Tank Hardware, Contents


Solution Grounding - protecting the tank and inhabitants from house induced current surges. You can't just drop a copper wire in there...copper will corrode and enter the tank ecosystems, which is not good. Titanium isn't corroded in saltwater, so be sure the ground is Ti.

Dosing/top off Pump - Dosing pumps come in electric or gravity-fed models (much cheaper). The electronic fluid doserscan very easily be programmed to control the precise daily dosing of fertilizers, two part supplements, trace elements or to top off water due to evaporation. They can be located at the same level as the aquarium, above or even below the level of the aquarium. The gravity fed containers can be used for dosing supplements such as kalkwasser or can be used for water top off due to evaporation - these aren't as slick as the electrics, but appear to get the job done (the Kent Marine gravity dosing system looks nice).

Chiller - use in conjunction with a heater to maintain water temp in a specific range. In the winter the current tank gets on the cool side, 75 degrees, and in the summer it can exceed 86 degrees...TOO HOT for reef systems. I think a 10 degree delta over a year is OK, but the hot is too hot...and I'm not about to run the house air conditioner just to keep the fish tank cool. CHILLERS AREN'T CHEAP.

Controller - This is a nice to have, as the monitoring functions can be carried out by hand. However, given my schedule, a controller might be a must have. Not cheap, most are for measuring individual levels only - PH, Calcium, Conductivity, Temperature, ORP, seem to all be separate devices, and none are cheap. "All In One"'s are $500-$700!

Filter/filter media - Many types available, for a variety of price ranges. I've notice a lot of DIY articles for wet/dry trickle filters, which appear to be considered very good filters. Given that I want to use a DSB for biological filtration, some thought should be given to the filter. Bio filter media tends to produce nitrates due to the bacteria on the media, whereas nitrates produced in a DSB are consumed by other DSB critters. Research!

Heater - Don't just get a Petco special...something fairly controllable is needed, esp given the expense of the tank, and eventually, the inhabitants.

• Work on using about 2W/gal to raise the tank temperature 5 degrees F above the room temperature. (Thus for a 55 gal. tank you would need ~ 300W to raise the temperature to ~ 75 F if the surrounding temperature is ~ 60 F).
  
• It is better to use two or three smaller heaters than one large one.
  
• If a smaller heater fails on, it is unlikely to boil your tank, and if it fails off the other heater can still supply some heat until you (hopefully) discover the problem.

Hydrometer - needed to at least measure salinity of tank and water to be added to tank. These can be pretty cheap, but it may be worth getting one that monitors tank salinity on a constant basis.

• get a good glass one, and know for what temperature it's calibrated for
  

Lighting - This will be a biggie...need to research...in terms of cost. Also many coral species use photosynthesis and food capture to survive, and I'll need to consider future additions to the tank as it and I mature and take on more difficult species. Research!

• live rock needs at least 2.5-3.0 watts/gallon, preferrably more
• soft corals (easy ones) need at least 3.0-4.0 watts/gallon, preferrably more
• hard corals, clams, anemones need at least 6.0-8.0 watts/gallon, preferrably more
• Water depth affects watts/gallon, since light needs to travel to be bottom of the tank through water
• Light fixture should be able to accomodate the high light outputs for later on!
• Color temperature is another factor - 10K is recommended for "normal" depth reefs
• if you want to keep critters from lower depths (lower than 20m in nature) consider 20K
• Reef Lighting Links: Alber Thiel, Ian Ashdown, Dana Riddle
  
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Live Rock - 20-40% of total tank volume in live rock, as it's essential for long term stability.

• GARF has a great section on making your own live rock, but for my own nano reef, I think it's a bit much.
  

Maintenance items - salt, algae scrapers, gloves, critters. Need to do some homework here, esp. with the critters who will maintain the tank.

Overflow box - If you don't have your main tank drilled to move water into other items (sump, wet/dry filter, refugium) an overflow box is a nice way to do this. There may be DIY plans for these...they look fairly straight forward, especially the siphon based models.

Sump - A Should have - it's a good place to add water, chemicals, control water temp, monitor water properties, and it increases the water volume of the overall system.

Refugium - A Nice to have - I like the whole ecosystem aspect of this hobby, so a refugium is a nice way to get more diversity into the whole system, as you can house species that might be incompatible with main tank species, fill it with plants that can carry out other functions, etc. Could this be a DIY?

UV/Ozone water sterilizer - hrm...not so sure about this. Maybe for conditioning water to add to the system? Do I really want to kill off all the microcritters?

Plumbing - I really need to research this, as there are many parts to the system that need to be connected...at a minimum there's the main tank and a sump/refugium.

Protein skimmer - Many sources say these are very important as they remove organic stuff from the system. However, other sources that use a lot of natural parts in their systems, such as a DSB, and sea grasses in a refugium, say there's no need, as the natural parts thrive on the organics in the system. Skimmers aren't cheap...

• Many sources indicate that this is very important in all but the smallest tanks. Lots of good DIY's on this below.
  

Powerheads - I'll need these at a minimum to simulate surge in the tank, more research is definitely needed.

Pumps - I'll certainly need at least one if I have a sump - I can use gravity in one direction of flow with a siphon, but the other direction will likely require a pump of some sort. Is it possible to use siphoning in both directions?

• buy a good return pump if you're using a sump, as well as a couple of extra powerheads
• Wavemaker/surge device is nice to have, but not essential
  

Reverse Osmosis - I'll likely need one of these systems to purify the water I introduce into the system.

• RO is considered to be enough, RODI is best, but considered overkill and expensive.
• On the other hand, you're gonna spend money on the critters...
  

Sea Salt - Research before you buy!! You'll need plenty on hand for water changes (10-20% every 2-4 weeks).

Substrate - see DSB section in this blog.

Tank itself - pre drilled overflow is highly recommended, as they can't go wrong like a siphon overflow!

Test kit - this could be a cheap replacement for the automatic probes above...more labor intensive, but WAY cheaper.

Thermometer - obviously needed, altho with the right heater and chiller, a thermometer will simply let me know what the temp is at any given time, as opposed to controlling the temp.

• Get a good one, accuracy is impoortant; stick on ones won't cut it.
  

Wavemaker - Use in conjunction with powerheads...creating simulated ocean surge in the tank is important.

Wet/Dry filter - see Filter above.

Tank Hardware Suppliers:

Marine Depot - higly recommended and very complete
Kent Marine - Carries chemicals, has nice "Kent University" that discusses lighting in saltwater tanks


DIY Resources:

OzReef
Hawiian Fish
SnailMan's DIY
GARF's Bullet Proof Reef