New tank need advice

Alright, so I had a 55 gallon before FOWLR. I wanted to go smaller so now im down to a 20. For some reason now I wana go bigger again! Does anyone know if the walmart 55 tanks are glass or tempered? Im going to make an overflow. Also I have 130 watt pc light thats 30" long half of the 55 is 26" so it will fit, but stick out a little bit. Do you think if I used this with a 250 watt 1400k MH I have just sitting in my closet this will work? Im thinking it might be too much blue for me im not sure yet. If it all works out i'll have half the tank with pc and the other half mh any advice on this would be awesome. Do you guys think this will be too expensive on the electricity side of things?

 

i think the tanks from walmart are aga, which i think are tempered bottoms.
im not to sure about lighting but i think the side with the mh will be way brighter and a diff look than the pc side. but if thats what you looking for then go for it.
post pics!
good luck

 

If it's a fowlr then you don't need mh. I'd use t5's instead of pc cause it,s cheaper.

Because it's only 12 inches deep a 55 limits what you can do consider a 70 or 90 same width but deeper and you'll have more options down the road. My 90 is scaped for viewing from both front and back so it's like having a much larger tank.

Look for deals on used tanks. I picked up a used 55 for my sump for $20

I'm pretty sure that only the bottom of a 55 is tempered.

 

You should be able to get a cheap tank from PetsMart, and it would most likely be AGA/Aqueon.

I have a customer with a custom 75 gallon. The right wall of the tank is up against the wall of this guys home, so it's almost acts like a room divider.
For some reason he didnt want to spend too much money on lighting- and went and ordered a JBJ Viper K2. At the time, I wasn't too happy and was concerned how this guy was planning to have to me light a 75 gallon long with 1 Viper.

It worked out though and it's something to think about for your setup. What I did was: Clampped the viper to the wall of the tank that was against the wall of his house. I then added live rock and built it cascading down from the top right of the tank. Meaning, the highest point of the rock was closest to the Viper. The lowest layer of rock was the deepest and longest, but stopped around 3/4 of the length of the tank. The lowest level was still getting enough light for soft coral.

Today, almost a year later this tank looks great. I'll be going there next week, I'll try to take some pictures.

I think using one MH would be a good idea. Obviously not optimal but you can work with the rock to make the 1 halide more efficient.

 

It's definitely going to look darker on one side, but with the viper I was able to angle light. My customer likes it alot, he says it reminds him of the open ocean and the rock work part of the tank is the reef (obviously).

 

I was thinking about getting like a 40-50 bowfront, and getting a ballast for my mh and using that. But the problem is i'll have the nice pc fixture left over with no use, maybe get a 20l for the fuge and use it for that? it seems like a waste of money though.

 

65w pc bulbs cost more and produce less par than 54w T5s. Paying more for bulbs and electricity for less light seems like a waste to me. I replaced my PCs with T5s when i could get new T5 fixtures with bulbs for less money than replacing the PC bulbs. Look for sales or consider a retro kit for your PC fixture. I understand you don't want to waste good stuff, but in the long term converting to T5s makes sense.

 

if its an aga then the 55g is completely tempered all the way around, idk why this do it to this tank alone.

 

Lame, i'll just let my dad keep it. I mean besides a 250 MH would be better in a smaller tank anyway right? Does anyone know how blue 1400k is? Its a double ended 250 watt so im concerned it might be too hot, I really dont have the money for a chiller.