tinfin
New Member
Lets start from the beginning,I had a successful reef tank about 7 years ago, It was a 55g and I had it running for 3 years and it was awesome, easy, and a might have lost 1 or 2 corals in its illustrious 3 year span. I have passed up many a free tank and just for fun I decided to check out prices and i must say, the popularity of ---- and the net in general has dropped the price on a lot of items. My last tank came together so easy and ran so smoothly I hope it wasn't beginners luck.
So what is the point of this post?? Well I want to make sure I do it right again and I want to take full advantage of any new techniqes or devises that might have came out and improve upon my last tank, I make more money then I did when I built my last tank and I am also patient, I hope to piece together my dream tank so to speak. Lets begin!
My old tank was a 55g, I like 55g but here is my problem with the old tank. NO BUILT IN OVERFLOW! The hang on looked terrible and was always a pain, by far the worst part of my reef tank experience.
Do they sell kits to convert plain 55g tanks so I can take advantage of all those pre owned tanks? Or do they have a 55g tank with an overflow already built in if I want to go new? What is the closet size to 55g I can get with a built in overflow?
My lighting was done by an Ice Cap 660 with 4 VHO's two white and two blue of course. This set up was the bomb for me and with so many watts in such a small tank its probably the reason my tank did so well. I plan to go back the this setup, I was very pleased. However I was just having the lights go on and come off, do you think I should look into some sort of dimmer? Should I get two ballast and have the blues come on then the whites? Is there a relative cheap way to do this? I saw the Solar 1000 L1, but is there a dimmer that has all of the controls of the reef keeper or Neptune controllers? I am new to controllers so any help on that would be welcomed. My tank seem to do just fine with the rude awakening I was giving my corals and fish.
Metal Halide? I didnt bother with this because I didnt keep any corals or clams that need such intense light plus I bet the VHO's in such a small tank probably could keep those corals alive, either way I didnt get those coral before and probably wont this time, if someone can tell me any other benefits besides the light effects it gives on the rocks I will just stick to VHO's (corraline likes VHO's better it seems anyway).
For filtration I will use a wet dry again (no brainer) also set up a refugium. I had a prism hang on protein skimmer, it work pretty good but you had to mess with it alittle it was also ugly as sin, I will be getting one for the sump this time.
Reef Controllers, I touched on this earlier, I would like one that dims lights if possible, I want the best bang for my buck (I use to do everything by hand the old fashioned way, I would like to give one of these a shot)
If you made it this far congratulations! If you reply your input is appreciated.
I am looking forward to returning to this hobby.
So what is the point of this post?? Well I want to make sure I do it right again and I want to take full advantage of any new techniqes or devises that might have came out and improve upon my last tank, I make more money then I did when I built my last tank and I am also patient, I hope to piece together my dream tank so to speak. Lets begin!
My old tank was a 55g, I like 55g but here is my problem with the old tank. NO BUILT IN OVERFLOW! The hang on looked terrible and was always a pain, by far the worst part of my reef tank experience.
Do they sell kits to convert plain 55g tanks so I can take advantage of all those pre owned tanks? Or do they have a 55g tank with an overflow already built in if I want to go new? What is the closet size to 55g I can get with a built in overflow?
My lighting was done by an Ice Cap 660 with 4 VHO's two white and two blue of course. This set up was the bomb for me and with so many watts in such a small tank its probably the reason my tank did so well. I plan to go back the this setup, I was very pleased. However I was just having the lights go on and come off, do you think I should look into some sort of dimmer? Should I get two ballast and have the blues come on then the whites? Is there a relative cheap way to do this? I saw the Solar 1000 L1, but is there a dimmer that has all of the controls of the reef keeper or Neptune controllers? I am new to controllers so any help on that would be welcomed. My tank seem to do just fine with the rude awakening I was giving my corals and fish.
Metal Halide? I didnt bother with this because I didnt keep any corals or clams that need such intense light plus I bet the VHO's in such a small tank probably could keep those corals alive, either way I didnt get those coral before and probably wont this time, if someone can tell me any other benefits besides the light effects it gives on the rocks I will just stick to VHO's (corraline likes VHO's better it seems anyway).
For filtration I will use a wet dry again (no brainer) also set up a refugium. I had a prism hang on protein skimmer, it work pretty good but you had to mess with it alittle it was also ugly as sin, I will be getting one for the sump this time.
Reef Controllers, I touched on this earlier, I would like one that dims lights if possible, I want the best bang for my buck (I use to do everything by hand the old fashioned way, I would like to give one of these a shot)
If you made it this far congratulations! If you reply your input is appreciated.
I am looking forward to returning to this hobby.
