lgreen's 58g SPS Reef Project

[lgreen]

Here's a pic of the new tank, still in the car:

 

 

[lgreen]

my crappy rubbermaid temp tank to hold corals while I sell the old tank, and set up the new one:

 

[lgreen]

some of my new corals:

 

 

Candy Cane

 

Red Montipora Cap

 

 

Puprle Tip neon green frogspawn

[lgreen]

Also I bought my first fish for the new tank.

 

This was a rather impulsive buy, as I had no plans of buying any fish for a few months, but I found a very small juv. coral beauty angel and couldn't resist. I had never seen one that looked like this one. It's whole body is very dark purple, yellow pectoral fins, with bright orange pelvic fins, and black stripes across the body similar to a flame angel. What was really strange, and the reason I bought this, rather than getting a pygmy like I had planned, was because the dorsal fin and claudel fin where outlined in a bright fluorescent blue. Weird, I have never seen one so colorfull. It is about 3/4 inch long, and seems to be doing great so far. My pods on the other hand are not happy.

[BKtomodachi]

Yay for rubbermaid tubs! lol... I was going to buy some of tren's rock and store it... but finances just got a little worse. See "what cars do you have" thread, lol.

[lgreen]

oh you didn't end up getting any?

 

I hope he didn't just give it away to RM.

 

tell me about it...i just got a new clutch and new alternator.

[lgreen]

oh never mind, just read that thread, that sucks even worse, you win.

[BKtomodachi]

Haha, lol.

 

No, I'm pretty sure he got something for the rock. He helped us out a ton working at the store, I'm sure we gave him something for it at least.

[lgreen]

I need to plan a sump. Has to fit with under the tank and there is probably around 30x12x28 inches to work with.

 

Needs to be able to fit a Euro Reef CS5-2, a refugium, and a return pump.

 

Thinking either a 20 long or a 29 gallon. What do you guys think?

[lgreen]

also here's one more update of the plan. any comments would be helpful.

 

58g reef ready tank

2-150w Aquamedic HQI 20k

2-Seio 1100 power heads

30# Fiji pink sand or special grade sand

60# Marshal Island or Kaelini Tonga, mixed w/ some fiji

 

20L or 29g sump

Aqua C Remora Protein skimmer (possibly upgrading to a EuroReef CS5-2)

250w Ebo jager heater

Rio 2500 return pump

2 coralife digital thermometers (one in tank, one in sump)

 

am I forgeting anything?

[lgreen]

I need to figure out some sort of auto top off too. I am bad about remebering to top off the tank, so i need something to do it for me.

 

any ideas? how efficient are those float switches? maybe that would work, or there is that new jbj auto top off thing too.

[BKtomodachi]

I use a $60 topoff from marine depot, its great, but it was an emergency buy.

 

Go to cameron ( is it californiareefs.com?) and buy one of his, I'm using one and it is awesome, almost as good as the $60 one.

 

For a sump, you could probably get some acrylic and do it yourself! Its pretty easy, actually.

[lgreen]

yah i have the weldon and needle bottle. I just dont have any power tools to cut acrylic with. I don't know if it would be cheaper to have one of the plastic store cut it, or just buy a glass tank.

[lgreen]

some body offered me 2 175w SE 10k MH's to use in my new tank.

 

Do you guys think this is better or should I stick with my original plan of 2 -150w HQI 20k MH's?

 

the cost isn't as important. what is important is how fast stuff grows, so which will produce better growth? 2 SE 10k or 2 DE 20k?

 

Thanks

[lgreen]

crap. now I got my self all confused.

 

here are the lighting options I am considering:

 

-2 175w SE 10k Hamilton retrofit kit

-2 150w HQI 20k Aquamedic pendent

-Outer Orbit 150w HQI 10k + 2-96 w actinic powercompacts

 

I like my origional plan of just doing the 2 aqua medics, but would any of these other setups be better?

 

or does anyone know if aqua medic has a 36" hood?

 

thanks

[lgreen]

well i found this one, but it seems a little extreme, and spendy!

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp...dproduct=AQ1821

[Tigahboy]

that's the exact same light fixture I have for my 67g. solid fixture.

[yoshiod9]

your tank is 18" wide, right?? check out the comparison shots between 2x250 hqi's and a single 400w se in a lumenarc reflector. when i set up my big tank, i'll be going with the mini reflectors(14x14 instead of 19x19) and either 250's or 400's if i can scrounge up the cash. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=560167

 

you can buy just the reflectors and retro in the 175 setup you may be getting. just another option for ya.

[scarletknight06]

I think you'd be fine with a single 250w DE. I think in a 36" tank, 2 MH bulbs is a little excessive.

[lgreen]

yes the tank is 36" by 18" and 21 inches tall.

 

I think I am pretty set on the aqua medic pendents. The reason is because I don't want to have to buy metal halides, plus supplemental lights, so it seems like the 20k is the way to go.

 

I also really don't think i want SE bulbs, i like the thin profile of the DE and the fact that they don't take up as much space.

 

I guess the question then is:

 

2-150w HQI Aquamedic Pendents 20k

 

or

 

2-150w HQI Aquamedic Pendents 10k

 

or

 

1-250w HQI Aquamedic Pendent 20k

 

or

 

1-250w HQI Aquamedic Pendent 10k

 

I could go with the 2-175w 10k hamilton setup, that someone has offered me used, but since it has 10k, i would have to pay to get 14k-20k bulbs, or buy sup lighting, which would make is just as expensive as getting the aquamedics new with the correct bulb already there.

 

I though you where suppose to have 1 metal halide per ever two feet, so would two be excessive?

 

I don't know or care really, I just want good coral growth, so what would work better for that?

[Tigahboy]

if this is sps only, out of the options above, I'd go w/ either the first option or the 2nd. The first if you want some nice coloration; the second if you want a little more growth.

 

But you could swing 2x250w for a sps-only. if you have anything else, it might be a little overkill for them tho.

 

and 2x250w DE's will be SUPER bright w/ lots of spillover, so just something to anticipate if u go w/ 2x250w DE's.

[lgreen]

do any companies make a 2x150w HQI that is 36" besides coralife (barf...garbage)?

 

that would be ideal, because then i wouldn't have to build a dang canopy.

 

i think even if i get the aqua medic pendents, they will have to go into a canpoy, because the boss says no holes in the wall.

[lgreen]

thanks tigahboy.

 

actually i would prefer to have a mix of lps, zoo's and sps.

 

what do you think would be best for that situation?

[lgreen]

i think i need to quit questioning myself and just stick with the origional plan.

 

2-150w HQI Aquamedic 20k

[Tigahboy]

yeah. i'm debating a canopy myself right now to help w/ spillover and heat issues. the area below my pendants is extremely hot and it would be nice to add fans to move that hot air away...but w/o a canopy it might look funky.

 

but yeah, even w/ canopy you'll likely end up just sticking the pendants in there since there really aren't any DE retros for canopies (well, not ones w/ that UV glass, which is necessary for DE's).

 

2x150w shoudl be fine for a mixed reef.