equipment

[fishguyxd]

To all you experienced reef guys OK I starting out as you did new not knowing alot but would like your comments What brands of equipment and where can it be bought for tanks,(is alglass good or oceanic What ?, sumps retailer brand ( or do it myself) what type of powerheads maxijet is it or hagan)like i say I am new I don;t want to purchase all this stuff and find out not good .please and thanks and soory i maybr should have put this in a different section.,

[Quinn]

I believe this is the proper section for this type of discussion.

For a tank, I would recommend http://go.to/interamerican. Get yourself an old tank and put baffles in yourself for a sump. Maxijets are good, shop around for the best price.

[trilinearmipmap]

Well fishguyxd to answer your question here is my understanding of the consensus for best equipment in each category. This is not based on my own experience, it is based on my reading/researching in preparation for my own tank, so it is not written in stone or anything but it's a start, I'm sure many will disagree.

Aquariums:

Oceanic -- used to be the Mercedes of fishtanks, quality perhaps slipping
All-Glass -- not as sturdy or high quality as Oceanic but O.K. quality
Inter-American -- see Reef Central threads (do a search)

Sumps:

DIY for cheap from an old fishtank or spend a lot of money on an acrylic sump, your choice

Skimmers:

In-Sump: Euroreef -- reputed to be the best
AquaC -- reputed to be good also

Hang-On: AquaC Remora -- consensus best hang-on

Heaters:

EboJagr: unreliable but better than the rest
VisiTherm: another popular option
Won Titanium: more reliability problems reported

Return Pumps:

External: Velocity T3/T4 series: very quiet, reliable
AmpMaster: consensus pick for high-flow

Internal: Mag Series Pumps: most often recommended pump

Test Kits: Salifert is often recommended

pH monitor: Pinpoint pH monitor is the consensus pick

powerheads: MaxiJets
or Tunze Stream if you have the cash
by the time you pay for 3 Maxijets and a wavemaker
you might as well buy a Tunze Stream IMHO
Rio Seio is a cheaper version of stream, reliability unknown

Calcium Reactor: DJ88's DIY calcium reactor on RC gets the best reviews of the ones I have read about, otherwise it beats me as far as different brands of Calcium Reactors

Lighting: most people seem to put together a retrofit or DIY from various parts, very subjective issue, decide for yourself, most people would point you toward investing right away in good (?MH) lighting rather than getting cheap lighting at first then upgrading later

Anyway that is a start for some advice on some of the more recommended products but don't take my word for it ask around.

[DiscusZ]

Ebo Jager unreliable heaters? Thats all I use and have never ever had a problem with them and at one point in my fish room I had 10 or so of them going, never had them fail and I completely submerge them

I think they are one of the best out there. my fish room is not being used right now because of no time at the moment, but I still use them in my Reef Tank and in my RO barrel and these 2 heaters are about 5 years old and been in constant use and fully submerged as well..

[Bob I]

Originally Posted by DiscusZ

Ebo Jager unreliable heaters? Thats all I use and have never ever had a problem with them and at one point in my fish room I had 10 or so of them going, never had them fail and I completely submerge them

I will second that view. I don't know where the report of unreliability started, but sounds like a crock.

[Richer]

I've heard that there is a batch of Ebo Jager heaters that have a nasty tendency to break down very easily... seems that the newer heaters are somewhat poorly built compared to the older ones. There are rumors that Eheim bought out this company and is going to substantially improve quality control. I'm using an Ebo Jager heater that I bought a couple years ago... I haven't had any problems with it yet (*knock on wood*).

Tronic heaters are the ones I use for most of my tanks. I haven't heard of anything bad about them... nor anything good. IME they are pretty decent all around.

I'd also like to throw in a good word for Aquaclear powerheads. I have several of them running (one 802, two 402s, two 201s) and they haven't given me a problem yet (*knock on wood again*). I do run my 802 pretty hard... its been clogged with plant matter without me knowing it so many times that I've lost count ("So thats why my CO2 reactor stopped working for the past week!"), and yet after a quick cleaning, its back up and running at full blast again. I have heard that they aren't the greatest powerheads to use on a wavemaker though.

HTH
-Richer

[StirCrazy]

I like tronic over ebo jager as when a tronic failes it fails off because of the solid state, ebo jagers are a very good heater but they tend to fail on. as for the titanium, I would use nothing else in a reef, I have two and they have been awsome.

pumps for skimmers I recomend the MAK4, Ca reactors, not much to them, forget all the hype there isn't much difference between any of them I am talking from a bought one, to my twin tower monster to DJ88's home made, it is all a matter of size and the amount of CO2 used.

if you can set it up to use external pumps do it, Mags are a good internal pump but they add heat to the water. I can't justify the price of velocitys myself for externals again I recomend MAK4's

the problem with IA tanks is the delivery time, they are very well built tanks from what I have seen but it can take months to get it. there was a thing about the starfire glass but in the end it came out that there was different manufactures of low lead glass and they are all called starfire.

Steve

[Quinn]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

the problem with IA tanks is the delivery time, they are very well built tanks from what I have seen but it can take months to get it. there was a thing about the starfire glass but in the end it came out that there was different manufactures of low lead glass and they are all called starfire.

Steve

I do agree that delivery time seems to be the main issue. I believe it was eventually decided that the glass is in fact PPG Starphire, which is a trade name. The other companies manufacturing low lead glasses have different names for their product.

[trilinearmipmap]

As far as Ebo's all (4) of my FW tanks have them, they are the best heater I know of but they are still unreliable. I have had a lot of temperature wander, then one Ebo that would not hold temperature above 76 degrees, then another that overheated. You have to be careful in matching your watts of heater to your tank size, so in case of overheating you won't have a disaster.

I read that the older Ebo's were excellent quality, the more recent ones are the ones everyone has had problems with. Most recently I have read that Ebo's will be made in Germany again so perhaps the quality will improve. Anyway this is just hearsay off the internet, but from my own experience they are not too reliable.