~|~ Night-rida's New 55g reef tank #2 Build ~|~

Cool setup and great job doing the lighting for cheap. Is this just going to be a frag tank?

 

thanks, I plan on getting rid of most of the frags soon.. I just wanted to let them grow a little more though under the halides. When moneys right, I hope to have only sps and clams mainly in the tank.. but need more base rock first though, as well as sump,skimmer,etc. I just cant believe I had all of those corals in one 55g tank. lol it was tight. my existing 55g pc/t5 tank will be for softies and lps mainly..

 

yup, all the frags are open and all polyps are extended on my sps corals.;D

 

well after having my water temps hitting 84 degrees yesterday after 8-9hrs of the MH lights being on.. I went to wal-mart tonite and picked up a 4" fan for a few bucks. its now mounted under canopy and is working well. I'll see tomorrow how much it will help in cooling tank down.

I also order a 8" 15 blue led lunar strip (120 degree angle) from ebay and should have that in a week or two. Hopefully it will light up at least 2/3 of the tank at night. as for the corals, my monti cap is already growing fast. Im seeing white tips growing around the edges/rim probly 1/8" in last 5 days it looks like. my half-dead purple digitata that was white and brown, is also showing more little polyps pop out.

Im not used to seeing noticable growth on my sps corals in the past.

I can get used to this

 

I finally caught this thread lol... And wow!!! When you said the halides were a lot brighter you sure wernt kidding!!!
The two tanks beside each other really looks pretty awesome man

 

thanks dingo! yeah with the extra light comes heat. well the good new after putting in another fan last night, my water temps are at 81 right now after 8hrs of running the mh lights.. so basically knocked off about 3 degrees of heat. I got a couple pics here as well. my clam is loving the new light as you can see below..

I also scored a 300-400 polyp zoa rock today for around $45 out the door! I'll get some pics once they open up.. ;D

 

Nice.
Good job...lot of difference in the 2 lights.
Glad to hear the fan is working...I'm gonna have to do that too.

 

Well everyone little update: I got a 10g sump,overflow, return pumps etc.. on order. I had a diatom outbreak about a week ago, it since has started to disappear.. I did finally get my $11 ebay lunar light strip installed. and I also made my first & second frag rack myself! I used maxijet powerhead plastic hangars I had left over in the box to make the top frag rack and the bottom rack was just a few good ol' zipties. painted with kyrlon and rustoleum plastic black paint. check'em out.

 

lol, I guess no one cares about my frag racks and lunar lights..

 

those frag racks are pretty legit! and the lunars are real bright! do they make the corals pop?