So I came home two nights ago, and my almost 5 year old 93 gallon was leaking. I gathered as many of my small tanks as I could, and transferred everything to it. Thankfully, I was able to save everything. I am unsure about the tank. I think it was just a seal somewhere leaking, but unsure. It probably could be fixed if someone is interested in it. So I took my larger fish to the Fish Bowl in Searcy. (Magnificent Foxface, Yellow Tang, Coral Beauty Angel, and Lemonpeel Angelfish) I took some of my larger corals there, and also gave some of the ones that wouldn't be good in my nano setups to a friend. So I had a 30 gallon cube in my bedroom. I moved some corals and my midas blenny and mandarin to it. I have had the mandarin for 4 years now, and he eats frozen food everytime I feed the tank. So I am hoping he will be alright in a smaller tank. I also setup a 20 gallon cube. I could not part with my anemone and pair of clownfish. So I put them in it along with lots of my soft coral and zoas. So this leads me to where needing some advice. I moved my radion from my 93 gallon to my 30 gallon (and turned the intensity way down to 30%) I moved the maxspect nano light I had on it to the 20 gallon. It obviously can not light the whole 30 inch length of tank. So I want to upgrade the lights. Any suggestions? There is a rbta and soft corals and a galaxea. My primary concern is color and giving the anemone enough light. I am interested in maybe a t5 light, if someone could suggest the best fixture and bulbs. Or maybe more leds, but it seems like the best color appearance would be delivered by t5s, and something closer to the 20k range. I have also included photos of my current setup that I had to hurry and piece together
So sorry to hear of this! I think either T5's or LED's would serve you well. Geisman in the best in T5's but expensive. I think a couple of Kessils would do a good job as well.
Kessils will have to hang? I might could make something out of pvc pipe to do that. The radion is great on my 30 gallon. It is giving me that 20k look. I have a lot of palys in this 20 gallon and I think the 20k would make them so pretty. I don't want to spend another 1,000 on a light though. These tanķs are in my bedroom. The walls are all black and it is dark. So I am wanting almost a black light effect. I have always used leds or metal halides, but never tried t5. It sees like t5s in my past research would do that and was maybe better at growing corraline algae compared to leds. I see that coralife has one for around $100 but didn't know if that was junk. I know the lightbulbs would need to be upgraded. I also didn't know if I should go with a 24 or 30" fixture the tank is 30", but didn't know if the light would cover the whole tank the way a led does. I think I've read it is harder to find some of the better bulbs in a 30" vs a 24" length
If you get in a bind a need a tank and stand I have a 60 and stand just sitting around only 7 months old
I appreciate that. I have everything settled in the tanks for now. I already got rid of larger fish and coral. I know I will be itching for a larger tank though. Also, I just was researching t5 lights, and it seems like the cost of those is way higher than led now. So maybe I will go the led route. I don't want to sink a whole lot of money into it. I just want to light the whole tank, give a 20k color, and keep my anemone happy. The kessils A80 look good. Would one work on this 30" 20gallon long tank?
Or it looks like by the time you buy the controller and mounts for ththe kessil, maybe 2 ai prime would be better.
I think the Kessils would put out more par than the Prime but I don't know that. I have a Prime on my 10 gallon nano and I run it pretty high %. Wish I had known about the Foxface. I've been wanting one for a while.
He's at the fish bowl. Super pretty, and super healthy. I wish I would've known you were interested, and I would've got him to you. It was so chaotic that I didn't have time to post it online.
So I went ahead and ordered a "Hydrofarm Agrobrite FLT22 T5 Fluorescent Grow Light System, 2 Foot, 2 Tube" off Amazon for about $75. I think it will be good, the only thing is I won't be able to ramp it up or down. I am also used to running my lights around 12 hours a day with the ramp up and down. Not sure if I can do that now. I went with ATI bulbs right now. I might upgrade to the Geisman when it is time to upgrade the bulbs. I initially went with a blue plus and purple plus. But after looking more online, I am not sure it is the color spectrum I wanted. So I also ordered another blue plus. So we will see how this goes. I didn't want to sink too much money, because I may decide to move everything to a larger tank down the road.
This is the fixture I purchased. Is it safe and will it work? https://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-Ag...robrite+FLT22&qid=1560040230&s=gateway&sr=8-1 Or should I send it back and get a different one.
The more I research, I don't think it is going to be safe to run this fixture without a splash guard. Any suggestions on a 24" fixture that will be powerful enough to grow an anemone? I just can't see spending $420 for an ati fixture for this small tank. :/
So I went ahead and got a viparspectra 165w today. With the store credit I had, the light was free. I couldn't pass that up deal up.