FOWLR Lighting

[pudge_cat]

Hi,
New to the forum, and to the hobby.
Quick question (Although I expect to have more as I have found reading the posts on this site to be very helpful.)

I'm planning a FOWLR tank, probably 75 gallons.
Is the lighting important?
The LFS I explored only recomended 2 40 watt fluorescent bulbs. Is this enough?
Thanks in advance.
:roll:

[Pineapple House]

Moved to FO/ FOWLR forum :)

The florecent lighting, likely corallife, will do fine with your setup. Most fish will need to specific lighting needs, and will only use it as a cycle for day and night. But, if you choose to one day get into the corals, you might want to think about something brighter. For now, with your FOWLR setup, NO lights should be great.

PH =)

[Irisservice]

It depends on how much stuff is in the tank!!!For example if it was just fish with some small decorations then 2 40w would be fine, but once you start filling the tank with rock and plants the tank starts looking dim. I would recommend you look at Smartlights by Custom Sealife. There not that expensive. You have a 48" tank which they make a fixture for, and it has two 65W PC lamps Which Should be plenty for your setup.

Check the link below
http://www.customsealife.com/NewFiles/briteLite.html

If you plan on a hood check out retro fit lighting from hellolights.com
http://www.hellolights.com/48retrokits.html

[pudge_cat]

Thanks.

Sorry I forgot about this FOWLR section. :oops:

To be honest I have aspirations of keeping a true reef tank, but I've never had a saltwater tank before so I thought I'd try this for a year or so until I'm comfortable with keeping SW fish.

Here's my plan:
I've inherited a 75 gallon (48x18x21) AGA Oceanic RR tank with an overflow box in the corner, and a sump tank (I think it's like 30 gallons).
The sump came with a chamber full of bioballs. I have a seaclone 150 Skimmer, and access to a RO filter.
I would like to have live rock and a DSB. I figure on buying about 90-100 pounds of LR. I've seen a number of people recommend taking out the bioballs and replacing it with live rock in the sump.
Things I don't know yet: How much LR should go in the sump? What kind of substrate should I use? I don't want to be cheap as I've learned enough from my freshwater fish keeping that this ends up costing more in the long run, however, I would like to use the equipment available to me if possible and not spend a fortune on the substrate. The live sand I've seen is very expensive, and I know I'll need a lot. Is using argonite or something else and topping it off with live sand a viable option?

I know thats a lot of questions, any advice or comments would be appreciated. :?

[Pineapple House]

Things I don't know yet: How much LR should go in the sump? What kind of substrate should I use?
Considering you likely have a wet/dry (you say you have a bio ball chamber), I would try and add as much live rock to the sump as you can. This will help quite a bit with extra biological filtration, and even have a place for copepods, as well as a variety of worms to reproduce, without being eaten by the aquarium fish right away.

Substrate, I would personally go the DSB rout. There are many good threads here on DSB's, just do a quick search and see what you come up with. While a DSB with pure live sand can be quite expensive, there can be other ways to do this. If availible in your area, home depot may carry southdown playsand (calcium based sand; great for DSB's!). This can be added under your live sand bed, with your live sand over it. The life from the live sand will eventually spread throughout the playsand, soon making the playsand become live. If this sand is not availible, any other calcium based sand will work fine. Silica sands will also work fine, but IMO, silica sands really don't look too natural.

PH =)

[NaH2O]

Irisservice,
Would that set of lights from hellolights.com be sufficient for a successful 55 gal. reef tank?
Or would I need more than the 384 watts that unit produces?

[Irisservice]

For a 55 you can go with any of the 48" units from hellolights but i would recomend the 4x55w or 4x96w If you plan on doing any reefing.

[NaH2O]

Now to just find the extra $300 laying around to buy it with! hehe

Thanks
Chris

[Sea Wraith]

As far as lighting goes for a FOWLR, I have 4 - 48" 40 watt corallife tubes in my 75 gallon FO tank, I have 2 - 03 actnitcs and 2 - full spectrum 10,000k's and I am getting good coraline growth! I bought 2 of the standard 2 bulb fixtures from Lowes (no fancy reflectors or mirrors) and then installed them in the canopy I built thats on top of the tank and it is so bright I have to turn 2 of the bulbs off to take pics! This should be more than enuff light to start off with!

[NaH2O]

Sea Wraith,
I plan to have 4x96 watt bulbs. Will these "standard 2 bulb fixtures" be sufficient for these? And how much were the fixtures?

Also I looked at pics of your tanks and other toys and your tanks look great! I especially enjoyed the other toys gallery because I have had my Traxxas Rustler (electric) for a couple years and we have a nice track here in town that I fool around on once in a while. I like your purple truck best. I tried to acheive a similar look with mine but not near as nice as yours. Did you paint it yourself?
I'll try to attach a pic of my stadium truck.

[NaH2O]

Sorry to hijack this thread and then change the subject a little, but it's cool to see a fellow reefer interested into some other hobbies that I'm into.

[Sea Wraith]

NaH....... Very nice Traxxas!!!!!! My Losi NXT was featured in an issue of RC Car Action and my Wifes Associated T3 electric was featured in Chris's back lot of RC Car Action as well. I have been into RC Cars, planes, boats, and such since 1984 and Im still hooked! Most of my RC Car bodies are professionally painted by my good fried James Shanley of JS Bodies in Beaumont Texas. He paints professionally for Dahms bodies as well as for himself! Heres the link to his site http://www.jsbodies.com/ if you contact him be sure to tell him that Jon and Sherri referred you!

As far as the lighting goes for your tank youll definately need to upgrade the fixtures your going to use for the 96 watt bulbs, Im using standard flourescent tubes. The 96 watt version are going to need a much improved ballast and if your going to have them close to the water youll need waterproof sockets as well, Im using standard fiuxtures because my bulbs are 11 inches above the water and I have the glass lids on my tank and I also have it sealed to keep my eel in so the lights I have arent in mmuch danger of getting wet and shorting out. I paid $11 bucks for each of my fixtures at lowes on sale, they are regularly $18.99 each.

[NaH2O]

Sea Wraith,
First of all, WOW! Here I though you just "kinda" liked your RC vehicles but it sounds like your "hard-core"! That's really impressive that you and your wife both were featured in an RC magazine! But most impressive to me is that your wife loves it as much as you do!!!!! My wife likes to watch me build these things but that's as far as it goes as far as her getting involved in RC gear. On the other hand though she loves the fish tank.
Thank you very much for refering me to your friend as a place to get an outstanding paint job. My favorite on their sit is the T-Maxx with the U.S. flag pattern.
Will it save me any money if I mention you and your wife? hehe
I have alot of my money going toward the fishtank right now

Thanks again!
Chris

[Sea Wraith]

I very possibly could save you a few bucks to mention me when you talk to James! My wife loves to race as much as or more than I do, On weekends when I have to work she is at the track racing against the guys and she has her share of trophies on the wall to prove it! At first she was leery to get involved but since she entered her first novice race and won, I havent been able to get her away from the track ever since! She doesnt take anything off anyone either! She will take you out if your in front of her which is why they call her "The Female Intimidator" at every track we go to! She has her own pit box, her own tools, her own complete setup and she tunes and races her own vehicles. She is a real she :twisted: devil on the track!

[NaH2O]

I'm jealous!
Does she have a sister?

I might contact James about the paint job.

Thanks Jon!

[Sea Wraith]

LOL yeah she has a sister but let me warn ya! They both have attitudes from hell! Thats what I get for marrying a full blooded coonass (cajun)!!!!!!!