coming back into hobby after long time

james1967

New Member
hi everyone james here nice to meet you all , finally after a few years in the wilderness im finally getting back to the hobby seems lot has changed lol anyway im 52 years young and about to set up new tank looking at 7ft length x 2 ft width x 2ft height reef tank
anyone with any suggestions on best place to have made , any suggestions on equipment would be happy to hear from you obviously once i get this all sorted will start to post the build hopefully very soon
 

DaveK

Well-Known Member
I would suggest that before you set up a tank that large, you first set up a smaller pilot system, and use it to work out any issues first. Then scale it up to the larger system.

This is typically what industry does when they have a process working in the lab. They know that it's very difficult and sometimes very expensive to go from the lab to full production. They first build a pilot plant to work out problems and issues and then build the large full production plant.

You going to find that there are quite a few things that you might want to do differently. Lighting, filtration and such will vary quite a bit depending upon what you want to keep in the system.

For the pilot system, I suggest something about 70 - 90 gal.

As for having a custom tank built, this can get very expensive. Before you do that check out the larger tanks offered by the usual manufacturers. Sometimes if your willing to take something a little smaller you can save a ton of money. That being said, it's also true that the tank is one of the less expensive things in the hobby.

Good luck with your project.
 

PSU4ME

JoePa lives on!!!
Staff member
PREMIUM
If you went the pilot tank route you could buy equipment you’d carry over and in most instances you’ll take 100% with you. That’s always a selling point of mine with my wife!
 
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