24g frag tank/display tank

[winland]

We set up a 24g nano tank earlier this spring.
Here it is in the beginning...

The light is a home made lumenarc 14" reflector with a 250w - 20K Metal halide ebay lamp

The white pvc frame has been spay painted black.

Here are photos of the tank today...

Hopefully most of this stuff will go into a 150g tank that we will setup this winter.

Thanks for looking.

Chuck

 

[MACDad]

Looks great Chuck! Have you noticed any growth on your corals with the Metal halide? I don't seem to get much growth in my 29 with the PCs.

 

[winland]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15558912#post15558912 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MACDad
Looks great Chuck! Have you noticed any growth on your corals with the Metal halide? I don't seem to get much growth in my 29 with the PCs.

My 250w MH maybe a bit much for the nano, but it is what I had on hand at the time. It certainly does do the job and good growth on all the corals. Just have to be aware of what corals you place up top nearest the light. The major problem is heat. The room that the tank is in, is not normally air conditioned and so I have to run a good size fan over the top of the tank to keep the temp around 80 and then have to keep topping off the water due to evaporation.
You can usually find a 150w Sunpod for sale on some of the forums for $150 - $200, but you will want to get rid of the 14K HQI lamp and get a 20K for much better color. I have not seen many small T5 fixtures available for a 29g/24g nano tank.
If you are handy with a drill and a soldering iron, I would build a LED light setup. It would cost you maybe $300, but it would last over 10 years without having to replace any bulbs and it adds little or no heat to the tank and save a bunch on electric usage.
There are several threads on RC forum and other nano forums about building LED fixtures.

TTYL
Chuck