new 105 setup - finally

C

Carabelli

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okay - i got the okay to do the 105 gallon oceanic (after seeing the office setup, the fiancee wants one worse than me :) ) so, i am trying to put together the equipment for the setup - here is what i have ...


105 gallon oceanic - 48 x 18 x 28 (not the best for reefs, but, she loves it and we already own it, so, we are going to go with it)

4 110 vhos - again, not the best, but, i have them and they are friendly on the electric bill and heat wise also

tunze wavebox - i figure this is the best choice, so, why do anything else

some recirculating skimmer - to me, this makes the most sense as it will save on electric bill and also works good - now, what should i get - can i just mod a euroreef or asm - i can't spend 800 to 1000 for a deltec or h&s or worse a bubble king - so, any suggestions??

calcium reactor to keep the dosing to a minimum

top-off setup

uv sterilizer - after fighting a bacterial bloom for 3 weeks and then watching it go away over night with the uv, i will try to keep these around always :)

now, this will mainly been a shroom, softies, zoos, and lps tank as the lighting will prohibit much more than that - especially past about 2/3 down - so, i realize the reactor is a bit much, but, the ease and superior water it allows makes it worthwhile for me - any suggestions - thanks. :D
 
Not to say anything about it, but for a primarily softy tank, I would go with a few powerheads instead of the expense of the wavebox. It's a great product, but I think it will be overkill for your setup. Plus, the 4' length of your tank will not let the wavebox be nearly effective as it would in say a 6-7' tank. The money could be spent on a more efficient T5 system to replace the VHO :idea:

HTH
 
well, the reason i was opting for the wavebox is as follows ...

even with a closed loop or powerheads or streams, there will be dead spots that won't be covered with flow, and while it will be mainly a mix of softies, lps, clams and zoos, they still need good flow as do the fish, and, i think sometimes we don't give the fish what they need with good flow.

as for the vhos, is there that much of a difference in lighting quality btw them and t5s?? i know t5 are hot now, but, i have seen numerous tanks with vhos do awesome with what i want - few if any sps - thoughts?? thanks for the feedback guys.
 
crash -

where do you recommend getting the t5 setups from, what brand and what other advice would you give regarding t5s - thanks.

gm
 
For the best non-retro, ready-to-use hood, I would go with a Tek hood from reefgeek.com. The price you see there is with the bulbs so don't be shocked when you see them. You can also get retro kits to build into your own hood if you would rather. They still come with bulbs! You could probably get away with a 4-bulb 48" set-up for what you are doing.

HTH
 
This has been a fairly debated subject over on reefcentral. What makes them superior is the output/watt. I have never ran a VHO so I know nothing about them or what the wattage of a 48" VHO is, but the 48" T5HO bulbs are as bright if not brighter than the cooresponding while using half the electricity and half the space. The reflectors are the key to them. Here is just one thread on RC:



http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=674343
 
well, a 46.5" or 48" vho will put out 110 watts of light, the tank was setup with 4 bulbs, putting out 440 watts of light - about 4 watts per gallon, no, when i get the hood home, my hope is to rearrange the vhos and add some t5s in the small areas to boost the light output - but, does anyone have any thoughts on just using vhos solely??

thanks.
 
VHO only is fine for the livestock you've selected.
 
thanks marc - should i try to squeeze in another bulb or will the 440 be adequate with a mix of 2 aquasuns and 2 super actinics?? will clams do okay towards the top?? thanks.
 
Derasa clams will do fine. 4 bulbs should be okay. If you want to run more, you'll need a different ballast I think, or maybe an extra ballast. Then you run into:

More power - more electricity - higher bills.
More heat - gotta cool the tank somehow.
Less room - gotta move the lights to access the tank.

I used an IceCap ballast with 6500K daylight bulbs from Home Depot and a couple of URI Actinics. The $5 Home Depot bulbs saved me $80 a year, since I changed my bulbs every 6 months.
 
hmm, so, you just got their daylight bulbs, the no type and they were fine?? that is an excellent idea - thanks -

yes, it would be mean rearranging and such to get the vhos in, and more everything - i was hoping to have a maxima or crocea in the top 1/3 ??
 
also, what is every one's thoughts on the skimmer choice - euroreef or asm?? should i try to do a recirculating modification, or is that just the hot thing?? thanks - not really familiar with the ins and outs of these two skimmers, other than the fact they are supposed to do better than becketts with less electricity use - thanks.
 
I have four 4' VHO lamps running exactly how Marc said. The 6500k bulbs are like $3 vs. $25 VHO bulbs. They are NO (normal output) overdriven to the 110W is what my understanding is. They seem bright and lots cheaper.

The good thing about VHO is that you do not really need a reflector. VHO bulbs are 180 degree output and will shine down on tank only, saving money otherwise spent on a reflector. The NO bulbs are 360 degree output and will need reflector or just paint inside canopy bright white and it will do fine.
 
Eric, are you running those NO bulbs on a Icecap ballast? Would any VHO ballast overdrive the NO bulbs?

I've got 2 46.5 actinics that I'm thinking about swapping out for 6.5k bulbs.

Chris
 
well, i think that over the long run, the cost of the reflector would be offset by the replacement costs of the bulbs - so, i will have to look into that - thanks.
 
@Marc wrote:
I used an IceCap ballast with 6500K daylight bulbs from Home Depot and a couple of URI Actinics. The $5 Home Depot bulbs saved me $80 a year said:
Marc does the box just say daylight bulb? I am also going to run VHO on my 105 this will save me some bucks. thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...
 
Chris-
I have a coralife ballast that is supposedly manufactured by the same people as the icecap ballast. The plugs and wires are identical, so are the stats. I have heard overdriving the NO bulbs work on all VHO ballasts, but I would double check. They are wired up just the same and the bulbs are cheap so it is worth a try. It would blow the bulb not ballast if it were to go bad.
 
Thanks, I'll have to check it out. The only problem is that I have 46.5" bulbs, I do'nt know if HD sells those size bulbs. Ballast is an ARO.

Chris
 
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