first time tank

soo high

soo high

Member
i have a 75 gallon tank i just purchase........need a list of things i should get in the tank
to start a salt water tank and i want to get fish and a reef going i only have $700 dollar to spend, i know it not alot of money that what im working with now, intill next 3 month so give me some ideals on some good routs to take :help:
 
dweeble

dweeble

Member
I went to saltaquarium.about.com and they have an entire section the essential equipment you will need, it was extremly helpful. Read as much as you can here on the boards also (try doing a search for the word 'new').
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
You will need either a wet/dry or sump ($200), a protein skimmer ($200), 2 to 3 powerheads ($60), aragonite sand for your substrate ($30), a 350 watt heater ($27.99), and a Mag700 pump or something of its equivalent ($80), plus leave an extra ($30) for plumbing and miscellaneous.. that takes you to a total of $628 on equipment.
I would take setting up the tank very slowly because you are going to need another $250 for live rock. What I would do is use the extra $70 to start buying your live rock and get 20 lbs. of live rock and slowly start building it up so that you begin the tank the right way.
 
monalisa

monalisa

Active Member
No, no sand from the beach (pollutants). Go with a nice fine grain sand, not necessarily live as your live rock will seed the sand to make it live. The base sand is also considerably less expensive. Also, with your rocks, go with some base rock on the bottom and live on top of your aquascaping, the live will also seed the base rock.
As far as the skimmer goes, I'm not sure what everyone else has done, but I waited with that until after the cycle, and until after I had livestock added to my tank...but that's me.
Lisa :happyfish
 
celacanthr

celacanthr

Active Member
you definantly dont need aragonite, but you should get play send frome home dep01 for 4 dollars a 40 pound bag very cheap you could decide to go with a dsb which will only cost about 8 dollars more so for a dsb (16$). as far as the rock goes you could get alot of base rock (75-150$) and about 10 pounds of live rock to seed it (30-70 dollars). I dont think you really need a sump unless you dont like seeing a pump heater and skimmer. If your aquarium came with a light then you wont need to get the lights corals need till you are about to get em. And test kits (50$)
16
150
70
+ 50
_____
286$ for the very basic setup i believe
 
celacanthr

celacanthr

Active Member
most any place will sell it base rock just means any rock besides limestone. like tufa.
DSB= deep sand bed it is about 3+" of sand very very good for filtration.
 
soo high

soo high

Member
thank alot and also on the filter and stuff Bio-Wheel Power Filters are they any good for marine or any other filter such as that or is it just a waste of money and i should just get a wet dry system
 
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