Orca 550 Or River Reef 94

[simonas]

As you may or may not know I run a River reef 94 and have done so for some time

I see from threads on here that the Orca appears more popular. What are the advantages of that over the river reed apart from the extra 31 litres?

I only ask as I may upgrade slightly

Simon

 

[seffieuk]

Well, Simon I think you have probably hit the nial on the head.....more litres

Just had a look at the spec on the river reef and it is almost identical to the orca 550, except for size.

I loved my orca, but if I was doing it again I would probably just get a 125/180 litre tank with t5 lighting and add the rest

Seffie x

 

[simonas]

the bigger size tank is probably something for whenever we sell this house and my pesky daughter is more sensible to have an open top tank with halides!!

I may give the orca a try if I can get a bargain off ebay. Can you squeeze a decent skimmer i the back? the rivver reef has small chambers for skimmers?

Simon

 

[Morri]

I will upset the apple cart by saying neither

I went to a juwel lido 120L useable, nice shape you can better equipment to it as well (I went hang on MM instead of a skimmer)

4 x Aquarays so I can keep some SPS and can squeeze 6 nice fish in

I found the orca a nice starter tank but the light was limiting hoping to move my stock around this week

 

[seffieuk]

I will upset the apple cart by saying neither

I would agree with you Morri, think once you have done the plug and play thing you move on......

Seffie x

 

[simonas]

sounds good Morri I will have a good look into them

 

[Morri]

picked mine up cheap

went with a HOB MM filter to reduce my maintenance these are cheaper than a skimmer MM is not cheap a £30 tub will last me 3 years though

Pumps I got a second hand Tunze from UR lots of flow might just use my Koralias

Aquarays are nice and cheap second hand no bulb changes awesome shimmer

Power usage on the whole system is less than a 100w so big savings there

Will most prob use the TLF reactor for extra polish

Purgen and carbon in the HOB just for more polish

I liked the Aquareef 200 tank as well but to big for the spot mine has

 

[seffieuk]

Ehhhhh, Simon, do you realise you have moved this to the pinned section

Seffie x

 

[JoshuaA]

Ehhhhh, Simon, do you realise you have moved this to the pinned section

Seffie x

Abuse of powers

Are you getting rid of your 94 litre then Simon?

 

[simonas]

Ehhhhh, Simon, do you realise you have moved this to the pinned section

Seffie x

I don;t remember doing that!! ha ha unpinned now didnt even know how you pin or unpin??

cheers Seffie

Joshua it was just a thought as I have got interested in my nano again and thought whilst I;m in this house I may do a little upgrade

 

[JoshuaA]

How much did it cost for you to go Marina with a that 94 litre? I'm interesting as I'm close to breaking down my 40L and making a 60L FW but now... now SW is attracting but I know the price is going to be the deciding factor. I mean don't want to dip my feet in SW finding that it's incredibly hard to keep a 60L on budget. Perhaps wait till I'm better funded. I've had my substrate soaking for nearly a month waiting for this FW tank to break down. The shrimps are maturing nicely but still like 1/3 the size of my mature cherrys.

Do you get your SW from Andys?

 

[simonas]

I used to but prefer mixing my own SW.I get my RO from him and then mix it

I paid about £150 for the tank, £55 for the rock, I spent a small fortune on corals but you don;t have to if you wait on the local classifieds and the fish don;t have to cost a fortune if you get about 3 fish at about £15 each

the test kits, refractometer and other bits and bobs cost a few quid

Once your set up though its not that bad to run

 

[JoshuaA]

It's soooo tempting, I wouldn't mind dipping my feet into it because I know it's not as intimidating as it looks. I've been reading these saltwater journals for months now with my mouth watering but never plucking the courage up to act on it.

Where did you get your fish from for them to be so cheap?

 

[simonas]

andys and private sales. clowns are only about £13 blennys about £14 royal gramma off a reefer for about £15 etc there bargains to be had