Essential Reef set up equipment

[marie]

While your doing your research remember all you really need is a tank, some flow, lights and a means of exporting nutrients. It can be as simple as this



75g tank, MH lights, prizm pro skimmer, 3 maxijet 1200s and live rock

Or as complicated as this



175g bowfront, basement sump,calcium reactor and so on and so on

It depends on how much money you want to spend and how much time you have to spend

Having gone both ways I think keeping it simple is much better but thats just my opinion

[mr_alberta]

What methodology do you plan on using? Bare Bottom, SSB, DSB, etc etc. This will help determine what equipment you may or may not need. What equipment do you have now that you are going to reuse? A little more info would allow us to give you more detailed answers. Otherwise you'll just end up getting general answers...

[kwirky]

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

What methodology do you plan on using? Bare Bottom, SSB, DSB, etc etc. This will help determine what equipment you may or may not need. What equipment do you have now that you are going to reuse? A little more info would allow us to give you more detailed answers. Otherwise you'll just end up getting general answers...

My current setup is quite early in it's zeovit stages but I really like the zeovit method. Most people I've talked to have had good results if they stick to the regiment. It's not that expensive really too compared to all the other stuff bought for reefkeeping. Too bad it's more of a "product" than a methodology, meaning it's controlled by a single company rather than a community.

[Slipstream]

Well, prefferably i wanna get live sand. Apprx 2 inches deep. I HATE bare bottoms. And i plan on having fish, corals(hard and soft), and inverts. I basically wannna get it so that it looks exactly like ya took a shovel and took it outta the ocean.

Which is why i dont like bare bottoms, i dont think they look as natural.

[Jason McK]

Building a ref aquarium is a very slow and involved process. I'm sure through your reading you have discovered that there are many theories behind each piece of equipment you purchase.
I would suggest you see what you can afford.
If 100G is the room you have then go with a 100G.
From there i would research Lighting, Skimmers, Sump design and come back to Canreef and ask specific questions about each piece. It will be a lot easier for use to comment on a piece of hardware rather than generalize.

But for an Idea of what I believe you will need.
Tank and Stand
Sump
Lighting
Skimmer
Method of flow (closed loop, power heads)
a way of maintaining Calcium and Alk (daily doseing, CA reactor, Kalk Reactor)
Live rock
Sand
Timers or controller
PH monitor
Test kits
Salinity measurement device
Heaters
J