Greetings!! This is my first visit to this site and first real attempt to helping my lovely, marine experienced wife set up a reef tank. We have had marine fish tanks in the past, but nothing really to this extent. Let me first set up the situation.
I'm building matching his/her built-in enclosures in our bedroom on opposite side of the room (for balance). These will be approximately 54" wide and 36"deep. In mine goes the computer and my radio hobby. In hers, we are setting up a 70G reef aquarium at eye level. For the purpose of this discussion, and forum, I'm sticking to her hobby.
TANK
So far, the RR tank is ordered and will be picked up on Saturday. It's dimensions are approximately 36" wide, 24" high, and 18" front to back. The stand will be custom-built and open on all 4 sides.
FILTRATION
We have decided to go with a
sump/refugium system rather than a
sump alone. I'm not thrilled with what is available at my
LFS. $269 for an acrylic combo seems like I'm dumping a bunch of money into a brand name rather than function and filtration. I'd rather custom build my
sump/refugium and add volume to the system. Sterilite containers would be fine or even another tank underneath the stand and subdivide it into compartments.
OTHER STUFF
A protien
skimmer is certainly a must as well as the pumps to move the water, lights to 1)encourage growth of microorganisms and 2) be able to see the wonderful creation that sits in our bedroom, and the rest of the hardware to make everything work.
POINT TO THIS THREAD
The whole point of this thread is a request for help. I admit I have very little knowledge in setting up a reef system. In order of importance and to get water in the system and moving, what equipment type/brand do you recommend to get things going? Please keep in mind budget constraints as we go through this.
Thanks in advance for all the help. I'll post pictures as things move along.
