Building my first Nano-Reef Tank on a budget

[NeverBeenEasier]

Hello! New to the community. I am making this post pre-emptively just to get a general idea about the costs and time requirements.

 

I am currently eyeing a 7.5 gallon cube and was thinking of making a nano-reef tank out of this. I want to do an all-in-one so I was going to build out the system myself with some black corrugated plastic, silicon, and some handywork. 

 

I have some non-live sand lying around which I plan to use. From my understanding, this shouldn't cause much of an issue regardless -  just that it will take a bit longer to cycle. 

 

I'll have to grab some lights, heaters, pump, and live rock for the set-up. If anyone has any cheap recommendations for any of those, that would be appreciated. 

 

Would the flow coming out of the pump itself be sufficient? Or do I need to grab a separate powerhead? For such a small tank, I didn't think so but wanted to confirm. 

 

When it comes to stocking a tank like this, I was thinking of 10 cleanup crew members mixed up between shrimp and snails. I would like to add a fish or two. 

 

Now, the most expensive component of this tank I feel like will be the corals themselves. Are there any cheap corals and relatively hardy corals that I could buy from places like aquasd?

 

Lastly, water testing. I really don't want to have to test so frequently. Realistically, how often should I be testing? If I did 50% water changes once a week would that cut down testing requirements? For a 7.5 gallon, I don't think multiple 100% water changes every week is possible for me to completely removing the water testing requirement. 

 

Thanks!

[seabass]

Welcome to Nano-Reef.com.

 

You might consider a KINGBO LED bulb as a cheap light for a 7.5 gallon.  I like the idea of a second powerhead for flow redundancy.

 

You might want to check out my testing article:  https://www.nano-reef.com/articles/beginners/water-parameters-what-to-test-and-when-r40/

 

[NeverBeenEasier]

What are your thoughts on the ABI Par 38 bulb. It's in a similar price range and just want to get your thoughts. 

[seabass]

I think that I kind of like the spectrum of the KINGBO a little better (less blue).  But people have used ABI before too.  It's a personal preference thing.

 

You might also want to look at something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08D7D4DN8/

But I'm sure there are even other choices for a budget light.  I haven't looked very closely lately.