Buying a new tank any advice?

[SMI]

I have allot of experience with Salt water albeit it it was about 20 years ago I had a reef setup 40 gallon breeder with a 40 gallon sump.

I want to set up another tank in addition to my live planted but I was thinking of converting my current 32 gallon bio cube back to its intended reef tank (Both fish and plants are outgrowing the tank) and just buying like a 40 or 50 gallon tank for my current live stock.

I want to make this as cost-effective as possible I really enjoy the whole build and buying everything second hand over time and The sort of whole treasure hunt aspect of it.

I think I would just need a new light fixture and a protein skimmer to convert my bio cube back to a reef setup. I could move all the substrate bio media lights livestock etc. over to the 40 gallon or whatever.

Does this sound like a pretty good plan?

 

[MofoCorals]

You don’t really need a skimmer in such a small tank. A new fixture and added flow, maybe a maxi jet in the back compartment. An ATO if you don’t have one to keep the water salinity stable.

 

[afboundguy]

I'm running skimmerless on my 25 cube (has a 2-3 gallon HOB fuge). Besides the advice on getting the largest tank you can afford my other advice would be don't cheap out on equipment. I used to do that and it always ended up costing more when I'd have to replace it

 

[Lizbeli]

Pretty solid plan thus far. A lot of things have changed over the years. So my suggestion is just do a ton of research on any piece of equipment you are buying. We all know how expensive things are so best to be educated!

I agree with all of the above. I would skip the skimmer for now and spend that money on a quality powerhead for inside the display instead, or good lights.

Pretty planted tank!

 

[Budget_Reef]

You don’t really need a skimmer in such a small tank. A new fixture and added flow, maybe a maxi jet in the back compartment. An ATO if you don’t have one to keep the water salinity stable.

+1 on without a protein skimmer, as long as you don't pack your tank full of fish you won't need it. I would recommend an ai prime, its more on the expensive side but is super good and won't fail you

 

[SMI]

Yeah I mean I’m not a huge fan of LED fixtures unless they’re Cob CREE. When I was doing South water it was all single or double ended metal halide’s and accenting T fives. I had a couple of chip light bars on my live planted and it grew nothing but hair algae (most of the plants leaves are growing towards the water surface in an effort to get light ) and then I put a monster A/c bulb on it which is a full spectrum Par 5500k 150 W equivalent (no more algae) and the plants grows out of tank plus I run 100w 10K T5 4 bulb cluster.

 

[coralfishreef]

Your experience from 20 years ago is still valid. The main issue with T5s and metal halides over small tanks is heat.

No skimmer. Weekly or biweekly water changes. A decent light fixture and a couple of small cheap power heads if your return pump doesn’t push out much flow. There are lots of decent fixtures to choose from. Maybe find a used Aquatic Life T5 hybrid and just use the T5s to start. Or use the original Biocube hood and lights if you have it.