75 gallon reef tank setup

Question
I recently acquired a 75 gallon tank.  It is not as they say in pet stores "reef ready."  It is just a simple water holding tank.  I want to set it up as a reef tank.  I was wondering what kind of equipment I need and cost I can expect to incur?

Thank you very much.

Answer
Hi Kevin

Congratulations on getting into the hobby, it will be an amazing journey for you.

First of all, I would contact a local fish tank builder in order for him to drill your tank for an over flow and to create a sump.  The sump is a second tank underneath the display which increases your water volume (a good thing) and gives you a place to put all of your equipment.  The overflow is a compartment in the main tank where the water drains down into the sump and you use a return pump to get it back up to the display tank again.

With this size tank, I would go for about 200 lbs of live rock or 100 lbs of live rock and another 100 lbs of dry 'dead' rock.  The rock will provide the filtration for this aquarium.  Further more, I would definitely suggest a protein skimmer.

As for brands of protein skimmer, I highly recommend DELTEC, TUNZE and AquaMedic.  

If you are wanting corals, I would suggest a mixture of Metal Halide and T5HO lighting.  However, if you are just wanting fish a basic corals, I would suggest a simple blue/white light.

With setup, I would comfortably say you should budget for about $6000-$8000.

Hope this helps.  Please get back to me if you need any more help.

Cheers

Michael