looking to start up a salt water tank

Yes LED's will support a reef tank. As far as buying a tank off of craigslist, most of the time the person you are buying it from will have it filled with water when you arrive. At least that has been my experience. I prefer glass over acrylic because it doesn't' scratch as easily and I like the look of glass better. If you scratch acrylic though, you can usually buff it out.

 

Yeah on Denver Craigslist I just found an empty 450 gallon acrylic tank for under a thousand dollars, lights stand and filtration.

 

ok sounds like i am going to hit craigslist. Oh i just got a call from my lfs owner wanted to know if I had any questions. I told him i have lots of questions just not sure what they are yet. I told him i would not be happy with the smaller tank knowing a larger one would fit in the same space. He said i should wait till i can afford the bigger set up so I would be happy in the end. The one he built is starfire glass and would run only $600 more for the same set up. When i heard that I told him i would go the extra $ for the larger tank. But now i am going to check the internet to see what is available.

 

can anyone take a moment and give me some feedback on this system by fosters and Complete Aquarium Kits with Stands: Marineland Monterey Deep Dimension LED Super Systems the 250 Gallon Deep Dimension Standard w/ four 24-36" Double Bright LED
60" x 36" x 63-1/2" high
Includes: 60" x 36" x 27" high Aquarium with Corner-Flo Filtration, 60" x 36" Glass Canopy, Monterey Stand, Monterey Canopy, (4)-24-36" Double Bright LED Lighting System, (2)-250 watt Visi-Therm Heaters, Stick-on Digital Thermometer, (2)-Maxi-Jet 5500 Pumps, Model 4 Acrylic Sump Filtration System, Plumbing Accessory Kit, and Instructional DVD.

 

seems pretty cool but that doesnt include water,rock,sand,powerheads,skimmer,the maxijett is not that great of a product other than it has what you need so thats all added cost and it will probably be atleast $500 more to spend.Just look at the tank profile section at tanks this size and get their equipment list and go from there.With you being inexpericenced on salt tanks do buy one on clist that is already established because you might get more of a headache get a tank that has just water in it to verify it dont leak and all the equipment works.

 

Read the newbie threads on the top of this forum! That will answer some of the questions who don't have yet!

 

so here is where i ask how do i know what the best pump is and what the best heater is and what the best power heads are and skimmer is and how many gal should the refugium be can I use an external pump or does it have to be submerged not sure how that works.

 

the fuge should be as big as possible while still fitting int he stand of the tank, unless you have it plumbed into a back room it can be as big as you want.

 

Later ill put together a list of products i think you should get then you can take it from there.Are you gonna be doing corals and what types (soft,lps or sps) also will you be doing any anemones or clams within the next year i need to know so it can help with a few different routes.

 

Oh yeah also if you get a custom stand make sure to get the opening ends also for better access.