55 Gallon, a new adventure!

[reefnoob]

Anthony, I ordered my lights from petmountain.com. I got them for $100 dollars cheaper than any local store or online store. I've ordered from this company 3 times already and their prices are always the best. But, the down side is that their selection is not very big.

 

[ob_on3]

Just chimed into there sight...prices look great...I'm prob gonna order a better skimmer....I made the mistake of getting the sea clone...prob better off using a foam cup with a straw!! Lol...thx for the site

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Rocks are here! Posting pics after it's all set up and the sand settles! (Not very good at the whole aquascaping thing, so, keep that in mind :grumble:)

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Pics! One of the new Diamond Goby. He's a pain in the ass to get a good pic of, best I could do!

 

[Ted]

Nice rocks...like the goby as well..

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Thanks, i'm not very good at the whole "aquascaping" thing yet haha, but not bad for my first attempt! Thinking about going and getting a few more LR to try and speed up the seeding a little bit :p

 

[Ted]

To be honest I like how the rock is now. If you are going to play with it think caves for fish and shelves for corals...A few more lr pieces cant hurt.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

I have a 10 gal tank set up that I'm using to house the dry rock that I couldn't fit into the 55. Some of the pieces in there are flat. Once they start to seed, I'll swap some rocks around to make room for coral. As it stands now, there is actually several spots that have arches/caves for the fish to swim through and house.


Also, I picked up two 48" T5 HO (Each has two bulb slots) fixtures from Home Depot. 39.99$ a piece. Score? What is a ideal amount of Lumens for good coral growth (Need to know what type of bulbs too get). I'm also going to build a frame to go around the fixtures to neaten it up a bit. Not sure if I wanna build something I can mount to the top of the tank or hang from the ceiling. Opinions welcome :)

 

[little_fish]

I dont think the fixtures from homedopot will hold the proper bulbs for a reef tank, otherwise everyone would be using them because they are so much cheaper.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

How would T5 Bulbs not fit another T5 fixture? That would be abnormally retarded if it's true.

 

[little_fish]

because the t5 bulbs that are using for lighting a room arent needed to put out the same kind of light as what you would want over a reef. The other thing is you really want the fixture to have individual reflectors so that more of the light goes into the tank.

But you can always order some bulbs and see if they work. I would give the guys over at reef geek a call and they will hook you up.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Okay, thanks.

I hate to say this, but a ballast is a ballast. If the fixture is a T5 HO fixture there is actually a good chance that it has better ballasts than some of the cheaper commercial aquarium fixtures. Industry does not normally use workhorse instant start ballasts for t5 ho application, they use the proper programmed start start T5 spec ballasts, while some of the aquarium manufactures use the workhorse ballast since they are less expensive and easier to install. When it comes to MH, an M59 spec ballast is an M59 spec ballast. Aquarium trade uses the same ballasts as industry. Now the reflectors they use I can understand, but I'm sure theres a DIY way of changing it.

 

[little_fish]

Also, I would PM bjohnson about this. He works with electronics and can give you a more precise answer.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Rather then add a new post about the ballasts, I edited the other one. So look up lol

 

[salt_for_brains]

Are they t5 or t5ho fixtures? Actually Home Depot did dabble a little a couple years ago with some t5ho fixtures but the reflectors were white not the stainless/polished reflectors we use nor were they individual reflectors.

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

They are HO

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Basically, what I need to figure out, is a DIY of changing the reflectors to try and match a aquarium light fixture. Time to do some research.

 

[beeguiles]

I think some people have used Home Depot style lights for planted freshwater tanks. It was a while ago that I saw it but I remember them using two t5s in a fixture they bought from lowes or Home Depot. Good job on the aqua scape. I only have one suggestion. The rocks on either end look like they are touching the glass, if that is the case then you will have a very hard time keeping the glass clean where the rocks touch the glass. You want to leave just enough room between the glass and the rocks to fit a magfloat so you can clean the glass. My first tank I didn't even think about it but after the fact is drove me nuts but I wasn't gonna take all my corals and rocks out so whenever I set up a tank I'm always sure to keep the rocks from the glass so I can keep it clean :)

 

[AnthonyTheNewbie]

Haha thanks! Both ends of the tank actually have abour 1/2"-3/4" of space between the rocks and the glass. I tried to avoid it as much as I could. There is one spot where the large rock in the middle is touching the glass on the back, but it's a small area it's touching, and it's not resting on it. The weight is distributed between two rocks around it. Also have like 20-30Lbs of Dry rock in my 10 Gallon that I'm seeding to start a mini reef in there. I don't think either of my tanks will be as nice as youuurrrrss. But, I'm hoping for a close...296th? :mrgreen:

 

[salt_for_brains]

Another thing you need to consider is your end caps. I don't know if the ones you got from HD will be sealed to keep water and corrosion out of the connectors.