What are my chances for success?

Ok guys. Give it to me straight. I have a 65 gallon, with poor lighting, an in-tank tunze skimmer, eheim wet/dry and eheim mechanical external (cannister) filters. No sump or refugium (no space).

The way i see it...i have 2 options.

1. Upgrade and go for the enormous tank ive always wanted. Sounds tempting, but im gonna be moving into a new home in about 2 years where i will be able to customize a sweet tank into one of the walls and have a fish room for it behind.

2. Stay with my current 65 gallon (much more practical) and just improve the lighting.

I wanna lean more towards option 2, but im worried about wasting money on a light for such a small tank. With proper lighting, is there any chance of success in keeping corals? Is the water volume of my tank too small without a sump and refugium?

 

First what size would your dream tank be ? If you are moving in 2 yrs and your dream tank would be 200 gallons or less I'd go get the new tank now. I also add if you are not moving that far and have a few friends to help out a 180 can be totally broken down and gone in a few hrs. I just did it myself last yr. Myself and I was of little use at that time and my son and son in law had a 180 reef totally emptied and Loaded on the truck in 2 hrs time. And after it was totally loaded hood Rocks stand pumps skimmer and everything I was 500 Miles up the road with it By 12:00 am and we started at 2:00 PM that afternoon,, Took longer to refill it then it did anything else.. Just plan the refill water out

 

If you are as "sick" about this hobby as most of us in here seem to be then you will probably be looking into a bigger tank soon enough. I started with a 20g and before the year was out went and bought 125g. Absolutely no regrets.

As for the lighting, depending on what type of corals you want to keep allot of corals can do quite well with moderate lighting. Stronger lighting is required mostly for SPS (small polyp stony) corals, with a few exceptions in the other categories as well. My 20g has simple T5 (NO) lighting and my corals are doing very well.

Here's a link which may prove useful as to lighting requirements.

Corals

The mere fact that you are remotely thinking about a bigger tank tells me that you will be posting pics of your new 120g (to say the least) when you move in to your new place. Hey, if you have the room and you love this hobby, why not?

;D

Good luck habibi!

 

Thanks habibi

It looks like my new home will be +/- 2 years from now. I was thinking something outrageous like 350 gallon with a nice fish room. Of coarse this room would include separate electrical outlets and panels than the rest of the house. I would also have a generator with UPS system dedicated to the tank and fish room (electricity cuts a lot here in Beirut ). Thats why i was thinking its better to just wait. But i dont wanna wait if my 65 gallon cant at least have a few nice corals in it. What do you guys think? Will a 65 gallon with no sump/refugium be able to handle a moderately inhabited ecosystem?

 

That's an amazing size tank.....NICE!

Looks like you have thought this one out a few times! Remember with a tank this big you should seriously make sure that the floor this tank will sit on is capable of handling at least 4,000 lbs of weight (that's about 2 TONS).

Your 65g should do fine for a moderately stocked ecosystem. All I have on my 20g mini-reef is a couple of powerheads and a skimmer. So far, so good.

 

Thanks
The monster tank will definately be studied many times over. Lucky for me, they build homes out of concrete here in lebanon. Now if only the country's political stability was as good:

Dont wanna get off topic though. I started this thread so that i can come to terms with the limitations of my 65 gallon tank. Thanks to you guys...im beginning to realize its not as limited as i thought