Thinking of setting up my first salt tank

[kwirky]

way to go on deciding on the sump

most glass shops can do it. call the glass guild up, they're pretty good people.

As for the coralife light, 150w MH would be a little dim for your tank. I have a 150W HQI bulb that I've hung over my 24" deep 120 gallon to see how it would look, for curiousity's sake, and it doesn't look bright enough to me. And that's a geisseman 13000k bulb. those coralife bulbs are not that great, I've heard. Albert at Gold's Aquariums has before and after pictures of when he took all the coralife bulbs out of the fixture on his main reef show tank. It's like night and day.

This is an excellent site for MH bulb research (requires Internet Explorer)
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/

If you really want MH lighting, with the depth of your tank, I'd recommend 250W mh though. Like I said earlier however, your long and narrow tank would be much better lit with T5's compared to MH's. MH reflectors are tuned for 2'x2'ish areas, otherwise you'll be wasting 50% of your light in most cases. You would need 3 metal halides to light it, or 4 six foot bulbs of T5. Replacing the T5 bulbs would work out cheaper in the long run, even if you account for their 9 month life (compared to MH's lasting 12 months when run on electronic ballasts). Not to mention the power savings. 150W of T5 versus 750W of MH for similar light outputs .

check these out:


http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=SL2413
you can get 4 of these. I'm sure Albert at Gold's can order them, because he deals in sunlight supply. It would cost you about $460 for the light system, and about $200 or less for the bulbs, i'm guestimating.

Your light spread would be MUCH better over your tank. Much better light output than three of those coralife fixtures for sure. just make sure you protect your frags initially with window screen on top of egg crate on the top of the tank to prevent them from bleaching. I bleached some of my own softy frags at the BOTTOM of the tank with my own T5 fixture.

Oh and if you properly ventilate your hood, you can get crazy PAR outputs from T5's. I'm probably going to be carving up my own T5 fixture this weekend to put in some computer fans. Read you get like 75% more output just from cooling it!

Originally Posted by Der_Iron_Chef

Hey! I started into this hobby a few months ago, and it's definitely a huge learning curve. This website will teach you more than any book or LFS ever will!

One thing: I spent $400 on live rock, and since that time, I've seen members online here selling theirs for a fraction of the price! Already cured! *sigh* I think you should be patient in acquiring the live rock, because you will then have more money to spend on better lighting and a better skimmer (as everyone has advised already).

agreed... I've spent way too much on my rock heh. I'm looking to get the last of my rock through the bargain finder or the buy/sell forum on here. I read of a dude who set up a 400 gallon tank and only paid like $1000 for all his rock because he got it bit by bit "used"