55 Gallon marine tank in the desert

[mkillgore]

I just moved to Tucson Arizona from South Florida. Currently I have a 55 gal and a 20 gal both empty. I am having trouble in two areas. First does anyone know a good place to buy marine fish and equipment in my area? And second, I want the 55 gal to be a reef tank and I need an economical lighting solution that would allow for good coral growth. Any help for either of these two issues would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[neilster1]

Keep plenty of RO topoff water on hand.. in georgia I lose ~1 gallon per day in a 55 with a big sump. You may want to invest in a RO unit with an auto-topoff.

I have a 48" coralife PC fixture on my tank.. 260 watts of light, but not enough for the hard stuff. You would need Halides for that. There is a cheep set of halides at www.aquatraders.com that looks pretty good for the price..

 

[mkillgore]

hey thanks nielster1, one more noob question how many inches across is a 55 gal?

 

[Hara]

48

 

[Hara]

also, 2 VHO or t-5's is an option. You do not have to have more than 4 wpg on a 55 gallon tank unless you are going to be growing extremely high light need corals.

 

[penpitt]

I don't know what you would find in the way of decent salt stores down there in Tucson but the Phoenix area has quite a few decent ones. Pets Inc in Tempe sells both FW and SW and usually has a good selection of fish, inverts and other reef critters.
What part of Tucson? I grew up there and my parents live in Marana(NW part of Tucson) and it only takes 90 minutes to drive from here in Chandler to Marana.

 

[mkillgore]

sahuarita area and so far I have only been able to find one place (majestic sea life) which I have not scouted out yet.

 

[Salttanker]

I usually shop Aquarium Arts in Mesa and Pets Inc. in Tempe. These are about the only places I use locally other than buying online. Living in the desert I needed to buy a chiller to keep the temp under 82.

Mike