First Tank: livestock advice needed
 

My wife and I are putting together our first tank (90G). Our desire is to have a mixed reef tank. The paint is drying on the new stand I built and we are still putting everything together so it will be a few weeks before we finally get to add water. We will be having a mixture of dry rock and live rock, so I understand it will be a while before we can begin to add livestock.

As we work towards being able to stock the tank:
- what are the issues we need to think about?
- are there resourses that can help us think through what types of fish and coral we can / should put together?
- what filtration issues do we need to think through?
- what other questions do we need to be asking?

Thanks

Skimmer?
Reactors carbOn GFO bio pellets?
Fuge?
Lights ?
Dosing pumps or calcium reactor or Kalk reactor?
RODI water?
Zeo?

will your tank be drilled with a sump?

power heads for flow.... size and qty of fish you are considering also lights and corals as well!

Our tank is drilled from a sump - it is 37"x15". We have already decided to go with RODI water - purchased a Vertex yesterday. We will put in a skimmer - not sure which one yet. We will go with LED lights - either the Radion or are considering the new SunBright I understand that they will be availanble in the next week).

Regarding Reactors vs fuge - what are the benefits / disadvantages of each?


Also, just to show how new I am - E46er mentioned a Zeo - what is that?

I forgot to mention that the tank came with three Hydor powerheads - I don;t know what model they are as that information is unreadable.

Have you put any thought into an Auto top off unit? I think I would go crazy without one!

Here's a link to one as an example:

http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/s...D=tz-osmolator

As for your fish list - I would begin compiling a list of your most wanted fish. Research each one and post the list on here. People will let you know if they are compatible together.

All in all - take your time - go slow. Ask lots of questions and research research research.

What helped me a lot was reading build threads on here and reef central. Find peoples builds with the same size tank who are keeping the coral you want to keep and look through what they are doing to make things work.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, we are going to go with an auto top off, and I am trying to think through how I'll make it work. I looked at your tank journal and it looks like everything for yours is in the basement. I'm not sure I'd be able to pull that off. We also don't have space in the stand for anything, so I think my only solution is to build a cabinet to go beside the tank and have it house a container of some kind. Does that make sense?

And thanks for the idea of puting a "wish list" of desired fish on Canreef. Once I begin to know what I think I might want, we will do that.

Ya that makes perfect sense to put a separate cabinet for the ato tank. Seems like you are on the right track!