Eclipse 12

[iFish]

My grandfather recently moved to Florida nearby myself and has become fascinated with my marine aquariums. He has an Eclipse 12 gallon that currently is FW, but he wants to convert it. How difficult is it to retrofit a light system into the canopy? I'm not a do-it-yourselfer but he is. Do you reccomend using the marineland filter that comes with the tank? What retro is good? I would suggest to him a whole new canopy but the tank is slightly curved so that may be a difficult build. Please help on this, I have no experience with Eclipse tanks. I am giving him the link to this thread, hopefully he will become a member soon.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------My goal is to make everyone I know a reefer.

[LiQuiD]

First off, is it the rectangle glass 12 gallon eclipse setup or is it the bow front acrylic 12 gallon setup. I have both and they are completely different hoods. The rectangle glass setup has a large plastic covered bulb area that is great for 1 (or even 2 if you squeeze them) 32 watt retrofit kits. The bow front hood comes with a stock 13 watt bulb with a small plastic cover. It can be retofitted but will not have the plastic cover. I originally had a 32 watt on the bow front and it fits and works fine, I have a couple small children that loke to play with the tanks and the open bulb thing hanging over the water just scares me too much to have kept it that way so now it is back to stock and fish only. Anyway, the short answer is yes it can be retrofitted.

 

As far as the wheel and filter goes, many around here will say to loose the bio wheel due to buildup of nitrates and loose the filter medium and allow the LR to do all the filtering and just use the old filter as a water flow unit. I have never removed the biowheel and have had no problem with high nitrates the same goes for others on this board who share the same experience as me. As long as you keep up with your water changes, the levels should be fine. This is just my opinion, either way, with or without the wheel should be fine, I just like to over do it with the biological filtration (the more the merrior I feel, beside, if you want to keep clams and such, some nitrates are good for the little buggers).

[chufa]

I have an eclipse 12 with the stock filter and an extra Rio 90 powerhead on the opposite side of the filter outflow. I have a Custom Sealife Supernova 32 retrofit, very easy to install, even for non-DIY types like me.