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Best Beginners Setup


Fmxmatt

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Hiyas,

I'm looking at upgrading to a Marine setup. Have had tropical fish for years and am keen to give Marine a go. I understand its very expensive and time consuming. I accept these terms and conditions and wish to continue haha :)

My question is, do I go out and buy an all in 1 marine setup? (I think i've seen the Red Sea setups for about $2k) or do I attempt to have a go with my Jewel Rekord 80? As i've read, the smaller the tank, the harder it is. I'm quite happy to sell up my Rekord 80 to help fund the proper setup, but just want to make sure that its a sensible idea.

Keen to start with just a couple of clown fish and a couple of corals, hence why I am asking if my Rekord 80 will be any good to start with, then upgrade later?

Can anyone suggest a certain setup that contains everything except live rock/coral/livestock? I think organism in CHCH have the Red Sea setups, but until i'm fully funded I dont really want to start looking (otherwise it will become an impulse buy haha)

Cheers

Matt :)

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Hiya Matt,

IMO it comes down to what you want out of the setup. If you want something that is easy and convenient to setup then perhaps the All-in-1 may do the trick. If you think you may be more into the hands on and how to make things better,etc...in other words dont mind exploring, you may find setting up your own tank much more rewarding and exciting and possibly get a better and\or bigger setup for that amount.

I dived into this without doing too much research and I'm kicking myself as to what kind of setup I could have had now with the same amount of money I've spent. 2k is alot of money to invest and as this hobby teaches you patients, it may pay to dig a little before you regret anything.

These links may help: http://www.reefs.org/library/newbieguide.html

http://www.fishlore.com/reeftanksetup.htm

Others may share their experiences which may help...

Hope this helps :) and good luck!!

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The red sea set up would be the best way to start as you don’t have to do much and $2K is cheap. Just have to add rock and stock.

If you get the reef bug then you can sell the red sea tank and go bigger and by this time you would have learnt a lot.

The red sea units are nice and tidy and easy on the eye.

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You basically have 4 options when it come to going to the darkside-

a)build your own (hands on)

b)buy a new all in one system (like redsea's),

c)buy second hand. (there have been a few for sale in CHCH this year),

d)don't go marine, just visit other people tanks (looking is free)

It really depends on you.

I have just added the first fish to my marine tank (I went option a), when I decided to go marine I went with the recommended beginners size of 4ft (300Lish) but with a 90L sump.

I've welded my stand together, got a tank made, converted my old Aqua-one 620 into a sump, bought a good second hand skimmer (deltec), purchased 2x metal halide lamps reflectors and electronic ballasts, got the metal frame powder-coated and a kitchen cabinet maker to close it in. Also purchased a return pump and a couple of tunze nanos and plumbing bits

That cost about $2600

Test Gear - Refractometer, PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Calcium, Alkalinty, Magnesium Not much change from $300

Something to look at in tank - 35kg live rock, 10 mushrooms, 12 coral frags, 10 snails, 2 clownfish + 1 firefish. About $500

And my tank looks empty!

My advice is to do research, have a big think about it, and go with whatever option suits you.

Anyhow, good luck with your decision making

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I'm not a big fan of a "kitset with everything" because thye usually are poorly equiped in order to keep the cost down.

However I was at Hollywood North Shore today and saw one of those Red Sea complete systems, set up, and with fish and coral in it. It was priced just over $2,000.00.

I had a look under the hood and it is equiped with a skimmer that seems to work well, plus everything else needed, and it looked very attractive, it would definately be a show stopper if you had one in the lounge. I was impressed and would recommend it.

Couple of things to be aware, it only had 2 smallish fish in it, and is not a tank that could take much more than that. There are many types of coral that will grow very happily in it, but space will be an issue for certain ones such as ones that spread out & sting other corals.

But bottom line the tank is properly equiped and can be a high quality marine display.

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Thanks Wasp, good to know. I was actually offered one of them yesterday for $1750, almost too good to give up at that price, but unfortunatly i'm a couple of months away from having the coin :(

Might look at something a bit bigger aswel. Anyone know where I should be looking in CHC? (A place with tanks and sumps)

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matt - One option might be to go with getting stuff "custom", and buying stuff as you can afford it.. IE, buy the tank, stand, rocks, and a return pump. (And a large warehouse fish bin) (and salt)

Next week - Get the heater, lights, and a return pump, and some plumbing bits

Week after - Get a sump, get a circulation pump

Week after - Skimmer

Week after - probably more lighting.

This way, you can start to plan stuff, and not go, wow, i'm 2k in the hole instantly :P

Also means that you can pick up some uber special stuff from TM while waiting.

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Not a bad idea that actually. It was just due to lack of experience that I was going to go with the all in 1 kit. Whats a 200L tank with Sump worth these days?

I'm paid monthly too which sux a bit, hense why the $2k in 1 hit wasn't so much a big deal for me (would just take 2 months to save)

I'll do some research on here tonight about all of the bits and pieces I need to get. Only problem is, with so many brands and types available of skimmers etc, it'll be hard to know which is going to be the right one for me. I guess buying the tank first is the best option? That way I can get equipment to suit.

Cheers

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discuss on here how you will be setting it up (overflow type, returns etc) and the guys here can give you info on how it'll work or if it can be done better. its better to get this all organised before getting a custom tank made up. nothing worse then going back to get something done that would've been easier (and often cheaper) getting it done the 1st time.

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for a good beginners tank i would reccommend 3ft with lots of front to back space. big enough to do some decent rockwork and so the parameters are stabler, but not so big that Its is a mission to look after or expensive (equipment-wise)

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Cheers, will go have a look in a few of the pet stores this weekend and see what they've got. Thinking about it, i'd much prefer something bigger (like the Hagen ones above). No doubt i'll have more questions after I've had a look :)

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Hey Matt,

Have a look at these links, I learnt a bit from here... helps to look at other reefers setups to understand how it all fits together. If you're going to build yourself then you really need to understand pluming, over flows, flowrate and sumps\refugiums. I'm in the process of upgrading and doing alot of research.

These are just 2 links that could be of use :)

http://www.melevsreef.com/tanks.html

http://www.muzzys-reef.co.uk/

If you can, visit some local guys and have a look at their tank setups too...man I learn heaps then...tis when you can ask questions and understand more how things work :)

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Hi All

So went out and looked at a few tanks today. Pretty certain I can pick up something decent sized for about $1000. Only problem is, there were NONE that had prebuilt sumps in them (Even Critter Kingdom on Stanmore road were trying to sell that Red Sea unit I was considering without all the stuff with it)

Can you actually find tanks with sumps all ready to go?

A couple of the decent sized tanks had holes in the stand but not in the glass. Is it as simple as drilling a hole in the bottom of the tank? (I would've assumed drilling the bottom was wrong?)

This has lead me to my first decent research point, all about the sump. Can anyone direct me to a good site or can explain exactly how to setup a sump?

Also, what was a little offputting was seeing alot of marine tanks in the stores which had that brown algae over anything that wasn't live, it was even on the glass. This just simple stuff like the tropical green algae?

Girlfriend nearly had me going the way of Turtles... I thought it was a good idea and was nearly convinced, but after a couple of hours my mindset was straight back to Marine! lol

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go for a 2nd hand sump, tank, n stand. there's a couple in chch on trademe. just checked that now. there's a 5'x2'x2' with rimu stand and sump which looks fairly decent. also a 4'x2'x2' with stand and hood. both tanks would be an excellent start to a marine system and they both have overflows.

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