My sebae is outgrowing my tank

[kenyacat]

Well my bleached little sebae about the size of a coffee cup (not coffee mug) is now the size of a small dinner plate.

I had not wanted a sebae. Wanted a BTA but the guy at the store tole me this one was a BTA. Wasn't too happy with them since I didn't want a difficult nem for my first, but I managed to get him to attach and he has turned into a nice tan color and is now huge.

My tank is only 29 gallons. So here I am thinking of an upgrade to a 55. How the heck do I move him? He is attached to a large chunk of rock too.

I plan on setting the 55 up right next to the 29 and cycling and so on. Then I plan on plumbing them together first then moving so that all the water is the same.

But what do I need to be concerned with while moving him? This will actually not happen until late this year as upgrading is going to take lots of thought and work, so he is probably going to be even bigger.

Thanks

 

[hangles]

If the rock is not to large just dip a 2 gal bucket into the tank and slide the rock and nem into it. then aclamate to the 55. to help cycle the 55 gal once it is up and running just do small frequent water changes to the 29 and add that to the 55. now lighting is another factor going to a 55 it is deeper so stronger light will be needed and whatever flow you have in the 29 will have to be duplicated in the 55. larger circulating pumps. connecting the two together are you thinking of using the 29 as a sump ?

 

[kenyacat]

Yes, I am thinking of using the 29 as a sump. What a great idea to use the 29 water into the 55 during a water change. Do I need to aclamate if I eventually hook up the two together for about a week before the move? I may be able to get a bucket or something in there. The rock is a bit bigger than a soft ball. At least that is the one I think he is attached to. He is kind of in a hole where he could be attached to about 3 or 4 different rocks.

Looking at him now, he is about the size of a big dinner plate. Not sure how he got so big so fast. I only spot feed him a small piece of shrimp once a week. He does get some of the clown's food during the week, but not much.

Thanks

 

[whatcaneyedo]

Thats my sebae on the left of this 120 gal, only took about 2 years to get to that size. I've had to move it a couple of times as well when moving my tank and when upgrading. If it happens to be too stuck to something so that you cant lift it out and you need it to let go try draining the tank. When mine is out of water for a minute or two it lets go and then I just scoop it into a bucket to move it. I hope you've got yours under Halides or T5 or are at least upgrading to halides... I've watched quite a few locally die under PC lighting.

 

[kenyacat]

At the moment, just PC lighting. But I know that my unit I have right now is not strong enough for a 55. Will probably end up going T5. Then again, I love Halides.

He is thriving under the PC at the moment, but it is only a small tank. This is going to be a buy one piece at a time project.

Here is a thought. I have heard of light acclimation. Would I be better off to attach a light to the ceiling so that I can move it up and down instead of having to move my nem or future corals up and down?

 

[hangles]

It depends on how many water changes you do into your 55 and how stable the tank peramiters are. if you take your time with the 55 you probibly will not need to acclimate. I would not go with anything less than T5 lighting on the 55 if possible and probibly for the same money put MH on it even 175w will do the trick and you get the shimmer and par over T5. light acclimation can be acomplished with lights on a chain or if mounted on the tank you can use black cloth window screen on a frame in layers start out with three layers and peal one off every 4 days. its cheep and easy and you can reuse it if you upgrade again.

 

[kenyacat]

I would think 175w MH would not be enough. I was looking at them today and seen a 216w T5 for about $200.00. The combos are nice but way too pricey

 

[hangles]

I have a 75gal that is 21" tall and I am running 2-175w MH with luminarc reflectors and have SPS, LPS on the sandbed doing fine. my anemone stay mid to low in the tank. your 55gal is 21" also. you could go to 250's if you want. but more is not always better you start getting into heat issues. and the cost of running MH.

IMO Harold

 

[kenyacat]

Let me just wrap my mind around this. 175w is just slightly over the 3 watts per gallon.

Is there that much of a difference between T5 and MH that I can get away with that? I do not wish to upgrade again, and I don't want to have more light than I need either.

55 gallon is as big as I am going. What would be the livestock difference if I ran one 175w MH as opposed to one 216w T5.

I love the idea of MH and less wattage, but I don't love the idea of having to upgrade later.

 

[whatcaneyedo]

I like MH over T5 for a number of reasons. One bulb with a reflector lights up to a 2'x2' area and the bulb is good for 12-18 months. With T5 you'll need more bulbs for that kind of coverage which causes more clutter and you have to change the bulbs more often (every 6-8 months? I think).

If you really believe that a 55 gal (4'x1'x1.5'?) tank is the last one you are going to upgrade to then 175W MH is what I would do. For a 4' tank you'll need two 175W MH.

However if you think that someday down the line you'll be wanting a larger and deeper system then my favorite is 250W MH pendants (not combo fixtures). I like them because they are good for keeping anything in a tank down to 24" deep and for larger systems all you need to do is buy more pendants.

 

[kenyacat]

350 total watts is quite a bit. Using the 3-5 rule my max would be 275. Wouldn't 350 be too much?

So you are saying that because of the tank is 48" long and 20" deep and 13" wide, I would need two 175's. I can't just put one in the middle? What if it was a stronger wattage, then could I just put one in the middle?

 

[garygb]

The recommendation I've read for changing T-5 bulbs is every 18 months, unless you have an overdriven setup. I have MH and T-5, I personally would recommend the T-5 myself. You have a great deal of freedom in choosing just the right color combination you want and they provide full coverage of the tank, corners and all. Either a MH or T-5 would work, IMO, you will just have more flexibility with T-5. As I'm sure you know, you have either a tank-mount or a pendant style with T-5. Whichever you decide to go with, your animals will be fine. I would say, spend a little extra and get the individual reflectors for the T-5s, if you go that route. The individual reflectors make a big difference in terms of penetration into the deeper water and overall intensity.

Going from PC to either T-5 or MH (as hangles described above) will require some acclimating to much stronger lighting. With T-5 you could shorten the photoperiod and only use a couple of bulbs initially and then after a week or 10 days, add another bulb, and so on until you have all the bulbs in that the fixture will hold. Then you could increase the photoperiod by half an hour per week until you have a full 10-12 hour photoperiod.

If you do decide to go with T-5, you should be fine with a 4 bulb fixture in a tank with the dimensions of a 55 g.

 

[tpenn187]

as for the halide systems, don't go by the watts per gallon method. you want to go by the square feet and depth. since you are covering a four foot area on a 55 you will need 2 pendants, i think reefgeek.com has a good deal on them right now. if you use t5 bulbs 4 x 54 = 216 watts. so it will be a little bit less expensive to run. and heat will be less of an issue, but i like halides and don't know if i would ever run anything else from now on. i have t t5 fixture and they are nice but no shimmer, and PC is just about worthless unless you are growing freshwater plants.

 

[kenyacat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11797815#post11797815 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by garygb
I would say, spend a little extra and get the individual reflectors for the T-5s, if you go that route. The individual reflectors make a big difference in terms of penetration into the deeper water and overall intensity.

By individual reflectors you mean these
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~pro~action~view~idProduct~CU01081~idCategory~FILTFIT58U~category~48_inch_Current_USA_6x54W_Nova_Extreme_Pro_T5HO_3_10k_3_460nm_Actinics_48in_Units~vendor~.html

Not sure if I messed the link up or not. Can I get T5's in anything more than 10,000K? Can't seem to find a replace bulb section. This one comes with 3 10k and 3 actinic.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

T5's come in several colour renditions...

 

[garygb]

kenya, i wasn't able to get that link you posted to work. Tek lights is one brand with individual reflectors, there are several others, check aquacave.com. And, as Nano said, you can get lots of different colors, which is part of the appeal of T-5. There is a thread by TheGrimReefer under the "lighting, equipment, filtration" forum on the subject. He is expert in T-5s and the various combinations. Check that thread out.

 

[hangles]

Kenyacat
Looks like you have some good advice from everyone.
T5 or MH.

Good Luck ! Harold

 

[cody6766]

I think my favorite T5 combo is a mix of Actinic+ and 11K bulbs. This gives a really nice blue look to the tank, but not overly blue. The 11k breaks up the intense blue of the Actinic+, but doesn't wash the florescent colors out out like, say PC 50/50 bulbs do.

I have 2x 24" bulbs over my almost 2' deep tank and my BTA is looking great about 6" off the substrate. I've seen people keep SPS corals with 4-6 bulbs in a similar color combo in other nano tanks. If you get the IceCap balasts you get a lot of intensity and great color combos.

BUT! 14K MH with T5 Acinics look awesome too.