Trying to become a salty..

Well I will be going reef later on in the future, so is another skimmer? going to be better for me? It has to be a HOB tho..

That will be directly proportional to the amount of money you want to spend ;). My vote for one of the best HOBs would be the Deltec MCE series (fishieness can attest to this--I only use their external skimmer). But, as you may quickly find out, they are pricey. I would really only stick to a few brands, which include Tunze (some may disagree about this brand), AquaC, Deltec, Octopus, etc. The more common ones you see aren't worth their weight in plastic.
 
Hmm.. I see thanks so much Ace25 and Amphiprion,

Well I'm slowly getting things done equipment wise, I know where i'm going with powerhead, skimmer, R/O unit and a refractometer wise. All thats really left for me now equipment wise is lighting. So any help with this? Once again for now i'm just going FOWLR but further down the road I will be going the coral right mostly some easy hardy corals. As of now I just have two 40watt fluorescent tubes that I was using for the FW setup, what should I be looking at?

Thanks,
 
For fish-only, that is sufficient. If you plan on keeping corals, I recommend keeping your options broad. You don't know how many people kick themselves for not just getting good lighting up front, as opposed to getting cheap stuff and then upgrading. You just spend unnecessary money. So, when you do get reef lighting, I recommend either T5 or metal halide. If you get a T5 fixture, make absolutely sure you get one with individual reflectors. I recommend the Tek fixtures as a fine upper mid-range option (in terms of T5 fixtures). They will provide all the light you need for whatever you want, depending upon the bulb number and types. Better fixtures/options include Aquactinics, ATI (both of which are $$$$$$), or a cheaper and brighter option, a simple IceCap retrofit kit. As far as halides go, people like the Current brand fixtures for the cheaper end, Aquamedic, as well as Giesemann (expensive), Sfiligoi (very expensive), and Elos (fiendishly expensive). If you are looking to max out price vs. performance, buying and piecing together your setup would be best. Getting brighter bulbs (higher PAR) and good reflectors (like Lumenarc, LumenMax, and LumenBright) will go a long way to maximizing the light vs. price ratio, just like T5s.
 
I went with the retro route myself on my latest tank. For many many years I have been buying fixtures. Like you, I started out with 2 40w floro bulbs.. standard shoplight fixture, and that works fine for a Fish Only tank.

Then I got bit by the reef bug and have been upgrading my lights yearly for the last 6 years. Several Compact Floro fixtures, and several T5HO fixtures. Finally I said I was done with this whole upgrade thing and got the right light the first time for my new tank. Icecap660 ballast running 4x 22" UVI Super Actinic bulbs and a PFO HQI 250w Metal Halide ballast running an XM 10K bulb.. my PAR is insane on my tank. The 4 T5HOs are being overdriven from 24w to 40w each and my 250w ballast is overdriving my XM 10K bulb 370w.

So I guess what I am saying, is work on the Fish only tank for now, get some experience, and start saving now for a good light. If you go retro (it isn't nearly as hard as it sounds) and make your own canopy/light you can save a lot of money and get exactly the lighting you want.

Here is my light/canopy
2552561486_20c2d08b89.jpg
 
Thanks again guys, so that sounds good.. I'll keep the current lighting and slowly research and look into it as I progress. Well it looks like I'm pretty much set for equipment, I think I know where I pretty much want to go with skimmers but I have never heard of the Octopus brand, how are they?

http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/Prote...n-The-Back-Skimmer-T-BH-100/product_info.html

(I know you get what you pay for, i'm just curious about this brand. Not really lookin to much into it though)
 
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Too bad they are out of stock. If you get one come back and let us know what you think.
 
Will do, I was looking into a few more things and got confused from the mixed suggestions I was getting. With my current fluorescent lighting are inverts our of the question? Emerald crabs, Shrimp etc.

Thanks!
 
Ace25 to the rescue again, Thanks :)

Well I finally got this project rolling. Just picked up the R/O Unit it's the Kent Maxxima, and my buddy who is getting out of the hobby donated me his skimmer (I'm going to see how it goes with this skimmer, if it fails i'm just going to be picking up the Remora... he gave me his skimmer for free :) )

Two quick questions..

Anybody know how to run this **** R/O Unit it's installed and everything I just have to hook it up to a water line.. is it always constantly on aslong as theres water flow?

Also.. it's time for a substrate.. I wont be going with a DSB just isn't practical in my size tank.. but does live sand really do anything?
 
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