Demm's 55g

[Demm]

i will make sure to do that. i'm hoping it's a good light....catalina aquarium solar T5's....i couldnt find no reviews at all about them, so i guess i'll just play as the "tester" and see if they are any good lol.

i'm just playing the waiting game right now. it shipped out monday...usually takes about 3 days to get here...however thursday is thanksgiving in the USA...so no mail...sometimes i hate the holidays

 

[Demm]

Alright so finally after waiting for what seems liek forever, i finally got my light in!! 6 x 54 watt T5. 3 10000k bulbs and 3 actinic Bulbs.

Tank Before:

Tank After:

Big big difference. you cant tell much by the pics, but wow. Fans are a bit loud...packaging was a bit crappy. and when i got it the power switch was kinda popped out. i popped it back in, and turned it on and everything works just fine. Total after shipping and tax $260 USD.

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow, tank looks awesome now man

Where did you get a 6xT54 watt T5 hood with individual reflectors for that much? really affordable.

 

[Demm]

it was on ebay. they always have listings for it. it's from catalina aquarium. it was 199 USD for the light and 45 for shipping. it's working for now, but i just hope it keeps working. it doesnt have moonlights or anything tho i'll miss those. i'll probably try to get some red LEDs as moonlights since most fish cant see that color from what i understand.

now with this light, would you think that if in the future i'd wanna go with some high light corals, maybe some SPS or, a bubble tip anemone or something i'd be ok with it? or would this still not be enough? lol

btw the 3 actinic builbs are 450nm's....whatever that is. the blue tang looks really blue under these...unfortunately the ich also appears brighter on it

 

[SkiFletch]

You could keep just about anything you want under that much lighting. nems, clams, sps, would all prolly do fine. I'd try to keep my SPS near the top of the rockwork just for the sake of being thorough, but if you chose a bulb-tip nem (good choice btw), I'd start it low down in the rocks/sand

 

[Demm]

id love to have a bubble tip, but the thing that i'm afraid of is that it would move around, and i dont want it stinging any of my other corals. i love anemones i'm just really afraid of that, which is why i dont have one int here right now.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, if you add it first and give it some time to settle in to wherever it wants to be at, you'll have a better shot at dealing with any walking

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The new lights really make a massive difference. Excellent price as well!

Once question. in the photo below there are pink stringy things. Do you know what they are as I have them in my tank as well?

 

[Demm]

i believe they are spahgetti worms or something to that extent. not exactly sure, all i know is they arent hurting nothing but are pretty gross lol

yea that's true ski, but the problem is that i already have about 5-8 corals in the tank lol

 

[Demm]

Update:

Added 9 more pounds of base rock on the right side.

also took off the aquaclear filter and replaces it with my emporer 400, has carbon, and some phosphate remover.

 

[chrissaysyes]

id love to have a bubble tip, but the thing that i'm afraid of is that it would move around, and i dont want it stinging any of my other corals. i love anemones i'm just really afraid of that, which is why i dont have one int here right now.

get a plastic pasta strainer, cut it if you need to so that more light can get through to the nem, place it on top of him after he's introduced to the tank, once he gets a grip with his foot, remove it and keep a CLOSE eye on him...it would help if when you first introduce him to the tank you place him in a spot that he is likely to stay...usually at the end of a good flow stream...enough to keep his tentacles moving but not so much that it's blowing them everywhere and straining his foot, also a spot where he's getting as much light as possible because that's likely where it will end up...just keep trapping him with the strainer until he ends up somewhere safe...that way you can stop him before he gets to a coral and move the coral if you need to...what you want is for him to mount himself on a rock...nems in substrate are more prone to back their bags and scram. Condylactis is easier to please as far as it's placement is concerned and is also more hardy...but I can see how people would find BTA more attractive.

 

[Demm]

well i have a condy in my 6 gallon tank, they are pretty cool.

i will try the strainer idea for sure sometime when i go out and buy a BTA. thanks for the advise!

 

[Demm]

I got a 15 watt Aqua Step UV Sterilizer today. i paired it up with my maxijet 900 for now. finally maybe it'l help the ich a bit, and maybe some algae, although the tang is actually looking pretty good now

 

[chrissaysyes]

well i have a condy in my 6 gallon tank, they are pretty cool.

i will try the strainer idea for sure sometime when i go out and buy a BTA. thanks for the advise!

How long have you have it in there? It's doing well?

I have a condylactis that came to me about the size of a baseball, it's now about as big as a basketball. Takes up one side of my 55gal

 

[Demm]

well i got i got my condy back in about march or april. it's been in my 29 gallon with 20 watts of lighting (actually did really good). Since then i put the condy in the 6 gallon, it's been in there for about a month or month and a half. there was a slight mishap tho, i forgot to cover the filter pipe and it got sucked up in it. so it's on the rebound right now. its eating and everything so its doing good in there as well. he's the only thing int here with a peppermint shrimp and a couple snails.