Bare Minimum for Starting 150G Tank

IXL · Oct 27, 2011

Hello all...

I live in manhattan , Washington Heights & I was hoping that someone would advise me on what I'm missing to start this tank that I been working on since FOREVER.... I atleast would like to see it full of water but seeing how I recently purchased a 4way Ocean Motion ?!?! I can't even do that due to the holes in the tank lol.

Please advise the following , this is what I have:

Full View of the setup ( the stand is not completed, it's made up for a 6 foot long tank that never came )

1: My 150 gallon tank it's 48"L x 24"H x 30"D

2: Mixer Bucket below & not sure what the other bucket above will be used for ,yet...

3: What it looks like below the tank so far:

4: Refugium model-60 from ADHI

5: OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI

6: MRC2 Skimmer

7: Left to right- two UPS battery backup incase light go out: four bags of natures ocean sand Black Beach Gravel #5 Premium Aragonite Reef Substrate , Grain size: 2.5-3.5mm ( I think I made a mistake here, I see most people do 1-1.5mm for a DSB.. ) your thoughts? : two mag 18's : One oceanmotions : one glass Heater : one Dart pump: One ATO in a box

Thank you in advance, & if you guys recomend someone I can perhaps pay to finish the job of connecting ( pipping things together localy ) I would consider it as well. ( I'm not the best at DIY )

albano · Oct 27, 2011

IXL said:
Please advise the following , this is what I have:

1: My 150 gallon tank it's like 30 deep x I believe it's 34 hight & 48 in length

If its a 150g...dim. should be 48"x24"x30"h, OR you have a much bigger tank than 150g!

.

IXL · Oct 27, 2011

albano said:
If its a 150g...dim. should be 48"x24"x30"h, OR you have a much bigger tank than 150g!

.

Thank you sir I stand corrected...I'm home and measured.. It is the following:
48"L x 24"H x 30"D

andylee · Oct 29, 2011

Lights, protein skimmer

Awibrandy · Oct 30, 2011

First thing you should, must purchase is an RO/DI! Followed by food grade vessels to keep the pre-made filtered water in.

Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee DO NOT start your new tank with tap water. That will be the biggest mistake you will regret for a very long time.

thirty5 · Oct 30, 2011

Awibrandy said:
First thing you should, must purchase is an RO/DI! Followed by food grade vessels to keep the pre-made filtered water in.
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee DO NOT start your new tank with tap water. That will be the biggest mistake you will regret for a very long time.

+ 1 gazillion.

A friend of mine started a tank with tap and since then even switching to RO has had Phosphate problems. Tap water even with stress coat is techincally ok, the prob is that the TDS and bad stuff will soak into your rock. When you do finally switch to RO, those things will then start to leach back out!!

RO RO RO RO 1st step. def a bare minimum!

IXL · Oct 30, 2011

andylee said:
Lights, protein skimmer

Thank you , Andylee... I will work on getting the lights now since I read your post I didn't put my finger on what kind of LED light I wanted because it's changing so much. I will go with "EcoTech Marine Radion XR30w LED Light Fixture " Question is how many of these I need for my tank?

IXL · Oct 30, 2011

thirty5 said:
+ 1 gazillion.

A friend of mine started a tank with tap and since then even switching to RO has had Phosphate problems. Tap water even with stress coat is techincally ok, the prob is that the TDS and bad stuff will soak into your rock. When you do finally switch to RO, those things will then start to leach back out!!

RO RO RO RO 1st step. def a bare minimum!

Awibrandy said:
First thing you should, must purchase is an RO/DI! Followed by food grade vessels to keep the pre-made filtered water in.
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee DO NOT start your new tank with tap water. That will be the biggest mistake you will regret for a very long time.

Hey guys , Thanks a Million for the replies & taking time out for me

, for one minute I thought I wasn't going to get one ,Line Number 4.
Unfortunately you guys are beating a dead fish lol .... no pun inteded

I do have a ro/di heheh re-read above

Please advise the following , this is what I have:

1: My 150 gallon tank it's like 30 deep x I believe it's 34 hight & 48 in length

2: Refugium model-60 from ADHI

3: Black Beach Gravel #5 Premium Aragonite Reef Substrate , Grain size: 2.5-3.5mm ( I think I made a mistake here, I see most people do 1-1.5mm for a DSB.. ) your thoughts?

4: OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI

5: 2 mag drive 18's & 1 Dart for the OceansMotion.

andylee · Oct 30, 2011

Depends on what you are planning on keeping. If only fish, you just need enough light to see the fish. For a tank that length, you'd probably need 3 of those fixtures for some of the more light-demanding corals, especially given the depth of the tank. You are doing this the right way, by getting everything set before you add livestock. Is the refugium also a sump? Will tank be on a stand? You will definitely need a bunch more stuff, from major to minor. Keep us posted!

IXL · Oct 30, 2011

Andylee , I will see if I still have a video of when I was building a year ago or so :/ this way there's no confusion and your help will be spot on with my actual tangibles.
Many Thanks..

Awibrandy · Oct 30, 2011

IXL said:
Hey guys , Thanks a Million for the replies & taking time out for me , for one minute I thought I wasn't going to get one ,Line Number 4.
Unfortunately you guys are beating a dead fish lol .... no pun inteded I do have a ro/di heheh re-read above

Please advise the following , this is what I have:

1: My 150 gallon tank it's like 30 deep x I believe it's 34 hight & 48 in length

2: Refugium model-60 from ADHI

3: Black Beach Gravel #5 Premium Aragonite Reef Substrate , Grain size: 2.5-3.5mm ( I think I made a mistake here, I see most people do 1-1.5mm for a DSB.. ) your thoughts?

4: OCEAN REEF + 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI

5: 2 mag drive 18's & 1 Dart for the OceansMotion.

So very sorry I missed your 1 FIVE STAGE 75 GPD RO/DI!!!
Happy reefing...........................:usa1:

HanKami · Oct 31, 2011

Good Lights and Filtration

IXL · Nov 3, 2011

excuse the dust lol ,I was working on it for half a year and then the next 6 to 9months kinda fell in the back of a lot of my tasks... Now I'm at the point it's either finish it or break it down while i'm ahead. :/

Ariel110G · Nov 3, 2011

That was my mistake 6 months ago

Awibrandy said:
First thing you should, must purchase is an RO/DI! Followed by food grade vessels to keep the pre-made filtered water in.
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee DO NOT start your new tank with tap water. That will be the biggest mistake you will regret for a very long time.

That was my mistake 6 months ago, thank god for credit cards ( this tank is making me broke, my wife wants to kill me) I ordered a RO/DI today, so now when I get my RO/DI I guess I need to do more water changes to get all the Phosphate & bad crap out?
I have to say that my fish look healthy & I have 3 corals that are just growing, but I know that my Phosphate & Nitrate are high & I do have a algae problem.
I do have a skimmer, MegaFlow4 sump (its BIG) /refugim & a NextReef reactor with carbon & phosban all by seacam. I hope with the RO/DI now ill be good now.

andylee · Nov 3, 2011

Looks like upper crust hardware. What are you planning on keeping?

yogi · Nov 3, 2011

Reefers from the heights.

Ohh yea another reefer from the heights
I don't live in the heights anymore but i have lots of friends and family there
So its like i never left.

Is your tank reef ready? If not you need to drill it or get an overflow.
I'm no expert and just started myself, but most guys are having success with bare bottom (not my style) and deep sand beds. I prefer deep sand bed.
For your tank size:
4" : 233lb of sand
5" : 292lb of sand
6" : 350lb of sand
calculator i used. Good luck.
http://www.garf.org/calculators/SandBedCalculator.asp

Nunzio900 · Nov 3, 2011

Looks to me that you might need some power heads also

yogi · Nov 3, 2011

Also get some test kits for ph ammonia nitrite nitrate alkalinity calcium magnesium etc
and watch or read about cycling the tank. Most important at the beginning

andylee · Nov 3, 2011

Aren't you anxious to get going now? Looks like it will be a great setup!

IXL · Nov 4, 2011

andylee said:
Looks like upper crust hardware. What are you planning on keeping?

Honestly , I have no Idea?
I?m thinking - SPS tank with fish :goldfish2? Ummmm for sure I?m getting anemone , 1 brain & 2 clowns ,get 2 blennys , 1 hawk & that?s all I can come up with for now.Oohhh and perhaps in one year of setting up the tank, 1 or 2 Mandarin. I?m getting small fishes that?s for sure nothing big.

yogi said:
Ohh yea another reefer from the heights

yogi said:
I don't live in the heights anymore but i have lots of friends and family there
So its like i never left.

Lol, Yeah, I been trying to see if anyone of my close friends have reefing friends but they dont. I really wanted to have someone with SW sense to guide me so I dont blunder this and get kicked out of my apt. lol...Thanks for the bro luv.

yogi said:
Is your tank reef ready? If not you need to drill it or get an overflow.

yogi said:
I'm no expert and just started myself, but most guys are having success with bare bottom (not my style) and deep sand beds. I prefer deep sand bed.
For your tank size:
4" : 233lb of sand
5" : 292lb of sand
6" : 350lb of sand
calculator i used. Good luck.

http://www.garf.org/calculators/SandBedCalculator.asp

This is what I got when I entered my measurements for a DSB tank L , does this mean I need 1,183 lbs of sand for a tank that is 48?L x 30?W x 24?D ?
That?s like 59 bags of sand at 20lbs of sand inside of a bag; which equals to/or close too $1500.

Recommended

for new tank setup:

1,183 lbs

CaribSea Seaflor

Special Grade Reef Sand lbs

Nunzio900 said:
Looks to me that you might need some power heads also

I thought the Oceansmotions took care of the need to use a powerhead ( I also thought there was a danger in something getting caught in powerheads ) so I went with the oceansmotions.

yogi said:
Also get some test kits for ph ammonia nitrite nitrate alkalinity calcium magnesium etc

yogi said:
and watch or read about cycling the tank. Most important at the beginning

THANK YOU

, ^^^ , this is something that I have read about over and over just to make sure I get it right, including the adding of a shrimp to kick off the cycling. One thing I know will give me trouble is readingph ammonia nitrite nitrate alkalinity calcium magnesium etc? :/

andylee said:
Aren't you anxious to get going now? Looks like it will be a great setup!

Hahahah :lol2: ?
Of course I?am but at the same time I know this is a marathon & not a sprint? I?m trying to do this right because I live on a second floor in a building. Even tho I?m getting homeowners insurance , I really want to make sure nothing fails while I?m at work * cross my fingers *. Depending on how much more I have to spend to get it running with water and cycling I think I can hack the waiting period to come. Lol.

Bare Minimum for Starting 150G Tank

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