whats your must have equipment?

[greg0385]

as most of you all know by now, im still building my tank and this is my first really reef tank. i had a 55gallon for about a year but i only had a few featherdusters and zoas in there with some clowns. so i know and already got a skimmer, went with a swc skimmer. but my question is about these reactors,kalk stirrers and dosers, what kind i live without and what is a must have to keep sps and clams or whatever i need.
thanks again guys for all the help.
greg

 

[Rskillz]

I'd cover the basics before I began to worry about Reactors and such. For me, it comes down to three necessary things to having a great tank; Lighting, flow, filtration. You have filtration covered, so now invest in good lighting (bulbs, reflectors) or good flow (Vortechs).

 

[drainbamage]

Rskilz has it covered- get the basics down good and the others can be purchased 'down the road'.

Without lighting, filtration, and flow- you won't be able to keep the things healthy enough to need the doser/reactor/etc. Exception being if you're thinking of running your carbon in a reactor, in which case it should be lumped into filtration, not 'extra's that make your life easier' like GFO (reduces water changes), Dosers (reduces manual dosing) etc

 

[greg0385]

well i got two hamilton(spell check) 250 watt metal halides, going to buy 4-54watt T5s(2 on each side and one of those being atintics and the other a day light bulb). got a swc skimmer. debating on vortech, they are expensive, my tank is 48"x24x31. would have to go with the mp40s and thats about another 600-700dollars vs using my koralias that i already got.

 

[Captain Nemo]

I am a fan of koralia's, but they cant compare to vortechs. hands down they are pricey, but worth the money... I am saving to get mine now!!!

 

[Paul_N]

well i got two hamilton(spell check) 250 watt metal halides, going to buy 4-54watt T5s(2 on each side and one of those being atintics and the other a day light bulb). got a swc skimmer. debating on vortech, they are expensive, my tank is 48"x24x31. would have to go with the mp40s and thats about another 600-700dollars vs using my koralias that i already got.

There are many successful tanks with Koralias. So it seems you have the big three covered. I would address dosing dosing next and get dosers and even a controller. With all the Jr and lite controllers out there you could get into one a lot cheaper and then just expand down the road. I had a controller and it broke and I can tell you this manual stuff is KILLING ME! lol

 

[swannyson7]

I agree with everyone else that said lighting, flow, and filtration equipment are a must. However, if you feel you have those bases covered adequately, and the decision comes down to reactors,kalk stirrers and dosers, I'd go with dosing pumps. It's easy to set up kalk drip, and you can run GFO & carbon in media bags (albeit less efficient than reactors), but the hastle of daily manual dosing 2 part is a pain. They help provide stability of your Alk & Ca levels for steady growth and it's waaaaay too easy to miss a day of dosing due to a busy schedule.

 

[wakeboardgeek]

Auto Top Off

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I agree with everyone the Flow and Lighting are your two biggest important things to hit. After that ATO, reactors, stirrers etc are not necessary but will help. Personally i can live with out my turkey baster and razor blade!!! LOL

 

[CJO]

Actually, I would go with a heater and controller next. If your heater breaks (and it will), you will have issues. Next, would be an ATO.

CJ

 

[Y-Diver]

Definitely need to add a controller next! Coming from someone who did not have a controller and had a heater malfunction and kill everything... A controller is a must!

 

[VegasRick]

I dont think he is quite finished with filtration, all he has is a skimmer. Need to pick up something to hold gfo and carbon. Lighting looks good. Flow can get expensive with vortechs or tunzes. I have always been a fan of the mj1200 with the wide flow adapter for cheaper phs.
Auto top off would be my next purchase after that. At least in the beginning you can add kw to your top off reservoir and maintain ca and alk and keep sg stable all with one item.

As for controller for heater.. in my 40+ years of keeping aquariums I have never had a heater get stuck on. Have broke a few in the sump though. So go with a titanium one. If you do choose a controller I would go with lite version of an apex or reefkeeper. So you can control several things. Probably going to need a clip on fan for keeping the water cooler. A fan will also increase evaporation so you can add more kw, making the ato even more important.

 

[Rockadile]

for me its a kalk stirrer. It truly has made life much simpler for me.

 

[btkrausen]

For me and my reef, its a controller and a kalk reactor hands down, as they have provided the most benefit to my tank - past the basic three at least.

 

[redtop03]

all good suggestions,all I can add to the list of must haves is a good RO/DI filter

 

[Paul_N]

all good suggestions,all I can add to the list of must haves is a good RO/DI filter

DOH! Good one Willie! I don't know how we could have forgot that one:ooh:. That would be top of my list....:bigsmile:

 

[greg0385]

yeah got to get some new filters, just got my tds meter in and hook to my old rodi and its putting out 3ppm. i do have a RKL that i won at our local frag swap. so dosers and gfo be my next goal i think. got to get some bulbs for 2-250metal halides and might buy some t5 to supplement and atintics. would like to have some t5s to use as day lights for a few hours then turn on the metal halides in the middle of the day for a couple hours then back to the t5s only.