[SoleGlo]

Hello All:

I recently purchased a 75 gallon tank with stand from a friend at what I thought was a good price. It came with two Aquaclear filters and two visi-therm heaters. I must warn that I am a complete rookie when it comes to creating a saltwater reef tank but am determined to complete this mission . My main focus now is to set up the equipment that I will need to get this thing running. From what I have been researching, there are many things that I will need to accomplish this (sump, protein skimmer, etc). Any advice or checklist type informatioin would be much appreciated. Also, would it be a good idea to purchase new filters as I am unsure of what type of tank they were running previously? If so, which would be best to purchase for my reef tank. Thank you in advance for your support!

 

[MedicMike]

Hey welcome to TRT and the hobby,

Your going to want to ditch the filters all together. They'll just harbor nutrients and cause you problems down the road. Get yourself a decent skimmer and let the skimmer and natural bio filtration take care of the rest. I think I can see glass tops on the tank in the picture. You wont want to use those either. Also make sure to use only RO/DI water from the get go. You'll want to add lots of flow in the main display I run two koralia #4 powerheads in my 75. Oh I forgot to ask if your tank is reef ready if not you'll need to decide if you want to have the tank drilled our use an overflow box. Thats all I can come up with for now I'm sure others will chime in.

Mike

 

[SoleGlo]

The tank is not reef ready so I was going to go with the overflow system. In looking for these boxes I have noticed that some of them seem to be skimmer/overflow boxes. Is this an all in one unit that would suffice a good skimmer? I will go ahead and order the powerheads to good movement. For the sump, I have an old 20 gallon that I was going to use. Was reading the DIY 20 Gal L Refugium/Sump thread and it seems a little intimidating. Oh well, with some time and research hopefully it is ok.

For the ro/di system, is this done through the sump? Or should a seperate system be purchased?

For someone like me, you feel quite lost when investing in something like this but the forum is making things feel a little better.

 

[MedicMike]

I think your refering to a back pack skimmer. Those are for sumpless setups. As far as overflows are concerned there are a ton of differnt options out there. Depending on your DIY abilities some may be better choices than others. Research "calfo coast to coast" overflows. Also take a look at "weir style" overflow boxes. There are more options but that should get you a general idea of where you want to head. The RO/DI unit is a seperate water filter that connects to a faucet in your home. Most people just make water into a large storage conatiner. Others incorporate their RO/DI into auto top off systems to help keep up with evaporation. This site has and excellent product review section where you can decide what products best suit your needs and usually the cheapest place to find it. Also what kind of corals are you planning on keeping this will dictate the type of lighting you'll need to consider.

 

[SoleGlo]

These c2c overflows seem to need holes drilled into the tank. I am all for drilling holes into the tank but is there anything I need to be aware of when drilling these holes? With this new information I am interested in using stockman/durso 3 pipe system. For right now I am going to purchase the following:


c2c Overflow Materials
2 - Koralia 750 powerheads
AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer w/ pump
Sump Tank (Already in hand)
RO/DI System (look into auto top off)

If you can think of anything else that I should add to my list, I would appreciate it. I know I am probably forgetting a bunch of things. Thanks!

 

[MedicMike]

Drilling a tank is pretty strait forward but not without risk. You need to use diamond hole saw bits. Search glass drilling here on TRT if your not comfy doing it yourself, most local glass shops and also LFS will drill glass for a small fee. Sounds like a good game plan so far dont forget to start considering your lighting and also dont forget the pics when you start the process! Oh also consider purchasing a powerhead with a little more flow the K4's run great in my tank and its not even close to over kill.

 

[richkor]

MedicMike,
curious why you say not to use the glass tops for the tank? I use glass tops on both of my tanks, specifically to keep jumpers in the tank.

 

[reefer_rylan]

MedicMike,
curious why you say not to use the glass tops for the tank? I use glass tops on both of my tanks, specifically to keep jumpers in the tank.

I would guess that he is referring to the heat it would keep in. Not sure. I used glass tops for the same reason until I got a wooden canopy that serves the purpose.

 

[MedicMike]

Glass tops hinder proper gas exchange... kinda like letting your tank breathe right just one of those things with differnt schools of thought. I would recomend plastic egg crate to keep jumpers in.

 

[richkor]

Fair enough. Was just curious.

 

[deanp88]

75-80 lbs of live rock and a really good skimmer.