What would you buy with a budget of $5-10k?

[saltyfins]

as much therapy I could afford, for the anxiety caused by this tank of mine....

 

[Rubberfrog]

I went with a redsea 625. Added led lights, gyre pumps, skimmer, etc. I'm into it just over $5k

 

[saltyfins]

I went with a redsea 625. Added led lights, gyre pumps, skimmer, etc. I'm into it just over $5k

I bet that's beautiful!

 

[Rubberfrog]

I bet that's beautiful!

It will be someday when I put fish in it!

 

[lpsouth1978]

Price is ultimately dictated by the equipment you buy. I am currently working on a 40b build. The tank only cost $50, but the entire build (as my selected parts are priced now) is going to cost ~$3000, not including livestock. I went high end on some parts, and saved where it made sense. I could easily spend $5000+ if I added an Apex, reactors, UV sterilizer, Live rock instead of dry, etc.

On the flip side, a couple years back I got a Waterbox 230.6 added pumps, wavemakes, heaters, lights, skimmer, etc. I had ~$5000 in that setup, but 5x the water volume. You can absolutely get the setup you want for <$10k or even <$5k if you look for used equipment and are patient.

 

[Paranoiattack91]

I am having a 180 gallon built. I don't even have it yet and I just crossed the $10k mark including tank, stand, equipment and rock/sand.

 

[Kershaw]

If I had 10k...
IM170 or IM 200P
4 kessil a360x
Apex with all the fixings
Synergy 44 sump
Reef octopus elite 200
Reef octopus return
2 MP 60s
Am I out of money yet????

 

[thewire]

10 Tesla Stocks then sell it when it went up 25%, now you have $10-$15k budget for tank lol

Personally if I am going to spend that much, I go with Elos tank. They are elegant

 

[BradB]

You save a lot with a used tank on Craigslist.

I 2nd the recommendation for a DIY stand.

Electric cost is a huge factor in a real budget. I run a $800 Red Dragon because I can't afford a $200 pan world.

Lights are probably your biggest expense, especially if you don't go DIY. Decide if you want a canopy or to hang from the ceiling.

If you want SPS, I recommend a 2 part doser.

I'd also buy an ATO.

Deciding whether or not to include an Apex is huge.

 

[RobW]

DIY STAND!!! Highly recommend!!

I made my own stand.

 

[RobW]

The 275 that I'm working on will be 66" x 32" x 30". It will be all 19mm starphire glass and will have all Bashsea for filtration. The bashsea custom sump will be 60" x 24" x 16". Skimmer, bio-reactor, media reactors. All ecotech for dual return pumps, skimmer pump, bio-reactor pump, UV sterilizer pump, 4 mp40 powerheads. Ghl controller, kh director, ion director, dosing pumps, flow meters, 5 ghl mitras for main lighting, 2 deep actinic light bars, 4 simu-sticks for lunar effects. Auto water changing system, 2 100 gallon water storage tanks for mixing station. 20 gallon quarantine setup. And I'm sure the list can keep going.

 

[austrum]

Super helpful replies, thanks everyone! This community is great! Several of you brought up a few things that weren't even on my radar. A bit more research to do, but hopefully I'll be able to start my own build thread soon

 

[Tiki Reef Joshua]

Whatever you do, just tie in a nice frag tank NOW.

 

[GHOSTLY]

Getting back into the reefing game again after a nearly 20 year hiatus. A lot has changed since I last had a tank and I've been reading up a ton on the different methods, equipment, etc. Without injecting my own biases based on what I've researched thus far, I'd like to know what YOU would buy if you had somewhere in the neighborhood of $5-10k to spend?

My desires:

• Mixed reef tank
• 100 gal+ display tank with stand
• Equipment all housed in stand
• Branch rock incorporated into my aquascape
• Quarantine tank (at least 10 gal, stand not needed)

Long-term goals:

• Diverse blend of SPS and LPS corals that I can frag
• House an Achilles Tang (will probably require a bigger tank than I can afford now)

COMPLETLY DECKED OUT EVO 13.5 WITH 40 GALLON SUMP AND REFUGIUM. HIGH HIGH END ZOAS AND LPS