Making salt water tank help!!

[aquariumdude]

So I was considering a stingray for my 125 gallon aquarium but i was told my a good friend (krytan, lol) that probably isn't the smartest idea because it really needed to be bigger. So now I'm considering a salt tank.

I was told you can build your own refugium or whatever it's called. I have no idea what I'm getting into but don't have alot of extra cash!! Please if you guys can give me a few links on what I need to get to make it salt water. Also leave a guestimate on what you think it would cost to get another tank, skimmer and etc. How much does live rock usually cost the LFS?

Also would I have no use for my rena filstar xp3 or aquaclear 300's?

 

[aquariumdude]

anyone???

 

[fsn77]

For ideas on building a sump / refugium, an excellent place to look is www.melevsreef.com

If your system has enough live rock in it, there's little use for a HOB or canister filter. You could use them to run carbon or other chemical media, but they'll be unnecessary for bio-filtration. You could also potentially use them for additional circulation, but they are hardly worth it considering how inexpensive some of the decent powerheads are.

Setting up a reef tank can run anywhere from $40 - $60 per gallon, depending on what your tastes are. If you're able to DIY certain things or buy good equipment used, you can save a lot of money.

Prices on live rock vary widely. I've seen live rock sell for as little as $5 / pound and as high as $12 / pound locally. It just depends what type it is (locality, density) and how nice it is.

To get started, recruit as much help as you can from friends and/or the local reef club, as well as seeking out advice from the many experienced people here on AC. You might want to read the various stickies and articles here on AC about marine tanks. There's plenty of good, basic information available there.

Feel free to ask questions... The more specific the better. If I had to guess, I would say your low on responses thus far because you're biggest question posed is a rather general one. There are many ways to go about this hobby, be successful, and enjoy it. Many methods are debated -- deep sand bed vs. shallow sand bed vs. bare bottom vs. remote deep sand bed, skimmer or no skimmer, T5 HO or MH lighting, etc.