So I am going to be getting a new for reefing. I need a little input.

[Xyres]

So in about 6 months to a year I will be getting a new tank. I am looking to get a tank between 180 and 240 from Aquatic Concepts but I am not too sure on the size. Would bigger really be better in the case of a new reefer? My current tank is a 55g FOWLR due to the fact that I have always had slight issues with nitrates.

That being said the other thing is my cost. I have a few things that I know I am going to have to spend money. So far this is my list.

Live rock: 750 - 1000$
Tank w/ sump and stand: 1500 - 2500$
Pumps: Vortech MP40 and maybe MP60 (Already have a 40)
Lighting: Two Radions (Already have one)

After that I'm not too sure how much my expenses should be. Sure there are a lot of important things like reactors and skimmers but I am not too sure how much I should be spending or what to be getting to have a reliable tank set up.

Thanks for the help in advance.

[FitoPharmer]

PM'ed :)

[kien]

Don't forget salt :-)

In my opinion bigger is not always better. I didn't quite catch it, why do you want a bigger tank? Are you finding that you are over stocking your 55 gallon? You say you have nitrate issues in your current tank? What is your nitrate removal procedure/method? A reef is a bit harder to maintain. Once you start adding corals you really have to watch your water chemistry.

[Xyres]

Mainly because I want larger fish and to experiment more into corals and a tank with a sump system rather than a lame canister filter. And as for water chemistry I check it every day and tried everything to get nitrates down. Starting a new tank there are a few things I would do differently which is one of the main reasons I want to get a new tank.

[Proteus]

Mainly because I want larger fish and to experiment more into corals and a tank with a sump system rather than a lame canister filter. And as for water chemistry I check it every day and tried everything to get nitrates down. Starting a new tank there are a few things I would do differently which is one of the main reasons I want to get a new tank.

Chances are your canister filter is your nitrate factory. How often do you clean it. What do you have for a skimmer

[Proteus]

There are pros and cons of large and small tanks.

Large systems equal money and time. All you equipment is more expensive.ore salt. More for dosing. More time for maintaining tank
But I found water quality more stable

Small tanks are cheaper and less time. But you are limited on fish

I've had 180g and my current 26gallon. To be honest I like my little tank much more.

[Coralgurl]

There are pros and cons of large and small tanks.

Large systems equal money and time. All you equipment is more expensive.ore salt. More for dosing. More time for maintaining tank
But I found water quality more stable

Small tanks are cheaper and less time. But you are limited on fish

I've had 180g and my current 26gallon. To be honest I like my little tank much more.

+1

I have a 180 and 55 and I like my 55 more. I understand wanting bigger as there are more options for fish, but like Titus said, bigger = more expensive everything, time etc.

You will need at least 1 more light fixture, I have 3 radions on my 180, 2 mp40's and 2 koralias for power heads, skimmer, dual reactor for carbon and gfo, controller and doser on my tank. If you are going bigger, I would suggest 120-180 gl, plus sump is a whole new learning experience.

Good luck whatever you decide and make sure you start a build thread!:biggrin:

[kien]

Mainly because I want larger fish and to experiment more into corals and a tank with a sump system rather than a lame canister filter. And as for water chemistry I check it every day and tried everything to get nitrates down. Starting a new tank there are a few things I would do differently which is one of the main reasons I want to get a new tank.

Wanting larger fish is definitely a good reason to upgrade :-) However, larger fish means larger poop, means you'll need a larger filtration system. But ya, a new tank will help you to solve some of those issues that you're having now. You can design it exactly the way you want it, rather than constantly trying to MacGyver your way through your current setup.

Size is totally a matter of opinion. Some guys don't think 300g is big, while others think 90g is big. Maybe instead of just purely looking at size think about what dimensions you might want. Consider this in conjunction with what types of fish you will want to keep and what type of aquascaping you want to achieve with your reef.

[lastlight]

To be honest after having a 400 gallon for a while it didn't feel large anymore but the weight of worrying about keeping it alive in terms of money and time really wore on me. If you have more time and money than I did/do perhaps that's not relevant! My current nano will cost me very little to keep going and I'm enjoying it guilt free. I've got more time for my family and I'm not buying salt and other additives by the truckload which makes me happy. I miss all the fish I will never be able to own again but it's a small price to pay to stay in the hobby as a happy reefer.

[Xyres]

Thanks for the great advice everyone. I have some thinking to do about the size of tank but I know for sure that I will be getting a new tank with a sump. How much a month would a 200 gallon + sump cost to run monthly vs a 100? In the end I want a larger tank but my main goal is beautiful corals.

[FitoPharmer]

If you ran a 100G and a 200G exactly the same additives, feeding, bio load, and maintenance wise the 200G would cost a little less then twice as much to run. But there is also the factor of your own personal time. In a larger system it seems like everything takes longer and when things go wrong they can be a nightmare to fix relative to a smaller system. You can cut down some of the work by installing equipment like a semi automated water change system or a algae turf scrubber. Also IMO QT procedures become more important the larger your tank is since starting over or catching a fish out of a 200+ gallon aquarium can be a tonne of work.

[msjboy]

Generally in terms of heating & lighting, the size of the tank is a directly proportional ( eg. 30 gallon tank is about $5/mth, so 300 gallon is $50/mth for light & heating, pumps, etc.). As for water changes, well one would change 10% new water every 1 - 2 weeks so again proportional. However, as the tank gets more stable, some people do not change water as frequent with the larger tanks as they do not stuff it with as much corals and fish. If you opt to have SPS corals, well, you'll have to watch the parameters even more and strongly consider better equipment like calcium reactors, larger protein skimmers and so forth. The biggest cost I think, will probably be the livestock (fish & corals, liverock) especially for larger tanks which you might opt to buy larger specimens as opposed to frags. You might consider other components like water top offs, dosers for the SPS tanks as well as special additives ( eg zeovit, ), best lighting, best wavemakers/waveboxes, backup heaters, chillers, etc.; if you want the fastest growth & prettiest growth, a 200 gallon setup can easily set you back several thousand in a wink....I have just a 34 gallon tank and buying used stuff & frags, I think over spent well over $2K.

And one more thing, coral reef tanks is a patient hobby... you will have a casualty rate of corals and fish as you learn what is compatible and what is not and have a constant battle with unwanted algae and potential pests...you might be stuck at home a while to maintain it; I dread taking a long extended vacation and leave the maintenace to someone.

msjboy

[asylumdown]

If you ran a 100G and a 200G exactly the same additives, feeding, bio load, and maintenance wise the 200G would cost a little less then twice as much to run. But there is also the factor of your own personal time. In a larger system it seems like everything takes longer and when things go wrong they can be a nightmare to fix relative to a smaller system. You can cut down some of the work by installing equipment like a semi automated water change system or a algae turf scrubber. Also IMO QT procedures become more important the larger your tank is since starting over or catching a fish out of a 200+ gallon aquarium can be a tonne of work.

+1 to everything you just said

On the one hand, bigger tanks are 'easier' because you have a bigger margin of error. Things that go wrong go wrong slower, and you have more of a chance to correct problems before they nuke everything. That being said, once a problem happens in a big tank... good lord. Getting my fish out to deal with an ich problem (which was caused by poor to absent QT procedures and is my own fault in every sense) was 6 hours to get them out, then another 4 hours to get my tank and dining room looking the way it did before I started. I was lucky I had an entire day available to do it. Also, without redundancies and emergency planning, a weekend away when some vital piece of equipment fails will nuke a 500 gallon tank just as completely as a 20 gallon, only with the 500, your total losses will be an order of magnitude or two higher. Redundancy planning is another place that equipment costs scale with a big tank

Another thing to consider is that the actual expense of setting up a tank is one thing, but your time has a value and it's not unlimited. The ongoing maintenance commitment can scale up with a big tank if it's not taken in to consideration from the start. Where is your supply of water relative to the tank? Are you using R/O water? if so, How are you going to store enough R/O water to do a water change? Where are you mixing the new salt water? How are you draining the water from your system, and how are you transporting the new salt water to the system?

As an example, my last tank was a 90 gallon that sat on the main floor of my condo. It wasn't possible to set up an R/O system in that house, or store any water long term, so the only source of water and a drain was the bathroom on that floor, 27 feet away. From start to finish, including set-up and clean up, a 20 gallon water change took just shy of 2 hours of my active involvement if I got the salinity of the replacement water perfect on the first shot, and involved a 50 foot python hose, a 20 gallon garbage can I had to store somewhere, lots of siphoning, and hand balling buckets of water in to the display (thank goodness for concrete floors and old towels). If the tank was any larger, or required more than a 20 gallon water change at any point, the whole system would have become so time-sucking there's no way I would have stuck with it long term.

If you are going to 'go big' make sure you take that in to account when you plan your new system. It would suck to spend 10 grand on something only to realize when it's all said and done that the "required" maintenance each week is 4 hours and the most you really have to devote is 2. There are ways to reduce the amount of time it takes to do things, but they need to be considered before you build the system.