I really liked your last quote on "a dedicated aquarist with a small budget will end up with a better aquarium than a hands-off reefer with a fistfull of dollars", it is really true and there are so many cheaper ways to configure your tank and filtration system that work so nicely since way before expensive equipment were a thing. Some new things that technology brings to the hobby are helpful and assist your hobby but dedication to it is what will give the best results in our aquariums.
Great video. Glad somebody on RU-vid that’s giving common sense advice that seems to be missing from this hobby. Seems to be too much talk on fb about expensive tech rather a tank full of corals.
Very good points, I always find someone new to the hobby doesn't always realise how much effort it takes to keep your aquarium healthy. would save them some big bucks if they realise it isn't for them.
The scratched glass second-hand aquarium comment is spot on, I got a great tank and cabinet off of ebay for £100, (new your talking 700 ish) The Mrs collected it, on bringing it home I was horrified at the scratches in the glass. I even said to her I'd of left it there, but... when full of water, weirdly, you cant see them. So if anyone's reading this looking for a cheap Tank dont be put off by a scratched tank, you can get incredible bargains.
Absolutely spot on. Only been reefing for 1 year. I upgraded after 2 months and bought a 4 month old aqua one minireef 120 for £65, BM 3.5 for £35, It2040 for £60, sw4 for £35. It annoys me when people say its expensive. No its as expensive as you want to make it. And I'm tight.
One thing that definitely should have been on the list, and possibly #1, "Fancy designer corals" spending hundreds for a single frag is just crazy, and while I will absolutely agree some of them definitely look way nicer than others, a tank full of corals that are relatively in expensive always looks better than a tank with a couple super "high end" corals.
Great video, very informative. I have been reef keeping for 30+ years and can say with experience that there is no substitute for patience and time. High end equipment is great but like you say often they are grossly overpriced and sometimes only marginally better than cheaper options. Newcomers to the hobby get bamboozled with the huge array of high end flashy equipment all to often with the detriment to the basics. RO system, Heater controller, totally agree. Sorry to rant on! Keep the videos coming well done.
Very good points indeed and as a starter to the hobby I myself chose a cheap aio nano tank for many reasons such as low initial cost,ease of maintainance,alot cheaper to fill with fish and coral,fewer/smaller lights needed,and the thought if i cant make this small aquarium work and look good then I'm sure going to struggle with a bigger tank.
Thanks for the video Alex. Whilst I can agree with almost everything you mention about buying second hand, I would be reluctant to buy a Tank second hand. If you buy a Red Sea Tank, the original buyer now gets a 2 year warranty with 3 years on the Glass, with good UK Service if something goes wrong. I have a new G2 being delivered next week. Obviously, not too many available second hand, at the moment. The previous version (second hand) is excellent, but would not have any warranty (see their terms and conditions) to a new owner and would not be offered any assistance from Red Sea e.g. a retrofit Tank Brace if the Cabinet has a small movement (the sheet of paper test), or an immediate Cabinet replacement, if there are any problems. D & D may offer better terms and are a UK Manufacturer, Waterbox have great Tanks (but I have not experienced their Support). Replacing a Jecod Pump or a cracked Deltec is an acceptable risk, but bringing the great Barrier Reef into your Sitting Room and onto the Floor is indefensible when confronted with the problem and meeting with one's Approver (future "Techie Stuff" approval is sometimes conditional on not marking one's Card). Simon
Great Video mate, i have been searching for second hand tanks in Sydney Australia for over 6 months with no luck. Going to have to buy brand new however there is a 8 weeks wait for them too. Not had a reef tank for 15 years so getting back in the water lol. I agree with your statements about not getting all the best equipment but i cant help myself its MP60, Vectra Pumps ,Versa Pumps and yes the Gen 5s. My house is brand new and this is a moving artwork that needs to look perfect inside and out. Still working on which skimmers so will be watching your vids to get some info. Thanks mate
At 5.04: "Filter floss is as cheap as chips"....."much like the £1,000 Herman Miller Aeron Chair" I have one too, it is 18 years old and still in perfect condition, only had to replace to castor wheels for about $(AUD)100. Cracking video yet again. And hearing the expression 'ball ache'.. love it!!!!!!
Something I think should get more attention when it comes to people entering the hobby is the use of water distillers over RODI filters. For starters, a decent RODI setup is NOT cheap! In comparison, I got a used distiller machine for only around $60, but I could have gotten a new one for around $120. You also don't need to buy filters! Along the same lines, the water a distiller produces water of a quality that you would need an high-end RODI setup to achieve, since it's, well, pure water vapor. Having access to very pure water is going to be a great start for people new to the hobby! Obvious downside is distillers take a LONG time to produce water! It takes mine over an hour per litre of water! But since most newbies don't buy big tanks, that's not a huge problem. It might take around a week of distilling to fill the tank, but after that, you won't need huge volumes of water, just enough to do water changes. Oh, and unlike RODI filters, distillers use electricity, but in my case, I have mine do double-duty by using the waste heat it produces to dry my laundry! It also goes without saying that you should be careful and make sure your distiller doesn't use copper, but it seems like the electric ones use steel tubing.
Pro DIY tip you don’t need filter floss if you use untreated quilting fluff the stuff that goes in the middle of a quilt that’s not chemically treated with fire retardants it’s 1/4 the cost of filter floss and easier to find speaking from experience the closest LFS that has anything saltwater specific is 1-2 hours away and Walmart/Pet Value doesn’t carry a lot of what you need and Pet Smart doesn’t ship things like foods water treatments or salt mix to rural areas so after running into some issues and needing some test kits and every Reef store or LFS that sells the things I needed are all 1-2 hours away and between 2 provinces they’re all on the Tuesday to Sunday with Monday off schedule Amazon was quoting over 4 weeks for delivery and I was in a mess here in Atlantic Canada luckily I didn’t lose anything but I paid a fortune to have the kits I needed overnighted from Ontario so I’m suggesting that you do your research and make sure that you have the basics on hand with enough extra to get through in a case that you’re waiting on a shipment or something happens on a Monday or whatever day your LFS is closed I’m not suggesting that you go broke buying everything but get the testing kits you need to do Ammonia N02 N03 PH Calcium Alkalinity and magnesium have plenty of salt mix some supplements because if your testing for things it’s a good idea to be able to correct them along with an extra heater, I use mine to heat my salt mix for water changes but after having a 125 gallon South American Cichlid community for 5 years and twice a year having to replace heaters that were broken by big angry fish and having to run heaters for 2 weeks in July to keep the room hot enough that the tank temp. Was steady and recently learning that cheaper heaters didn’t like salt water after graduating to a reef tank only a few months ago having that extra heater and power head to mix my salt makes life easier and it adds the peace of mind that if on of my main units die I’ve got a backup in a pinch that will last long enough for an emergency that’s just one fish keeper’s opinion anyway also if you are new to this and scared of how hard corals are to keep I’ll say this I jumped in head first and traded some stuff for a ton of corals the after buying a complete system fish water glass and stand rock sand and zoas and everything else from a guy for 400$cdn I already had salt and refractometer for my brackish tank 3 days later I got 1000’s of $ worth of corals for some old junk from another guy getting out of the hobby I have 25 years of FW fish keeping and I was never able to keep plants alive so I was never going to try corals until I got them along with a pair of designer clownfish that were worth more than what I was trading for and well let’s just say that was the turning point for me and I actually enjoy my corals more than the fish at this point so yeah if I can have success with softies mushrooms and LPS than I can say 90% of people reading this with any experience and anyone that’s willing to do the work and take the time to learn research and ask questions will be just fine
Thank this was amazing I got a 2ed hand tank for £20 it’s a 70l. Cam with protein skimmer heater and a filter my plan is to use this for a couple of months to get used to the hobby then convert my 500 L tank only been in this hobby since beginning of lockdown and I’m already addicted to so much
@@ReefDork I have it but sadly I underworked filtration and have no good local source of corals that is within 30 minutes and sells at prices that are not well $40 for the cheap frags like single head zoas at one place so not many good sources of corals in my area plus still dealing witha GHA outbreak... still fish doing great have not lost a fish in saltwater yet.
My rule for buying used tanks is that I want to see it full of water when I come to look at it, and I want to transport it. I passed on a pair of 200-gallon tanks in a rack that I was prepared to pay more than the asking price for because the guy didn't want to fill them.
We bought a used 125 for cheap. After it was cleaned up it looked like the guy used a hay rake to clean it and the silicone needed redone. I've seen tanks at the LFS and you CAN see the scratches. May find a deal on a used one but I didn't find anything worth the chance and hassle for the money dif. Got our 180 Aqueon for $830 and made a sump out of the 125. Tanks get wear. In the end it's very well the cheapest part.
Jebao powerheads are like a 8th of ecotech one is ~50-60eur Granted they are not great if you need more than 2 due to limited sync options. and for return pums: it's a return pump ... it runs at cosntat speed. and Jebao dc pums are great they even adjusts in 1% increments - fantastic for tuning return flow. I had one powerhead fail but 6 other pumops work fine ... and for the cost of 1 ecotech pump its a bargain. Just remember to clean them up once every coupel of months.
Use an eheim return pump bud, don't buy garbage because someone on youtube recommends it. This video tells you to buy used lights which is some of the worst advice I've heard regarding a reef tank.
@@volcommaveric well all my jebao power heads died over 2.5years. But return dc pumps are doing fine. While cleaning noticed that main tanks return pups impeller started developing a crack so I switched that with my water mixing stations pump. Probably should get another 100eur pump just in case… but hey its been 3,5 years. As starer power heads I find jebaos fine you get what you pay for. But return pumps they are exelent. Its same opinion as my LFS - powerheads are crap but returnpumps are great. Hence tyey stock returns and not powerheads.
Thank you for a great video 👍👍👍Aquarium products have become a big industry and there are tons of made up bull crap myths in order to make profits. Unfortunately most People getting into the hobby without doing their researches end up spending lots of money for buying unnecessary things and still giving up the hobby because of ongoing high expenses and not getting satisfying results.
Pump batteries ... you can put ANY dc pump directly on battery. Most pumps come in 24V so 2 standard 12V UPS deep discharge batteries in series will do and run the pump for a LONG time. Forget of the shelf UPS they convert DC to AC wasting huge amount of power just to be tirned back to DC. And AC pumps ... well they need real sine wave generated by more expensive UPS'es - cheap ones output a square or stepped wave approximation - most AC pumps rattle if they work at all. To hook up bateries all you need is a Relay to join mains ad battery inputs and a battery tender. And as it's a DIY solution you can use whatever batteries you like and put them where ever you like. (maybe you have space for a huge battery? maybe you can put a lot of small ones in nooks and cranies, maybe you would like to use lighter, safer and more energy dense LiFePO4)
A year on and I still learn from you Alex, great videos as always. Frag tank mmmm. I like frags you have. Honestly you bang on with what you said about eco tech. £4000 investment i made now just on this. £6000 before water goes in! Second hand Aqua Oak i have! But I started with the second hand cheaper equipment. 🇬🇧 🍻
I'm at around 2500euro. 2nd hand tank, 140x85x50cm. Only thing that bugs me is the rodi, if I see the water run to the drain, it's like 1/3 to 1/4 ro water I have left. It costed me 120euro.
I got a 4x2x2 12mm ultra clear braceless allpondsolutions 200 quid jabao ws 8 wave pump just upgraded my return pump to a jabao acq 24ov 10 speed return pump and Mars aqua black box lights all corals grow sps lps softies I have never fell for the big name hype for years but iam jumping ING onto a maxspect razor 200 rsx WiFi just for controllability
I agree reef to your budget keep it simple more equipment is more headache when u can’t work out why ur tank is going south is it too much media in my reactors are my expensive lights on too strong I can’t recommend the inkbird temp controller £35 amazon omg such a good bit of kit
I was able to get three used tanks/stands, live rock, sand, salt, basically all the nutrients/chemicals, filters, heaters, and powerheads for 300 dollars. Ive spent a day trying to match all the pieces up. Unfortunately when it was put away it was all thrown into a bin. So there is great second hand deals but there is often work. My only other suggestion would be to ask the person why they got out of the hobby. I made the mistake of asking after i has everything home. She told me that her crazy ex husband dumped bleach in her tank. So now im questioning what can i actually use. Just in salt and lights it was a deal but def watch out
I had a chuckle after I watched this video because: 1. I bought my tank brand new and custom made 2. I have an automatic filter roller Clarisea SK-5000 3. I have two Ecotech MP40 4. I have Radion light for my tank. 5. I have Neptune Apex and Trident 6. I also used a brand new Reef Octopus skimmer ...... but then again, it is not my first tank. :-)
I agree with everything except for the Jebao recommendation. In my experience they are extremely cheep and don't last more than 1-2 years with regular cleaning.
The issue with buying second hand lights is that diodes in general have a maximum life expectancy before the PAR becomes reduced, so buying a light that’s been pushed hard for 3 years will have reduced output.
Would love your insights into a few things 1) what is the ideal temperature? I'm at 24.4c too low? 2) Your take on nitrates? Evrything else is low in my tank but nitrates are high, no algae problem (probably due to vibrant), but is it bad? Will it affect growth?
25 to 26 is much better - I think I run around 25.8. Can't remember the last time I tested nitrates. It's better to keep them in check, but i'm more bothered about keeping phosphate low (around 0.03 ish). If everything is fine and you have no algae, I wouldn't change anything.
Do you have a list of suggested equipment (brands etc) for a first tank? Thinking if I can't find a starter kit that secondhand might be best but there's so much out there it's confusing, I just watched your video on the fox fish and would really like to get a tank big enough for one once fully grown to avoid me having to buy another tank later on as that just seems like an unnecessary expenditure if I can buy a big enough tank to start with? 😊
You have just convinced me not to get a apex! I do know it would have stop my tank crash though when my salinty dropped down to 1.20 for over a week. Right before that happened I had an amonia spike, maybe because I added 18 frags and traded some liverock for my old rock so might have lost a little bacteria then overwhelmed it with the frags which might have cause the salinity! Not sure which came first. The chicken or the egg! lol right before than happened I also had a colbalt heater overheat and got to past 90 and If I would have had corals and more than one fish it would have crashed. I now have a hanna salinity checker and I am going around checking salinity all the time because its so simple plus I have a hanna ph as well so I will just get the heater controller and get my radions! LOL. I cant upgrade reef breeders and If I could I might get them but I wanted lights on a arm mount that I can just add a fw more when I get my 120. Great video. Keep em coming!
As always brilliant advice, wish I had know about your site when I first started, I try scrolling back to all the suppliers you recommended, but when I scrolled back they had disappeared, how can I find them again ? thanks Alex 👍
Reef Dork Hi Alex, there was a whole list of items, I just started to write down the first thing which was RO filter amzn. then I touched my iPad screen and they all disappeared, not to worry if you don’t know what they are, I always watch your channel, so maybe they will appear again on after a roger video. 🤷🏻♂️
No they're not! I planned to do a video how to guide, but it was an effing nightmare! Removing the sock holders is hard work, particularly if the sump is in the cabinet. If you've ordered the X filter, it helps that you don't have to plumb it. If you've got the Clarisea, plumbing it looks like a ball ache to me. When they're running, they're great. Just allow a clear day to install.
@@ReefDork thanks, wish me luck 😬, on the plus side I'll be installing it before the tank gets wet, so should hopefully be easier. Where do you have your top up rodi water ? Love the channel , keep up the good work 🙂
Jecod pumps, even dosing pumps not durable. I had 4 head doser issue with 1 motor dead after 6 months in use, the wave maker is retarded once its dried out and reused afterwards it just didnt f spin anymore lol
I really dont get how so many people can afford to be in this hobby when it is sooo expensive! I mean most hobbys dont cost much if anything at all. To be able to afford the fish that sometimes die and the corals that sometimes die and then the fancy hitech gear that they buy as well. I have been in it 6 months and have bought 2 used tanks and both came with so many xtras its sick! Like the skimmers and sumps and wavemakers , lights and just so much , so there is no reason to spend an arm and a leg on it. I go tone of those tanks I spoke of for 100.00 It was plumbed besides all that other stuff and about a year old bowfront. I have splurged here and there like my radions I am getting but the apex nawww oh and I just do everything by hand like feed, dose, top off, some of it just so unnecessary!
I disagree even though Reef Breeders do grow anything you still have to set the light up really high and then you have light spill out side the aquarium a great deal. Wow talk about Disco Ball Effect!!! The controller for the light really suck
The controller definitely sucks, I'll give you that! I don't get any disco ball on mine though and it's good at around 9 inches off the surface. But you're right - there are definite compromises with them.
The overall message I'm trying to get across is that this stuff is overkill on almost all first tanks. It's like putting premium petrol in a Nissan Micra. I keep a lot of trickier corals and have a lot of money invested, so it's worth spending a bit more cash. I made this video because I spent a load of cash on high end equipment for my first tank and looking back, it was a total waste, didn't improve the tank and I've long since upgraded everything. So for a first tank, basic kit has real value.
Let me start and finish by telling you that the first thing you discussed (lights) made me want to throw up. LED lights lose efficiency after 3-5 years so giving anyone the advice to used lights is terrible, so terrible in fact that I didn't even waste time hearing your opinion on the other 4.
I can’t wait until I have a tank of shit worth sharing and know people who are willing to exchange/share what they’ve got. Right now I just have an extremely mature 10g inverts only Aqueon tank. I also have a pitcher of copepods I’ve been culturing for my now deceased dragonet 🥹
