Need help to setup my 1st marine tank

[o2bubble]

Hi all, I'm new and thinking of setting up a 4ft marine reef tank for my new house next year. Will need some advise on what are the equipments that I will need. These are the basic configurations I can think of so far, can please advise what others I will need?

1. 4 ft braceless tank with sump

2. 4 ft MH light set with 2 x 150w 10000k bulbs

3. 1/3 hp Artica chiller

4. Protein skimmer (any good brand to recommend?)

Thanks!

[Solo77]

welcome bro. It will be good to advice what do you intend to keep...fish only or coral only or both fish and coral and what type of coral. : )

[foocha]

Hi all, I'm new and thinking of setting up a 4ft marine reef tank for my new house next year. Will need some advise on what are the equipments that I will need. These are the basic configurations I can think of so far, can please advise what others I will need?

1. 4 ft braceless tank with sump

2. 4 ft MH light set with 2 x 150w 10000k bulbs

3. 1/3 hp Artica chiller

4. Protein skimmer (any good brand to recommend?)

Thanks!

bro what is the depth of the tank?

if its 2ft n above i suggest u get 250w mh, especially if u intend on keeping sps. i tried 150w but the colors arent so vibrant.

and for your tank, what is the thickness of your glass? if its thinner than 12mm then i suggest u better get bracing. the worst thing u want is glass cracking or leaking water... saltwater is much denser then normal fresh...

u will also most prob need a good calcium reactor... dosing will be tedious n a 4 ft tank with its inhabitants will need quite abit of supplements.

u should plan your equipment list and then plan your sump layout.

do u want a qt or refuge tank?

skimmer if u got $$ then go for deltec or bubble king....reef octopus also not bad actually... and also cheaper then the first 2 brands i mentioned.

u will also need some good wavemakers...

gd brands are.......drumrole.......

tunze

vortec...

both will burn a deeeeeeeeeeeeep hole in your pockets but are really goood. low watt consumption but will make fishies swirl...

cheers

[foocha]

also very important is your return pump..

i suggest u get ehiem brand. german technology...

energy eficient and very reliable.

for 4 ft u will need at least ehiem 1262 or stronger..

better to have 1 super powerful return pump that can feed all your other items ( chiller, skimmer, cr ) then dozens of smaller pumps.

[dnsfpl]

is FR necessary?

[Solo77]

depends....but many snr reefers are not using them as their tanks have matured with enough bacterias to act as FR....in my opinion, for new tank and non matured tank, it is necessary....

[o2bubble]

Thanks all for the advises, as a summary, this is the updated list of equipments:

1. 4x2x2 ft 12mm braceless tank with sump

2. 4 ft MH light set with 2 x 250w 10000k bulbs

3. 1/3 hp Artica chiller

4. Protein skimmer (deltec or bubble king)

5. Calcium reacter

6. Wavemakers (Tunze)

7. Return pumps (ehiem 1262 or stronger)

Any other things I missed out? thanks for all the kind advises to help me plan for the new tank!

[Solo77]

bro, you may want to include kalkwasser reactor, denitrator, some monitoring device such as Ph, etc. For your lighting, you may want to have some T5 to supplement the blue spectrum of your tank....also a refugium is good for your setup. Just my 2 cents worth opinion. Good start for you. Lastly, your return, can consider red dragon pump if you want strong and energy efficient pump.....

[o2bubble]

Sorry, what's a KR for? Removing sulphur? Is it really neccessary? Pardon me but I'm really a newbie in marine tanks!

Also, a refugium can be a compartment in the sump or extra tank... actually hope to have everything in a single cabinet below the main tanks. If within the sump, should be ok to include.

For T5, I think I likely will get the set that comes with 4xT5 tubes. Any recomendations for the type of T5 tubes?

bro, you may want to include kalkwasser reactor, denitrator, some monitoring device such as Ph, etc. For your lighting, you may want to have some T5 to supplement the blue spectrum of your tank....also a refugium is good for your setup. Just my 2 cents worth opinion. Good start for you. Lastly, your return, can consider red dragon pump if you want strong and energy efficient pump.....

[Solo77]

KR is good to stablise yr ph if you are using CR. denitrator helps to lower yr no level...especially if you are a fish lover....for refugium, since yours is a 4ft, possible to include in your sump or a standalone tank which linked to your sump...for T5, you can use artinic and blue pro, etc. For T5 tubes....think ati or Gissemen are widely used....for your lightset to have mh and t5....maybe you can consider infiniti lightset....neat and nice.....

[Vlamingi_cont]

Hi all, I'm new and thinking of setting up a 4ft marine reef tank for my new house next year. Will need some advise on what are the equipments that I will need. These are the basic configurations I can think of so far, can please advise what others I will need?

1. 4 ft braceless tank with sump

2. 4 ft MH light set with 2 x 150w 10000k bulbs

3. 1/3 hp Artica chiller

4. Protein skimmer (any good brand to recommend?)

Thanks!

Ans to 3... Not bad a choice ...

Ans to 4... Skimmers can try brand like hydor or skimz

[Solo77]

yr skimmer choice of either deltec or bubble king is good and think you won't regret in its performance and also after sales service.