Hi everyone!
I'm going to be setting up a 150 gallon tank that I just purchased off the forums. Before this tank I had a 75 gallon, but sadly had to sell on the livestock when I left the country for a bit. Back into now! I just purchased a home in Garland, today actually, and won't actually start setting up the aquarium for a month. I have to put in new floors and paint and stuff first. However, I want to start buying everything I need and setting up as much as possible right from the beginning. To start, I know nothing about electrical work, or all the super sweet plumbing I see in the pictures everyone posts. If there were 10 levels of newbdom, I would probably be level 2. A beginner! I learned a lot from the 75 gallon, but I have sooooo much more to learn. It never ends, and I hope it never does.
So lets start with what I have:
This is a link to the tank I bought that shows what came with it...
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=46801
I also recently bought a phosban reactor 150 from the forums.
I found my ALS cr-150 Calc reactor. Don't have the regulator or tank or pump for that yet.
I bought a Red Sea Wavemaker Pro off the forums.
I am going to end up replacing the lights with 3 250W MH and some moon lighting.
I am going to buy a refugium from Marc.
I am going to buy an auto-top off.
I am going to buy an ro/di unit from Marc.
I am going to buy an aqua controller III to control as much as possible.
I have a couple of 300W heaters from the 75 gallon.
Okay, now to things I will change....
The lights I am changing from the tek t5's to the MH. Probably not immediately, but once the tank has cycled I can change those over.
I want to change out the skimmer, there are so many choices out there though. I was thinking between an H&S, Trigger Systems, or Euroreef. Of course, any suggestions welcome.
I will change the sump for a refugium.
Okay, now things I have no clue about...
I have no clue what type of powerheads I should buy, both for the wave maker and otherwise.
I don't know if I need to replace the pumps that it came with.
I have no idea how to do any of the electrical stuff. I want to make it look as neat as possible under there. I was reading BigJay's 180 build, and people were talking about 20 amp this and that, I have no idea what any of that is.
I want to plumb the underneath. Just because I think it looks so cool and organized, but I don't know why it needs to be plumbed.
I have no idea about this aqua controller. All I know is that on the website it says it can control everything. I don't know how it does it, what the DC8 and DC4 things are. I just want to automate as much as possible this time.
Okay, things I will be doing in the future....
I will buy some barrels to hold the ro/di water and mix the salt myself. I used to buy the water from the LFS for my 75, but that just costs too much.
I will worry about what type of sand to put at a later time.
I will look at my tank with wonder.
I am reading as much as possible on the forums, and at reef central's chemistry forum so I can learn more about this.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm just excited to get this thing going. As you can see I have a lot of questions, and don't really know too much about this. So, obviously, any help, criticism, suggestions are more than welcome. In fact, encouraged!!! I will post pictures as stuff starts to come together.
Thanks everyone for any future help, it's a slow learning process, but that's what makes it fun.
Kevin
I'm going to be setting up a 150 gallon tank that I just purchased off the forums. Before this tank I had a 75 gallon, but sadly had to sell on the livestock when I left the country for a bit. Back into now! I just purchased a home in Garland, today actually, and won't actually start setting up the aquarium for a month. I have to put in new floors and paint and stuff first. However, I want to start buying everything I need and setting up as much as possible right from the beginning. To start, I know nothing about electrical work, or all the super sweet plumbing I see in the pictures everyone posts. If there were 10 levels of newbdom, I would probably be level 2. A beginner! I learned a lot from the 75 gallon, but I have sooooo much more to learn. It never ends, and I hope it never does.
So lets start with what I have:
This is a link to the tank I bought that shows what came with it...
http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=46801
I also recently bought a phosban reactor 150 from the forums.
I found my ALS cr-150 Calc reactor. Don't have the regulator or tank or pump for that yet.
I bought a Red Sea Wavemaker Pro off the forums.
I am going to end up replacing the lights with 3 250W MH and some moon lighting.
I am going to buy a refugium from Marc.
I am going to buy an auto-top off.
I am going to buy an ro/di unit from Marc.
I am going to buy an aqua controller III to control as much as possible.
I have a couple of 300W heaters from the 75 gallon.
Okay, now to things I will change....
The lights I am changing from the tek t5's to the MH. Probably not immediately, but once the tank has cycled I can change those over.
I want to change out the skimmer, there are so many choices out there though. I was thinking between an H&S, Trigger Systems, or Euroreef. Of course, any suggestions welcome.
I will change the sump for a refugium.
Okay, now things I have no clue about...
I have no clue what type of powerheads I should buy, both for the wave maker and otherwise.
I don't know if I need to replace the pumps that it came with.
I have no idea how to do any of the electrical stuff. I want to make it look as neat as possible under there. I was reading BigJay's 180 build, and people were talking about 20 amp this and that, I have no idea what any of that is.
I want to plumb the underneath. Just because I think it looks so cool and organized, but I don't know why it needs to be plumbed.
I have no idea about this aqua controller. All I know is that on the website it says it can control everything. I don't know how it does it, what the DC8 and DC4 things are. I just want to automate as much as possible this time.
Okay, things I will be doing in the future....
I will buy some barrels to hold the ro/di water and mix the salt myself. I used to buy the water from the LFS for my 75, but that just costs too much.
I will worry about what type of sand to put at a later time.
I will look at my tank with wonder.
I am reading as much as possible on the forums, and at reef central's chemistry forum so I can learn more about this.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I'm just excited to get this thing going. As you can see I have a lot of questions, and don't really know too much about this. So, obviously, any help, criticism, suggestions are more than welcome. In fact, encouraged!!! I will post pictures as stuff starts to come together.
Thanks everyone for any future help, it's a slow learning process, but that's what makes it fun.
Kevin