Starting a reef tank

I'm not a big fan of bow fronts. They distort the
view, and make cleaning with an algae magnet quite
difficult.

You need to add up the total watts of lighting that
you will be going with. You want 3 to 6 watts of
light per gallon. 3 being only good for low light
stuff like soft corals and mushrooms, 5 being good,
and 6 being great.

I assume this has a built in overflow, and not a
hang-on-the-back overflow???

"ocening sump"? Probably "Oceanic sump", and
probably an Oceanic tank. Oceanic reef ready tanks
have the built in overflow. Yes you want the built
in overflow, but you might want to opt for the flat
front instead of the bow front. Also lighting is
easier to work with over standard shaped tanks.

Go with a fine calcium sand, not calcium gravel.

I'm to lazy to look it up, but I think that the
oceanic sump comes with a wet dry filter. You would
be better off with a plain style sump/aquarium, and
make a refugium style filtration with protein skimmer.

Also, some more advice is to window shop, window
shop, window shop. Not for the point of getting the
cheapest price, but so that you will be familiar
with what's out there and you will have a better
aptitude to make the right purchasing decision.

Wayne Sallee


Big Habeeb wrote on 9/24/2007 6:07 PM:
Hey gang, just wanted to get some opinions...here's the setup my shop
recommended to me...
I've been dealing with them for awhile, and have run several tanks,
just never gone with reef (and not sal****er in ages):
72 galloon oceaning reef ready bow tank with stand, top etc
plumbing kit
oceaning sump
pum
protein skimmer
esu power compact light
versatop
heater/thermometer
Salt/hydrometer/testkit

Anything I'm forgetting?

Mitch