GetKrunked Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I have been reading information on this site for about a year and desire to start a small reef tank but until now I could not due to my housing situation at college. Here are my ideas for the reef tank: I ordered an AGA 16G Bow in black trim for the tank. I am going to pick up a 20lb bag of the "Live" special reef grade sand that comes in a bag from my lfs and a cup of "mud" from them. I will acquire approx. 20lb of live rock around various lfs in NYC. For circulation I will be using 2 mini-jet 606 pumps. I will use a Aquaclear model 30 with the bio media removed and running a reef grade carbon for removal of DOC. The tank would require a 75W heater which would be too large to fit in the HOB filter so I was thinking of a 75W ebo jager. If you have any other suggestions I would like to hear them. For the lighting I was going to go with the current usa satellite 2 X 40W fixture. MY LFS said it would be perfect and even told me I could have clams but I doubt that. Coral placement in the tank would vary by height due to lighting requirements. Any opinions here would be great. I want to keep the fish population small in order to increase stability so I am thinking 3 fish plus standard clean up crew. Any other comments on this set up would be great. Also what is the best place to get live rock for cheap in NYC for those who live near there? Thanks. Link to comment
GetKrunked Posted August 16, 2004 Author Share Posted August 16, 2004 Also.. Due to the 18in of height of the tank I will try to use some system of securing the live rock. Im thinking of drilling concentric holes and then sliding a pvc or acrylic pipe through them to maintain the shape of the live rock when stacked to that height. If you have any other ideas please post them. Link to comment
GetKrunked Posted August 17, 2004 Author Share Posted August 17, 2004 any ideas or comments? Link to comment
oldtimer Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 Due their height, bowfronts require intense lighting if you want to keep clams or SPS corals. 80w would be fine for some soft corals, mushrooms, and zooanthids. Might be a little low for LPS stonies, unless high in the tank. For clams or SPS stonies MH or several 65w PC would probably be needed. Good luck. Link to comment
jmt Posted August 17, 2004 Share Posted August 17, 2004 I had a 16ga Bow. I would suggest a set-up just like this: The thread is here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=37610 It would allow you to keep anything you wanted. -Justin Link to comment
vyger Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 IMHO... Don't get the live sand that comes in the bag but try and find an LFS that sells real live sand that is taken from a tank... I bought the same live sand in the 20 lb bag and put it in my 6 gal eclipse but in my 2 1/2 I put 5lbs of real live sand from my LFS that they keep in a tank. He told me that the sand in the bags are bacterially alive but the sand that they harvest in their tanks have all sorts of living stuff in the sand... worms etc., etc . I did wind up buying another 5 lbs to put on top of the sand in my eclipse.. My 6 gal is doing fine but I wish i had started with 20lbs of real live sand as I see alot more creatures in my little 2 1/2... saw two small brittle stars just the other day... Link to comment
GetKrunked Posted August 18, 2004 Author Share Posted August 18, 2004 If i seeded the "live sand" that comes in the bag with a pound of live sand from a lfs, a scoop of the crap that collects at the bottom of his lr tank he calls "mud", provide the critters that would come from live sand. I am trying to figure out what the diffrence between the current usa's orbit and satellite fixtures is. Im looking at the 2 x 40W 20in models. Are the reflectors the same? Could I mod the satellite for a 70W mh upgrade like kracker? Are the legs ajustable on both for diffrent length tanks? Thanks all of you for making this site the best place to find info on nano reefing! Link to comment
GetKrunked Posted August 19, 2004 Author Share Posted August 19, 2004 ok.. The diffrence between the orbit and satellite fixtures is that the orbit has a 3in fan and the satellite has a 2in fan, the orbit also has a larger reflector. After doing some research on the two I found that the length of the 40W light is only 17", which is what comes in the 20" fixtures. In the 24" the bulb length is 22" and 65W. Doing some calculations I found that while the 24" would be longer than the tank the 20" of bulb that is over the tank would provide 118.18W vs. the 80W on the 20" model. Here are some questions for anyone who has the orbit or the csl fixtures: 1. If the company says that the blub is 22" long is that including the metal contacts and the plastic part before the glass? 2. If any one can mesure the exact length of the blub, glass only that would be great. 3. Are the legs on the orbit adjustable length wise? 4. If I go with the PC should I get the 20" or 24"? Link to comment
vyger Posted August 20, 2004 Share Posted August 20, 2004 6gal eclipse with 20 lbs of bagged sand and 5 lbs of real live sand on top Link to comment
afiser Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 What lights are you using vyger Link to comment
vyger Posted February 16, 2005 Share Posted February 16, 2005 Well this is an old thread...and at that point in time I had 18 watt Aqualight Mini on top of the hood, I just removed the small cover and positioned the light over the hole. This allowed me to use the stock light also which gave me 26 watts but as you can see everything in the tank was doing fine. I kept this set up for nearly a year. In fact that picture is a year old...I had to remove the stock filter inside the hood but i just dremeled the back of the hood and put an Aquaclear mini HOB on the back of the tank.As of right now I have a 70 wattMH over the tank.. Link to comment
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