my first saltwater tank.

[charlieweaver21]

75 gallon done on a super budget. I was going to do both my fresh and then my salt but decided I'm going to devot all money and time to just the salt. So decided to make my 75 on bottem a sump and soon refug. Have a 2in DIY overflow. A 700gph return pump. And a coral life 125g super protien skimmer. Have about 65lbs of live rock in ther and another 30 that is in another tank because it covered in apstasias(got like 10 peppermint shimp with it).

 

[Beengirl]

Making progress!! You added a lot of rock. The rock scape looks good!!

 

[Convict2161]

Coming along well I see....

 

[charlieweaver21]

So I think I want to get some good lighting but I only wanna spend. Well as little as needed to get the job done i do eventually want to do reef. So what are my choices. I do like led. I also like the blueish lighting. But if someone could point me in the right direction that would be sweet. Thanks

 

[Beengirl]

So I think I want to get some good lighting but I only wanna spend. Well as little as needed to get the job done i do eventually want to do reef. So what are my choices. do like led. I also like the blueish lighting. But if someone could point me in the right direction that would be sweet. Thanks

Check out the dimmable taotronics units on amazon or eBay. I've read good things about them on here and people say you can grow most anything under them. They're about $180-ish per unit for the dimmable, less for the non-dimmable. I have a Kessil in ocean blue, can grow most anything im told, but they're about $300 each.

 

[charlieweaver21]

http://www.marinedepot.com/AquaticL...xtures-AquaticLife-AK01138-FILTFIT54U-vi.html

What do you think of these lights to start with and ill maybe get a second one later

 

[charlieweaver21]

I do like those one you told me about beengirl but they say must be 10in above water so won't work in my canopy

 

[charlieweaver21]

Well looks like I'm getting a diatom bloom. Guess thats a good thing means tank is working out its kinks i guess.

 

[Beengirl]

I've never had the T5HO, but I've read that they're pretty good. Definitely get the HO over the regular T5's, though. I've read that the regular T5's won't necessarily grow coral. They can make a lot of heat, though, from what I've read. But that can probably be counteracted with a fan.

 

[Convict2161]

It's a good light but may I make a suggestion...


Spend the money once so your not wasting money later on. T5's (HO) are fine but IMO if your gonna want to do corals, nems clams etc your better off with a 4 bulb or even a 6 bulb fixture if your not gonna go LED.

A 4 bulb fixture will give you more options and probably do just fine. A 2 bulb IMO is good for say a FOWLR tank but once getting into certain corals etc you'll find they require more lighting.

I say shoot the wallet once and go for the 4 bulb fixture. Just my opinion.

 

[charlieweaver21]

Well I am thinking if getting 2 of those. Maybe a third later if needed. The reason is I would like to be able to run one with the blues and one with the whites and have to option to have all on or just one color. And its really don't make since but the 2 bulb ones or 139$ and the 4 bulb ones are 399$ I can almost by 3- 2bulbs fir the price of one 4 bulb. So with two of these. You think I will be able to do whatever I want in the tank or would I need to add than that? Do you recommend anyother lights that are under $300. That's about all I want to spend.

 

[Convict2161]

Well I am thinking if getting 2 of those. Maybe a third later if needed. The reason is I would like to be able to run one with the blues and one with the whites and have to option to have all on or just one color. And its really don't make since but the 2 bulb ones or 139$ and the 4 bulb ones are 399$ I can almost by 3- 2bulbs fir the price of one 4 bulb. So with two of these. You think I will be able to do whatever I want in the tank or would I need to add than that? Do you recommend anyother lights that are under $300. That's about all I want to spend.

I understand what your saying and to each there own. Those lights in 2's will be fine. You can have just blues on of you go the 4 bulb fixture. My 4 bulb fixture has a built in timer. So... You can do day lights and blues at different times then have them both on also. It also has built in moon lights. Solar max Xtreme

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003I5QQCK

http://store.seacorals.net/deblsot5stli.html

Slap some ATI bulbs in there and your golden IMO.

 

[charlieweaver21]

Sweet those are nice. And in my price range I think ill go with those.

 

[charlieweaver21]

Well with this this lighting was only 200 a unit ms 120watt led dimmable controler with seprate control or whites and blues. They create alot of water and light shimmer

 

[charlieweaver21]

Here some pic of one installed

 

[Beengirl]

Here some pic of one installed

That looks great!!! Good choice!

 

[charlieweaver21]

Alright well I did alot of work today. I rebuilt my sump because I was dumb and used acrylic in the glass tank it just bowed and eventually broke. So now I got some glass and rebuilt it and I am very happy with it. Before I did not do a bubble trap. This time I did a over under baffle and its working great. I just did a three part sump right side is where tank over flows and have the protein skimmer setup. Then it goes through baffle to middle part which has return pump. On left side I setup a refuge. Currently has no flow through it had a total water voulme of about 35gallons. I plan to put some live rock in there along with some cheato. ( anything else)?

I was very disappointed which the sand I first bought is way to fine and blows around a lot so I picked up a bag of Floridas crushed coral and then removed about 30 pounds of the sand from my tank to the refuge. Will be great down there. And then spread the crushed coral overtop my smaller sand. Should stop the blowing of the sand and I like the layer look too.

During this I went ahead and scraped all the algae from the glass. And water is super cloudy from moving some of the sand out and adding the crushed coral.

Since I rebuilt my sump. It end up making a very large water change. When I first made sump only used about 40 gallons out of the 75 tank. Now I am using about 60. So I removed the 40 gallons that was in there and used all new 60 rodi water. Don't know if I mention but when I started tank I didnt know about not using tap water so I stated the tank with tap water but Ive done 2 20% changes and now one around 50% with rodi water. So trying to correct my mistake there.

I am learning so much and trying my best to succed

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[charlieweaver21]

New led lighting setup finally complete

 

[Convict2161]

I like the tank and the lights!! That setup works but my OCD would get the best if me lol. It would drive me NUTS!!

Example. If go ahead with my project for new lighting on my cichlid tank. This is what I'm looking to do.











Oh this will cost me BIG TIME with the wife!!! IF I pull the trigger.

 

[Convict2161]

Here's the full site I got the idea from.


http://reefbuilders.com/2011/07/30/aquarium-lighting-design-led-spotlight-ikea/