Picking up a complete 400g system tommarow...

[twistoflime]

Well here it is..http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20815">http://www.atlantareefclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20815</a>.
I'm so excited!!!:yay: I can't wait! We're going to make it a reef tank but Brett was going to make it a FOWLR tank. I was wondering, how many watts do I need to beable to grow any coral? We're going to take this extremly slow. We won't be adding any corals till about a year after we get this thing cycled. We won't add fish till about a month after we put water in it. We will add some blue chromises first. I just need to know how much light we need. Any other advice would be apreciated.
Thanks, Diane

 

[casper75]

Congrats
You are going to love the setup

 

[skriz]

Don't be concerned with "how many watts".

MH can give you excellent par with fairly low wattage (175 watts per bulb). I would put a few 250w halides on there and you're good to go.

TO start off, you wouldn't need the halides at all; just run the t5's until you're ready to start corals.

And don't cycle the tank with live fish; use shrimp from the grocery store. All you need is one (dead) and it will do the trick. That's all I used to cycle mine (800g).

 

[twistoflime]

Skriz;241840 wrote: Don't be concerned with "how many watts".

MH can give you excellent par with fairly low wattage (175 watts per bulb). I would put a few 250w halides on there and you're good to go.

TO start off, you wouldn't need the halides at all; just run the t5's until you're ready to start corals.

And don't cycle the tank with live fish; use shrimp from the grocery store. All you need is one (dead) and it will do the trick. That's all I used to cycle mine (800g).

I'm not going to cycle the tank with fish. Blue chromis are the first fish I will add after the tank is cycled. Sorry if that was confusing.

 

[skriz]

twistoflime;241842 wrote: I'm not going to cycle the tank with fish. Blue chromis are the first fish I will add after the tank is cycled. Sorry if that was confusing.

phew! good to hear..I didn't think you were the type, but you never know!

You're going to LOVE that tank. Are you going to keep the rock structures in place? Those are going to be very cool as they mature; tons of nooks and crannies for the fish and cool spots to mount frags.

 

[blind1993]

diane i know i sent you this in a pm but for everyone else, sals tank after tanking it down and setting it back up

 

[blind1993]

Originally Posted by twistoflime
His tank is awsome! also I was wondering, how many tangs could I fit in the 300 without them fighting? I would like to do a purple tang, yellow tang, hippo tang, and a unicorn tang. Is that too many?

Quote:

also what would you guys say to this question?

</em>

 

[twistoflime]

Skriz;241845 wrote: phew! good to hear..I didn't think you were the type, but you never know!

You're going to LOVE that tank. Are you going to keep the rock structures in place? Those are going to be very cool as they mature; tons of nooks and crannies for the fish and cool spots to mount frags.

We are going to keep the sturctures. We are also going to add some very carefully washed out bottles. We think those will look really cool once they are covered with coraline algea.

 

[reefer29]

NICE, selling your smaller tank?

 

[twistoflime]

Reefer29;241865 wrote: NICE, selling your smaller tank?

I will once I move every thing into the larger tank. Like I said I'm waiting a year befor we put any corals in so all the corals in my 30g will have to be moved befor I sell anyghing.

 

[glxtrix]

Well that didn't take long, lol. Good luck with everything.....and in all honesty, you don't need any lights if you're not putting corals in the tank for a year. Don't waste your money, just get some shop lights from HD or some cheap PC ballasts and make a DIY holder for bulbs. Save your money for the halides once you're ready to go coral.

 

[ldybkr]

Congratulations on your big tank. I know you will be very happy with it.

 

[linda lee]

It's good to start researching the lights now so you can determine the right fixture or retro and start saving. The lighting will probably be the most expensive add-on, so it might take a year of saving before you can get an ideal light.

Congrats on your acquisition. Way too ambitious for me, but I love seeing these set-ups by other members. Looking forward to a build thread.

 

[ralph atl]

awesome Diane!

 

[mockery]

So how did it go?

 

[twistoflime]

Mockery;242864 wrote: So how did it go?

Nothings broken. We're going to get water in it at Thanksgiving break. Early Thanksgiving week we will have a plumber hook up the rodi unit to the pipes and we will have Chris from Fish Scales to help us put all the plumbing back together. On Monday (not this monday, the one after after that) I'm going to paint the stand and canopy the right color. We should have it filled up by the day after Thanksgiving.

 

[mockery]

That is awesome i wish i could convene my parents to do that

 

[twistoflime]

The bad thing is my dad wants a puffer fish but they are not reefsafe and I want to eventually make this a reef tank.

 

[mockery]

well when you make that a reef, you could put the puffer in your other tank, 30? right. And are you sure about there not being any reef safe puffers?

 

[raisingtwo2006]

Congrats on the big tank!

(And I'm hoping Mockery was kidding about a puffer in a 30)