Marine Tank and Hardware advice

[skozzy]

I am going to be starting my first reef tank soon. With it all being
expensive to start up I want to spend my money on the right things. If
someone here has some good advice on brands of filters and light etc. for a
4 foot x 18 inch x 18 inch tank. I like the idea of building my own stuff,
but for the first tank I think I would be better spending my money on
pre-made stuff.

Also I have been offered a 4 foot tank that has dark tinted glass, it looks
good with it's current fresh water set-up, and I think with the bright
lights of a marine tank it would also be good on the eyes too. What's the
thought here on this ?

[Pszemol]

"skozzy" > wrote in message ...
> Also I have been offered a 4 foot tank that has dark tinted glass, it looks
> good with it's current fresh water set-up, and I think with the bright
> lights of a marine tank it would also be good on the eyes too. What's the
> thought here on this ?

Hard to tell without looking at it, but I would guess it will not be good.
People are making bigger tanks from special glass or acrylic to avoid
greenish tint which is normal for cheap kinds of glass... Dark tint might
affect vivid colors of your reef negatively.

[Jesse A. Konrad]

I would definately go with a good sized protein skimmer (a good site to
research peoples opinions on skimmers is reefcentral.com, or this news
group)
Also some good quality live rock 1 lb. of rock per gallon of water. You
could always go with a deep sand bed along with the rock. IMO the most
natural way is the best way, though it may be more expensive than a
conventional filter.
For your light, it depends on the livestock you want, if you plan on keeping
the high intensity light demanding animals. I would go with Metal Halides
and maybe some actinic supplementation. For metal halide brands, I
personally like the PFO ballasts with a 10K Venture bulb. Both work very
well and are affordable. After you figure out how much light will be needed
in your tank depending on the species, and providing that, then it's more of
choosing the aesthetics that please you

"skozzy" > wrote in message
...
> I am going to be starting my first reef tank soon. With it all being
> expensive to start up I want to spend my money on the right things. If
> someone here has some good advice on brands of filters and light etc. for
a
> 4 foot x 18 inch x 18 inch tank. I like the idea of building my own stuff,
> but for the first tank I think I would be better spending my money on
> pre-made stuff.
>
> Also I have been offered a 4 foot tank that has dark tinted glass, it
looks
> good with it's current fresh water set-up, and I think with the bright
> lights of a marine tank it would also be good on the eyes too. What's the
> thought here on this ?
>
>
>