before i waste more money...

[djboozealot]

the 26 gallon bow front tank i bought came with a 19w flourescent light, which i have been using the last 3 weeks to cycle my tank. i know it's not strong enough. i know absolutely nothing about saltwater tanks or even fish for that matter so i don't exactly know what i will be putting in the tank when it's done cycling, but i would like to get an anemone and a nemo fish, corals, etc... i have no idea.
anyways, i need to know what type of lighting to get before i waste more money buying the wrong stuff. i was told about 4 watts per gallon... is this about right?
also, the canopy i have on my tank now has a 4" wide plexiglass section for the light to shine through, all the lights i have looked at are like 8" wide, so what do i do, build my own custom all plexiglass canopy? that seems easy but what do you do for the part you open, what do you use for the "hinge" where the rest of the canopy meets the part you would flip open? obviously nothing metal so what should be used?

 

[sk8shorty01]

The lights that you buy will come with legs that attach to the sides of the tank if you get Power Compact lighting. If you are going with something stronger (T-5 or MH) you could save a little bit of money and build the housing yourself. They sell tracks that you could cut to size that are made of rubber and you put 2 pieces of glass (or plexi) and it keeps it so one can slide back on top of the other... Let me try to explain it. Looking straight down the tracks they look like a C with a piece sticking up like this:
I
C
but attached haha (didnt feel like going into paint and drawing it). There is an exact mirror image on the other side of the tank, the back piece of glass (you would split your depth in half to get 2 equal lengths) sits inside the C part, and the front piece would ride on top of the C. This would mean that you could slide the front portion straight back and it would go right over the back piece. I hope this makes sense haha.
Oh I have a good example. Imagine a window in a house that you slide up laying down flat, it works just like that. That might make sense.

 

[lexluethar]

Welcome to the hobby!

First off congrats for knowing to cycle the tank before adding fish and corals. People usually will buy everything at once, then wonder why their fish / corals are dying.
Your lights WILL NOT cycle the tank. What you need to do is buy one raw shrimp and throw that into the tank. What this will do is create is ammonia (as you know for rotting flesh / food), that ammonia will pollute the tank and reach a certain level, (usually takes about a week). At this point Nitrite will build up, there is bacteria in your tank that will multiply and eat the ammonia and break it down into nitrite. At this point another bacteria comes into play and eats the nitrite, breaking it into nitrate. At this point the only way to get rid of the nitrate is by using plants and water changes.
You will need to get a test kit for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. These all need to be saltwater test kits. test every other day for everything and write the measurements down on something (like a tank diary). You don't have to but i do b/c i have horrible memory.
The progression you will see is Ammonia become present and rise to around 1, then nitrite will rise as the ammonia starts to fall (at this point take the shrimp out), then the nitrite will fall as nitrate begins to rise. Your cycle is complete once you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrates, you should have a decent amount of nitrates.
In your tank you should have some type of sand subrate (about an inch deep). You should also have some live rocks - i would suggest just getting mostly base rock from your local fish store and only get a few pieces of live rock. You should have around 26 lbs of rock alltogether. The rock and sandbed are where the bacteria will live and breakdown all of these toxic and harmful things (AM & NI).
I would cycle the tank while you have the sand, rock, and obviously salt water in the tank.
So the progression:
Buy sand and rock from store
Place rockwork where you want it
Place sand around rockwork
Add saltwater into tank
Let everything settle for a few days
Turn on your filter (i would suggest a hang on filter)
Drop a shrimp in the tank
Let the Ammonia Rise to .75 or so
Take out Shrimp
Ammonia will drop while Nitrite rises, nitrite drops while nitrate rises.
Finished cycling once AM and NI are 0
Then read into what fish you want.
About 4 watts per gallon is right. I would first try to get the hang of keeping fish around first, then once you are comfortable, add the other stuff 6 months to a year down the road. A tank is too unstable to hold a lot of corals and anemones the first 8 months or so.
Hope that gets you set in the right direction, don't hesitate to ask ANY questions.

 

[djboozealot]

Originally Posted by LexLuethar
Welcome to the hobby!

First off congrats for knowing to cycle the tank before adding fish and corals. People usually will buy everything at once, then wonder why their fish / corals are dying.
Your lights WILL NOT cycle the tank. What you need to do is buy one raw shrimp and throw that into the tank. What this will do is create is ammonia (as you know for rotting flesh / food), that ammonia will pollute the tank and reach a certain level, (usually takes about a week). At this point Nitrite will build up, there is bacteria in your tank that will multiply and eat the ammonia and break it down into nitrite. At this point another bacteria comes into play and eats the nitrite, breaking it into nitrate. At this point the only way to get rid of the nitrate is by using plants and water changes.
You will need to get a test kit for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. These all need to be saltwater test kits. test every other day for everything and write the measurements down on something (like a tank diary). You don't have to but i do b/c i have horrible memory.
The progression you will see is Ammonia become present and rise to around 1, then nitrite will rise as the ammonia starts to fall (at this point take the shrimp out), then the nitrite will fall as nitrate begins to rise. Your cycle is complete once you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrates, you should have a decent amount of nitrates.
In your tank you should have some type of sand subrate (about an inch deep). You should also have some live rocks - i would suggest just getting mostly base rock from your local fish store and only get a few pieces of live rock. You should have around 26 lbs of rock alltogether. The rock and sandbed are where the bacteria will live and breakdown all of these toxic and harmful things (AM & NI).
I would cycle the tank while you have the sand, rock, and obviously salt water in the tank.
So the progression:
Buy sand and rock from store
Place rockwork where you want it
Place sand around rockwork
Add saltwater into tank
Let everything settle for a few days
Turn on your filter (i would suggest a hang on filter)
Drop a shrimp in the tank
Let the Ammonia Rise to .75 or so
Take out Shrimp
Ammonia will drop while Nitrite rises, nitrite drops while nitrate rises.
Finished cycling once AM and NI are 0
Then read into what fish you want.
About 4 watts per gallon is right. I would first try to get the hang of keeping fish around first, then once you are comfortable, add the other stuff 6 months to a year down the road. A tank is too unstable to hold a lot of corals and anemones the first 8 months or so.
Hope that gets you set in the right direction, don't hesitate to ask ANY questions.

thanks or the info, i have damsels in the tank to cycle it, i was only talking about the lights i had in there as to not stray off track, as i do so well.
as far as the cycling goes, it's finished cycling once the ammonia and nitrites are zero? because mine are both zero and now have nitrate levels of about 5-20(i can;t ell exactly by matching up the colors, they all look so close). does this mean my tank has cycled?
but i am about to switch out my CC or LS anyways so i am not too worried about the nitrates since i am doing the change out to LS

 

[lexluethar]

Yes that means it is done. Since you have fish already in the tank - usually the cycle will be a very short one. Just remember when you are adding new fish to the tank, add them slowly so that the bacteria can multiply and keep up with the bioload.