lights and hard ware for tank

[zaireguy]

Hi
wife has given me ok for tank.I can afford to run it,Jst cant spend a 1000 all at once.I jst have to piece it together.ill get the hardeware first.Any ideas on lights.i want to be able to keep most corals but first at first I will jst keep the sand and rock for about a yr.
I am reading on I can on the dsb and sumps.Do most of you keep your dsb in your man tank or in a seperate one(like a sump).I do like the idea of being able to raise little critters in a sep tank to feed my main one.
I will keep a eye on ebay for my list to save money.I will also let everybody know how it is coming.So be ready for a lot of post..lol
But I want to thank everybody for all the ideas and advice in getting my tank going.
ONCE AGAIN THANKS EVERYBODY
RON

 

[reefsRcool]

since you arn't looking to do corals for a year or so, just get cheap lights for now. money better spent on a skimmer and building a refugium in your sump. i assume you are going to use a sump and highly recomend one. when i set up my first tank i didn't get a reef ready one and regretted it by the second month it was up. ended up swaping it to a new tank after a year. before i got into corals i used a cheapo no strip light from home depot. i peeled off the not for use in wet areas sticker and had me 80w of light for $13 before bulbs. i fully expect to get flamed for that one, but i still regret succoming to pressure and getting a pc unit because i couldn't aford halides yet. if i had the $$ i spent on pc's back i could afford halides now, wish i had been more patient. good luck and just remember to hide as many purchases from the wife as possible. have fun

 

[reefsRcool]

forgot to ask how big a tank are you thinking of?

 

[danmhippo]

Lights -- VHO is great for most corals and promotes pink/purple coralline growth. A sump can be cheaply done by using any water holding container. Many uses rubbermaid tubs, and they work just fine. These tubs are easy to drill and does not warp. Refugium is nothing but another tub, but you place macro algae into it. The tubs may not be that pretty, but most people put refugium and sump in the cabinet and thus out of sight.

 

[Mouse]

Id go with VHO's, or maybe have a look at the new T5 bulb pendants. MH's are probably going to cause you greaf because of the need for a chiller, so id concentrate on geting the tank good for growing Softys, LPS and maybee some of the easyer to keep SPS like montypora.

The reason im going to keep the DSB in the Fuge/Sump and not in the main tank from now on is to avoid the sand ever becomeing disturbed. I had a pistol shrimp in my last tank that dug down into the DSB and released all sorts of crap and nutrients out of it, not to mention crashing the system in the process. 2poor2reef has his tank set up how id go in the future. 3 - 4" DSB in Sump/Fuge and about a 1" layer in the main tank. The DSB will have plenty of small worms and things to keep it constantly turning over and supplying the Oxygen free layer with a constant flow of detreus and nutrients from the surface. Where as in the main tank you would use slightly more aggressive stirrers, Nasarus snails, fighting conch, queen conch and tiger tail Cukes are pretty popular.

Basically what i would be looking to do is get the circulation figures worked out. What are the demands on the Sump going to be, I,E what equipment will it hold. The main demand will come from the skimmer, so the total flow rate supplying the sump has to b = to or > than that. but yo umay want to reduce this flow as it goes through the refugeum section of the sump to assist settling out of detreus and stuff. And then theres the Circulation for the main tank, usually about 15 times the total tank volume and occilating with some sort of wave controller or motorised outlet, better still both. From this you can decide plumbing for closed loops and returns, get the pipe diameters ensuring your not increasing velocity of the water to much and then get the tank and the holes drilled. I favour a central overflow at the moment, but then again thats more personal preferance. Theres so many tanks out there on the web, have a surf and look for tanks with a simmilar size to the one you would like to build. Be carefull though, there's still allot of crap out there. Infact you may be interested in an Ecosystem set up. Apparently people have had allot of success with them, Sue Truett is a fine example.

 

[Solarreef]

Mouse,
you mentioned T-5s, where can you get them? I emailed icecap and my ballast will drive them, just need to find out how/where to get them, i have looked at www.osram.com but it is not very clear which ones to get. thanks,
nils

 

[zaireguy]

Hi

Ok what lights will i need to run for my live rock in my 120/I will not get any corals for about a yr.I will be using the deep sand bed.I was hoping to run cheap lights for a while before getting vhos or mh.
But i think cheaper light will hurt my corline algea growth right?

thanks
Ron

 

[reefsRcool]

i ran a 55 fowlr for 15 months before the urge to go full reef couldn't be controlled. in that time i only had 2 48" NO florecents one actinic one daylight. i ran an 11 hour photo period and grew a TON of coraline, kept a pink tip anenomy and four types of mushrooms. in all honesty the anenomy wasn't apropriate with those lights, but it stayed alive for 8 months till i switched and is still with me. the mushrooms thrived. i switched to a 4x55 pc setup because the money was short to get halides, i have regretted it ever since i can keep some corals but not the ones i really wanted anyway. as far as vho's i looked into them and they arn't exactly cheap way to go might as well go halide at that point. lights are by far the easiest thing to upgrade down the road and the actuall tank and plumbing is the hardest so put the majority of funds in that direction. on a limited initial buget (he said $1000 total budget guys how much is left after vho's) i definatly don't see alot of room for nice lights. you will eventually want halides so any significant money spent otherwise would be a waste long run. just to help us help you why don't you run a list of what hardware you had in mind so far for your setup and some cost estimates. it'll give everyone a refresher on how quick a grand runs out.

 

[Solarreef]

Nobody knows anything about where to buy T-5s