What is one thing before or during your build you wish you had gotten.

[attiland]

How is your UV currently plumbed?

Display to display.

 

[boacvh]

For me probably my KLIR instead of socks. I should have invested in it day one and avoid all the dirty sock work and time I spent.
Or a different stand. I like how mine looks but it's incredibly uncomfortable to do any work down there.

 

[Specific Ocean]

One thing I actually just purchased yesterday were the Hanna Checker Colorimeters. Wish I bought these before I dropped the cash on the Red Sea kits.

I hate waiting for my wife to get back home to figure out what color the glass vials are closer to on the charts. Being colorblind sucks!

Now It'll be digitally read to me

 

[See Gee Sea]

So I am in the process of a new build and was trying to think of things I might later wish I had gotten during the build process.
It made me wonder what are some of the equipment things or build related items others have wished they had gotten or done at the start vs after the fact that could help me or someone else later. I know on my last tank it was a long list, from plumbing things to an ATO solution.

Patience!

 

[Joe31415]

More of a 'did' rather than 'gotten'...Somewhere along the line I read or heard that the minute you're even thinking about setting up a reef tank, buy the rock and start curing it/cycling it.

I used dry rock and should have done that. I did 'cure' it, even if I didn't have to. I just stuck it some saltwater for a week or two. In retrospect, I should have bought it earlier (instead of at the same times as most everything else) and stuck it in a bucket with bacteria and ammonia (and heater/powerheads etc).
Even if I didn't buy enough (say, I just bought half of it) and started cycling it. That still would have given me a running start when everything is assembled.

 

[stephj03]

1. Dedicated electrical circuit for the tank. Almost burned the house down and almost crashed the tank a handful of times juggling load with B-Day bounce houses and the Kitchen

2. Dedicated input and drain lines for WC. This one is still doable for me but I never get to it. Need to put a bulkhead on the sump and connect to a 50' hose to reach the street so I can just open a valve with the return off and do a quick drain. Same deal on my storage tank. Need to run a hose from the valve on it to reach the tank for quick fill. If I had these I'd only get the python out to clean the sand.

 

[Josh@BVA]

A bigger tank lol

 

[Roosterjack]

My biggest wish is hard to accomplish, and that would be a fully plumbed utility sink in my "Fish Area" which is in the partially finished area of our basement. While my tank is placed to allow for all my doses units and such behind a wall there is simply no reasonable way to get that sink/drain.

 

[Kfactor]

Make the stand bigger for more stuff

 

[jtf74]

Wish I had setup a mixing tank for easy saltwater changes, as well as a fresh water evaporation makeup on a drip. Plan to do so soon. Carrying a five gallon bucket downstairs almost daily to top off evaporation gets old. The one thing I did do that I'm glad for was plumbing the in tank flow so I could use it to also pump out water with a hose and easy water changes.

 

[landlubber]

Wish I had setup a mixing tank for easy saltwater changes, as well as a fresh water evaporation makeup on a drip. Plan to do so soon. Carrying a five gallon bucket downstairs almost daily to top off evaporation gets old. The one thing I did do that I'm glad for was plumbing the in tank flow so I could use it to also pump out water with a hose and easy water changes.

you won't regret adding one.
i didn't have room for both so i just used a single 65gallon drum that serves dual purpose. water changes when i need or fw storage to fill my top off reservoir. cheap, easy and saves any lifting or mess.

 

[davidcalgary29]

A refractometer that measured salinity instead of ethyl alcohol. And realized that BEFORE I spent the next two and a half months fretting about weird water parameters.

 

[reeferkeeperabq]

Easy disconnection. Unions and such