Thinking of setting up my first salt tank

[Pan]

Originally Posted by Ephraim

What kind of skimmer would you reccomend? Keep in mind the space that i have available is 12"x 5", rather cramped. When you say 3x150w, is that on it's own or in conjunction with the PCs? Do you have any brands you would reccomend for this, I'd like the fixture to be no more than 7" wide so I can still reach into the tank with the light on.

I have no experience using MH lights, do they generate alot of heat? Can i sit the directly on the glass top safely. I was wanting the tank in my living room, and i'd prefer to not have it raised up and light the entire room. I could build a wood top if need be, but i'm lazy

yes the generate a lot of heat, as in melting crispy skin if you touched them after they were running, i don't thinkanyone would recomend sitting them on the top of anything... Euroreefs are a nice little skimmer...

[Ephraim]

I'm located in Calgary Alberta. Would it still be ok to leave the glass top on there and lift the lights, say 1.5"-2" off the glass. The air is so dry here that w/o a top evap is a huge problem. With 150w bulbs, will small fans be needed/helpful? What's the useful lifespan on a MH?

I'll look up some specs on Euroreef, thanks.

*sigh* ...i'm gonna make myself broke on this one, aren't I? I've got about $900 to burn from selling all my freshwater fish before I moved.

[Joe Reefer]

IIRC euroreef doesn't make HOB skimmers. And you can kiss that 900 bux good-bye.

[Ephraim]

yeah I couldn't seem to find any HOB specs, that might be why. What about Bak Paks, are these a good product?

[Joe Reefer]

You could try a coralife superskimmer, I have no experience with them. Some people dont use skimmers, Bev for example is an advocate of simple systems. I think you have to be very dilagent with maintainence though.

[Buddyboy]

It's tricky to find a HOB skimmer for a tank that size. A Deltec MCE600 might do the trick though. Not cheap, but up to the job in a tank your size that has a moderate bioload. Another consideration would be a TUNZE DOC skimmer. They can be mounted in sump or inside the display tank itself. They should be able to handle your tank size as well. The Deltec skimmer might skim more aggresively though. Good luck!

[Ephraim]

This is probably a dumb question, but what exactly does a skimmer do for the tank that a canister filter won't?

When it comes to maintenance, I am very religous on getting water changes done weekly without question. Been doing water changes on Sundays for years, hell, friends and family even know not to call me on Sundays because of it.

[Buddyboy]

You might want to do a bit of reading first before you jump into this. Alot of the hardware and processes involved are much different than freshwater. And the crud that builds up in saltwater is alot different than freshwater crud. More oily and protieny and these can only be removed with the use of a good skimmer. I guess waterchanges would help but why not make your life easier??? If you want to go super cheap on the skimmer, you could try a Coralife Superskimmer, but you get what you pay for.

Greg

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

For that size tank, I don't think there are any "relatively inexpensive" HOB skimmers that will really do a good job skimming that volume. I heard Deltecs are great but $$$$$$. Might want to consider a recirculating skimmer that sits on the floor instead (since you have no sump). Yeah, a tank that size will also need approx. 100lbs of Live Rock, so that $900 isn't going to stretch to cover just the LR, better lights, and good skimmer. Really think about this decision because it will make your $$ disappear much faster than a freshwater setup.

Anthony

[woodcarver]

Hi Ephraim , I too will be soon making the plunge after keeping freshwater for many years and dabbling in saltwater many many years ago.
Just reading the thread and understanding that your pockets are not deep ,it may be a good idea to rethink the size of your proposed system.That is one pretty large tank and as the guys say will soon bust your budget.( you will need more and bigger sizes of everything )
The cost of a tank is only a small percentage of the cost of the whole system so why not go a little smaller ?
There are some amazing medium size set -ups on this site .
I am going to start with a 30 gallon cube that I picked up from a member for $60.00.
FISH ,( chad)Has a cube currently being set up and is giving us a blow by blow account of his progress. Don't be confused by the motorbikes at the beginning
............................ Dave.