First tank - Take Two but first.....

[terryscf]

Hi, I posted before about my first build. That thread can be found here.

That didn't turn out so hot. Well in my mind anyway. It did a complete build with a non-reef tank, drilled holes, plumbed plumbing and brought the best equipment I could justify to my co-CEO/CFO aka my husband. I didn't think my tank cycled so I just let the tank sit and was afraid to put in fish. (Turns out it did cycle, I just missed it. I had live sand, live rock, and Bio-Spira.) I thought I still needed to wait the 30 days and well......

With my frustration and crazy grad school internship schedule, I gave up. And sold pretty much everything. So here we are almost 2 years later, grad school done, and my husband wants to try again. He wasn't interested before but now he's trying to be complete steam ahead. I have him watching youtube, reading forums, and he even brought a book. I explained this is a slow hobby.

I've been down this road before and I don't want to repeat my mistakes. He wants to get a Red Sea Max E-170. He wants to start with a basic plug and play. I told him that a plug and play might be nice to start but we will eventually need to make changes. I believe the tank is a bit small, (yes folks I've been paying attention, bigger is better) and I know I will not be minimally happy without the sump. I'm reaching out to you guys (and gals) for opinions. He's nervous about a larger tank due to weight. I told him if our floor did fine with the 75-gallon tank with water and rock than it should be fine again. But I don't want to tackle plumbing again. I'll crawl into a ball and cry. Well maybe I won't. I did learn a bit last time.

Is it worth it to do the Red Sea Max or would it still be beneficial to just buy a larger reef ready tank with the plumbing kit? Anybody in this hobby with their spouse? Any advice out there or suggestion that I may need or that you think I need to pass on? I don't want to be so fast this time. I know I don't need the best and most expensive equipment to start a tank. I'd like this hobby to be a nice couple-bonding activity, especially since this time he can learn for himself that yes, we really do need to spend the money because we NEEED it.

[SereneAquatic]

Sorry to hear that the first go 'round didn't work out very well. Hang in there!

My husband and I are also in this hobby together and we're enjoying it a lot.

We purchased a Red Sea Reefer initially (90 gal w/ sump) that has the plumbing in a really simple install. You just follow the steps, and all you need is a flex hose from your return pump to the return pipe. We decided to use the middle of the sump for a refugium instead of installing the skimmer that we bought. Somewhere down the line we may need to squeeze the skimmer in, but so far the refugium is holding its own for cleanup. (Kessil H380 grow light is making all the difference).

After pulling our hair out trying to run multiple quarantine tanks for a couple months, we caved and bought another Red Sea tank, this time a Nano Max. It comes with all the initial needs, minus the heater. This has become our quarantine tank.

Having tried both flavors of Red Sea now, and being brand new to the hobby, I think I like the Reefer just a little bit better, mostly because of the fuge. The little skimmer on the nano does well, but it's SO GROSS to clean lol. Stinks to high heaven. The chaeto growing in the sump on the reefer does a great job of keeping nitrates and phosphates down, and a tiny bag of carbon was added after about month 3 to help with the slight cloudiness of the water. (along with water changes). I never really have to think about it, and have only had to cut it back once in 3 months.

Something about the natural setup of the refugium makes me happy, just from a personal angle. I know it wouldn't be nearly as effective without the Kessil grow light.

The only super nice thing about the nano tank is that all the space under the tank is for storage. It's kind of a pain trying to find a good place for the heater (dont get a big one), and I won't ever be able to see down into the overflow... but hopefully I wont need to hehe.

Hope this helps!