice. i look forward to reading more on the forum
 

Rafael C

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Well my tank was installed last Wednesday 7/27/2016 and now we are waiting for it to complete its cycle
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ReefCatcher

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ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1406049527.121217.jpg
my first tank 75 gal. Bout a week old. Salinity at 1.026 lfs says params are good about half way threw nitrate/nitrite cycle. Havering trouble getting my temp below 81.5f have heater set to 72, temp was 83.5 this morning. Any advice?


Sent from my iPhone using REEF2REEF

ImageUploadedByREEF2REEF1406049527.121217.jpg
Nice. Looks good. I am a few weeks behind you in the process, so I am going to follow along to see what you are doing and how its going. Good luck and thanks for sharing the pics
 

Rafael C

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Went with RODInG. TANK IS Cycling now with 155 lbs dry rock and 100lbs live sand. Have dots of red,green,and grown algae popping up every where.
My local rep recommended not to use the lighting in my tank until the cycle is complete to reduce the algae and so far it has work out fine, tank running for a week and not algae at all, after testing the water it looks like the cycle is almost complete and I could start adding a cleaning crew but I will be out of town for a week and my rep recommended to let the tank cycle for that week and them move forward with adding stock
 

ReefCatcher

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Thanks for the update. Keep them coming. I am just putting the water in this week and am going to jump start the whole thing by using live rock, live sand and many gallons of sea water. I may screw it up, but i dont have anything to lose at this stage.
 

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