Newbie...does this work?

[angel01051977]

Ok, so I'm new. Bought an established tank off CL, moved it (keeping nearly all of the water), noticing some stuff seems out of date. There is a wet/dry. How do I convert this to a sump? Just take out the wet/dry stuff? Do I have to do that slowly? Also, it has 2 24" t12 vhos and 2 double ended halides on a 55 gallon. Is that sufficient for corals? I have soft and hard both. They were all already in there, but not thriving. He had no heater, no specific food for them (just general reef food flakes) and only ran his lights 6 hours a day bc he said anything else would cause them to bleach out. ?????????

 

[flower]

 
Welcome to the site!
 
Do you know how old the bulbs are? MH lights should be fine, do you know if they are 150w, 175w or 250w? I don't know about the sump but lots of folks here do...

 

[angel01051977]

Ok, I just replaced the VHOs bc I'm certain they were old (he said 7 months; I'd bet closer to 18 considering the maintenance on the tank or lack thereof). I bought 75watt super actinics. I can't figure out the halides. They are the double ended, but how do I know what type to order? I don't see a wattage on them. I don't know what wattage my ballast supports. I want to get two new 10,000k, the cheapest possible for now bc I'm probably upgrading this tank to a 200 gallon around tax time. I saw several different types of double-ended halides. Does DE just stand for double ended? I thought that made them hqi. ?????????

 

[acrylic51]

Yes DE stands for double end HQI......I would suspect the MH's are old as well? Did you try removing 1 of the MH bulbs and looking at the ends(that go into the sockets) and see if there is any kind of making or writing on the bulbs? What brand ballasts? Any markings at all on the ballast itself?