Just bought a 55 g tank....Reef Ready...lighting?

[SWGuppie]

ok, its only been a month or so, and i've already gotten a bigger tank (uh oh....) And I want this one to be a full reef tank...so I bought the reef ready 55 g tank and stand...etc. So nowwwww....Lighting? what should I do? I just kind of want to buy an all-inclusive lighting package, if thats possible for as little money as possible...I want mostly soft corals, maybe 1 or 2 anemones and lots of live rock, and some nice fish....I just need some very nice lighting for it all and I can finally start getting it prepared!!! All help is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[captivereefs]

With the anemones you are going to want to go Metal halide. Some 175's would work well for what you described above. I you left out the Anemones you could use a power compact hood with 4-65 watt lights in it. Coralife and Current USA Make a nice PC Hood with built in moonlights.

 

[SWGuppie]

So, I can cut out the anemones, and just go with a 4-65 Watt CL or Current USA...DO you think that you could send me a link to one of those? I would like to order it ASAP

 

[captivereefs]

www.captivereefs.com they are on my homepage on sale. The coralife moonlight hood is not in stock until friday and we have current USA hoods in stock.

 

[SWGuppie]

LT-CU01024
Create the ultimate dusk to dawn effect with the pro grade orbit hood! Includes (2) dual daylight PC bulbs (6700k & 10000K) and (2) dual PC Actinic Bulb (420 & 460 NM) and (4)Lunar moonlites together in one sleek, fan cooled fixture. Offering the latest technologies in one 24 hour lighting system! All fixtures have an ultra quiet fan and adjustable mounting legs.

Thats the one I want to get...is that the one that will do me best and allow me to get most of my Soft Corals I want? (Bubble corals...polyps etc?).....Basically what all could I put under that light is what it boils down to....

 

[captivereefs]

Yes you could do softies and most LPS corals. I run this light in alot of my local customers reefs and they work excellent! About the only thing I would not put under it are SPS and clams.

 

[cj10488]

My suggestion for a 55g tank is 2x250w MH lights with 2x55w actinics.. I have this setup and keep just about everything in my tank.. LOL.. I chose the 250w lights because they give my the ability to transfer them to a bigger tank down the road... without halides you should be able to keep just about anything except most SPS..

HTH,
James

 

[SWGuppie]

I would like Halides...but the price makes it incredibly unattractive to me =((( If I could find what you have for around.....300-350 bucks, then maybe I would go for it, but I haven't been able to find anything reasonable yet.....Also, for filtration, I plan on having around 70-110 #s of LR in the tank...........along with LS not sure how much, but plenty.....What about filtration? I have my Protein SKimmer Already, but what else should I add for filtration for this tank? should I just use my 29G tank I have now as a fuge/Sump?

 

[cj10488]

If I could find what you have for around.....300-350 bucks, then maybe I would go for it, but I haven't been able to find anything reasonable yet

I got my kit as a retro from a seller called cooltouchlighting on ebay.. I believe that you could get the entire kit for about 300.00 Get the bulbs from Darin at captivereefs.com and get the halide retro kit thats 2x250w from them... I also use a cheap Fulham workhorse 5 that i got from petsupplyliqudator.com that was like 60.00 with bulbs..

HTH<
James

 

[captivereefs]

Just add about 4 mj 1200's and you should be set for circulation!. If you have a good skimmer than circulation and skimmiing are all you need. Mechanical filtration is optional! Is would definately turn the 29 into a sump! What kind of skimmer do youi have?

 

[captivereefs]

Sent you a PM on the halides.

 

[SWGuppie]

I have a Seaclone Skimmer 100....so that will be plenty for the tank....So that good news to hear that i'm good then filtration wise!!! but MHs...those are starting to look very attractive because I have so much more room for options =D

 

[SWGuppie]

ok, so i'm going to go with the 4-65 w PC lights........by Current USA.....So that means I can have everything but SPS and Clams?