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Quickstart Equipment Guide

This guide has some good basic recommendations on choosing aquarium equipment. Look here for some quick answers on what size equipment to choose for your setup.

Choosing Aquarium Filtration
Here is our quick-start guide on aquarium filters and filter media. This chart is a general guideline (not rules) for choosing aquarium filtration.

Filter Recommendations
  Tank Size Freshwater Freshwater Planted Saltwater Fish Only Saltwater Reef
Canister Filter 30g and up Y Y Y N
Power Filter Up to 75g Y N Y N
Wet-dry or Sump 55 and up Y N Y Y
Modular 55 and up Y Y Y Y

Filter Media Guide
Regular replacement of your filter media is important to the health of your aquarium. Be sure to alternate the replacement of your media and never replace all the media in your filter at one time. Biological media should never be replaced unless absolutely necessary. If you do need to replace you biological media only replace a small portion at a time over the course of 4-6 weeks until you have finally replaced all the media. Here is our quick-start guide on selecting filter media for your style aquarium. This chart is a general guideline for choosing filter media.

Filter Media Recommendations
  Freshwater Freshwater Planted Saltwater Fish Only Saltwater Reef
Mechanical Y Y Optional, must be cleaned weekly Optional, must be cleaned every 3 days and changed weekly
Chemical Y Optional Y Optional, can be used for occasional water polishing
Biological Y Optional with well planted tanks Optional when live rock is used Not recommended when live rock is used

Aquarium Heater Guide
Maintaining water temperature at a consistent level reduces stress on your aquarium pets. A good rule of thumb for selecting aquarium heaters is to have about 5 watts per gallon. Using 2 heaters on large aquariums allows for efficient heating and you have a backup already running in case one stops heating. Here is a quick-start guide for sizing heaters.

Heater Sizing Recommendations
Tank Size Heater Wattage
up to 10g 25w
10-12g 50w
15-20g 75w
20-24g 100w
24-29g 150w
29-40g 200w
40-55g 250w
55-65g 300w
75g 2 x 200w (400w total)
90-100g 2 x 250w (500w total
120g 2 x 300w (600w total)

Aquarium Lighting
Here is our quick-start guide on aquarium lighting including Power Compact, Metal Halide, Normal Fluorescent and VHO. This chart is just a general guideline for choosing aquarium lighting. The most important thing is to know the light intensity and spectrum requirements of the plants or animals you plan to keep in your aquarium.

Lighting Recommendations
  Watts Bulb Life (Months) Freshwater Freshwater Planted Saltwater fish only Saltwater Reef
LED .5 to 50 48-72 Y Y Y Y
T-5 HO 24 to 80 18-24 Y Y Y Y
Metal Halide 70 to 400 10-16 N Y (Deep Tanks) N Y (Deep Tanks)
T-12 VHO 30 to 160 6-10 N Y N Y

Which light for which tank?
Check the chart below for specific lighting recommendations on the aquarium setup you are considering.

Lighting Setups for Specific Aquariums
Tank Size Reef - Low Light (Most Soft Corals and some LPS) Reef - High Light (Clams, SPS Corals and Anemones) Freshwater Planted
10-15g 20" Nova 20" 2x18w T5 HO SW Two - Ecoxotic PAR38 20K LEDs Nova 20" 2x18w T5 HO
20-25g 24" Nova 24" 4x24w T5 HO SW Coralvue Sun DE HQI Pendant Kit 250 Watt 14K
 Nova 24" 2x24w T5 HO FW
29g 30" Nova 30" 2x24w T5 HOSW Two-Coralvue Sun DE HQI Pendant Kit 250 Watt 14K Nova 30" 2x24w T5 HO FW
30-65 36" Nova 36" 4x39w T5 HO SW Nova Extreme Pro 36" 6x39w T5 HO Nova 36" 2x39w T5 HO FW
55-90G 48" Nova 48" 4x54w T5 HO SW Marineland 48" 2x150w Metal Halide-T5HO-LED
 Nova 48" 2x54w T5 HO FW
125-210g 72" Nova Extreme Pro 72" 12x39w T5 HO Marineland 72" 3x150w Metal Halide-T5HO-LED Two - Nova 36" 2x39w T5 HO FW

Check our aquarium setup guides for more specific information on aquarium equipment.