mraeric

Unfortunately I'll be working that day I'm hopeful for April though! I'm determined to meet a lot of you and possibly see someones set up before I start a system myself.

Alright, the first of many questions I will have before I'm ready to start buying anything I'm sure... After everything I have read and now know, I'm fairly positive that I will want a sump to go along with my first reef tank. Obviously the sump handles a lot of the filtration for the tank. I do have a few questions about how y'all have put yours to use though. 1) What size/brand/type of sump would you all recommend for a tank that is somewhere around 40-50 gallons? 2) I think I would want a protein skimmer that fits inside of the sump (in one of the compartments), first, what protein skimmers for this size tank and sump would you recommend as viable? Second, is there only one part of the sump that a protein skimmer could conceivably be put into? Or is there a logical position for the different types of filtration within a sump? I'm very confused about the order of things (or if there needs to be any particular order to begin with). 3) What do you all personally use as filter media in your sumps? And what filtration types would you recommend for my sump given the proposed tank size? I know there are several and that some are more critical than others. Right now the only parts I'm sure of are that I DO want a sump, and I want a protein skimmer inside of it. Besides that I have no idea what else I should be doing within the sump. Lastly, is there any advice or recommendations or knowledge that you wish you had had before you set up your first sump? I would love to know enough so that when I finally DO take the plunge, I do it right the first time! Thanks everyone for any help and info! -Eric

I work at the HEB in Cedar Park at 1431 and Parmer. Great store

Thanks for the warm welcome! This seems like a great community. I will definitely try to make it to any and all meetings in the future. I'm a manager of an HEB so I have some greatly varying hours depending on the week, but if I'm available, I will 100% be there. There's still so much I need to see/learn and having a community of people that have my back will be the most valuable resource of all! Thanks again.

haha.. Yeah I happened to read about the meeting about 1 minute after it had begun. It had crossed my mind to show up, but I read it was going to be 'short' so I didn't know if I would make it in time. I'll definitely attend future meetings though! I would really like to see some other peoples setups and things so I can physically see how it all comes together.

Hi all, My name is Eric and I'm hoping to start a reef aquarium in the near future. I'm taking my time researching and reading as much as I possibly can before I take the plunge. I currently have a 29g freshwater aquarium which I love! Saving up money now towards all of the workings of a successful reef setup. I'm sure I'll have dozens of questions for everyone here so I figured I'd make myself known now Thanks!