Intro of a Newbie starting his Marine Adventure.

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BushBaBy

Joined
19 Jun 2012
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Location
Brackenfell, CPT
Hi everyone at MASA

I have been hooked on the MASA forums for quite some time now and thought I would make an account even though my Marine Dream is still quite a while away. For my first post I thought I would introduce myself, tell people a little about me and let people know my plans and my dream. To give you a little more detail about me, I have been addicted to fish tanks since the age of about 12. I will never forget the 60cm tank I got from one of the kids parents in my primary school. During my high school years I managed to organize two 1.2m and a 1.5m tank and filled them with any tropical fish I can could get my hand on. Not having much money as a teen a lot of my stuff was either DIY or freebies.

During my 2 years at college I lost a little interest in the hobby and ended up moving the tanks to my moms office which I regret now. They are still set up there with community tropical fish in the 1.5m and quite a few different types of goldfish in the 1.2m. The one 1.2m cracked shortly after the move unfortunately. I still go there weekly to look after the tanks. Since finishing college I moved out/started renting and have been working in IT Programing (Software Development) for the past 2.5 years. I am now currently 23 years old. I have wanted to start my fish tanks up again but since I am renting I have always been worried about moving the tanks. Anyways, my parents and I are about to go 50/50 into buying a place for me which I know Ill be staying in for many many years to come so it looks like I will finally be able to start my dream up slowly.

I will probably be settled in the new place around Decemeber/January and I will probably get my tank around February next year. I managed to score an excellent deal with a guy that has his own tank building company down here in CPT. I will be building him a website for his company to help him sell his tanks and stock and he will help me with building the tank from scratch. I am so excited that this dream is finally becoming a reality but now it is starting to dawn on me that I don't have the money that is needed for the rest of this hobby. The tanks are a very small cost of a proper reef setup. So I need to figure out what I will be able to do with my small budget. I am a very patient person so will be taking the setup very very slowly.

Having only worked with simple tropical setups I know it is going to be a steep learning curve but I am a google and research fanatic so that shouldn't be so much of an issue. I am more concerned about the lack of experience and the fact that I don't have any friends to talk about it with. That is why I am happy that I found MASA. I am hoping to pick your guys brains to help me with this steep learning curve and to get my own dream aquarium in my new house.

Anyways, I just looked up and realized how much i have typed so I'll throw my points that I need to learn and tank setup, dimensions and questions in the next post.

To those that aren't keen for the read above I just want to say: Hello, I am new here and new to Marine tanks and that I am looking forward to getting to know everyone here.

P.S. I forgot to add that my girlfriend is a photography fanatic so I'll track the full journey as well :)
 
welcome...

and trust me, it was a bad idea joining this forum ( for your wallet that is )
somehow i had planned for my tank to be in the future....
2 months later and um... ja... lets just say the future came a bit sooner than i thought thanks to MASA
:thumbup:

you will get loads of help from the boys and girls on here...
good luck to you (and your wallet, family, friends, employer and the list goes on as the addiction grows)
 
Thanks for the welcomes guys :).

I am glad I found a community to share my entire journey with. Ill be asking a lot of questions so please bare with me but I would prefer to look an idiot than to do something stupid. I want to start right at step 1 with tank size, overflow, sump etc before moving onto basic equipment and later sand, rocks and then moving onto getting my tank alive. I apologize before hand if it sounds like I'm wasting your time and that I am asking such simple questions but I need to start somewhere. I have read quite a few start up threads but it is difficult to put everything into perspective when you only have a very limited knowledge of the full setup.

As I mentioned in my first post I am lucky enough to have found someone to make up a tank for me for almost no cost to me in exchange for me building his website for his company. This obviously allows me play around with setups but having such a limited knowledge I am not sure what is best for me. How do I go about choosing tank size, Type of overflow and how to setup my sump and size of sump? I have already read the overflow and sump threads on these forums and a have read a few other places as well but I would love to get some feedback for people like yourselves on what to go with.

To give you a bit more detail on what I think I am looking for:
I am looking to setup a 800-1000 liter display tank and a 300+ liter sump. I will be building the stand and cabinet for the tank myself as I love my DIY projects. I built the stands for the 2 tanks currently at my moms office I mentioned earlier. I want to pick the tanks up a little with around a 900mm high stand but I don't know what my restrictions are when it comes to weight etc and what I should look out for in terms of space and spacing below and around.

We can probably leave the stand and cabinet stand for now until we decide on tank and sump size. For the tank size I was thinking of something around 2000l x 600w x 700h. I remember reading about tank height and light penetration and that people don't recommend tanks higher than that. I am also happy with 600 width as it allows for a neat cabinet that doesn't take up 2 much space. Any comments as to what to look out for and what you think of a tank that size would be greatly appreciated. I would obviously need to look at bracing and apparently euro bracing is ok? I don't truly understand all the methods but apparently euro bracing is the standard.

And then I would need to decide on an overflow system. Which system do you recommend I go with? And then lastly the Sump. Now this is what scares me. Having never dealt with a sump before in my life I don't know what I am doing here. How do I go about working out how to make my sump. What compartments do you recommend I have. Apparently there is quite a lot I need to think about here? If you could explain everything I need to look at and what I need to research I would greatly appreciate it.

Your feedback on the above would be greatly appreciated (especially the sump) and I once again apologize for my simple questions.

Thank you so much for your time
Deon
 
Your tank size is a good size just i would go 600mm high instead of 700mm high, purely for working reasons and lighting penetration. As for your sump try something in the region of 1800L x 600w x 500h with a minimum of three compartments. 1st for the skimmer, 2nd for a RDSB or refugium and last your return pump, this is the most common and basic sump setup. There is a lot more options but this is something to work from as a bases.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum :)

Alot of your questions that you have would rely on what you want to keep in the tank, and as for the sump, what method of filtration you want to run (yes more reading :)). DSB? Bio Pellets? ZeoVit etc?

YOu can save alot of space in the sump area if you go with Bio Pellets or ZeoVit, but do some research and see which you prefer.

Goodluck :)
 
Extra compartments are more for extra gadgets and convenience, i.e. a extra chamber for RO water for top ups or reactors etc. It all depends on personal preference and what type of filtering system you want to use. I would recommend for a beginner, to start off simple first (skimmer,dsb and LR). Once you get a bit more experienced then you can start looking at more advanced filtering systems. If you go through the filtering forums and members system forums you will see most use the 3 compartment setup for a sump.
 
Thanks, I'm doing the skimmer and filtration research now. A lot to take in but I'll get through it and ask questions when needed. Others feel free to add your input as well :) and good reading starting points for me to please.
 
welcome!

i suggest reading everything here, and getting an understanding about each process, focusing on biological filtration, everything else is supplemental :)
once filtration is done, decide on livestock you want and revisited your thoughts on filtration, then move to lighting and then go from there.

planning is essential, defining a reef strategy in the beginning makes things a lot easier
 
Welcome to MASA :) - some reading for you below ;)
 
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