I absolutely love your videos. I’ve had a freshwater aquarium growing up, but I’ve been wanting to create a reef aquarium with Caribbean fish to remind me of home. I’ve been doing a lot of research for the last few months and your videos have helped me tremendously.

Brilliant video Alex, I’ve followed this mantra when setting up my tank this year, well when buying parts, keeping it simple!

I budget for my saltwater tank by not keeping corals which cost a pretty penny where I'm from and I spend my money on medications, salt mix, filter media and occasionally fish.

Loved seeing that visual of the 24” vs 18” tank width. Really drove home the benefit.

This is a great video Alex, you cover so many mistakes new reefers are making right now - and some misconceptions which are putting off others from entering the hobby! 👍🏻

Great video. I wish this existed when I got into the hobby many many years ago

Great vid. I highly recommend the Maxspect jump LEDs they are around £215 new and they have full app control and come with brackets. I have 2 on my 5ft mixed tank. I have always brought second hand jecod pumps and the do the job well.

Good list. If you decide to go with Radion lights, like I did, you can save from the overly priced mounts for a bit of a DIY. I researched what is the weight of the RedSea 50 LED and it appeared to be close to the Radio XR15's weight. So I bought the mounting arm for the RedSea 50 LED and with some aluminium profiles made my holding bracket that I mounted to the arm. This saved me a lot that I was not eager to give for overpriced mounting arms.

Money pit for sure! But being in the know can really help save money - great tips. My tips are: 1 - Buy a tank with lighting and other equipment in mind. For example most lights are designed for a 60x60cm area and most people don't put acros right against the front glass. So I'd almost always recommend 60cm front to back (unless you are going with smaller lights like AI primes). 2 - To get rid of shadowing for SPS you can add reef bars later on. 3 - Carbon dosing with products like from Tropic Marin is a super cost-effective way to control nutrients later down the line. I have a 50G/200L tank with 2 tangs and add 2ml/day of Tropic Marin Bacto Balance to keep PO4/NO3 at 0.05/5 with just a skimmer running overnight (no socks, fuge, reactors or anything). 4 - Get a quality skimmer and that's it! 5 - Just do water changes until you need to supplement and then just use kalkwasser - only 1 doser needed. 6 - Get a wifi Inkbird to run your heaters - not a controller. 7 - Only buy an akalinity test kit (go to the store to test the main things once a month) - just do water changes! 8 - Do your research on livestock and add them slowly. 9 - Get a REALLY good algae magnet (cheap ones are useless) 10 - Quality salt - I think something good WITH all the trace at good levels etc is worth it as it lets you get away with water changes. I started with Tropic Marin Pro Reef which has higher Mg and Ca so weekly water changes will maintain good levels of those and you can just add in little amounts of baking soda to maintain alkalinity. 11 - Get a battery backup - it saved me - or at least use a Sicce SDC Return pump which will alert you if the power goes out or there is a temperature problem - plus it has a 7 year warranty (I need to upgrade to one of those).

Dear Alex, I offer an update on Microbe-lift special blend Water Care. I am winning the battle against The dreaded red slime Algae. Water changes, following the instructions, and some physical removal have done the trick. I highly recommend this product, for starting new tanks or like me, an established tank. Thanks for all you do Alex

Great video dude and I completely agree with you on this episode!

I have learned that water changes are the best thing you can do

i’ve been using Jebao for over 9+ years and bubble magus A5 never ever cleaned but bought overpowered ones i use run @ 35% to 45%. I have been using the AI.Hydra 32 HD. and i love it mixed reef with high end SPS & LPS

Great video Alex

You make this very accessible and simple! Really comforting to hear that I can forget about bottles of "potions" and loads of fancy filtration. Thank you. What size is the tank at 0:46?

I got 2 XR15 gen 5 pros for $300.00 ea one was brand new in an unopened box and the other was 4 months of use but both work fine

Great video 👍

Truly appreciate your advice!... Reef Dork Rules!

You can save even more with dodging a sump / return pump by using hang on the back skimmers. Many hobbyists don't like the looks but personally it doesn't bother me, 2 year old reef tank running that way...

Can u use milton fluid on all items like skimmer return pump to give it a good clean

Can you used Milton to clean your equipment and then wash in ro di water?

Cant say I agree about the scratches not being visible on the inside.

Just out of curiosity. How long will a well cared for aquarium last? I have a 180 that is pushing 20 years old. Anyone know?

09:10 I wonder why we spend a pile of money in this hobby, but nobody seems to have the cash to buy a pair of sissors 😀 On BRS they're also always ripping the sachets apart 😂 So much easier when cut instead of ripped apart...

Have I got special eyes or something? Many times I’ve heard it said “once the tank is full you can’t see the scratches” usually by people selling their tanks! But I can see all my internal tiny scratches 🤔

unfortunately in my country the only availble lights are chinese black box and t5s so what is the best choice for me ?

2 weeks into my cycle and my ammonia had dropped to zero but by nitrite was very high so a panicked and did a 25% water change. Do you think I screwed up my cycle?

Reefdork talking about upgrading to the newest and greatest lights 5 videos after his new light setup 😂😂

This is how ive done reefing the entire 15yrs ive been in reefing only gadget ive ever bought really is i jus recently bought a dosing pump for dosing kalk thays as afvanced as ive had and every piece of equipment besodes two budget led lights has all been used equipment but im also poor but man can u save alot of money if ir patient i even do the same with livestock all from other hobbyists way less problems and way less money spent if it werent for all the locals i know that i get deals from my tank would be nearly empty but its filly stocked now im upgrading to a bigger tank t get more fish n more coral oh wait i lied i have bought new wavemakers before 3 in total the rest were all second hand and ive had more problems with new stuff than 2nd hand stuff i get it why people spend ao much money on new buy i aint got money like that so i have to be resourceful and get creative to make this hobby achievable for my poorness lmao😂

SO Ive been bingewatching your videos all week and I CAN NOT find the magnetic scrapper you are using.

Sorry but saying inside scratches cannot be seen when there’s water in just isn’t true, I just bought a used tank on that same scenario and they’re visible and even more so when the lights are on not to mention once algae grows in the scratches it will highlight it even more again, luckily I got a lot of gear with it so am still up on the deal but I’m now looking for a used tank with literally perfect glass or a brand new one

Shows how budget I am. Red Sea or waterbox? I converted a couple Top Fin tanks like a true cheapskate.

Budget marine aquarium? Screensaver!

How to save money in reefing is to buy the expensive equipment you’ve been eyeing. I’ve often tried to cheap out, only to end up buying what i really wanted and wasting money on the cheaper equipment.

I’ve made all these mistakes

I sit in the dark and shower once a month and eat butties for tea and turn my undiz bk to front just so I can run a tank and buy g6 pro xr30 s and buy nicer frags 😂😂😂

Don't touch Chinese wavemakers, they either break within months or don't work from the start. I've gotten 2 mp10s which I've had years but I've got quite afew cheap Chinese crap that don't work.

Like your videos but I wouldn't recommend a second hand red sea tank to anyone, far to many horror storys. Also dissagee about the colony yes you can cycle other ways but it's a very cheap products that works incredibly well with next to no chance of anyone messing it up, personally I think all new reefers should use it as it's a brilliant get out of jail free card, especially if mistakes have been made.

how to save money on a saltwater tank????????? dont set one up lol

You have 2 type of people, pc builders, and fish keepers....