A new Tank..

[wrz0170]

I went to my LFS to look at some tanks they had and they appeared to have a great deal.
This months sale is on a 75gal. E (I'm thinking E stands for Economy) for $99.99!! However, not knowing anything about tanks, I am not sure about the quality. It is made by a company called All-Glass Aquarium. The dimensions are 48x18x20 with a tempered glass bottom. I guess you cannot drill these.
Should I jump on this sale or should I save my pennies and get something a teeny better. They also have a 75 gal. pre-drilled for about $200.
Secondly, he had some sumps, one of which went for about $279. Looking a site about building your own, I am sure one could build one for far less. For those who built them, how much $$ in material??
Finally, he recommended that I skip a subtrate altogether and just stick with LR. He said it will look funny for a few weeks but it won't take long before it's taken over. Sound advice or BS. Now I am confused because one of my books suggests using sand, others use crushed coral. Or is this one of those many opinions... :notsure:
Thanks
William

 

[jasenhicks]

Well ill give you my take, as i have experienced all you have said first hand. I bought the 75gal E all glass, and i liked it. It was indeed a good deal. But the more i looked at it and the more i wanted to do better movement and filtration ideas i said i need a drilled tank. SO i took my nondrilled down and bought the drilled tank, and reset it up. Also i got the same advice from my LFS about no substrated or a thin layer of it. I did it, and it retrospect i didnt like it! I think its a bad idea. The sand bed will harbour everything good and with some good starfish and burrowing fish it wont get any bad dead spots. With some good reasearch you can create a nice "PLENUM" using some eggcrate, screen material, and 1/2" PVC Pipe to help control ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. THis will also give you a nice deep sand bed and it will be a good situation overall, at least in my opinion. I can give you further details on a plenum if you want. But to make a long story short, dont skimp, get the good drilled tank and build a sump. You can get 2'x4' acrylic sheets from tapplastics.com for around $40, a really great deal.