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Finally convinced my wife to let me buy an aquarium.


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So, I have this 55 gallon aquarium with the tank, stand and hood.

 

Its an acrylic tank that the previous owner used for fresh water. I also have a 10 gallon tank I was thinking of turning into a sump/refugium. I was going to drill three holes in the aquarium, one for the overflow and two more for the return.

 

For lighting, I was thinking of two actinic and two halides, maybe 250 watts each. I wanted to put this together myself and secure it to the top of the canopy. (Need some suggestions here)

 

Its going to be a reef tank with some fish. I would like to have lps as well as SPS/Hard coral.

 

I have a basic idea of what I need in terms of equipment but any direction from you would be appreciated. (what type of pump, how to drill the tank, how to put together the sump, etc)

 

Thanks,

 

Steven

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Welcome!!!!

First be sure that copper was not used in the tank. Then give it a nice clean and buffer all the scratches. As soon as your arm is in pain and you can't do more, come back with your questions. Kidding :)

The lighting option seems good to me. If the tank isn't tall you can go also go for 150 or 175w. Depends in your coral's positioning schema.

As for the pump I would have a turnover of about 10-15 times your volume. Something around 500-1000 gph at 3 or 4 feet. External pumps don't add eat to the tank and they are easier to service. Internal ones are more silent in general.

Setup an overflow system accordingly: a 1,5 inch bulkhead should handle around 700gph which is pretty much where I would like to be. You can throttle down the pump to fit your flow rate.

You can even go with less flow, like a 1 inch bulkhead and a 500gph pump and add some powerheads in the display.

In both cases you should plan some sort of noise reduction device, or standpipe. There are many design around, durso being probably the most common.

Hope this helps

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acrylic can be drilled with standard hole saws like you would for wood. your return is actually where you would put the overflow and then you would drill two supply's. i would do 3/4" supplys and 1 1/2" overflow / return line. but this is all relative to how much your pump will be doing.

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acrylic can be drilled with standard hole saws like you would for wood.

 

Don't let the saw stop spinning while it is still in the acrylic. The friction from the saw starts the acrylic melting. If the saw stops moving the acrylic hardens almost instantly and the hole saw becomes part of the tank. If you need to stop the cutting, take the saw out of the acrylic first, then let go of the trigger on the drill.

 

It sounds like you have been doing research. This is a good thing. Good luck with your tank, and don't forget to take pictures of the setup process. They may be boring to you but we all like a good build thread. :)

 

dsoz

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Thanks everyone for the helpful tips. I'm sure they have saved me from some costly mistakes. I will be sure and take some pictures during the build.

 

I heard there are "kits" out there for lighting. I need two actinic and two halide kits. Any direction here would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like a submersible pump is the best best.

 

Thanks again for the help.

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I might have misunderstood you, but did you say you wanted to use 2x250w Halides (10k, daylight, "white" light) and 2x250w Halide (20k, actinic)? That would be pretty overkill on a 55g tank. I would recommend 2x150w HQI 10K bulbs with 2x36" t5 actinics for the color suplementation. Under this lighting you should be able to keep any coral you want, anemones, or clams.

 

Hope this helps!

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So, two actenics and two 150 watt halides will work????

 

I heard there are "kits" out there for securing these on the hood. Is this recomended? Does this sort of thing even exist? The lighting is really my only hang up at this point. I think I will go with 2 actinecs and 2 150 watt halides but I need to know how to safely secure them to my hood.

 

Thanks again for the help.

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Yes, there are "retrofit" kits that you can buy. The kits generally come with everything you need. Just screw the reflectors and bulb bases into the top of your hood.

 

However, for a first tank it may be better to just get an all-in-one light fixture. Orbit, Sunpod, and similar brands come to mind. They are a bit more expensive unfortunately.

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you can buy retrofit kits for just about any style of lighting. I personally run 250watt halides on my 72 gallon. I think 150 is ok, but depending on how deep the tank is, 175 - 250 would be fine if you are planning to have anything on the sand bed that may need extra light, such as clams. if you go with 150's then i would supplement with additional 10k VHO's or T5's on top of any actinic lighting. this also depends on how tall your hood is. if your lights are going to be 12" or more away from the water, you may want to consider higher wattage lights. Also, more wattage, increases heat so consider you may have to run fans and a chiller on top of all this.

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Welcome..Choosing lighting is never fun. I might suggests looking at the different tank threads on here and see what others are using and how their results. There are so many choices out there. Just keep taking your time and you can also come across some good deals used. Many of the shops have great dealsd on used equipment as well as the boards. Have fun planning your set-up.

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Try go come look at some of the setup people around here have. Looking at lighting and the way people have things setup help you understand when we start rambling on and on about stuff. Almost every reefer loves to talk and show there stuff, as we have spent so much time and money, we better.

 

Feel free to PM and setup a time if you like. just make sure you have a couple hours to burn.

 

Steve

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