Top 5..or 10... MUST haves for a reef tank
 

Hey guys,

Ive had my tank up and running for 3-4 years now but was just running a FOWLR tank. Im getting back into the reef hobby and am finding out that all my old knowledge is starting to get... old!

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread for people with limited knowledge to let them know what the Top 5 (or 10) key products are to help ensure a healthy Reef tank.

What, so your own words or list, what would be the top 5 (or 10) things you'd recommend for a Reef tank?? (skimmer... lights... etc)

Depends on size, but a good skimmer, a good ato system, a good heater, good light system, depends on lights but a chiller?? Do you plan on dosing or are you thinking of doing some sort of reactor system??

salt....absolute must have hehehe:)

Ato, good lighting, and a controller...:wink:

My top purchases..... Tunze ATO..... Controller ..... Bubbleking skimmer......and I havnt purchased this yet, but good quality lighting

I wish i would have bought an ATO the day i set up my tank. An absolute must have.

For those that don't know the abbreviations... ATO?

This isnt so much for me as for people who are just getting into Reef keeping.
So even if you guys could give some info about why these are important aspects to reef keeping

ATO..... auto top off

Steve

Lighting depends on what you are thinking of keeping for corals. If you want SPS, you need good lighting. If not, you could get away with a lower quality lighting system. A good skimmer is a must. I was extremely happy with my system after I installed a tunze auto top off system. What are you considering for corals?

RODI, skimmer, controller, doser, lighting.
one thing I have found is that if you skimp out in the beginning, you will end up paying double in the end, so, get what you want, not what you need to get by!

For me it's been my ATO and my controller!

A fat wallet!

reverse osmosis unit
skimmer
auto topoff
easyblade (algae scraper attachment for mag float, keeps the glass crystal clear and powers off coralline algae)
good lighting (figure out what corals you're interested in or plan for the future and get the best lighting you can afford ie. halides for sps/clams)

not necessarily "MUST haves" but certainly nice to have:

phosban reactor - one for phosban (phosphate remover) and one for carbon
dosing pump for calcium, alkalinity and magnesium (as your corals get larger there will be a larger demand for these and manual dosing can get tedious and expensive
controller - eventually your $10 canadian tire timer will give out and it may be at the expense of your livestock. I really like my controller, it handles everything and I can check the status of my tank remotely (temperature, pH and status of various equipment)
"fancy/pricey" powerheads - depending on the size of your tank you can get away with maxi-jets in a smaller tank but if you have the cash, spend it on a good tunze or vortech, you can often get away with one or two as they're pretty powerful and don't have to end up stuffing the tank with lots of powerheads to get the job done

oh and that too, even with buying everything used I have spent a ridiculous amount on this hobby

ATO, dosing pumps, gfo reactor, chaeto fuge.

+1 & ato

1. ATO
2. Controller
3. overized skimmer
4. LEDs
5. ROX carbon

Auto top off
Skimmer
Refugium
Lots of water movement
And lights

Fish tank, salt, water, stand, pumps, skimmer, light, pvc pipes, refractometer.

1. A tank. Preferably one that can hold water.
2. Water.
3. Salt.
4. Fish.
5. Corals.

A loving spouse, that is also as addicted.:mrgreen:

Oh yeah, SKIMMER, CONTROLLER, REACTORS, PATIENCE, AND A DEEP POCKET.

ATO
Controller
Vortech's (a little specific here. Hehe)
Good lighting
Dosing pumps

good lighting, cycled tank, flow.
Skimmers are not needed for small tanks,
what size are you planning?
super7

I have a 125gal... 6 ft

probs need skimmer, unless you plan on 25% plus waterchanges weekly lol
super7

unless you're away from town for days your lighting timer failing on or off won't be a deal breaker... you'll notice. But temperature control is a must. If you don't want to rely on a fancy controller buy a ranco etc. $100 and you have bullet-proof temp control. other than that a tunze osmolator ATO like others have said.

Kind of subjective...

RODI, ATO and Controller are a must have?

Must have for a reef:

Tank, saltwater, liverock, coral, pump, light, heater. Period.

That is how grandaddy did it, and that is the bare bones ones must have. My first 3 years of reefing was done with just that.

You DO NOT need a skimmer
You DO NOT need a wavemaker
You DO NOT need light timers, calcium reactors, Media reactors, additives, UV sterilizers, probes and sumps and doohickies sticking out all over the place

These are options, like the leather and heated seats in Nissans. :biggrin:

When you first meet the love of you life, light 1000 dollars on fire in front of them. Consider it an investment in the future. Anything you do after that with money will pale in comparison to that night.

No chance that 1000 is enough lol =) Maybe light 1000 and spend 5 - 10 on a nice rock!

When people say skimmer I'm assuming they mean "Protein Skimmer"??!?!

Also people are suggesting:
1. ATO
2. Controller

Can't you do ATO with a Controller such as Neptune Apex Controller?

I am also new to this so I'm watching this thread as well.

>Can't you do ATO with a Controller such as Neptune Apex Controller?

Yeah you can, but the Ozmolator has an optical level sensor that is very accurate and reliable. You have to keep it clean of garbage, but it's pretty robust. I only clean it once a month at most. It doesn't interface in any way with a controller, so you can't get alarms from it on your controller.

One other thing that I'd say you need is some 2-part alk/calcium/magnesium dosing system or a calcium reactor. This is absolutely needed to keep your water chemistry stable. Your corals won't like big swings in alk or Ca/Mg. Another thing is a phosban/GFO reactor and an accurate phosphate test kit (the only one is the Hanna phosphate checker). The phosphate kit will tell you when to change your GFO. GFO can be expensive. If you want to cut that cost, look into regenerating (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2010/10/chemistry). Keeping your phosphates near zero will save you a lot of headaches with algae.

Top 5
1. Skimmer
2. Lighting
3. Media reactors
4. Powerheads
5. Sump to hide the equipment

Nice to have.
Controller
Dosing pump
ATO
RO/DI

1. Metal halide lighting if keeping SPS (I'm a die-hard MH fan) or T5s for LPS.
2. Over-sized good quality skimmer (really liking the SWC cones right now...have two of them).
3. A sump.
4. At least one controlled powerhead to make changeable flow patterns. I like the Tunzes, who doesn't?
5. A Tunze ATO, no other will do imo.
6. Good fans. I like the fan "banks" with 4 in a row. One set for the sump and one set to blow across the tank's water surface to blow the heat from the lights away. Good fans can remove 4-5 degrees and can usually avoid the need of a chiller if your house has central air conditioning. Chillers suck...they are expensive to buy and run, and they add a lot of heat to the room they are operating in. I'm using el cheapo Jebo fans right now and they are working very well.
7. Dosers or a calcium reactor. I prefer dosers.
8. Good quality test kits for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium at least. I like Elos, and am interested to try out the Hanna Checkers.
9. Media reactor for GFO.
10. An efficient water change system that makes it easy so you will do it more consistently.

1. Tank
2. More money than sense
3. Tunze Wavebox
4. ATO
5. a cool pseudonym

sanity

you mean Salinity right?

I'd say if Sanity is on your top 5....you wont last long...:lol:

Oh no, I ment sanity

By than I mean the ability to control yourself when something happens. Like looking into your tank and all your sps has RTN.... grrrr

Sanity, i.e. being able to put yourself back together again when the tank floods your expensive hardwood floors, or the tank crashes killing all your SPS you've nurtured from frags for the past 5 years and that breeding pair of rare fairy wrasses, etc..

Good heater, ATO, good skimmer, a good LFS to talk about fish at, and msot importantly....TIME, too busy to clean a tank, you end up with lots of time cleaning up the chaos of hair algae, or cyno, or well... anything.