New to Reef Central

[igazoo25]

Hi guys,

My name is Ivan and I met most of you at the STARS meeting. I really wish I would have known about an organization like this before.

I have been into this for about 3-years now. I have a 55 gal fish only tank, and i have a 22 gal soft coral with a couple of fish. I have also recently purchased a 90 gal reef ready tank, and will probably be setting it up in the near future, as soon as I can gather all the necessary equipment.

For my first post I would like to ask if anyone knows a place that has decent pricing on lighting for my new 90 gal (48x18x24)?

Ivan

 

[puffin04]

Welcome aboard Ivan can you please post up some pics of your system? Thanks

Steffen Sparks

 

[strayvoltage]

Ivan, welcome to Reef Central and STARS.
Please feel free to ask any questions here that you may have and I think there will be more than a few people that will try to help you out.
:wave:
I am sure that when Jay gets back from his cruise you will get an official welcome to rc banner. He seems to be the official welcome to rc banner poster here.

 

[deehz]

Ivan,
Yes I remember speaking with you. I am glad you came over to STARS and found us!

What type of lighting are you seeking? I remember when we spoke that you said you wanted to do a coral tank. The type of lighting of course is going to depend on what corals you want to put in. If it is mixed reef, then I would go with a nice T5 system. They don't create a lot of heat. The right combination of bulbs will do wonders to your system and coral growth. Down side is that you have to change out the bulbs every 6-8 months. They change or use up there color spectrum pretty fast.

Metal halide is going down in price and you can pick a nice set for a great price right now. I would recommend at least a 250 watt light with a 14k bulb. Anything above this range is just way to much in my opinion. The issue with them however, is the heat they put out and the electricity they use.

If money is no object, then go LED. There are great systems out there that are going down in price. They can keep just about anything healthy in tank--sps, lps, softies, etc. On you tube, i have seen SPS systems with LED's that have fantastic growth and are still going strong for well over 4 years. They don't produce no heat to the system at all, lights don't need to be changed but every five years, electrical cost is minimal, and you can save quite a bit of money in the long run.

There you go. And send us pics of your current systems. If you can, start a thread of your build.

 

[igazoo25]

I am looking for either a T5 system or LED, I really did not want halide.
If I do decide to go for the LED I am seriously thinking about building it myself (it will keep me entertained and some of the costs down). I will post pics in a few days, and if I will keep everyone updated on my build.

Thanks

 

[deehz]

If you do diy on an led, it might be the way to go. Although, I am starting to here that the ones built by mfg's are comparable in price to the diy led's. You can go to Steves LEDs.com and you can custom order your own to build. There are several other websites that cater to the diy-r with ordering parts for a led system.

 

[igazoo25]

So I have been gathering my equipment for my new tank. I am almost ready to make the upgrade, but I wanted some advice on the electrical. I am going to be running 2X250W metal halide, 4X54W atinic blue, plus all the other equipment(skimmer, pump, heaters, and a powerhead). I was wondering if I should make changes to the outlet that I am planning to use to power my tank. Right now it is just your standard outlet in the living room.

If I should make any changes what kind?

 

[deehz]

Ivan, you are back. This all depends on how "old" or new the house is. Typically, most breakers in your electrical box for outlets are rated for 15 amps. Some builders step it up to about 20 amps. Current code is that all new homes built in 2007 and newer (or whenever the municipality adopted the code) to have arc fault breakers. These are junk and depends where your city "wants them installed"!

That being said, your system when it's all on and running will probably draw anywhere from 8-12 amps. So your one breaker can handle the amp load of your system barring that nothing else is connected to this circuit. One way of checking is first, make sure which circuit your system is going to be connected to to see what size amp you have. Believe me when I tell you to never assume it is 15 amps. Next is to add up all the amps the mfg states on a particular piece of equip is rated for or will use. Add them all up and you should have a total amp load for this circuit.

If this exceeds it, you can always run a separate circuit barring you have the space for it in your electric/meter/can box. Its rather simple if you have the crawl space in your attic to allow the install of the new circuit. I would add for safety issues, a GFCI outlet (to your current circuit or new circuit) or a surge protector that is rated at the same amps as your breaker w/a built in GFCI protector. Hope this helps.

 

[igazoo25]

I never left, been really busy reading what everyone writes and researching. I do not respond too much because of the lack of experience with what you guys are talking about. Hope to see you guys on the 30th.

The info does help. I will more than likely run a dedicated circuit, unfortunately it wont be way to easy, the only place I can really put the tank has no attic space nearby. It might push my project back a little longer though.