Newbie looking at getting a used setup

[SWFan]

Hi Folks,

I have made the decision about 5 weeks ago to purchase a SW aquarium.  After days and nights of reading up, I think I am ready to take the plunge (This has been much more intimidating).  After looking at prices of new vs. used, and a slight fear of building my own sump (I am not handy) I am looking at purchasing a used complete system.  I was hoping to hear your thoughts on getting a complete setup, and any tips on what to look for.  The setup that I am considering purchasing is a 55 gallon with in sump corallife super skimmer 220, a current usa 48" 4 bulb T5 lighting, ~60lbs of live rock, fairly large frog spawn, and a pair of clown fish.  Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[mmaisonneuve]

If you have your own house....chance are that you will sooner than later get a bigger one......

Id look at 90 Gallon.....seems big but it's about the smallest you can go without severe fish limitation.

Sump are not that complicated.....baffle is not a must if you have a good skimmer......

For the lights dont waste your money and think LED from the beggining.....T5 and MH need to be replaced every year if not every 10 months.....

T5 not that good if you decide to get SPS.
MH you will curse at your hydro bill.
LED expensive to purchase but life is endless....hydro is cheap.

[reefdava16]

T5 not that good if you decide to get SPS.
MH you will curse at your hydro bill.
LED expensive to purchase but life is endless....hydro is cheap.

T5's are excellent for SPS

Also stay away from that corallife superskimmer 220.... complete junk

I agree with looking for a 90g, its a good size to start with.

[Dakotamay]

T5 not that good if you decide to get SPS.
MH you will curse at your hydro bill.
LED expensive to purchase but life is endless....hydro is cheap.

I agree here with mmaisonneuve. I'm sure many others will as well. T5's aren't really suited to SPS.  I tried MH for a bit and yes. They went out the door pretty fast as the first hydro bill came in lol. We now run all LED.

Also heed the advise. Go bigger right off. The bigger system you have =ing more water volume. The more forgiving it is of newbie mistakes. Plus if you like tangs. Then you want at least a 180 gallon 6ft long tank.  Yes it's expensive right off but do it. It's more expensive later on to be upgrading and upgrading.  I know this first hand as we started out almost 3 years ago now with a 30 gallon and now have a 180 gallon with 50 gallon sump and all the goodies to run it all automated. If we'd of done this first off. We'd of saved ourselves roughly $4 grand.

Good luck with whatever set up you decide fits your lifestyle and space availability. There's lots of great people on here with many years experience more than I have that will all gladly share information and answer any questions you are bound to run into as you go along in this journey.

[tophoo]

I have crazy SPS growth with my t5s

[mmaisonneuve]

Hey go with T5 if you want. Just telling you if you are starting a new setup and think future.....go with LED.....no more bulb replacement, dimmable, cloud simulation, lightning.....moonlight is already build in......cheap on Hydro and no bad surprise with bulb that go out of spec and starting Cyano frenzy or bad algae. I've also seen plenty of T5 setups with rusty end connectors that had to be replaced.

[Hookup]

You might want to check build threads...  Mine for example has some SPS I'm proud of and it's always been T5 lighting....   

Not sure who's spreading the "T5 isn't for SPS" around, but it's hooie... 

[SWFan]

Thanks for the tips. Looks like there's some controversy with T5s.  LEDs makes the most sense to me, but the setup I am looking at now currently has T5.  I would probably upgrade to led after the bulbsneed replacing. I agree a 90gal makes alot of sense, I am not sure I have that kinda space though.  I definitely don't have space for a 180 gal, and think that's overkill anyways.  I was thinking the 55 would be great way to get in to the hobby, and go through the learning curve.

Ideally I wanted a pair of clownfish and a yellow or blue tang and one more fish.  

[SWFan]

T5's are excellent for SPS

Also stay away from that corallife superskimmer 220.... complete junk

I agree with looking for a 90g, its a good size to start with.

Can you elaborate why you think the superskimmer is junk?

[mmaisonneuve]

We are at a turning point in reef Aquaria Lighting......LED are now emerging has the product of the future.....

MH and T5 and still very good product but from another era......just like properller plane were gradually replaced with Reactor. That does not mean that properller are bad.....simply that they were surpasse by something better.

Now LED like anything new is more expensive but offers more flexibility and are cheaper to run. There is also the heat factor. If your tank is in an A/C enviroment T5 and MH are not an issue...with proper air circulation.....

If in a basement but no A/C T5 should also be ok.....but beware of enclosed canopy !

Everything is not black and white.

First select your tank and furniture........planning a slick setup or are you just not giving any importance to the look ?
Second decide of your canopy or no Canopy.....
The Tank dept....
The light will depend of that.......

Think about were it's placed also...in a living room ? a basement ?

Think about the Hydro Bill, the Heat, the Bulb maintenance, the type of coral.....go to you LFS...... MarineScape, Aquavalley......talk with the guys ask about SPS, the lights......

What is you overall plan.

[mmaisonneuve]

Oh !

Yellow or Blue Tangs and 55 Gallon does not go well togheter.......in fact many Tang will require something like 90 Gallon if not more

[Hookup]

T5 lighting has never been debated as far as I have seen since its introduction 10+ years ago, other than this thread. 

There are dozens of ReefCentral TOTM winners running all T5 systems most of which are within the past 5 years to present.  I was curious so I pulled the past year.  MH seems to dominate what people are thinkging produce the "most successful tanks" voted by end-resuts.

* Aug 2012- T5
* Jul 2012- T5
* Jun 2012 - MH
* May 2012 - LED
* Apr 2012 - LED + T5
* Mar 2012 - MH + Sunlight
* Feb 2012 - MH + T5
* Jan 2012 - MH + PLASMA
* Dec 2011 - T5 (one of the nicest SPS acro collections out there)
* Nov 2011 - MH + VHO
* Sept 2011 - MH
* Aug 2011 - LED

LED in SPS coral tanks are not as well proven as T5 and MH.  Partly because there were so many pieces of crap made at the on-set that could splash nice color on your corals but not provide the PAR to sustain them, partly because there is no baseline for what constitutes "successful SPS" to measure against.  I had spoken with two manufactures 2 years ago this Sept who both say they do not believe an LED only system cannot grow SPS.  That said, there are many hobbyist clamming growth and a lot can change in 2 years.

Not all LED/T5/MH/VHO's are created equal either.  Each has to be properly cooled, properly driven, properly focused(LED) before they work optimally for your corals.  Build quality of the lighting fixture, bulb, LED, driver, cooling fans, cooling system is critical.  To say "all T5's are excellent" is crap.  Some are just built so badly that they barely function... others are outstanding, same for all lighting types as you can imagine.


The point i'm trying to make here is that T5's, MH, VHO's, LED's are all great and all crap depending upon quality of the product and the species of coral you are looking to keep.

[mmaisonneuve]

From fact I can assure you that with LED only setup I see growth....lots of growth.....many OVAS people saw my tank at the begining and now and those SPS are growing like hell.....I've started with the Modular LED kit (cree) and recently moved to Radion. I've also seen some professional tank on AI and got SPS from those place (frag) The size of those SPS was crazy !!! they had to grow somehow. So anyone pretending that SPS growth on LED alone is either bias or refusing to see the reality of things. I regularly frag my SPS and I've always been on LED.

[az]

T5 is still one of the best for growing any coral, I feel LED do not work well on deeper tanks, but one day it will.
Coralife super skimmer 220 is no good(way below average), you can ask the seller to give you a break as you will need a better skimmer.
   

[SWFan]

mmaisonneuve
I am already thinking about the overall plan.  The aquarium will be placed in my living room, and yes it is in an A/C environment.  I think we might be getting of track from my original comments/question.  I understand the advantages/disadvantages of T5 vs. LED.  The question was wether it made sense to go with the used setup that I am currently looking at.  When I add up the total cost of all the parts new, I find that it typically costs 1200+ were it is a fraction of the cost getting used.  Have people had bad experiences with buying used, or is this just the nature of the industry to have a low resale.  I visited Big Al's, and Marinescape, and will probably be going to Aqua Valley today or tomorrow.

I understand there are always a trade off between buying cheaper components, vs better components in the long term.  But as a newbie to the hobby, I need to also balance the risk of me staying in this for the long runn and try to have a relatively safe investment.  My goal is to buy quality products that are reliable, i just don't think I am ready to pay for all the bells and whistles that are more of a nice to have than must have.

[bt]

Ideally I wanted a pair of clownfish and a yellow or blue tang and one more fish.  

Blue in a 55gal is a definite no-no.  Assuming you're talking about a Regal/Hippo Tang, they're super active and should be in an 8-foot tank with plenty of swim space.  A Powder Blue Tang or an Atlantic Blue Tang both should be in a 6-foot tank minimum.

Yellow Tangs are best in a 5+ foot tank as well, as they're a bit more active for their size.

[Hookup]

From fact I can assure you that with LED only setup I see growth....lots of growth.....many OVAS people saw my tank at the begining and now and those SPS are growing like hell.....I've started with the Modular LED kit (cree) and recently moved to Radion. I've also seen some professional tank on AI and got SPS from those place (frag) The size of those SPS was crazy !!! they had to grow somehow. So anyone pretending that SPS growth on LED alone is either bias or refusing to see the reality of things. I regularly frag my SPS and I've always been on LED.

I don't think I said it wasn't possible.  I said when LEDs were released the quality was not growing SPS consistently and the debate rages on still.

You said that T5's are not that good for SPS.  I simply was pointing out that I believe they are an excellent and well proven technology that provide a very wide range of color options for growing and coloring SPS.

I agree with Az, that T5 are one of the best for SPS.  IMHO MH+T5 are THE best and if I had money, I'd add LED for color.  But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

[Dakotamay]

You might want to check build threads...  Mine for example has some SPS I'm proud of and it's always been T5 lighting....   

Not sure who's spreading the "T5 isn't for SPS" around, but it's hooie... 

Hookup, this is what I had always been lead to believe. I was informed wrong then. My bad. I'm not really into SPS either. Every frag I've tried has perished. So I've decided not to do SPS til I get more equipment to be able to provide for them.

[Dakotamay]

Whatever you do. Don't put a tang of any kind into a 55 gal tank. It's just not fair to them.   That being said. You might get away with putting a tiny 1 inch or so baby into a 55 for a year. Then it'll have outgrown the tank and need to be caught and traded in or sold and start again with a baby. That's the only way you'll do a tang in such a small tank.

[Darth]

mmaisonneuve
I am already thinking about the overall plan.  The aquarium will be placed in my living room, and yes it is in an A/C environment.  I think we might be getting of track from my original comments/question.  I understand the advantages/disadvantages of T5 vs. LED.  The question was wether it made sense to go with the used setup that I am currently looking at.  When I add up the total cost of all the parts new, I find that it typically costs 1200+ were it is a fraction of the cost getting used.  Have people had bad experiences with buying used, or is this just the nature of the industry to have a low resale.  I visited Big Al's, and Marinescape, and will probably be going to Aqua Valley today or tomorrow.

I understand there are always a trade off between buying cheaper components, vs better components in the long term.  But as a newbie to the hobby, I need to also balance the risk of me staying in this for the long runn and try to have a relatively safe investment.  My goal is to buy quality products that are reliable, i just don't think I am ready to pay for all the bells and whistles that are more of a nice to have than must have.

IN RESPONSE TO YOUR QEUSTION
buy used save your money