St. Louis Area reef tank upset

well, here at 3 reef we are very kind to newbies, as many of us started just like you. for every piece of equipment/livestock you are interested in search here or ask for suggestions. responses will be based on experience!

as for the question, the 1lb/gallon is very middle ground rule of thumb. liverock is used as a breeding ground for nitrate reducing bacteria so in itself is a filter. more rock will idealy allow you to maintain more fish...untill you run out of room. there is a point where the rock prevents flow and causes evil dead spots so too much can be a bad thing. just to let you know 1lb/gallon leaves you with a very empty tank...

 

Hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome to 3reef!

 

Probably your best starting point is to start looking at the various corals and fishes. The types of corals and amount of fish you want will determine what type of filtration you'll want and the size of T5 lighting that you want. Does your 75 have an overflow? (It would be a piece of black plastic siliconed to the back of the tank). I'm often at MS or SS every weekend so if you want to meet up at some point and just ask questions in real time, send me a Private Message.

 

Though I'm pretty new to the hobby as well I'm in St. Louis Hills and have been searching around stores here in StL recently and I have to say my favorite LFS for corals at least are Gateway Aquatics and Seascape Studios. Both I think have nice tanks and are very helpful. Keep in mind Gateway is closed Mon & Tues. Aqua World is nice too but can be pricey IMO.

I know Pet Market Place is closing March 1st I think? Although I don't really shop there, I think they have some cheap equipment in their closeout sale that might be worth checking out if you are looking around anyway.

 

Welcome!

 

Ok thanks. I just need so many items to get started, I just need to find the best way to get a solid base without going broke! Everyone I talk to gives me a new higher price to get what things I need. Started at $800 and last price quote was $1823. :-/

 

One bit of information a more experienced friend of mine told me which I have found to be true: Buy good equipment 1st. You will spend less money buying the good equipment than buying bad and wanting the good stuff when it breaks or doesn't work right. That being said. I didn't buy everything he told me to right away. To be perfectly honest I still have stuff I need to buy. LoL

 

When you go to the store, talk with an owner or manager. Employees really don't have the ability to adjust prices. For instance, I know what everything costs. When I put packages together for customers (tank, stand, skimmer, light, live rock) and they were going to be putting down some serious coin, I would just lower the cost of each item to make it more affordable. (In other words, I could make more money by losing some of my profit margin on a bunch of items rather than getting the full profit margin on only one or two items). A lot of times, people will try to find the cheapest place for each item and buy different pieces from different retail and online stores. You will actually get better prices dealing with a manager/owner and get everything from one store. For instance, I would regularly sell lighting fixtures cheaper than you can find online. For skimmers, I really couldn't beat online prices but I could match them. Something to think about.