new tank

kyle

kyle

Reefing newb
ok so i desided to set up my first reef tank. I saw this this 55 gallon tank and stand at the store, and I really like it. So I thought if i bought it i would make a reef tank out of it.

so my plans are to use 70 pounds of live rock. 5 inch DSB, I wanna use aragonite sand any thoughts on that. I am goin to run my corallife super skimmer 24/7 for best results. I am gong to run my rena canister filter 1 day a week just to polish the water. For lights I am going to get 2 ESU Corallife 48" Aqualight t-5 double linear striplight. any thoughts on these lights,this is a link to them
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/reviewpost/showproduct.php?
product=191&cat=5&limit=recent&date=1135760375

the tank is 18"tall 48" long and I cant remember but i think its ether 12" or 14
wide
i want to be able to house nems LSP and SPS and some softys. So what are ur guys thought

oh yea i was also looking at RO units at canadian tirehttp://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396674305&bmUID=1209419085073&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442154151&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true
 
The link to the lights doesn't work, but if it's a "double linear strip light", I'm guessing that's 4 T5 bulbs, which should be okay.

That's a standard 55 gallon tank size, and 4 T5 bulbs would be okay for softies and LPS, SPS would need to be placed at the top of the tank. Anemones are iffy with those lights though. I kept a BTA under 4 T5 bulbs, but that's still on the low end. In short, those lights will be fine for pretty much everything as long as your are careful about placement, but anemones usually don't do well in reef tanks anyways since they tend to move around and kill any corals they touch.

Also, the link to the RO unit doesn't work either, it doesn't bring me to any RO unit, just the homepage of the site.
 
stupid links oh well. the fixture i tryed to link has 2 bulb and i was goin to buy 2 fixture, so there is a total of 4 bulbs. ill try and get those links.
 
The link to the lights was just broken into two lines. I clicked on the first line, then pasted the second line to the end of the first in the browser.

I don't have *any* experience with the T5s (I'm waiting until the fall as to spread out the costs a bit), but I would suggest looking at more lighting. The one the link leads to has one 28 watt 10,000 K and one 28 watt actinic bulb. I think you will find it difficult or impossible to keep corals, although you would be fine for fish only. There are some threads here that provide some great advice on lighting for whatever you are looking to keep in your tank. Can someone else verify this?

For the record, here is the description from the site:

Corallife's new 48" T-5 dual-tube striplight for marine aquariums. The Aqualight T-5 features a power switch, a built-in electronic ballast, sleek black aluminium housing (46.25"L x 3"W x 1"H), a highly-polished reflector, acrylic lens cover and adjustable width tank mounts. Included with the light are one 28W 10,000K Daylight and one 28W True Actinic 03 Blue fluorescent tubes.
 
Those bulbs are not typical 48 inch T5 bulbs at 28 watts each. I've always seen 48 inch T5 bulbs be 54 watts each. If those are only 28 watts each, then lightcs4 is right, you will need at least twice as much light as you're planning on.
 
Coralife only makes normal output T5 fixtures and not T5-HO fixtures the last time I checked..Those aren't much better than regular florescent bulbs that come stocked in new aquariums.
 
I just got back from the LFS and the light i was planning to get, are at the fish store and i was looking at them and they have 48" t-5 made by corallife that are preatty much the same as the lights above^^^ but they put out 56 watts a tube. so thats 2 tubes a fixture so thats 112 watts and i was planning on getting tpo fixtures so that would be 224 watts, and it a 55 gallon tank thats like 4 WPG. is this strong enough to house LPS SPS???
 
heard about there hyrodmeters reading wrong and i have one of there lighting timers and can never get it to work right. also just posted a thread that i saw at reefcentral where there digital thermometers were not accurate and were off by a couple degrees. which can be a big deal in saltwater. but i haven't really heard anything on there lights, so if it were me i would try to find some reviews on there lights just so you can see what others are saying about them. never a bad idea when you make a fairly large purchase that while have a big affect on your tank.
 
true. the site i was looking at had some and they said they great for what you pay for. but i kinda wanna go with MH
 
The two Coralife T5 fixture(two fixtures,2x54w T5-HO) is plenty for LPS corals.I don't think it will be enough for all SPS but some like montipora,hydnophora will be okay.I believe acros will brown out under that fixture because it has no individual reflectors and the coralife bulbs have poor PAR,at least there T5 bulbs do.
 

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