bmbr
Aquarium Advice Newbie
This is my first post to this site, so... hi! My gf has posted here a few times, and you all are quite helpful, so now here I am too. 
We have just finished getting our 125g (soon-to-be) reef tank re-plumbed. This is our first time setting this tank up, as it was a gift of sorts from a friend. So now we need to get some water in this bad boy and get it cycling... I live in Los Angeles, CA and understand that I do not want to use tap water for a reef tank as it is very sensitive to the chemicals that are found in them. Granted, there are many products available that will help to fix this, but I'd like to give my reef the best (in my price range) i can offer.
I have found a LFS that pipes in water from the ocean and sells it at $0.65/gallon.. this doesn't seem too unreasonable, and is certainly cheaper than buying spring/distilled water and salting it. but the catch is that you need your own container, or you can buy them at like $8 for a 5gallon jug. Assuming that I bought 4 jugs, that's an extra $32 just in containers, and I will have to make at least 6+ trips to the LFS, which sounds awful given how expensive gas is in CA
So, let's say for arguments sake that I actually buy 8 jugs, so I can take 40gallons home at a time (i have a truck).. that's still 3 trips, but is much more reasonable.
$0.65 * 125gallons = $81.25
$8 jugs * 8 = $64
total: $145.25 + tax / time / gas / energy
Or.....
I can buy a couple of big trash can containers from Home Depot, etc, get some hose.. spend around $100 on a good pump, spend another $250 on a Reverse Osmosis unit, buy a bunch of Instant Ocean salt and do it myself.
This initially is more money, but assuming that I am going to be doing around 30gallons of PWC's every 2 weeks, then maybe this is the better investment?
Assuming this is the case, do any of you have any good suggestions for Pumps and RO units? I am initially thinking I could setup the water containers in my garage outside of my house, running a hose into there for the RO unit, and then running a really long hose back to the aquarium in the front of the house to pump it in. Oh, and I do have some heaters and powerheads around for the water.
Does any of this sound crazy? Am I forgetting anything key?
Thanks so much for the advice, you guys rock.
We have just finished getting our 125g (soon-to-be) reef tank re-plumbed. This is our first time setting this tank up, as it was a gift of sorts from a friend. So now we need to get some water in this bad boy and get it cycling... I live in Los Angeles, CA and understand that I do not want to use tap water for a reef tank as it is very sensitive to the chemicals that are found in them. Granted, there are many products available that will help to fix this, but I'd like to give my reef the best (in my price range) i can offer.
I have found a LFS that pipes in water from the ocean and sells it at $0.65/gallon.. this doesn't seem too unreasonable, and is certainly cheaper than buying spring/distilled water and salting it. but the catch is that you need your own container, or you can buy them at like $8 for a 5gallon jug. Assuming that I bought 4 jugs, that's an extra $32 just in containers, and I will have to make at least 6+ trips to the LFS, which sounds awful given how expensive gas is in CA
So, let's say for arguments sake that I actually buy 8 jugs, so I can take 40gallons home at a time (i have a truck).. that's still 3 trips, but is much more reasonable.
$0.65 * 125gallons = $81.25
$8 jugs * 8 = $64
total: $145.25 + tax / time / gas / energy
Or.....
I can buy a couple of big trash can containers from Home Depot, etc, get some hose.. spend around $100 on a good pump, spend another $250 on a Reverse Osmosis unit, buy a bunch of Instant Ocean salt and do it myself.
This initially is more money, but assuming that I am going to be doing around 30gallons of PWC's every 2 weeks, then maybe this is the better investment?
Assuming this is the case, do any of you have any good suggestions for Pumps and RO units? I am initially thinking I could setup the water containers in my garage outside of my house, running a hose into there for the RO unit, and then running a really long hose back to the aquarium in the front of the house to pump it in. Oh, and I do have some heaters and powerheads around for the water.
Does any of this sound crazy? Am I forgetting anything key?
Thanks so much for the advice, you guys rock.
