complete marine coral setup | The Aquarium Solution

complete marine coral setup

Question:

Hi there

Im after a price for a complete marine aquarium setup please. I want one at least 150x60x66 and I would like your advice if it is worth buying a complete setup e.g.Aqua One Aquience Rectangular 1800 Aquarium or a cutom build tank with all the seperate skimmers/pumps etc. I have had one price of another company and there is a vast difference in their price compared to the starter kit. I appreciate that there might be bigger/better equipment that I could upgrade to at a later stage (e.g. lights, tidal pumps,filters etc) but is the Aqua One starter kit that inferior to start a marine coral based aquarium? Any advice and prices you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Phil

Answer:

Hi Phil

For example pricing of Deltec high quality aquariums please see the PDF link below:

http://www.theaquariumsolution.com/files/Standard%20Deltec%20Aquarium%20Prices.pdf

The Deltec complete systems are built to an extremely high standard and all equipment included

will do what it says on the tin rather than some of the lower quality kit on the market that many buy

then sell to purchase kit that 'works'.

My advise would be to join a reef keeping forum such as 'Ultimate reef' and ask opinions on setting

up and designing a reef aquarium.

I would personally much rather buy an aquarium built to spec and include a sump to house all equipment

such as skimmers,reactors etc. Many of the 'complete' systems available are just fresh water tanks ported

over for marine use, they often include inadequate lighting, no sump system, poor equipment biased

towards fresh water fish and missing basic marine equipment such as protein skimmer.

If the Deltec aquariums are a little out of budget i would look to have an aquarium,cabinet and sump

made by a U.K based aquarium manufacturer and then kit and systemise it with quality equipment.

Many find that buying 'complete' solutions end up as false economy as once you have upgraded components

and even the aquarium itself to best suit the needs of delicate tropical marine sea life there is very little of

the original purchase left, if any.

As i say join one of the reef keeping forums as there is much advise to be had and working systems to emulate,

this will give you a running start.

Good luck with the hobby and your new aquarium.

Regards and best wishes Tony