Lights And Equipment

[Sickel]

Hello all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have a few questions, and you are all very well versed in these matters so I'll ask here. I've been thinking about starting a marine tank, with live rock, soft corals, and fish (of course). I'm going to be moving in about a year or two and I'm collecting the components to setup a tank in my new house. I figure why get started then risk moving and losing all the hard work put into the tank. Not to mention killing fish and corals. Right now I'm doing a lot of research and trying to become more knowledgable. I have owned fish before, but never salt water.

I plan on starting a 55 gallon tank, which will have a little more margin for error than a nano. So all the components I'm asking about would be for a standard US 55 gallon tank.

So that's the background story, here are my questions.

I'm planning on picking up a RemoraC protein skimmer, it seems pricey, but it has good reviews and looks easy to setup. Just hang on the back. What are your opinions of this skimmer? Any thing negative about it, or is there something for the same price that would work better? I don't plan on having a sump, I'm not sure how to set one up (yet) and I'd just be starting off.

The second question is lighting. I'd just be starting with basic soft corals. What kind of lighting would you recommend and as I'm not a handy guy is there a particular brand that you would recommend. I do like the looks of the lights that are mounted with brackets above the tank. I've only seen them in pictures, but it seems cooling the lights would be easier with a setup like this.

Also, any filters or blowers you could recommend would be appreciated. Like I said, I'm just collecting the components at the moment, it will be a while, but I want to make sure I get started on the right foot. The lighting and protein skimmer seem to be where the biggest chunk of change goes so I figure I'll start there.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense, but after a few posts you should be able to translate my rants into plain english.

 

[rabbut]

Never heard of that brand of skimmer, so can't help there The usual brands for these though are Deltec, Tunes, TMC and Aqua Medic

For softie lighting, 3 T5 minimum for 1ft and shallower tanks, 4 T5 tubes minimum for tanks upto 2 ft deep, and halides for the punch in deaper tanks A standord 50g would need 4T5 tubes in that case

I have used EQJ-trading (based in Germany) on ebay for lights in the past, and they are good. If you can wait a couple of weeks for postage and you are based in the UK, I'd recomend them. The units are good for the £ and turn up so well packaged that you could throw one of the top of a cliff and it would still work at the bottom. Looked like the posty had tryed for me when the unit turned up Makes getting into them a pain, and I wouldn't try abusing the package, but yer, good stuff Arcadia are the "Rolls Royce" of lighting units though, and again Ebay as some good deals if you want "top of the range"

HTH
Rabbut

 

[Sickel]

Thanks Rabbut,

I'm doing some research now, turns out that skimmer was a HOB AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer. Don't know if that makes it more recognizable.

I checked out the Acadia lights. Looks like a good system, I'm across the pond in the US. I did find a light set on Ebay that comes with 6 T5 lights, and it looks like it has fans installed for cooling. It's set with 3 switches and cords to run 2, 4 , or 6 lights. The price seems reasonable at around $300. What is the difference between the white and blue lights (Actinic?). Which do you run in the day time and which at night. If there is a better place to get these answers I apologize. I didn't search the forums.

I'm making a list of items after researching. I found the Fluval 405 Cannister Filter for pretty cheap. Does this also circulate the water to provide oxygen for the fish? Sorry if this seems like an stupid question, but in this, for now, I'm kind of in the dark.

Thanks

 

[Jayarie]

Actinic are used to promote coral growths and stuff they look nice too

 

[ben1987]

not 100% sure on this but
optimal coral growth is seen under whitle light. But the blue ones bring out the colours more so a mixture is best

 

[rabbut]

The atinic can be used as "moonlighting" at night of you like, but will also make the coral's colours "pop" when used with the whites I would run 2 atinic and 4 white in that unit personally I would have a 12 hour on-time for the atinics, 11 with 2 whites, and 10 will all lights This gives a gradual steap-up for the livestock, avoiding photoshock. T5 go on isntantly (almost) unlike halides, and that is a lot of light to put onto a tank in one go IMO. Stagger it would be my advise to make a gradual increase in light levels

I would not bother with Fluval fiters personally, exturnals are not needed to run the tank and are an un-nessisary expence IMO. Even if I did choose to run an exturnal, it wouldn't be a Fluval, rather a Eheim Pro2 or a Tetratec (Under the Marineland brand-name in the US if I recall correctly ) Lets just say I have a big dislike of that brand of exturnals

HTH
Rabbut

 

[SkiFletch]

All in all the AquaC skimmers tend to get very good reviews and one of the few that I'll reccomend for someone who does NOT have a sump. The only other one I'd really reccomend would be the Tunze 9002 (internal skimmer). Begrudgingly, I'd say you could go with a Coralife Superskimmer, but these aren't very consistent and are a risk for overflowing more-so than an AquaC.

As for lighting, if you do want to go with T5 lights, make SURE you get one with individual reflectors for each tube. Fixtures with one big reflector waste A LOT of light. TBH, a 4-tube setup with individual reflectors should be just fine for a 55g tank. Actinic lights are more blue and will tend to make your colors of your corals "pop" more. It really comes down to a preference thing, but most people like a mix of 10,000k and actinic bulbs.

Start considering powerheads for your tank. If you want softies, somewhere between 20-30 times the tank volume in flowrate per hour would be good. So in your case, 1100-1500gph or so. I'd use 2 powerheads if I were you just in case one fails. Look into Hydor Koralia or Tunze Stream (or nanostream) pumps which will give you a lot of flow for very little electricity