Considering an upgrade

[Matt0676]

Hello,

I have had a 29g Aqua Pod for about a year now and am considering moving up to a larger tank. I am looking for advice about keeping larger tanks, what kind of equipment to buy, lighting, filtration, etc.

I am currently looking at a used 180g acrylic with a 40g sump. It is plumbed for a closed loop system and has no lighting.

I intend on making it a reef tank. I am not very interested in SPS as I prefer softies. I will be adding fish but don't have anything specific in mind right now.

Any/all advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Matt

[MandM]

Try to visit a few reefer's homes and see how they have set up their systems. They will be able to tell you their mistakes and what they would have done or had to do over. You'll see lots of different methods this way.

A big thing is to avoid floods. Making sure you have 2 drains will prevent an overflow if one fails. Make sure you have room in the sump for backflow when the power is off. Weekly maintenance and checking of the drain/return system is vital. An auto top-off system is also vital, my 120g evaps up to 3g per day.

[gwainrig]

I currently have a 180 acrylic and would not buy another one. Too hard to keep clean versus a glass tank.

[lordofthereef]

I would start by trying to plan out what exactly you want to keep. That will help you know what you need in terms of lighting and flow. Have a look in the lighting forums and decide what you want to do for lighting. T5 is great, MH is too, and to some degree personal preference on the look comes in to play as well. For softies you may get away with PC, although I have no experience with PC on tanks larger than 20g to be able to make a decent judgment. As MandM said, try and have a look at other's systems in person. The next best thing, however, is browsing the forums here as many like to document every square inch of their setup with pictures, which can be a wonderful tool.