Hello all,
I'd like to take this opportunity to say hello and thank you for all the great advice I've already received from this forum during the past few weeks. You all seem very knowledgeable and helpful, and certainly a big plus for everyone new to the hobby...
About myself... aquarist since the age of 5 (19+ years, on and off), owned every freshwater fish from mollies to discus but never saltwater, prized aquarium was a 75 gallon discus show tank which was running for 5 years, most recent aquarium was a simple 29 gallon with a breeding pair of angelfish in my apartment at college... have finally decided to test my luck in the realm of reefkeeping
So, as much as I hate to start a thread that is essentially the same as one we have running (Noobeef's 29 gallon...), that is exactly what I'm going to do...
I just ordered an AGA 54 gallon megaflow tank from my
LFS... for $10 more, the guy offered to hook me up with a
T5 single bulb reflector, which I did (knowing this won't be nearly enough light in the long run, but seemed stupid not to)... I won't have it for another 2 weeks, so I still have plenty of time for more planning...
Along with the tank, I plan on buying the biggest
sump that will fit in the stand... at my
LFS, this was a Sea Life(I think...?) rated for a 75 gallon... I think this should work fine, and the fit was like a glove... if anyone does know of a better
sump setup that will fit in a 54 gallon corner stand, input here would be appreciated....
Currently comparing protein
skimmers...this is one area where I have zero experience (obviously) so I certainly need some help here... there are a million options, and I don't really know what I'm comparing
... In the long run, I'm going for a full blown reef, so for a 54 gallon aquarium, which protein
skimmer(s) would you all recommend (specific make and model would be great
)... no price limit (not trying to spend $10k on a 54 gallon, but planning on dropping whatever it takes to have this thing with the best setup possible)...
As far as substrate, what are the essential differences between
DSB and
SSB? I had figured on throwing a mix of 20 lbs live sand and 30 pounds dry sand... any ideas how deep this would put my sand bed in a 54 gallon corner tank, and would this be the right amount?
My plan...
Dry sand in the tank, fill it (will have my own
RO system will be setup within a few days
), set parameters and warm, add live sand, set up filter, add
live rock... go from there...
How does this sound?? Any advice would be great! Oh, by the way... I'm planning on documenting the whole thing with my digital camera, my hope being that this thread may eventually be half as cool as some of the other tank projects on this site
Thanks in advance,
Brandon
