Psiclone's First Tank

Hey Everyone and welcome to the money sink,

Couple of friends started bugging me to set up a SW tank and I started researching into it here on 3reef. Few weeks later and I picked up this beauty on the CL and cleaned it out last night.

Dimensions are 48"L x 15"W x 18" tall. 55 gallon

Also came with this sump.




From my measurements the tank appears to hold about 13 gallons of volume which I wasn't really thrilled with. I picked up a tank that's 29 gallons on CL but silly me forgot to think about how I was actually going to fit it in the bottom of the stand.



I was thinking of sawing the back off between those two holes and down to the bottom. Do you guys think I would lose most of my structural support then? Will a rio 2100 be enough of a return pump for this setup?

Lighting:
Also the canopy on the top of the stand may poise a problem for the lighting. I was thinking oh its a 48" tank 48" t5s! The canopy leaves only about 46 inches of workable room up there. So does that mean 36" lights? The fluoros I pulled out of there are 36" but that basically covers just where the slots are on the top of the tank.



I was thinking of getting the 4x54w t5 retro kit with 660 icecap ballast from diyreef.com. Does that seem like enough light to keep the majority of corals in this tank?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

Oh i forgot to mention some of the stuff I will have on order. Aquamedic flotorator 1000 blue. 2 koralia #2s. 50 base rock 20lbs live and 100lbs of sand if necessary.

 

You might want to get 2 koralia #3's instead of #2's.

 

I agree with Bogie, I made the mistake of ordering 1 koralia 2 & 3 for my 100 well needless to say I have two koralia 4's and the 3 for movement.

 

Looks like you're well on the way. I'de say the 4 54w t5's will do just fine. ive got 4 t5's on mine. and its a deep tank. 96w altogether if my math is up to par lol. and corals all seem to do just fine. no troubles as of yet.

 

Thats an awesome 55 gallon dimension set. My 55 gallon is 48''(L) x 12''(W) x 20''(H). It really sucks only having 12 inches on width to play with, but i cant complain, i got i for free.

 

That is a nice tank. Very good find. If you have not filled it with water yet, consider painting the back. When I had to upgrade because of a leak, I got the tank home and quickly painted the back of it black. It looks GREAT!!! Some like blue....but I think black adds depth. So consider it. Once it's up it's too late.

Also, the water you use should not be tap water. Use RODI if you can. If you don't have access to RODI, then RO from one of those water machines at the store will do. Mine has a pretty consistent TDS reading of 3ppm while the water around here has 82ppm. But you should use good water to start.