Quick question on lighting. Do i have any color options?

Hey guys, my name is Ricardo, or Elweshomayor. I created this special account because my school basically gave me an internship that would allow me to build 2-3 fish tanks in the biology department.

I decided that the best thing to do is tackle one fish tank at a time to reduce costs to the department. Now, ofcourse, the first fish tank to build will be a reef tank. The next two, we want them to be a cold water fish tank, and possibly a fresh water planted tank.
According to Dr. Reber, who is the one in charge of this project, the first fish tank is about 50G. I have not seen a fish tank quite like that before. It has the filters attached to the right side of it. It looks like it has a chiller, and a skimmer inside as well. I have not had the time to take it apart and see for my self, but I will be doing so sometime next week.

I want to get as much input as possible from you guys so that I can build a really cool fish tank.

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I know it doesnt quite look like 50, but it is very wide as well, so it might as well be.


Now, as you can see, it is definitely a lot of work. I want to just clean everything up, and buy new stuff. ( keep what's good, throw the rest away).

I want to get new sand, rock, lights, heaters, pumps, filter media etc..

The first thing on my list to get is the sand, salt and the rocks so that I can begin the cycle. If all goes well, I could get all of it in around 2-3weeks or so.

For now I would like some thoughts, maybe ideas on what can be done with this fish tank. what kind of fish you guys think might be nice in there etc..

There are still some protocols we have to go through before we can get vertebrates, but I'm sure we can do it.

 

bump

 

was is the goal of this project are you trying to display something particular?

 

1+ Is this going to be a mixed, LPS, soft, SPS, or biotope/species tank? Looks like a great start!;D

 

Not necessarily. We thought that since this was an animal lab, we would create as many ecosystems as possible. We have about 6 tanks at our disposal. Due to budget, we are probably just doing 3.

For the salt water, I was thinking on doing an SPS dominated tank. ( if I can get the necessary things) if not I'll do a softies tank with a few SPS. Fish wise, I want to do some clownfish, gobies, firefish and maybe a few chromis.

 

we are planning on taking everything down, cleaning it and start from scratch. I think its just a cleaner start since I dont know what was in those tanks before.

Im hoping I can do lots of SPS but I'm not sure yet. She said I could do what ever I wanted, but I don't want to abuse the power LOL

 

So we just got started cleaning the tank. I think we got a lot done for the first day. We are still working on the budget so I have not ordered anything, but soon

here are some pictures of what we did today.
Before

After






So now, we are going to clean the rest of the tanks around this one. Then its waiting time until we can order the sand and rocks.

 

Haha. I aaw your username and figured it was your professor.

I love the idea, Ricardo. I bet these will all be cool builds!

Btw, I love those models of the snail, starfish and muscle(?) on that shelf. Lol..

 

So you need to go through special protocol to get fish?

I'd do a fox face of some sort, and some schooling fishes.

 

Do you have RODI water? For a reef that is going to be a necessity. Might as well start it right and thats the best way to start.
Do you have adequate lighting?
In a small tank you cab get by without much filtration if you do regular water changes.
Make a plan for adding calcium and alkalinity. Regular water changes will keep most other parameters in check except ca and alk.