I need help to get this 75 gallon tank setup.

[Flaka26]

I just got this tank and I need help getting it setup. The tank looks basically like this one.

basically just a stand, tank and canopy. the tank is not drilled or predrilled (not sure of the proper terminology). they said they had it setup as salt and then made it fresh. it came with this Emperor Power Filter which they said they used on the saltwater setup. Can this be used?

I'm not familiar as I have a 8 gallon biocube and have seen only wet/dry or refugiums on large tanks like this one. I believe its either 70 or 75 gallons (48" X 18" X 21 or 20")

What do I need to get it going?

 

[DaveK]

If your going to set this up as a SW reef system, you might as well throw out the Emperor power filter and the existing lighting.

In short, your going to need a full complete filtration system, including some sort of overflow, sump, skimmer, and optionally a refugium. Your also going to need some sort of decent lighting, either a 4 or 6 bulb T5 system or an LED system. You will likely need some sort of circulation pumps too.

As you can see, this stuff is not going to be cheep. In fact, the tank and stand even if you bought it new are among the least expensive components.

Once you have the equipment, you'll also need about 70 pounds of live rock, or dry base rock.

If you don't have one yet, an RO/DI unit is highly desirable.

Figure out the totals here, and see if it's going to be worth it for you. If it breaks you budget, consider setting up as something else.

As usual I recommend only getting top quality equipment. It will last, and you will not need to replace it.

Now I could tell you what I would add, but it's a bit soon for that. First give some thought as to what you want to keep in the tank. To some extent this drives the equipment selection.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Pretty tank - with some additions Dave ^ talked about it would be lovely !

 

[Flaka26]

If your going to set this up as a SW reef system, you might as well throw out the Emperor power filter and the existing lighting.

In short, your going to need a full complete filtration system, including some sort of overflow, sump, skimmer, and optionally a refugium. Your also going to need some sort of decent lighting, either a 4 or 6 bulb T5 system or an LED system. You will likely need some sort of circulation pumps too.

As you can see, this stuff is not going to be cheep. In fact, the tank and stand even if you bought it new are among the least expensive components.

Once you have the equipment, you'll also need about 70 pounds of live rock, or dry base rock.

If you don't have one yet, an RO/DI unit is highly desirable.

Figure out the totals here, and see if it's going to be worth it for you. If it breaks you budget, consider setting up as something else.

As usual I recommend only getting top quality equipment. It will last, and you will not need to replace it.

Now I could tell you what I would add, but it's a bit soon for that. First give some thought as to what you want to keep in the tank. To some extent this drives the equipment selection.

Yea I thought the power filter would be trash since I has never seen a SW tank setup with one.

Can I setup a FOWLR tank first with less equipment and start getting the other items little by little?

 

[Flaka26]

Pretty tank - with some additions Dave ^ talked about it would be lovely !

Thank you I hope to build it into a nice setup. Will probably have to start with a FOWLR setup and start accumulating all the equipment to have a reef eventually.

 

[DaveK]

Yea I thought the power filter would be trash since I has never seen a SW tank setup with one.

Can I setup a FOWLR tank first with less equipment and start getting the other items little by little?

If all your every going to want is a FOWLR tank, you could set that up for less money, because you are not going to need the same sort of lighting you would on a reef. However, your still going to want some decent lighting on the tank.

If you later on wanted a reef system, you'd have to upgrade the existing lighting, so your about back where you started.

As for filtration, you'd be more or less the same either way, so the savings would be minimal there.

All that being said, go back to what you ultimatly want to keep in the tank, and plan for that.

Also consider that you need not buy all new equipment. Many people construct their own sump out of another tank. This can be a much less expensive way to go. You also might find some bargains on lighting from people that upgrade their lighting and are selling off the old fixtures.

 

[sirrealism]

Flaka As a fellow FL guy I can tell you there are some great reef clubs in FL. I think the one in Miami is called FMAS.
Florida Marine Aquarium Society (FMAS) - Miami/Ft. Lauderd
Getting involved with a reef club is a great way to get well taken care of used equipment. I belong to TBRC and I buy and sell a lot of good used reef equipment and corals within the club.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=235 Now you will find a lot of issues with RC if your a nooby and there is a lot of bickering on that forum which is why I love RS everyone is very friendly here. But for finding good deals on stuff I say that a local club is by far the best. Example I was looking for some more flow for a couple of my tank 2 days ago when one of my buddys from the club was selling 2 Jebeo wp40s and 1 wp25. I got all 3 pumps for 75$ they had only been used for a couple months. New it would have been about 175$ for them. Last week I had been looking for a sump for my 300g build and got a 125g 6' tank in a trade for a 55g that someone needed for a sump and a little help with his pluming. Both tanks were scratched but since they are sumps who cares. I almost never buy corals now from the LFS or online since we have frag auctions at meetings and also reefers post corals and frags on the forum. I also dont buy fish from the LFS much anymore because of the club.
I will say this to anyone who will read it. If there is a local club in your town or close to you. Get involved. Its a lot of fun. There are great deals to be had and its nice to meet others with the same hobby. Plus last week I found out through the club that my county was doing a big chlorine wash of the pipes which means there was going to be much more chlorine in the water then normal. so we all made enough water to get us through that week.

 

[Flaka26]

If all your every going to want is a FOWLR tank, you could set that up for less money, because you are not going to need the same sort of lighting you would on a reef. However, your still going to want some decent lighting on the tank.

If you later on wanted a reef system, you'd have to upgrade the existing lighting, so your about back where you started.

As for filtration, you'd be more or less the same either way, so the savings would be minimal there.

All that being said, go back to what you ultimatly want to keep in the tank, and plan for that.

Also consider that you need not buy all new equipment. Many people construct their own sump out of another tank. This can be a much less expensive way to go. You also might find some bargains on lighting from people that upgrade their lighting and are selling off the old fixtures.

Thank you for the information. Yea I think for now Im going to go with a FOWLR and then little by little gather all the additional components Ill need to have a reef. I have been looking online to construct my own sump out of a tank been searching CL for a tank and I hear Petco or one of the chains does the $1 a gallon tanks sometimes so Ill see about that.

 

[Flaka26]

Flaka As a fellow FL guy I can tell you there are some great reef clubs in FL. I think the one in Miami is called FMAS.
Florida Marine Aquarium Society (FMAS) - Miami/Ft. Lauderd
Getting involved with a reef club is a great way to get well taken care of used equipment. I belong to TBRC and I buy and sell a lot of good used reef equipment and corals within the club.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=235 Now you will find a lot of issues with RC if your a nooby and there is a lot of bickering on that forum which is why I love RS everyone is very friendly here. But for finding good deals on stuff I say that a local club is by far the best. Example I was looking for some more flow for a couple of my tank 2 days ago when one of my buddys from the club was selling 2 Jebeo wp40s and 1 wp25. I got all 3 pumps for 75$ they had only been used for a couple months. New it would have been about 175$ for them. Last week I had been looking for a sump for my 300g build and got a 125g 6' tank in a trade for a 55g that someone needed for a sump and a little help with his pluming. Both tanks were scratched but since they are sumps who cares. I almost never buy corals now from the LFS or online since we have frag auctions at meetings and also reefers post corals and frags on the forum. I also dont buy fish from the LFS much anymore because of the club.
I will say this to anyone who will read it. If there is a local club in your town or close to you. Get involved. Its a lot of fun. There are great deals to be had and its nice to meet others with the same hobby. Plus last week I found out through the club that my county was doing a big chlorine wash of the pipes which means there was going to be much more chlorine in the water then normal. so we all made enough water to get us through that week.

Great! Thank you for that! I will look into them for sure I will be needing quite a few things so hopefully I can find good deals there. Thanks for the warning on the bickering, I don't want to deal with that so Ill keep my nooby questions on here where everyone has been so nice and helpful. I feel dumb asking questions since I'm just learning all this stuff but its the only way to learn. I wish people understood that when they bicker with people who are trying to learn from them because they have the experience.

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

RS is a sanctuary of reefing forums ! Flame free ! Free free to ask any questions, we all had the same ones sometime in our sw journey & someone was nice enough to answer them for us.

PS - some beautiful corals don't need lots of light, take a look here
https://sites.google.com/a/asira.org/www2/caresheets

Don't think you won't have success with corals if you want to give them a go... lots & lots of 1st time swt owners have great success, just pick ones that are easy and you will have success too