New 110 Gallon Setup

[rinconmike]

I have had a 29 Gallon Bio cube set up for several months as a reef and we like it so much, when the LFS said they have a 110 Gallon used setup we decided to go with it.

- It is and All Glass Aquarium 48x18x30 110 Gallon Tank Reef Ready
- All Glass Aquarium Oak stand a canopy
- Simple single Flourescent light strip
- A custom built (the LFS built it) Wet Dry Filter that holds 12-gallons of Bio - Balls, Filter Pads and the Carbon. There is a space in there for a Protein Skimmer that is not included.
- The Pump is a Mag Drive 9 it does 950 gallons an hour.
- I will get a 300 Watt Heater and a Protein Skimmer

I am still very new to Salt Water. For this, we want a fish only tank and no live rock. I have read that live rock is needed and to get rid of the bio balls. My LFS said just bio balls and no live rock is fine. what I cannot do is mix the live rock with bio balls.

The LFS also recommended Live Sand and Decorative Coral pieces.

Any thoughts on this?

Also, what is a good light fixture I should look at getting for this tank, considering it will be fish only. I want something good, but not too high that will increase Algae or require a chiller. LFS recommended the Blue Wave 48-inch 2-Bulb High Output T-5 Lighting with 4 or 5 LED Lights

thanks,

Mike

[bertoni]

You can use only bio-balls, only live rock, or mix the two. Live rock is essential for some fish that require certain types of live food, but many do not. The essential condition is that the filtration be capable of handling the ammonia load that the fish produce. Wet-dry filters are very efficient, so that's the easiest approach.

The decorative corals are fine to have.

The live sand that gets sold in bags is the same as dry sand, in the end. I wouldn't pay extra for it.

The lighting is just for your eyes. How much does that LFS fixture cost? It's likely to be fine.

[rinconmike]

LFS said the the Blue Wave 48-inch 2-Bulb High Output T-5 Lighting with 4 or 5 LED Lights is 160. However, today he said since I had concerns with the single fixture, he wants to make sure I am happy, he would give me a non HO for cost of $75 (retails $120). I need to go back and look at both. He mentioned the HO may be too much and promote Algae growth.

The setup listed above is $1,000. I then need to buy the sand, salt, filter pads, carbon, heater, and protein skimmer. They are also asking $450 for delivery and complete setup.

Here is a picture.

102425

Thanks for the input and help.

Mike

[bertoni]

I'm not much help with pricing, in general. I'd try to take a look at the lower-cost fixture running on a system, if possible. It's likely plenty of light, but that again is a personal choice.

[rinconmike]

thanks. I need to go see how it looks. I might just go with what i comes with and then look at the lower cost upgrade later.