eclipse lighting/filteration

slothy

Active Member
where are you finding these lights for the 6 gallon eclipses ?
And is it direct replacement, or do i lose the whole filter/lid deal
 

reefnut

Active Member
The light I found fits where the original light is almost perfectly. It does not effect the filter or lid part at all. I had to trim the reflector and cut down the screw nipples and it went right in. Fans are needed to keep everything cool.
CBSHARK did a nice job on his... here is a few pic. Hope you don't mind CB.
 

reefnut

Active Member
My lighting is the same. It is a 32w PC SmartLite Retrofit Kit made by CostomSeaLife. You should be able to find them at most LFSs or on-line suppliers.
 

reefnut

Active Member
With out the fan it will get hot. With the fan(s) the heat isn't bad. Mine is evaporating 1 1/2-2 gallons a week but I let the fans run 24/7.
 

maxweljames

Member
I've got a Galaxy 5. I added one fan and removed the fliptop lid. Temp stays at about 76 with a 12 hour day of the light being on. I run the fan 24/7 as well. I am using the original lighting and my corals are doing fine. Evaporation is crazy. I add about a cup of water a day just to keep it full. The most I ever let it go is 2 days. No fish in it at the moment so I am not as strict with the salt levels as I should be. It varies between 1.020 and 1.026 over the course of 2 days with no fillups. If I can find my camera I'll post pics of the fan setup.
 

cbshark

Member
Ditto maxweljames' and reefnut's comments. The evaporation rate is crazy. I add a cup or so in the morning before work with my b-ionic and a cup or so in the evening when I get home from work. Temp is pretty steady around 78-80 degrees with the fan on. These tanks are absolutely awesome to set up as nanos. Alot of work, but that's what makes it so enjoyable. You get a real sense of accomplishment when it finally works out. After all my work, it's smooth sailing now. I change 2 or so gallons each week with distilled water and compensate for evap with distilled as well. Sort of expensive to do this but when I used tap water, my cyano went out of control. Distilled totally cured that problem. And it's cheaper and easier than an RO system for such a small tank. My 125 gallon shark tank does just fine with tap water though. Maybe it's because of less intense lighting and a smaller percentage of water changed each time.
 
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