Starting a 15G Long.

[Rosseau]

15G Long

So it's exam season again here at school.... Why does this matter? Ah well, because that's a great time to start up another reef tank! Actually it's the last thing I need to be doing right now.



I want to keep mostly softies however SPS is something I would like to get into.

Lighting Advice -

Should I go with....

4 x 25W T5's

or

2 x 25W T5 actinics and 1 150W (or 70W) Metal Halide




I want the tank to look clean (no pumps, wires etc showing) and don't really want to build a sub beneath the whole system. Really for ease of use.... I am however going to try and make a fuge behind a false wall, if you know what I mean.

Where can I find these acrylic dividers? or a similar substitute... It will run lenghtwise down the tank so that my chaeto, skimmer, PH's and heater can all hide behind it.


thanks everyone for reading along. Hopefully i'll get a nice thread going once I plan some more.

 

[BCreefmaker]

every acrylic divder i had in my tank i bought from a glass shop that also did plexi glass. but i have also seen sheets at the local hardware store, they dont cut it to size however. i would hightly recomend it, you can get it blue or black, transparent, or not. plus it easy to drill compaired to glass. plus an extra bonus, i find coraline algea grows faster on in. personally i have thought about doing a tank like this, but i thought that the skimmer would be to hard to hide in a long tank with a false back. and on the lighting choice id say 4 t5's would be the best for a long tank, unless your planning on getting clams or something like that down the road, then the 70W would be ok.

 

[Rosseau]

Thanks.

I'll keep looking for that coloured acrylic.

As far as lighting I'm quickly realizing T5's aren't quite as simple as I had first thought. Well, maybe I just need to read some more.

I think I would like some MH light in there so that all clams/SPS will be happy, though they might do just fine under T5. A

Anyways, I'm going to keep reading and reading, bah..

 

[BCreefmaker]

T5's with proper reflectors are said to have higher PAR values then MH's of equivilent wattage.