Tank build 135G

Well, since I had a little problem with some prams and moved all my fish I have decided to redo my tank. I am going to add about 80lbs of rock and rescape it, change out my substrate, and replumb it to my new fish room with PVC. (was using vinyl tubing). Am going to try and figure out how to add 2 550w MH to my existing 72" Nova Extreme lights Will update every day or so.




















   












 

 

500 not 550. I keep my house at 68. Was running one never had a problem.

 

Plan on it. The Carpet anenome also seemed to love it. I probabaly would not have gone that high but I got a really good deal on the lights. It comes out to 7.4 watts a gallon and I always heard the min. should be 5 watts.

 

So far today I got the substrate in, a mix of pink fiji, specail grade reef sand and crushed coral. Powerheads cleaned and placed. Any thoughts suggestions on placement? I put a Korilla 4 in the back bottom corner, a K3 top right corner to help keep back wall clean. I will not be putting any rock against the back glass except maybe a piece here or there on top to help balance them. I have 2 very powerful Tunzes on a controller on the right and left sides.



















 

 

Id worry about the left bottom powerhead sucking up sand. Other than that it looks good! 500 watt halides...wow. lol.

 

Should be a fun build. SPS all the way! They make 500 watt MH for aquariums? I've only seen 150, 175, 250,400 and 1000 watt bulbs designed for aquariums. I would recommend 3 MH bulbs to cover evenly but it looks like you have a brace right in the middle of the tank? On my 350 (7' long) I have 3 400 watt reeflux bulbs but I found that the corals got better color running the bulbs at 250 watts the brighter 400 watt light seemed to cause the SPS to be more pale colored. Good choice with the MH over LED's Get a couple of the Coralvue dimmalbe MH ballast and you can get the brightness just right.
FYI I tried that sand/crushed coral combination on one of my earlier tanks and discovered that over time the course substrate will always eventually end on on top, you won't see the fine sand once it settles to the bottom. (Basic erosion physics)

 

This is basicaly how I ran it before, may pull some up with the finer sand but I can deal with it a little ( you will never see it because of all the rock) I have found that I have to have one there otherwise dead spot=BAD!. LOL


Thanks!

 

Thanks Jamie. I Just looked. I was wrong they are 400W hamiltons with moonlight LEDS. I am going to try to figure out how to run them with my 12 bulb T5s. Space issue. And yes I have a big *** brace with really thick opaque Glass in the middle (hate it). I am looking at LEDS some day. My electric bill is 350-450 a month ( I keep my AC at 69) without the MH. I cant wait to see it after I add these. So if I can Save Money, heat and space with LEDs plus have an awesome controller built in (AI) I probably will. We will see. And the dand thing was just cause I had bags of stuff laying around and am trying to clean up my fish room (getting yelled at LOL). So I used what I had instead of buying new. Also, I am hoping to have a few gobies so it may help them dig a little eaier, I hope.

 

350-450 a month elc OUCH I though mine was bad at $150-200 a month. You mean I'm not the only one with to much fish "junk" in the storage room

 

Good lord you like to keep your house cool dont you! I keep mine at 75...lmao

 

Tagging along for this build! Everything is looking great so far!

 

With a bill that high it would seem that LED's would be easily justified. Tagging along to see how it all turns out. I would be divorced by now if I used that much juice. /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

I think your tank build is coming along nicely (since I saw it this afternoon)your sump being in the basement is an awesome idea. The info you gave me about the algea scrubber is great. I can wait to see the tank in the future.