My 55 Gallon Tank

[Hpimichael02]

hey guys ,

so after about 1-1/2 months of having a 10G salt nano tank i was getting frustrated about what i c an and cant put in their. so after a couple of weeks search and complaing my wife finally gave in and convinced her dad to give his old 55G tank with a HOB filter and basic lights.

what my plans are:

modify the single T12 Bulb hood into a 2 T5 bulb fixture for each hood- 60watts total
modify the aqua tech 30/60 power filter into a fuge(300Gph) or mini sump
modify another aquatech 30/60 power filter into a phostpate/carbon/ filter floss filter.
2 koralia nano 425(were bought for x-mas for use in my 10 G and salt mixer)
30LBS live rock and 25-30LBS dry rock

eventually:
add a Koralia evo 1440 powerhead, and two Koralia evo 550 powerhead in combo with the 2 nano 425 with the hydor smart wave controller. to make an effect tidal motion or a wave motion.

i will be starting to put this together in the next couple of days when i get my live rock, and will add the dry rock later as it has nothing to die off or harm the cycle.

a pic of the tank:

[Hpimichael02]

teh substrate will be crushed coral a total of 40 lbs

[Hpimichael02]

just got my 40LBS of dry rock placed into the tank. 5lbs of live rock, not much but it will do the job i suppose. i will be getting 15-20 more pounds of rock, thats all the store had at the time.

[icefreeze57]

sounds cool!

[Cliff]

Will the extra rock that you mentioned you will be adding be live rock or dry rock ?

If you only go with 5 lbs of live rock to start, just remember to stock extremely slowly while the rest of the dry rock becomes live.

[Hpimichael02]

Yea I gonna stock one fish every three weeks or so, it's gonna be more dry rock,

I have been looking into other options for lighting , what would be considered to much light for any kind of tank?

[Cliff]

If you just want a FOWLR, no corals what so ever, then just get some actinic bulbs for the fixture you currently have in the hood / lids currently on the top of your tank.

Best budget option for a FOWLR, IMO, and should still give you enough lighting for viewing the fish and brining out their colors.

If you want to add corals later on, then I would suggest a 4 bulb T5HO fixture with: 1 actinic, two superblue, and one 12000K white bulb.

[Hpimichael02]

so i spent most of the day researching LED and LED brands. i did find a brand that i think suits my tank, i most likely gonna get the 2 of the Evo100 Dimmable LED Fixturethe specs from the site:
Features:
•8" wide 18" long 3.25" from light face to top of dimmer knobs.
•2 watt Epistar with 90 degree lens angle LED's
•8' Dual Power Cords, 1 for White, 1 for Blue
•On/off Switches to turn on/off Blue/White Separately
•Matte black powder coated housing.
•2 Ultra Quiet Cooling Fans.
•4- 12" Stainless Steel hanging Cables.
•15-460nm blue 10-450nm blue, 25-14000K White.
1 unit covers a tank up to 24"x18"x24" tall

im getting two to light both sides of my tank each side measure about that what they are rated for. 2 for $618 is cheaper than other brands, although aqua illumations is awsome with their controller, they are just way expensive.

wont have these till about march or so, but the coral bug will most likely have bitten me hard by then lol.

[hockeyhead019]

yea it prolly will have hit ya hard at that point lol cool to see those lights I haven't seen anything on them before haha good to see you're looking into stuff, especially the LEDs since that's definitely the direction the lighting is headed

As far as your stocking I'd recommend the clowns over the damsels, only because damsels have a reputation of being punks haha by that I mean they can be very territorial towards other fish and bully them, you won't have that problem with the clowns. Either way try and get tank bred fish b/c it'll help with the survival rate since they always seem to do better.

[Hpimichael02]

yea actually that company looks legit and i like how they are dimmable, for the price cant bet them.

im talking to the guy i get my coral from and he can order the ORA clowns, so i might be getting two of those and placing them into quarantine until the tank is ready