Essential Reef set up equipment

[mark]

hope it's not that 14year old without the tank

[Slipstream]

haha.. funny.. whose that anyways?.

[BC564]

I pm'ed him some stuff to think about and some suggestions.

[michika]

Okay here is your list:

Water
- salt (lots to choose from)
- refractometer or a dialed in hydrometer. Refractometer is more acurate.
- testkits, many people seem to like the salifert brand. For just starting out, you'll need; ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. Eventually for a reef tank you should have calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium. Some people test for more parameters, but these are the basics.

Lighting
- Since you mentioned you want a full reef tank you have lots of options. In essence you are going to want to consider T5s, or Metal halide lighting. You - you may want to do supplemental lighting for color
- you may also consider moonlighting for evening or after dark lighting.

The tank:
- You said no bigger the 100g. Is the size of the display you are stating, or the overall system?

Is this the type of list your looking for?

[Slipstream]

Thanx BC and Michika, that helps.

And yah, its the display that will be 100

[ponokareefer]

One thing you will need as well is lots of flow, usually created by powerheads in the tank. Some less expensive, but really good powerheads that are fairly new on the market are called Hydor Koralia.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Slipstream

oh really, i never would have guessed.. like i said, forget i asked, ill go somewhere else and ask somebody else.

Please refrain from post like this. Keeping on the topic will get more answers.

What they are saying is the truth. So many variables in this hobby. Depending on livestock plans, equipment availability & cash flow.

Thanks

[ponokareefer]

Not exactly an essential item, but definitely nice to have is timers for your lights. You can usually pick them up at hardware stores for about $15 each.
You may also want to look at setting up some type of wavemaking device. There are a lot of different ways of doing this, so you may want to investigate them. I used 2 Koralia 3's with a Seio Electronic Powerhead Controller, and that has worked really well for me. The ultimate though is a Tunz Wavebox. You will be looking at $500 to $600 though.

[adidas]

skimmer
auto top off
mh + actinic lights

[Slipstream]

Thanx guys. I already got timers on my current tanks, so thats one thing i definitely will use again.