Getting the saltwater itch

[drgibby]

I haven't had a tank in forever it feels like.  So much has happened.  The wife is back from school, we bought a house, and my daughter will be turning one!  Were talking about doing a new addition to the house and i figured what better time to plan a new tank into it.  Im not sure on the size i know i dont want anything less then 25 gallons but really dont want anything to big.  What are all your thoughts on the different tanks available and the pros and cons on tanks and going big or small.  

[debbeach13]

Welcome back. Are you thinking about an AIO tank?

[drgibby]

I like the simplicity of AIO, but i kinda want the hobby not to eat to much time.  figured with a bigger tank i wouldnt' have worry about small fluctuations.  Also bigger tanks take up more space and cost more money$$  i see pros and cons to both. It might be just what i find first 

[Groot]

I'm recently back from a long absent relearning a lot, I use to have a tank with a sump but now I have a AIO from waterbox 35.2 . I didn't want anything with a sump because of all the equipment I use, It stores much neater with out a sump. I know there are big pros with a sump. But anyways there is nothing wrong with small tanks.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

Maybe it's a good idea to camp and wait for a Petco aquarium sale? The sale isn't quite what it used to be since it is no longer dollar per gallon but just half off sticker price. Is there an LFS that takes on used set ups and you can purchase one? 

 

Based on what you're looking for 29 gallon+ might what you're in the market for. 

[Clown79]

All in one tanks are the easiest. Pretty much plug n play. 

 

Never had a separate sump tank because it was always more work/equipment i ever wanted.

 

Had set ups with hob filters, pretty easy too but one more thing to take apart and clean regularly.

 

All in one, vacuumed the back chambers of detritus 1 time a month, pump ever 4 mnths. 

The back chambers are a sump just much smaller water volume.

[MortalWombat]

Just don't get the saltwater ich! If you are more into fish and stony corals, I would say go as big as you are comfortable with. A big volume of water is much easier to keep stable in a high nutrient load/ high calcification rate type of tank. Now if your interests are more on the soft coral/ low maintenance side, you can get away with a much smaller tank very easily. It really comes down to how much work/ automation are you willing to invest in the tank to keep it stable. You can grow SPS in one gallon, but it will be much more likely to experience problems than a bigger tank. 

[drgibby]

On 10/5/2021 at 11:49 AM, MortalWombat said:

Just don't get the saltwater ich! If you are more into fish and stony corals, I would say go as big as you are comfortable with. A big volume of water is much easier to keep stable in a high nutrient load/ high calcification rate type of tank. Now if your interests are more on the soft coral/ low maintenance side, you can get away with a much smaller tank very easily. It really comes down to how much work/ automation are you willing to invest in the tank to keep it stable. You can grow SPS in one gallon, but it will be much more likely to experience problems than a bigger tank. 

I think that was part of my problem before. I liked my sps and maintenance in a 10gallon wasn’t impossible just time consuming 

[mcarroll]

On 10/4/2021 at 4:47 PM, drgibby said:

I like the simplicity of AIO, but i kinda want the hobby not to eat to much time.  figured with a bigger tank i wouldnt' have worry about small fluctuations.  Also bigger tanks take up more space and cost more money$$  i see pros and cons to both. It might be just what i find first 

I like my 125 Gallon DIY AIO.  Simple.  Large.  Two fish and a bunch of corals.

 

Corals are easy.  Fish are hard.  A coral-only tank is the easiest thing since sliced bread.  Even stony corals are simple if you have a doser.

 

"Easy"/"Hard" doesn't really scale up/down with tank size very much until you're talking about tanks so big you have to use SCUBA gear to clean or so small you could use it as a coffee cup.

 

It's mostly about what you keep and how you keep it that determines how easy a tank will be to take care of.

 

Most newbs, usually due to bad advice, take the hard road – starting with fish, thinking that corals are difficult – when the opposite approach would be better.

 

 

[drgibby]

Most likely will start as a coral only tank ricordias, zoas, sps, and acans. When the baby gets older I’m sure she will want

 some fish but I just miss the corals and lights

[M. Tournesol]

12 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Most newbs, usually due to bad advice, take the hard road – starting with fish, thinking that corals are difficult – when the opposite approach would be better.

I am interested by your comment. Why would fish be more complex and why starting with fish is a bad idea? Would a tank support corals just after the setup? 
This could be a good starting methodology which may imply longer cycling of the tank if you want to add fishes as corals wouldn't support big dose of ammonia.

But this methodology would be lot less frustrating than one month of rock and sand.

[mcarroll]

6 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

Would a tank support corals just after the setup? 

The question is why wouldn't it?  👍 Grow your own live rock!

 

Incidentally, I've literally got pounds and pounds of dead coral skeleton that I've grown over the years (10+)....if all that material was left in place rather than me continually harvesting it out of the tank, it would form a reef more than twice the size of what's in my tank today.  Instead of a 125 Gallon, depending how you stack it up, I'd need 400-500 gallons to house all that reef!  My tank is presently only showing "the tip of the iceberg" if you take the meaning.   🙂

 

[drgibby]

So I’m thinking simplicity of aio is best for me what are the better aio I know if IM…I think size of tank will be determined by price. Don’t want to spend more then 1000 on a tank

[M. Tournesol]

Waterbox peninsula mini 25?

[M. Tournesol]

10 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

Waterbox peninsula mini 25?

Oops, I forgot the "more than 25 gallon" request.

 

[mcarroll]

Whatever tank you want to buy combined with a Tunze Reefpack for skimmer, filter and ATO.  (That's my DIY AIO....I picked a 125 Gallon tank....they make gear for all sizes of tank tho.)

[mcarroll]

55 minutes ago, drgibby said:

So I’m thinking simplicity of aio is best for me what are the better aio I know if IM…I think size of tank will be determined by price. Don’t want to spend more then 1000 on a tank

Pet Smart has 125 Gallon combo's (tank stand and lights) for sale around $700, maybe less.   That's what I have (but got the setup used).

[drgibby]

Can you send links.

 

[drgibby]

I could do 25 but it would be the minimum…I thinking 30-50 though @teenyreef do you still have corals for me when I ready?

[mcarroll]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Pet Smart has 125 Gallon combo's (tank stand and lights) for sale around $700, maybe less.   That's what I have (but got the setup used).

 

36 minutes ago, drgibby said:

Can you send links.

 

https://www.tunze.com/US/en/details/0250.000-comlineR-reefpack-250.html

 

There's a larger model Reefpack and a smaller one....all three kits are slightly different due to the intended tank sizes for each.

 

(You can buy all the gear separately that's included in these kits, BTW.)

 

https://www.petsmart.com/fish/tanks-aquariums-and-nets/aquariums/top-fin-led-aquarium-and-stand-ensemble---125-gallon-63807.html

Listed at $499 presently....good deal!!

 

(This is what I'm using my Reefpack 500 in.  Tho my stand is slightly different cuz it's older.)

[M. Tournesol]

The tunze reef pack for a 125 gallon is this one https://www.tunze.com/US/en/details/0500.000-reefpack-500.html at 680$.

8 hours ago, mcarroll said:

This is what I'm using my Reefpack 500 in.

@mcarroll seem to be using it.

8 hours ago, mcarroll said:

https://www.tunze.com/US/en/details/0250.000-comlineR-reefpack-250.html

The above link at 240$ is for 60 to 250 liters (15 to 65 USgal.). 

[blasterman]

On 10/9/2021 at 1:45 PM, M. Tournesol said:

I am interested by your comment. Why would fish be more complex and why starting with fish is a bad idea? Would a tank support corals just after the setup? 
This could be a good starting methodology which may imply longer cycling of the tank if you want to add fishes as corals wouldn't support big dose of ammonia.

But this methodology would be lot less frustrating than one month of rock and sand.

Corals don't care about cycling. Ammonia levels don't bother corals because they dont breath oxygen. 

 

What hurts corals is all the nutrient swings as tanks mature amplified by noobs solving all issues by water changes. 

 

I'm not a fan of smaller all in ones because they do everything half ass. 

 

 

[mcarroll]

On 10/9/2021 at 1:45 PM, M. Tournesol said:

I am interested by your comment. Why would fish be more complex and why starting with fish is a bad idea? Would a tank support corals just after the setup? 
This could be a good starting methodology which may imply longer cycling of the tank if you want to add fishes as corals wouldn't support big dose of ammonia.

But this methodology would be lot less frustrating than one month of rock and sand.

I don't think I intended to just answer that part about the corals earlier without regard for the rest of the post...not sure what happened there. 🤷‍♂️. Full answer; post haste...

 

Fish are less self-sufficient than corals is the simplest answer to the rest.  

 

Corals are only "difficult" in fairly predictable (for us, now in 2021) ways and can require almost zero feeding under favorable conditions.  

 

On the other side, fish are always difficult in surprising ways...only some of which are only semi-predictable (eg. personality type, susceptibility to disease, etc)...and they require the highest levels of feeding.

 

When you add onto this the fact that corals have a stabilizing effect on their environment, and the their environment has a stabilizing effect on fish....it doesn't really make sense to do it the other way.  

 

A tank without a reef (keeping to our context) is the least stable body of water possible....arguably the worst place for a fish; definitely the worst place for a fish that is fresh off the UPS truck.

 

Doesn't it makes sense to start a tank with live rock (and all that entails), then coral, then fish?