Upgrading to a 46 Bow Front looking for advice

[Herfinater12]

After getting no love from another reef keeper forums I am going to post this topice here and see what people have to say.

 

 

I am upgrading to a 46g Oceanic Bow Front and am looking for advice from fellow reefers on what equipment to add and or subtract from my plans.

 

Heres what I have planned so far:

 

Lighting:

36" 250W DE 10K MH w/ 96Wx2 Atinic supplements

 

Filtration:

Fluval 304 with the modded surface skimmer

Seaclone Protein Skimmer

 

 

I will have 50-60LBS LR and 40LBS LS.

 

My biggest concern ATM is what size powerheads I should use for circulation, would 2 MaxiJet 900's be enough or would I be better of with the 1200's.

 

As you can see I dont have a whole lot planned for this new tank so any advice given would be greatly appreciated.

[ricomike]

Is that light only one metal halide? Because the 46 bow has a bar in the middle and it casts a really noticeable shadow with the metal halide right in the middle. I've got a 46 bowfront too and wanted to buy a single halide fixture but when I saw pics of the setup i thought the shadow was really unpleasant. Because I'm low on cash and couldn't get the double metal halide i just bought a 192 watt fixture and it lights it pretty nice but i know no SPS in the future or croceas and maximas and such but wahtever. Also i have two maxijet 900's in mine and i still have a few deadspots i can't quite get and am considering getting another powerhead. The 1200's might solve that problem or it might just be the case that three powerheads are necessary to hit all the angles or maybe i haven't set my powerheads up quite perfectly to hit all the deadspots but just giving you something to think about from my experience. And NO on the seaclone. Read around I've only seen like 2 people out of like a 100 who actually liked it and i think they modified it. Also it appears Canister filters are out of favor these days and most people aren't using them due to, I believe, inevitable detritus buildup and as a result elevated nitrate levels. Personally I went with the Bak pak cpr2r and I'm pretty pleased most suggest the remora around here it's a little bit more expensive but supposedly its worth it. And I personally converted my emperor 400 into an HOB refugium and left one of the carbons in their I plan to take some pictures once I go on vacation from college and have a chance to actually get this tank off the ground. But it appears the aquaclear 500's are better. To be honest drilling it and getting a sump would be the best way but I didn't have that option if you do go for it. That's all I got for now hopefully I helped a little. Peace

[Herfinater12]

Thanks for the advice. Is it possible to cut the center brace out without effecting the stability of the tank? Because I have already purchased this light lol.

[ricomike]

I wondered the same thing and the general consensus from people who asked was it's a really bad idea. You certainly have to have something their or else the tank bows out from the pressure of that much weight in water remember 46 gallons of water is borderline 400 pounds. Some people removed the brace and glued in a clear brace but i seriously doubt the integrity of the brace will be even close to where it was originally. I would be in constant fear personally if i messed with the central brace especially on a bowfront since it already is bowed out. See if you can return it and buy the dual if not maybe set it up hanging from the ceiling off to the left or right of the brace and put your light demanding corals there and maybe get another smaller light to put over the other side of the tank. Maybe you could make a tall rock structure sort overhang in the center of the tank and make it look like the reason the other side has less light is the shade from the tall rock structure. In the real ocean there's shady areas due to overhangs and shelves in the reef so it might come off as creative. It might look kind of ridiculous having lights off center on top of your tank but it'll do the job and really that's all that matters.

 

Actually i hadn't noticed before that your light had pc's in addition to the halide so you probably wouldn't even need a small light for the other side of brace because the shadow effect doesn't happen with the pc obviously because it's a long tube that has light all along it instead of one powerful bulb like the halide. The only part that would suck is you'd have part of your PC light lighting the floor on the side of your tank instead of being over the water. I guess the only advice i can think of is move the light around up, down, left, right and see what helps prevent the shadow effect best. Maybe you'll like the shadow and you'll still be able to put some less light demanding corals there because they'll still have PC's shining on them but it'll be noticeably dimmer in the center.