Where do I start? What are the 'must haves' for starting a reef tank?

[death-by-reef]

water

 

[LiverockRocks]

Ocean harvested live rock and live sand, of course!

 

[bakbay]

Unless you're single, having financial and emotional support from your significant other is an absolute must-have for long term success!

 

[Mr Fishface]

A "reef" tank is always going to be more complicated than a more basic "saltwater" tank. While I am sure it's possible to have corals without rock, I have a hard time imagining what that would look like lol.

 

[Fishywish3]

Where do I start? What are the “must haves” for starting a reef tank?

Whether you have a new tank, are thinking about starting a new tank, or have advice for someone with a new tank – what do you have to have to a reef tank? Of course, we all have our preferences – live rock or dry rocks, sand or bare bottom, AIO or sump, refugium or not, and much more, but what do you actually need for starting a reef tank? We may or may not all agree, but let’s talk about it in the discussion thread!

Photo of Eshopps Deskmate by @Premium Aquatics

PATIENCE...PATIENCE...PATIENCE

 

[Spicy Reef]

I don't know about this list... saltwater...?
maybe it's the question to begin with...
how about
what item on this list could you do w/o?







"mechanical filter"
because live rock is enough IMHO

 

[Gatorpa]

I’d argue true live rock is the best way for success overall.
But then again I’m biased as year ago there was no bottle bacteria and I could start a tank and have coral one growing in 2-3 weeks with good live rock and lights.

 

[reefiniteasy]

If you’re married, a supportive wife makes it easier. Mine wasn’t at first. It took awhile. She is finally accepting and even takes some interest from time to time.

 

[RKeenan]

Patience, patience and more patience with progress of your setup as well as the ever dwindling supply of $!

 

[FrugalReefer]

Patience should be a mandatory prerequisite before even thinking about starting a reef tank.

 

[Trill14n]

So… recently started my first aquarium and was more involved than I initially expected. My shopping list if I were to start over:

1. Tank (duh…)
2. Stand. I’m a diy enthusiast so made my own but didn’t realize how big a requirement this was.
3. Sump, at least to get the heaters and filters out of view.
4. Pump
5. Power heads
6. Overflow box
7. Tubing + Connectors + Tube clamps. Make sure matched with pump… Tubing is much easier than pipes. Starting out keep it simple.
8. Sand (optional I suppose)
9. Rock (I assume non optional)
10. Heater. Size for tank.
11. Test kit(s)
12. RODI. Not *essential* but for anything large you’re gonna spend a ton at the LFS and lug a ton (possibly literally…) of water back and forth. Don’t forget any extra tubing needed for getting waste out.
13. Net.
14. Clip on Acclimation Tank
15. Airline tube for acclimation
16. Some sort of hood
17. pH tester
18. Refractometer
19. Salt. Should be with RODI above but forgot and don’t want to renumber.
20. 5 gallon bucket. IMO 3
21. Small power head for mixing water
22. Lights (essential for corals, not *essential* for fish.
23. Filter socks + holder. If making a DIY dump make sure it’s sized for the holder…
24. Tubing for siphoning for water changes
25. Multi-plug, pref with GFCI. You’ll prob need two by the time you have all power heads, heaters, pumps, etc plugged in.

Maybe not essential but very very handy:

1. Heater controller with Wi-Fi. I got this on a whim and it saved my fish when we were away for thanksgiving and the heaters couldn’t keep up with the house heating turned too far down. The alert allowed me to get a neighbor to come round to turn heating up.

2. Small backup tank/quarantine tank/hospital tank.

3. Refugium light.

4. If at all possible have the sump in/above a waterproof “bath” in case of overflow. Also helps reduce splash issues during maintenance. This saved my floor when I learned about “siphons” while setting up my tank and turned the pump off.

5. Water addititives/treatments - Prazi/Metro/Prime

6. Quarantine meds (copper)

7. Some PVC connectors for QT

Things I’d skip:

1. Tried DIY dry rock. This was a very time consuming waste of time, especially as the savings were marginal over store bought dry rock.

2. If first tank skip the hard plumbing. Pipes, valves, connectors, pvc cement, etc etc are time consuming and really add up. IMO go soft plumbed with tubing. Very quick. Very easy. Unlike many things in this hobby it’s very cheap.

NOTE: Some of these are small. Like a few bucks a piece. But lots of $5-10 items really start to add up… as I’m sure y’all found out. But better to get them all at once rather than between 20 separate driving trips.

Thanks so much for the insight. I don’t have a tank yet. Would like to in the future and threads like this one is why I’m here.

 

[MnFish1]

Where do I start? What are the “must haves” for starting a reef tank?

Whether you have a new tank, are thinking about starting a new tank, or have advice for someone with a new tank – what do you have to have to a reef tank? Of course, we all have our preferences – live rock or dry rocks, sand or bare bottom, AIO or sump, refugium or not, and much more, but what do you actually need for starting a reef tank? We may or may not all agree, but let’s talk about it in the discussion thread!

Photo of Eshopps Deskmate by @Premium Aquatics

OK - kind of a joke - but I think you could have removed 'tank/container' and 'saltwater' from the choices... I'm also surprised that 100% of people have not voted for them

 

[Beazy]

Such a loaded question!! I honestly would say the ability to research, patience, have realistic expectations and not to get caught up with all the fancy gear.

I don’t think you really need a lot of cash to get started. I feel like most of us go ham with controllers, best in class gear, all the magical cure liquid supplements etc. This includes myself. When I started I got a nice fat beefy skimmer and also tried out so many different kind of equipment that I don’t even use now. Ironically the most success that I’m having is now and I have minimalist equipment controlled by an apex. I don’t even run that $400 dollar skimmer I bought lol

When I see people start, they’re looking at trying to build a crazy wall to wall SPS style tank with all of these nice big exotic fish. I was definitely one of them and like I said, prob put like roughly 10k into my reef so far and I’m still not there (had to move and I decided to restart with a bigger tank).

If you started slow, got some clownfish, maybe a second hand tank or something smaller that one 5g bucket is sufficient for a weekly water change and went softies or lps… so much of that high end gear is just not needed. You can then slowly scale yourself to get there and it just so much cheaper. Especially when you got people like me selling like new products at 60-75% of their retail price because you felt like this piece of equipment is the answer but it turns out it wasn’t.

Back to the original topic. If I started all over again, I would have wanted my past self to…

1. go wild in this forum with questions as well as looking at other members tanks.
2. Start a build thread and gather a stocking list. I still regret not having one
3. Get help in your thread with your list. Now the challenging part, what do I need to purchase for these new pets
4. Does my list jibe with what I can afford realistically?
5. If yes, START SLOW. I’d get the tank, substrate, salt, power head and rocks and fire it up. I did a NSA scape in my current build and loved it. That being said, it’s much pricier and I would have wanted an idea of the cost in step 4.
6. Figure out your filtration. This trial and error is where I prob spent about 1.5k on solutions to figure out. This one is a bit challenging and I feel as though you’ll spend a good chunk of research on this. I think my final solution ran me about $180 dollar. Which was a fuge light, carbon, 2 marine pure bricks, Phosphate resin media and organic resin media
7. stock slowly month by month. It’ll be more costly( multiple tricks to the store, multiple shipping costs) but you’ll be happier. I dumped in about 15 fish month 1. Didn’t lose any, but instead lost a few corals due to nutrient and bacteria spikes
8. I think the last step I’d give myself is to not sleep on the wonders of Phyto and copepods.

sorry I went on a mini rant, just been seeing so many people complain about prices recently. Yes inflation is high af, but I feel like what I see here is a lot of people including myself wanting to go from 0 to 100 and using money is an accelerator to do so. It also doesn’t help that a lot sites like BRS or Algae Barn for example, offer some of the best information in the hobby but also sell products that flow with said information. I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just tough when you might not know anything else. Without BRS 5 minute guides, I would have prob spent half of what I did in the hobby to date buuut, I might not even be in the hobby at all if I didn’t see them when I was shopping for a replacement tank for my freshwater setup

 

[Nemo&Friends]

One of my vote was other as I did not see heater listed.

 

[Privateye]

I put everything except for livestock, light, and "other". Technically you can have a stable reef tank without those. I guess you don't need saltwater either since there are freshwater reefs, but you need some sort of water so I included it. A tank with no structure is technically not a reef, but it doesn't have to be rock.

 

[Aspect]

Tank is optional

 

[vetteguy53081]

One I remember using way back:

How to Start a Saltwater Reef Tank (with Pictures) - wikiHow Pet

A saltwater reef tank can be a gorgeous addition to your home. Many people enjoy watching the slow movement and bright colors of corals and saltwater fish, such as royal gamma and blue green chromis. Starting a saltwater reef tank is labor...

www.wikihow.pet

 

[Ashish Patel]

Kind of a bone head question Then again I tell my wife there is no bad questions just answers, She tell me otherwise.

The must haves are "Do your research well in advance before starting a reef tank"

 

[Kittypowpow]

Money. Lots of money.

haha so dang true.... I've never known a money pit like a salt water aquarium!

 

[Kittypowpow]

Where do I start? What are the “must haves” for starting a reef tank?

Whether you have a new tank, are thinking about starting a new tank, or have advice for someone with a new tank – what do you have to have to a reef tank? Of course, we all have our preferences – live rock or dry rocks, sand or bare bottom, AIO or sump, refugium or not, and much more, but what do you actually need for starting a reef tank? We may or may not all agree, but let’s talk about it in the discussion thread!

Photo of Eshopps Deskmate by @Premium Aquatics

This might be way late in the game but........ not fine grain sand.... against all advice I started with oolite sand and am trying to figure how how to replace it.... although the oolite is beautiful and all, if you have ANY flow (like literally any) don't use it unless you want your rocks completely dusted in sand.... all the time... every time I clean the glass, clean rocks, or let the water fill at more than a drip, sand goes EVERYWHERE!!!! So DO get sand that is heavier grained than oolite!