45 gallon set up for your consideration

[adamt]

After hours and hours of research, debate, and hair loss, I've decided to go with the following set up. Please feel free to let me know what yall think.

Tank: 45 gallon 36lx12wx24h
light: wave point t5ho 4x39 (seems like a really nice light: glass shield, individual parabolic reflectors, highest par bulbs I've seen, and really reasonable price from masterswimmer)
Skimmer: aquac remora
Sand: 50lbs of live black aragonite (local lfs going out of business, getting 20lb bags for $20 ea)
Rock: bout 30 lbs of some really nice fiji that wound up in another lfs by way of divorce.
Livestock: want to do a large anemone (ritteri, carpet, bubble, or LTA. Gotta see whats around) Pair of clowns (either true percs, or a black and normal occilarus, again gotta see whats around) 1 purple firefish, and a mandarin goby if i can find one thats eating cyclopeeze or other prepared foods.

My goal for this tank is a center mass of live rock built up to 6" from the top, a black sand bed, black background, preferably a blue carpet anenome, and some blue hornets down low along with some other really bright blue/ green softies. I really want the blues and greens to pop and ill play with the t5 bulb configurations till they do ( any suggestions would be great). I figure ill set it up and let it run till i see pods everywhere, then get the anenome and let it get settled (or as settled as they ever get) and then work in the rest of the livestock over the following months.

I think the end result should be a real stunning dark specimen tank with blues and greens exploding all around.

Any suggestions, comments, questions would rock

 

[JonnyJ]

Hi,

I dont have any experience with the Wavepoint t5 - However, i was going to buy it and decided to go with a different fixture after i found out that it does not have independent control of the actinic and daylight lamps (It only has one power cord)

for reference: http://www.marineandreef.com/T5_Fixtures_WavePoint_s/572.htm

If your looking to enjoy a "sunset and sunrise" effect you wont be able to do it with this Fixture. Although you don't need two cords to have a successful reef tank it is definitely aesthetically pleasing and important to me so i went with the NEP [nova extreme pro]. There are better options than a NEP but it was in my price range.

-----------
some other things to consider

are you going to run a ATO?

are you going to run a glass top? or a mesh top? fire fish are definitely known to jump and any fish can if startled.

have you thought about buying a controller? definitely a great buy to protect the tank. i really wouldnt run a tank without one.


Jonny

 

[adamt]

i hadnt really thought about a top, i was planning on running it open. I've had experience with firefish jumping on me in the past, but it was a 33 long which is only about 13 inches high. I didnt really think it would be an issue in a 24" deep tank, im pretty sure im safe but if i do decide to get a firefish ill def take it into consideration. Depending on how big the anenome is and what type it is i might nix the fire fish all together.

It is a bummer about the lack of a dawn dusk effect, but i was planning on adding a strip of LED's anyway so Ill make it work.

Forgive my ignorance but what is an ATO? (automatic top off?) lol i feel dumb asking but... no if thats what it is ill do it the old fashioned way.

 

[NYreefNoob]

where at in westchester are you, only down side to that tank i no depth and hard to do rock work nicely, plus with eight wont really be able to keep much on the bottom, and carpet is out as it require's high lighting and flow, plus it is a fish eater, u using a sump ? skimmer ? power heads for flow ? firefish are known jumpers reguardless of depth

 

[duke62]

yeah maybe think about a 50 breeder.wider and alot more u can do with it.i have 1 and i am very happy.and i know alot of people who were sorry they went with black sand

 

[motortrendz]

dukes tank is really nice....perfect sized medium tank..

 

[adamt]

yeah i have the 45 so thats what im gonna roll with till i move in about a year. Im getting married pretty soon so Im gonna use the glass i have. The guy im buying the light from told me carpet/sps would do fine with it. Hes got a good rep on the forum and more importantly to me I called him and spoke with him for a long time about what im looking to do and he stands by what he said so I dont see any reason to doubt him. I was concerned about the rock work at first but I think for what im trying to do itll work out fine. Its gonna be a large mound in the center of the tank with lots of open water on the sides. I plan on using a hob remora skimmer, and a couple of power heads for flow. The maximum number of fish id put in the tank would be 4, with the percs being the largest, so i think ill be ok with filtration. I really just want to do a nice specimen tank with the clown fish and anenome. And the way i plan on setting up the rock the anenome will have the option to move as close to the light as it needs to. A blue carpet would be my 1st choice, but theres plenty of other anenomes id be happy with (ritteri, or a large lta would be nice) if it turns out that i was misinformed about what the wavepoint 4x39 t5ho can handle. But if the t5's are as good as everyone has been hyping them up to be i dont see why I couldnt keep a carpet or lps like alveopora under them when i was able to do it with pc's years ago.

What is the problem with the black sand? I've never used it my self but ive used the carib sea live sand before and it was great.

Its been about 5 years since i did any work with reef tanks but when i was in college i worked at eddies aquarium up in albany (it was a great shop, most of the people i worked with have moved on to work at aquariums around the country) and we did alot of set ups for customers using pc lights and kept all kinds of corals/anenomes under them w/o incident. We had to replace the bulbs every 6 months but other than that they did the job. Definately not trying to pick a fight or be argumentative, I guess im just confused why there seems to be such a split on whether the t5's can handle higher light demanding inverts. Im not in the business of killing corals, and i have a special affinity for anenomes because they can technically live forever and i think it would be a tragedy to see one die due to maltreatment, so i really wanna get this right. So if it comes down to passing on the carpet Ill do it, but i dont get why masterswimmer would tell me I could do it if i cant.

 

[motortrendz]

alot of people go with t5s..they put out just as much power as a mh BUT.. THE MH penetrate deeper into the water so if you have a deep tank thats a better choice.. t5s give you better coloration.. bc you can use the purple blues and whits in any combo to make your tank glow..also if heat is a problem t5s are the better choice bc mh put off alot of heat..and at the end of the day its really prefference.. soon everyone will be saying the only way to go is LED's...

 

[KathyC]

There is no issue with the light you have chosen, especially if you already know you are going to add additional actinics to run with it. Russ always gives out first class info

Whatever anenome you choose will be fine with that lighting. More importantly for them is the stability of the tank parameters.

The folks answering your thread would prefer to see you with a tank wider than 12" as that size is well known for being difficult to aquascape - most come out looking like a wall of rock. They're just trying to help and had no idea you already had the tank.

The black sand...bottom line is it looks great in the beginning and ends up looking like...crap. Bits of rock breaking off and your common detritus that comes from all things reef look awful laying about the sand after a while. You really may want to reconsider this decision. (hopefully you won't lose any more hair over it )

The cover...as Rick said, it is a necessity. Depth doesn't matter (aside from the fact that the fish will shoot out of the tank quicker when it does decide to jump..lol) It is going to happen.
If you happen to be attending the swap - there is going to be a demonstration of how to build one

...and welcome to MR I don't think I said that to you! Nice to see you thinking things through before diving in !

 

[adamt]

heehh i think a few posts up i said id nix the firefish if at 24" its still a potential carpet surfer. I currently havea planted tank with black gravel (its called eco complete) and i love the way it looks, although it does slightly brown over time. Nah i havent bought any sand yet Im gonna grab it on friday so ill look into it a little more. Theres a dual 150w hqi pendants w/ ballast for sale I was considering before I talked to russ about the t5's. Its actually cheaper than the t5 set up but i have no experience with hanging halides from ceiling and it kinda spooked me.... and if i went with the halides, actinics would be out of the question so id sacrifice some color but the growth might make up for it. Do you need a stud to hang pendants from or do the hanging kits accomodate hanging in a regular ceiling? If its just a matter of sinking some screws into the ceiling for the dual 150 hqi's would that be a better choice than the 4x39 t5 fixture russ reccomended?

 

[motortrendz]

its very easy...if you/i were closer id come do it for you... but very simple u dont need to hit a stud(if you do its better) but they have expanding flaps that open once inside the sheetrock and then when u tighten it down it squeezed tight.. just dont play tarzan on it and youll be fine!!

 

[adamt]

thanks for the welcome kathy!!! I've been keeping fish for a long time and the hours of obsession before making a choice have become standard operating procedure for me. In the past I've had a 33 long mushroom/tonga tank ran on 130 watts of pc lighting, a 90 gallon mixed reef (lta, lps, softies) with 390 watts of pc, a 90 gallon planted discus tank (133 world ranked on rate my tank.com) with 260w of pc, a 125 gallon planted piranha tank with swords, and water sprite up top) with 192 watts of pc... so most of my experience is with power compacts and im really torn with whether to go 4x39 t5 ho's or dual 150 hqi 14000k hanging pendants over this 45 specimen tank im hoping to create. I know it sounds kinda dumb but im sorta scared to hand hqi's from the ceiling over open water, especially if the t5 fixture will cut it.

 

[motortrendz]

go t5 then.....

 

[adamt]

thanks for all the input guys i prolyl come across as argumentative, but im really just ecentric when it comes to this stuff (im sure yall can relate lol). Russ told me 24" is about the max the t5's can penatrate but honsetly, there gonna be about 4 inches of sand on the bottom of the tank anyway. At the end of the day i just wanna do right by w/e animals are under my care. So I think Ill make the following adjustments

white live sand
wave point t5's 2 super daylight 12,000k, 1 420 superviolet actinic, and 1 bluewave (basically a 460 actinic), or possibly just go with one actinic and use another bulb that provides more usable light for the anenome (like the coral wave) and sacrifice a little bit of color in the tank
no fire fish
and maybe ill take a harder look at a ritteri as the host anenome, from what ive seen true percs seem to really like them anyway. Ill try to find a piece of lr with a nice deep hole in it for the base of the anenome about half way up the tank in an area of decent water flow, in my past experience that went a long way in keeping them in one place.

 

[motortrendz]

sounds good! post pics bro!!

 

[adamt]

hehe i will def journal it... its gonna be a long process im gonna set the tank up with sand and rock and let it chill till it looks likea sea monkey bowl and then ill start adding live stock

 

[duke62]

i would try to sell that 45 here and pick up either a 40 breeder or a 50 which people sell here all the time for a reasonable price.or use the 45 as a sump.trust me you will be much happier with a wider tank

 

[KathyC]

If it's in the budget, may as well add the live rock from the get-go and let it all cycle together.

I'd vote T5's, just for the factor that they run so much cooler than MH's.

Sweet on the FW tanks. I have a few of my own

 

[adamt]

I feel ya man theres a 60 gal oceanic stand and tank for sale for like 300 at a lfs thats going out of business by me and ive thought about it quite a bit, but im gonna try and make this work. I havea vision in my head now of what i wanna do and until i prove to myself that it cant be done im gonna stick with it. heheh and with a wedding in the works Im not gonna be able to justify a new tank to my fiance till we move next year. The 45 will do what i need it to, itll make a nice home or a pair of clownfish and an anenome.

 

[adamt]

im gonna set the tank up with sand and rock and let it chill till it looks like a sea monkey bowl

yeah I meant im gonna do the sand and lr, every sw tank ive done ive always used live sand and live rock, although back then live sand meant waiting for someone to break a tank down and taking their sand, or bribing the lfs to give me a few pounds of sand out of a plenum to seed some aragonite with. One of the lfs in my area has a 40 gallon breeder that basically a fuge starter tank that he sells portions out of so once the sand and rock are in im gonna seed the tank grab a magnifying glass and kick back and watch the show for a few weeks.