6ft tank startup

[littleimp]

Some of you might have read that I am soon to be starting a 6ft tank.

It used to be a marine tank with a 4ft sump underneath but have been advised against using a sump becuase I want it planted so have just ordered 2 Fluval 404's for filtration (is this enough, I also have an eheim external filter which I am going to use as a CO2 reactor/filter.)

Also ordered 9 bags of seachem flourite for the substrate as this seems to be the favourite choice.

Still some questions about lighting though.

At the moment I have 2 400w halides suspended above & 2 x 54w T5's.
By my calculation this gives me a wpg of around 8!!!

Way too high.

Would you@
1. Carry on using the existing setup but reduce the wattage of the halides to 150w's giving me 3.6 wpg

2. Scrap the halides & purchase some more T5's?

My next problem after that is background. I don't want one of those photo things, I would prefer a solid cork style/plastic type thing or kust painted black. What would you do??
After that it will be decoration. I'm thinking slate & bogwood?

 

[littleimp]

Here's a couple of pics.

This is when I first built the tank stand. The tank in the middle is a 4ft one to show the size.

This is sometime later when the tank was full of live rock & a few fish.

The fluvals & CO2 set will sit underneath in the cabinet where the 4ft tank currently lives as a sump. I might divide this & use this as a hospital/quarantine tank. I will document what I do with pics & text in a few weeks time.

 

[houndour]

I don't know much about halides. How does it work that you have halides suspended _and_ t5s? What are the t5s attached to?

For a tank that big I would have it so you can turn some lights off independently so you can reduce your wattage if necessary.

Is it going to be 100% fluorite then?

If you have bogwood, go for some HUGE pieces. Make a really cool focal point out of it. I'm not a fan of slate, unless it's being used to grow riccia.

Go for a black background. Its the only background for a planted tank IMO.

 

[littleimp]

The T5's are suspended on a thin frame that sit's on the tanks cross braces. This is a normal setup with marines. You can even buy commercial units with 2-3 halies in middle with a tube either side.

That's a nice tank you have their by the way. Do you have just bogwood & plants in their? & what type of lighting do you use?

And yes it is going to be 100% flourite. I went on the website & used the calculator for the recommeded amount & it said 8.3 bags so I'll stick 9 in their.

A lot of people will say that's a bit pricey but 20kg of marine rock costs £190 & my tank had 90kg in so it's not so bad!!

 

[houndour]

The T5's are suspended on a thin frame that sit's on the tanks cross braces. This is a normal setup with marines. You can even buy commercial units with 2-3 halies in middle with a tube either side.

That's a nice tank you have their by the way. Do you have just bogwood & plants in their? & what type of lighting do you use?

[snapback]926944[/snapback]​

Hmmmm, I think I get it. So what do you think you're going to do? Do the halides look odd against the T5s? I always thought halides look cool.

Thanks, unfortunately it looks nothing like that at the moment, going through a huge cyanobacteria battle. Yes, just bogwood and plants. I'm growing java moss on the wood. The stuff on the bottom left is riccia tied to slate (have none left as it got wrecked by algae).

I just have a 55watt T5 light over 20 gallons. CO2 and EI dosing.

 

[andywg]

I would keep the halides and if you find algae a bit of a problem only use the T5s to start up in morning and evening.

Just make sure the MH have the right colour temp for plants. If the tank is only 18" deep you can get away with 150W but if it's 2 feet I would definately go for 250W. I also love the shimmer effect of MH on my 6 foot tank.