# What do you guys think Is the Largest Reef I can set-up



## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Im getting paid well as of late and I have a spare grand to set-up a reef. Can you guys give me a good estimate on what size High Quality reef I can set up with 1000$?

Im thinking maybe a 40 B if I buy used equipment?

Any opinions welcome.

Thanks.


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## Ægir (Jan 21, 2006)

Well write it down and price a few different sizes... bare bones you will need:

Tank
Sump
Rock
Sand
Return pump (10x or more turnover)
RO/DI unit and salt
Lighting
Rock and sand
Topoff unit 
Powerheads / wavemaker
Test kits (Ca, Alk, PH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia, Magnesium)

Your big $$ items are lighting, skimmer, and RO/DI unit... Then you get into stocking. If you dont want to test weekly, and manually dose calcium and alk additives, you would need a Ca reactor and CO2 setup (another high $$ item) but you should be able to keep up with a smaller tank no problems (less than 125gal high stock).

If you find a good deal, you could prob setup a 90 cal and have it ready to add fish and coral for 1000$... nothing comes fast in this hobby, so you could save more over the first few months as your tank becomes stable.


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

pretty much what egir said. but something that i have found is that trying to keep to a budget doesnt work very well when it comes to SW







and dont try to save money by going cheap. it wont pay in the long term.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

His Majesty said:


> pretty much what egir said. but something that i have found is that trying to keep to a budget doesnt work very well when it comes to SW
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 I doubt you could get a high quality 40b reef for under 1000$. The livestock alone will be that for quality.

I would do a 30g or less. Lighting and a protein skimmer for quality will be about 200$ plus a piece. Then another 200$ for a ro unit. Then more for a sump, overflow, heaters, stand, livestock (not cheap for quality)

Theres more, but i may add some later. You can definitly do a 4b for a 1000$, but it wont be a high tec/quality reef, but alot of people pay for a good setup and spend a bit at a time on livestock over time as that alone will could run 500$ for quality rock, sand, corals, fish and cuc


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

I'd be patient and wait for deals on craigslist or local reef sites. There's always someone selling whole setups because they are getting out of the hobby or an unfortunate financial situation forces them to give up the hobby temporarily. I've seen complete 100 gallon setup selling for under $1K.

If you want to piece it together, I would save up more money and get quality equipment. Buy once... Cry once...


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

sean-820 said:


> pretty much what egir said. but something that i have found is that trying to keep to a budget doesnt work very well when it comes to SW
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 I doubt you could get a high quality 40b reef for under 1000$. The livestock alone will be that for quality.

I would do a 30g or less. Lighting and a protein skimmer for quality will be about 200$ plus a piece. Then another 200$ for a ro unit. Then more for a sump, overflow, heaters, stand, livestock (not cheap for quality)

Theres more, but i may add some later. You can definitly do a 4b for a 1000$, but it wont be a high tec/quality reef, but alot of people pay for a good setup and spend a bit at a time on livestock over time as that alone will could run 500$ for quality rock, sand, corals, fish and cuc
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sean outlined it well.

either you have to settle for a smaller tank, say 20gal. or do a quality fowlr instead of a reef.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Like said you could get a decent setup for 1k used probably less, but most wont be for many if any sps or any hard corals for large setups.

My suggestion if you want a 40b is get the tank stand... then do a sunpod 36" fixture (dual MH i think), buy some lr and such from people tearing down a tank, get an overflow box and build a sump buy a mag drive pump). Buy a good quality used protein skimmer or get one online ( i find quality protein skimmers are hard to find reasonably priced locally). buy a used ro unit, get a refractometer and test kits.

Pretty much what im suggesting is to do a 40b mixed reef probably with mostly soft coral and mayby some hardy hardcorals. Soft coral reefs can look good and not cost a ton compared to sps and lps reefs. It really depends what you consider a high quality reef imo. Livestock alone for what i concider a high quality reef could be 1000$ .Single zoas of rare morphs could be 20$ plus each and sps and lps frags generally will run 20$ plus a pop and thats just frags, Lighting could run a 500$ or more, a skimmer could be over 300$ and so on. Especially with not having a ton of sw experience, i don't think you should spend a ton on things like hard coral, but mayby buy some equipment and slowly add some 10$ frags at a time as the tank progresses and you learn.


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## Wide_Eyed_Wanderer (Aug 22, 2006)

Thanks guys for the info. Im going to put together this thing by buying used, I have seen some crazy deals when I was out of the hobby that made me think that if I still had my tank I would have so bought that.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

speakyourmind said:


> Thanks guys for the info. Im going to put together this thing by buying used, I have seen some crazy deals when I was out of the hobby that made me think that if I still had my tank I would have so bought that.


 You can find some nice stuff, but i doubt you'll find tek T5 or hamilton MH pendants used. Youll probably get coralife and the occasional sunpod. They work fine, but like i said before it depends what your considering high end. Check kijiji, craigslist and aquarium pros is good to find used equipment.


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## redbellyman21 (Jun 27, 2004)

hey man, I have my mini reef in a 33 long, and its a great tank for starter reef. its 48" long so you have nice space for coral.. its a foot and inch tall.. 2/4 t5s would power this tank well! and has room for a hob filter turned fuge and skimmer or whatever else you choose to pickup. I found mine locally for 150 tank and stand.. I resealed it for precautionary reasons, but still I love this tank and can cheaply keep clams, and some harder lps corals with relatively inexpensive lighting..


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## Guest (Mar 6, 2010)

You could do an unbelievable planted tank with that money...









In all honesty, if that were my tank, I would go 65g (tall, more for fish and soft corals) or 40gb as Sean mentioned. Even then, that $1000 would get stretched if you want things to be clean.

If it's just corals that you are mainly interested, go with something like a 20Long and go all out on reactors, coral, dosing pump, high quality rock, perfect sump, ozonater (world like magic in my experience).


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