Newbie budget tank build

[NYCTURBO]

Hello just wanted to say been reading all the threads and they have been very helpful thanks to everyone out there posting advice and pictures.i got hooked one night over a friends friends house where I saw his 150 gallon reef tank and was amazed the next day found a used 55 gallon tank and started my budget build asked a lot of questions and found not the best tank for a reef set up so I found a 50 gallon wide and cleaned it out for 2 days orderd some bulkheads and dimomd hole saws just drilled the tank today came out perfect.I plan on painting the back of the tank black tomorrow and then building my stand picked up all my plumbing at home depot been taking pictures I'll post them soon please excuse any stupid questions and any advice would be appreciated like do I need a skimmer and what would be the best one to start out with.

 

[skene]

Welcome.

There are no such things as stupid questions.. If you are drilling the tank, what you want to do is quite possibly make yourself a sump. You want to go as large as possible if you can for a larger displacement of water. Skimming I feel is a debatable accessory. Some feel that you need it as it does clean the water of organics, however I am more than sure that it would at the same time remove things that you still want in your water column.
I have a skimmer in my tank for my offbeat moments where I want to just clean the water out for a day or two, but I do not see a lot of skimmate in my tank.

So provided that you are doing weekly water changes, I feel that you can go without one. If you have no intentions of weekly large changes, then you may want to go with a skimmer that is within reason of your budget. Companies to look into that are mildly budget friendly are Reef Dynamics, Eshopps and Reef Octopus.

Good luck, keep reading and researching. Enjoy the hobby.

 

[NYCTURBO]

Thanks for the response I picked up a 20gallon high for $15 to build my sump hope that will do the trick.Does anybody have a 20 gallon high sump buid diagram and how many dividers will I need?

 

[AquaDan]

Hello just wanted to say been reading all the threads and they have been very helpful thanks to everyone out there posting advice and pictures.i got hooked one night over a friends friends house where I saw his 150 gallon reef tank and was amazed the next day found a used 55 gallon tank and started my budget build asked a lot of questions and found not the best tank for a reef set up so I found a 50 gallon wide and cleaned it out for 2 days orderd some bulkheads and dimomd hole saws just drilled the tank today came out perfect.I plan on painting the back of the tank black tomorrow and then building my stand picked up all my plumbing at home depot been taking pictures I'll post them soon please excuse any stupid questions and any advice would be appreciated like do I need a skimmer and what would be the best one to start out with.

Turbo,

you get a ton of credit from me for drilling the tank yourself. The plumbing scares me to death. Good luck. Looking forward to seeing some pics!

 

[NYCTURBO]

It was easy just took my time and worked out great,now for the building of the sump and plumbing but I'm looking forward to it.

 

[rkaragozler]

great job on achieving drilling the tank, what skene said is so true, go as big as you can for a sump, as far as how many baffles you need is determined by, if you want to ad a fuge or not. 3 without a fuge, and 4 with. the height of the baffles is determined by your running water level of your skimmer.

 

[NYCTURBO]

Thanks for the advice I'm going to try the 20 gallon high first for the sump,if that doesn't work I can always use the 55 gallon I bought and wasn't happy with the with of the tank so I have an option but I was going to save that for the (future)90-120 gallon tank sump.

 

[masterswimmer]

Great advice from skene and Richie so far.
The one thing I would recommend is reading and asking questions BEFORE making purchases. It could possibly save you big bucks from buying the wrong (inappropriate) equipment multiple times. For instance, I would have suggested a 20 long as opposed to a 20 high. Not sure how much room you have beneath your stand, but a high tank could impede your maintenance routine. Skimmer cup could be difficult to remove. Getting your arm into your sump could be tough, etc.

Best of luck, and post those pix.

Russ

 

[NYCTURBO]

Thanks for the advice Russ much needed.I picked up the 20 high used so I thought it would be good but a long would work better good thing I haven't built my stand yet I'll build it a little taller for more acces room to the sump thanks again.

 

[jmaquatic]

You have alot of Vet's here giving you very good info so all Im going to say is Welcome to reefing and MR

 

[JonnyJ]

A quick thing to note. Be careful when buying used tanks. You need to be sure that they weren't exposed to medications with heavy metals which can be harmful on a reef.

 

[masterswimmer]

A quick thing to note. Be careful when buying used tanks. You need to be sure that they weren't exposed to medications with heavy metals which can be harmful on a reef.

If you are unsure of the medications and chemicals used by the previous owner, I suggest running a nice concentration of a muriatic acid bath in the tank to give it a good, deep clean.

NOTE/WARNING: If you do use muriatic acid, make sure you do it outside or with very good ventilation.

Russ

 

[cmantis]

Great advice from skene and Richie so far.
The one thing I would recommend is reading and asking questions BEFORE making purchases. It could possibly save you big bucks from buying the wrong (inappropriate) equipment multiple times. For instance, I would have suggested a 20 long as opposed to a 20 high. Not sure how much room you have beneath your stand, but a high tank could impede your maintenance routine. Skimmer cup could be difficult to remove. Getting your arm into your sump could be tough, etc.

Best of luck, and post those pix.

Russ

Ha, so true! I started out doing a budget build and it is anything but at this point. If you need anything just ask because I probably already ordered it three times over. Just ask any of the MR crew that has seen my setup. Just remember we are here to help and don't *usually* bite.

 

[NYCTURBO]

Thank you, looking forward to having a great looking tank like all of our vets I know that can take a long time but it's the beginning of a long journey looking forward to it.