freshwater just don't cut it

i'm one of the two fish guys in my town and friends are awed by my freshwater setups 55 gal and 45 tall but they just aren't doin it for me anymore so i'm converting the 45 over to a live reef setup and am psyched....i'll get the pics up as soon as i get changed over, but my lfs is an hour away and their selection is very limited as is my budget so any cost effecient tips for newbies would be great

 

Plan way ahead. I live around Tampa and still have to drive close to an hour away for a good store. So I make a list of stuff I need and know what I need. Try not to impulse buy, cause they will more then likely talk you into something.

 

Hi Brian welcome to salt water
KISS is the best advice I can give when starting this hobby on a budget (Keep it simple stupid)

1) no need to spend money on expensive live rock - base rock becomes live rock when in your reef tank
2) bare bottom tanks are easy to maintain, and a thin layer of sand looks good - dont go with a DSB - save money on sand and heartaches later
3) spend your money on good lighting T5s as many and as high a wattage as you can fit on your tank (I think on a 45, you can get canopies with 6 x 54 watts?
4) spend you money on as good a quality of skimmer as you can afford
5) start of with the easy corals - like Mushroom rocks, Zoanthids, Green star polyps, leathers, toadstools
6) do the above and 5% water changes weekly and you wont need any expensive additives
7) keep you fish stocks low dont try for the max stocking capacity as that just makes water quality harder to maintain

thats just a few from me

Steve

 

Not to be a downer, but for a reef tank I would consider doing the 55 and not a 45 tall. IMHO a tall is a complete waste of space in SW. Also, for a reef, you are now going to be stuck with halides, and the tank is going to have to be very lightly stocked for its size, as talls do not offer much swimming room.

 

+ 1 on above - I missed the word tall , so please consider the points I made in relation to 55

Steve

 

yeah, in all honestly LOW and long is wat you want when you set up a salt tank, because you want as much light to penetrate as possible for your corals.

 

oh and welcome to 3reef

 

welcome to 3reef


have you ever used copper meds in your tank?

 

Steve Wright & Packleader pretty much nailed it. The only thing i would add, is to learn to DIY as much as you can. my LFS' suck too so i have to make due with what i have 90% of the time.
reefing can be "cheaper" if you are handy. I honestly look at the DIY forums before i even think about the general reef forum.

I've built my own
stand
hood
cal reactor
sump
some live rock
frag plugs
refugium
overflows in the tank
all drilling for bulkheads
all electrical from panel out (dual 20a)
and everything else i can modify

It all adds up and can save some serious $$ but i do encourage you to spend the $ where it counts,tank, skimmer,lighting(fixture/retro), and flow. build and modify from there.

 

Starting SW REEF

And tall tanks will be harder to reach down to the bottom of the tank.

As far as everything else, I cant say you can't be able to change over fast, It's all about money and or DIY items. I'm new to any tank or fish of any kind and I'm still at least 3 months away from adding Live anything. That will be about one year just getting items and cycling tank etc.

Hope that helps,
Mike

PS. My budget is about 200 monthly!!!