Getting The Essential Necessities Down

So I may be picking up a 180gallon tank and stand with a home made sump and some other stuff. Im going to check for scratches, bows, and leaks in both the sump and tank. Now what I wanna know is what all do I need to start a tank from scratch.
Tank
Stand
Sump
Powerheads
Protein Skimmer
RO/DI unit
Light
Canopy
Heater
Water Test Kit
Refractometer
What else?
 
Originally Posted by MaddestHatter
So I may be picking up a 180gallon tank and stand with a home made sump and some other stuff. Im going to check for scratches, bows, and leaks in both the sump and tank. Now what I wanna know is what all do I need to start a tank from scratch.
Tank
Stand
Sump
Powerheads
Protein Skimmer
RO/DI unit
Light
Canopy
Heater
Water Test Kit
Refractometer
What else?
Obviously ive included LR and Sand in my head lol.
 

chuckcac

Member
How about...
xtra heater & powerhead to mix salt
buckets, rubbermaids to mix & store RODI & salt water
return pump (sump)
magfloat
airline tubing (acclimation)
powerstrips/timers
salt (obviously)
auto top off?
overflow box
QT tank w/ light, filter, heater, thermometer & PVC (hideout)
(just looked at my running list...
and compared it to yours)
 
Originally Posted by chuckcac
How about...
xtra heater & powerhead to mix salt
buckets, rubbermaids to mix & store RODI & salt water
return pump (sump)
magfloat
airline tubing (acclimation)
powerstrips/timers
salt (obviously)
auto top off?
overflow box
QT tank w/ light, filter, heater, thermometer & PVC (hideout)
(just looked at my running list...
and compared it to yours)
Do you have any links for the top off units? magfloat? any links on overflow box.
 

chuckcac

Member
cant post links to competitor sites on the forums... sorry buddy.....
however... Google is an amazing
tool for finding those items

i'm DIY'ing my overflow, & top off...
if you're handy...there are alot of threads out there about DIY top off units/ overflows... you can find those DIY projects on Melevsreef-dot-com
i know there is a 'mag float' out there that is "brand x" and is less expensive than the others
also if you google "durso standpipe" you can see a great image of one of the "quietest" overflows ever...
 

f14peter

Member
Not necessarily for the tank itself, but critical none the less I think . . . GFI outlet for where you tank electricals will plug in. If you don't want to install a whole new wallplug, get an inline one to plug your powerstrips into. A plain ol' powerstrip by itself just ain't gonna do it.
I use the SHOCK BUSTER brand, one of which is a 4-plex box (With its own on/off switch, very handy) on the end of a 6-foot cord with the GFI unit built into the plug housing. I have two, one at each end of the stand with the return pump, one heater, and one PH plugged into one, with another heater, PH and the skimmer pump plugged into the other. That way, if one GFI trips, I'll still have some heating and water circulation. The lights are on another SHOCK BUSTER GFI cord o their own.
I would replace heater with heaterS
. . . besides the extra ones for prepping waterchange water that chuckcac mentioned, I think you'll get better, more even heating with two smaller heaters (That add up to the wattage you want) than with one. You'll also be able to maintain some heating if one heater fails . . . with a single heater, if it fails you have no heating at all.
 
GFI i will look into that...
what excatly do magfloat, auto top off, overflow box do? i know that sounds elementary but i want to learn more about the basic functions of each tool. instead of just knowing i need it, i wanna know what it does and how to use it.
 

bs21

Member
well overflow is what gets water from the display tank to the sump ....some tanks have these built in. An auto top off system would atomatically take your ro water w/o salt and put it into sump to replace water lost from evaporation. Magfloat is a set of magnets one on inside of tank and one for outside that you slide around to clean algea etc... off of glass or acryllic(make sure there is no sand between the magnet and the glass)
the first pic is a built in overflow second is of a hang on back type. These drain water to the sump but you will then need a return pump ...i think was mentioned in an above post to return the water to the tank

 
Top