Hello 3reefers, Happy Holidays-Couple of questions for you all

I've been reading posts on this forum for a few weeks and finally I decided to sign up. I converted my 5 year old Cichlid tank (55g) to saltwater after the final battle between the first two fish I ever bought, an Electric Yellow and a Red Empress, ended with one survivor. If my tank was a WWII airplane, the Electric Yellow would have aquired enough kills to paste the glass fuselage with enough kill emblems to render the tank/plane unviewable. I took the assassin in question to the LFS, where I bought him many years ago, and told them I needed to start a reef tank.

Running a month now, the tank has cycled. I have approximately 80lbs of live rock with a decent covering of coraline algae (some areas bare of course) and 40 lbs of live sand. I'm running a Euro Reef 5-2 in a smallish sump, and a Eheim canister filter (hold over from the cichlid tank; is it even necessary?)

There are 4 blue/geen chromis (added to cycle the tank initially), 4 Hawaiian hermits, a peppermint shrimp, and a few hitchhiker snails, worms, and a tiny feather duster.

Thats the tank's history.

I need advice regarding the tanks future. I'd like to have some soft corals. I have no real lighting to speak of. I was considering a Current USA Sundial fixture. If any of you all have an opinion on this fixture, please feel free to reply. From what I have been reading, individually reflected T5 lamps put out more lumens per watt than CF lighting and even rival MH lighting. The 3-5 watt per gallon rule doesn't seem to apply to T5's, so I have been told. My tank is 20" deep. Thanks for reading, and for your responses in advance.;D

 

Welcome to 3reef, glad to have you aboard.

 

hello and welcome to 3reef

 

Welcome. I'm new here myself.

I just bought the Current Nova Extreme Pro 6x54W fixture for myself for Christmas. It is sitting over my 72 gal bowfront. The sides and the length are the same dimmensions as a 55 gal tank. This fixture will produce more than enough light for soft corals and you'll have light capacity left over if you decide to try SPS or clams in the future. If you go with 4x54W fixture without individual reflectors you may need to upgrade down the road.

I would make sure you get individual reflectors with the fixture. You'll get a lot more light with less bulbs. The sundial has built in timers that I think are somewhat gimmicky. You can buy timers for like $5 at Target. If the timer fails down the road you'll need to use an external one anyway. If you want to be able to change the timer conveniently you'll have to have the timer side with the cords facing the front. I'm not sure how good that would look. The 6x54W fixture is about $380 at marine depot. The Sundial 4x54 is $300. So for $80 more you get enough capacity to avoid having to upgrade later. The Pro doesn't have the lunar lights though.

Also, you'll want to use different bulbs than the ones that the unit comes with. I heard a lot of negatives about the bulbs in this forum and from someone at my LFS. They purchased a Current fixture and their corals started turning brown and losing color under the stock bulbs.

You can read my review of my fixture here. Paul's Reef: Nova Extreme Pro Review

As far as the canister filter I'd recommend taking it out. Your media can end up becoming a nitrate factory. Your live rock is the only filter you need for now. Just make sure you have plenty of flow. Down the road you may want to add a sump and a refugium.

Good luck and happy holidays.

 

The Aqua Medic Ocean Light, Current USA Extreme both have a Parabolic reflector. The Tek and Sundial have individual reflectors. Will individual reflectors make that much of a difference? Bah! I'm frustrated. I have a sump...no refugium. Not enough room under the stand. The ER skimmer lives in the sump.

 

Welcome to 3reef. Individual reflectors do make that big of difference.

 

Welcome to 3reef! JMHO But i would just invest in a nice mh fixture provided you have the funds, believe me once you get into corals you will not want any limitation, they provide such a great variety, that some people here have even done coral only tanks. Welcome again!

 

I was looking into the Sunpod fixtures. I have only 13" of width I can work with. I'd like to have the option of having the blues run a few hours for the sunrise/sunset effect. I don't think this a big issue, but If I can get away with t5's alone...well, I'm sure this has all been said before.

As far as MH lighting goes, There are a couple of 2x clamp on fixtures that put out 150/ 250 watts, that looks intriguing. But if I can get the same effect, with less out of the pocket, that would be preferrable. It's just a 55 gallon tank. Bah....whataya goona do?