Newbie

[GetTanked]

Hello everyone. I have recently decided to take the plunge and start a new reel tank. I have thought of doing this several times before, and have read alot about it, but I have always decided the time was not right. Not anymore. I went yesterday and purchased a new 75g All-Glass Tank with stand and hood. I am still in the process of figuring what is best as far as equipment and set up goes.

My next major purchases will be lights. I am thinking of going with 2x250 watt metal halide with 20k bulbs, 4x65 watt CF's with actinic bulbs, and 6x blue moon LED's, all connected to a timer ofcourse.

I am very excited about my hobby and plan on taking alot of photos and posting my progress if anyone is interrested.

Any comments or suggestions on this will be greatly apriciated.

[wozza]

this is just my personal preferance but i would go with eather 14K or 10K as you will get more PAR (photosynthetic radiation) out of the lower K's also i belive 20Ks are very blue and with the actanic as well i think your tank would be very blue, but hey if thats what you going for than its cool i guess.

hope this help james

[dibenni]

Welcome and good luck. I've been at it for a year now and am starting to get my tank to a point where I imagined it at the beginning.

One comment on the lighting, which is clearly more then enough for a 75 gallon tank and you could keep just about anything under that lighting. The one issue may be the "hood". By hood did you mean canopy? It is difficult to keep a MH fixture under most canopies - unless they are custom built. I just recently upgraded to a T5 fixture (from compact flourecents) because it would work better under my canopy than MH. Although not as strong as MH, T5's give off a great punch and for the $ are just as good if they are used with the proper reflectors. The other benefit of T5's is that they do not throw off as much heat - you will need several fans under the canopy if you do go with the MH to keep the heat down.

Again, that lighting would clearly be awesome - just want to make sure it works with your canopy before you spend that kind of $.

Can't wait to see pics!

[GetTanked]

Thank you for your input. I wasn't sure about the bulbs, but I will go with the 10k bulbs. I thought the 20k would be overkill. As for the Canopy, it is custom built and has an open back, 5" exaust fans on each side, and two 3" fans in the back blowing accross the waters surface.

[zhenya]

Hi GetTanked,



I'm sure you already thought about water movement, plumbing and filtration(skimmers and so on), but figured I would throw this out there if you haven;t yet. ;)

[wozza]

I wasn't sure about the bulbs, but I will go with the 10k bulbs.

i use a single 150w 10K on my 55gal and im very happy with it, it gives a nice crisp white and i have a clam at the bottom thats showing good growth.

good luck!