New W/Pics of 29g. NEED HELP!!!

[kwest]

Condy's arent the best choice. They are cheap, thats about the only upside i can think of. They will tend to move about the tank and sting anything it will come into contact with. Another downside is they require alot of light. Also, Condy's dont naturally host clowns. Some times clarkii's and tomatos will host them but not always.

Your best bet to break into nems would be a bubble tip anemone E.quadricolor. They host the largest range of clowns (dam near all of them iirc) They dont require as much light as other nems and once they find a happy place in the tank they tend to stay put and not go on walkabout. Since your light output isnt that high, id suggest putting the nem about halfway up the tank in the rockwork. If you put its foot near a crevice or hole in the rockwork it will have the best chance of attaching. My BTA hasnt moved an inch since he was introduced into the tank. Just make sure you give it some indirect flow and let it go from there..

Ok thanks for the input. I loooove these anemones. And i have heard to they are very hardy and easy to care for. Im glad you said the things u did about the condy, i wont be getting him in the future. So as for my lighting, what and how can i upgrade it? will a 10,000k bulb work better or a 6500k? isnt the 6500 more natural sun like? or what can i do to get upgraded and stronger lighting if i want to do more corals? Im getting some starter polyps and small mushrooms the local fish store ordered me so i duno if that helps. Thanks

[kwest]

Good lord, im trying to do some research but not coming out well. What can i do to upgrade my lighting? im in desperate need of something better then the yellow looking things i got now

[kwest]

Would this work for my system? http://www.petmeister.com/item2918.htm

Or this one?   http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?category=Coralife_Aqualight_PowerCompact_Linear_Retrofit_Kit_24_Inch_Power_Compact_Retrofit_Kits&vendor=Coralife&idProduct=ES53202&IdCategory=FILTRTRPTF&child=ES53202&tab=0&size=24%22%20(2%20lamp)

Seems to be the right thing for me, 2-65watt bulbs would put me at over 4 watts per gallon, which is above the general rule right? Is the 2nd kit more towards what i need? and is there any wireing involved, or just plug and play? Thanks

I have the eclipse 3 hood system, 29 gallon tank, uses 2 24inch 18w T8 bulbs. I really wanna get some better light in this thing asap.

[psykokid]

whats the width on that aquarium? Is it a standard square or is it a mini bowfront? if its square you can upgrade to an 30" fixture of some sort with legs. There are 3 types of bulbs that tend to be used in the saltwater aquarium hobby: Metal Halide, Power Compact,and T5 Fluorescent. Metal Halide lamps are the hottest running of the group and the most power hungry. Lots of options with different wattages, bulb colour temperatures, and design (SE or DE) Then you come to power compacts. Basically a power compact is a T5 wrapped back upon itself. A little less power hungry that Halides, but not as efficient as single T5's. Less bulb selection for the reef aquarium. You are basically stuck with 420NM actinic, 460NM actinic and 10,000K actinic or some combonation of two on one bulb. T5's tend to be the most efficient power wise with a great selection of bulbs. Only drawback with them is you need a good reflector behind each bulb you have. Confuse yet? good here's some more..

They also make lighting fixtures with metal halides and either power compacts or T5's so you can ge the best of both worlds. Some are better than others. Keep an eye out for used bits that people are selling. You can usually pick things up for at least half off the original price. Craigslist can be your friend when looking for used reefing gear.

[psykokid]

something along the lines of this would do you well. Plenty of light for your tank, you will remove the stock hood and get better evaporative cooling as well. The only downside to good evaporative cooling is the need to top off often. Adding a little water is a small price to pay for not having to chunk down 250+ on a chiller

[kwest]

question again, i know some advised not to, btu they were cheap and easy to care for, not needing any light so i added some small mushrooms and some type of polyps today. But it came with a white bag of goo, what is this? is this the food for them? i thought they were photosynthetic? Also, im in a hurry now but ill read your posts asap. im looking to upgrade my lighting asap...

[kwest]

Hmm...hat means if have to take my hood pretty much off of my tank now then? It's the eclipse 3 hood. So Ima have to break or cut off my stock lighting. That sucks. Wish I woulda jus bought the red sea setup. Damn. Ok so it looks like the power compact coralife with 2 65watt lights should work? Should I go 10,000k and a actinic?

[psykokid]

gah, it was late when i posted and forgot to add the link:

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?category=AquaticLife_T5_HO_Light_Fixture_W_Lunar_LEDs_24_Inch_T5_Fluorescent_Light_Fixtures&vendor=AquaticLife&idProduct=AK01035&IdCategory=FILTFIT54U&child=AK01151&tab=0&size=30%20Inch%20(4%20x%2024%20watt)

or like this :

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem.aspx?category=_20_Inch_T5_Fluorescent_Light_Fixtures&vendor=Current_USA&idProduct=CU01136&IdCategory=FILTFIT5T5&child=CU01137&tab=0&size=30%22

The first one i posted is a bit more, but has timers and moon lights built in. And you can set the timers individually so you can really tweak your photo period. That would give you about 3.5 watts per gallon which is a good amount of light for the size of your tank.

Is your tank square or more of a pseudo bow front, i'm not familiar with the glass eclipse tanks. I have an old acrylic system 3 that im using as a fuge at the moment and its sort of a mini bow is why i'm asking..

[Just_Greg]

to be honest, Eclipse hoods don't do anything well...lighting or filtration.  unless you want to change both, you're kinda stuck with the limitations of the hood.  i had a 12 gal Eclipse tank i used as a QT briefly, and it ended up in the trashcan within a year.  10k K is the best color temp for zooxanthellate critters, BTW. 

if you really want to keep a condy at its best, i suggest MH lighting.  there's no comparison to the intensity (in terms of Lumens) of MH versus even T-5's.  i'm not necessarily a gung-ho MH lover, but i do know the lighting requirements of condy nems.

[Bergy]

not sure i understand some of your posts..

do you have the anemone yet or not???

and even though your water parameters are good today, does not mean things are good to go... and ready to stock..

stocking should be done slowly and over time...  do not rush an dbuy a bunch of stuff, cause what might look okay today/this week, does not eman it will survive the month... and by that time, yo umay have already spent a chunk of change and worst yet, exposed the new stuff to problems that didnt exist at the same day you ordered it, when yo uhad the good water conditions...

And your light is seriously inadequate...

removing the hood/canopy is not that hard and you dont need to break anything... it should all come off easily, and or snap on and off...

Try to locate a USED metal halide fixture... look for VIPER light or other light fixture like it...  VIPER is distrubted by JBJ

most everything you have or just got, will not do well with the lights you have...

Again, this is part of the reason you dont go out and drop a chunk of change based on the lfs water test.

And actually you should drop some money on geting your own test kits and learning how to test and what they mean, and what they mean when they are off...

Anything less then that, and you are dependant on on someone else who has no libility in giving you wrong/misleading info, and then profiting when they sell you something, even when it dont survive, they will sell it to you again, and again...  and they will have a smile on thier face when they do it..

also, your mismatched clowns wont pair... they have to look alike...  although i have seen some that may play together, they wont mate and truly wont pair..

[kwest]

ok guys, ive been talking with my local fish store today alot and finally got irrated with things. I realise i should have never bought this setup, but im glad i did. Of course when i bought it i thought it was a great starter setup to do what i want to do. I was wrong. It cant do nothing i want to do with it. If i wanted to just have a handful of fish id be fine, but not working for anything i want to accomplish. So after talking with them, I talked them into taking my entire eclipse setup off my hands and getting me the hookup on the entire Red Sea setup with the black stand,34gallon. So next week they are coming out i believe on wednesday, and are picking up mine, transfering all the water, sand, my blenny, rocks and stuff and then ill be happy with a setup i wont have to add antyhing too. My lighting will be efficient for any corals i want, ill get a nicer looking stand, a built in protein skimmer, and all power cords built into it. Im so excited, wish i wouldnt have wasted the time and money, but now i know what i need to do and definetly have learned from experience.

[kwest]

my only dilema, is i got suckered into ordering a small bubble anenome, so i gotta try and keep it alive for like 4 days till i get the efficient lighting of the Red Sea kit. Im getting the Red Sea Max130 kit, http://www.charterhouse-aquatics.co.uk/catalog/images/red_sea_max/red-sea-max-250d.gif

What yall think? a good move?

[TheBluefish]

Hey,

Not to be rude but I promise you are trading one headache for another. I did the same thing you did when I got into this 4-5 years ago. I tried the Eclipse system too. In my opinion the best thing to do is stay away from these kind of systems all together for any kind of reef setup. For the money you have/will spend on these you could get yourself a nice little 60 gallon setup and slowly built on it. The biggest problem you are going to continually encounter is being restricted to the hood and filtration system on these kind of "reef in a box" systems. Please, please, please do not buy this system, don't let them talk you into another quick fix. You can get a tank this size by itself for peanuts you are a paying for a convenience that will end up falling short of your needs. I can say 80% of the livestock pictured in the tank would not do well in that setup. Where do you live and what fish store are you shopping at? Let us help you!

-Nick

[TheBluefish]

yes... I remember you now. You should really try to take some of our advise. It sounds like your LFS is trying to nickle and dime you. What exactly is the goal you are setting for you tank? Knowing this will help us help you. Keep in mind we are not trying to sell you anything but your LFS is. I promise we have all scene this before and I personally went through it myself. Learn from our mistakes.

Hey kwest,

Welcome to the hobby and the site. FYI I had the same setup you have when I started about five years ago. Trust me when I say dont buy your live rock at petco. Most of the time you can get a much better price and better selection at your local saltwater fish store, the same goes for your saltwater.  Petco is a rip. The first upgrade I did on my system was lighting. I picked up a retro fit PC light. I mounted it in the first flap/lid on the hood. I glued a cut of wood to the inside and screwed the new lighting to that. I ran the original light along side of it until I picked up another retro fit then I removed the original lighting and replaced it with the second retro fit.

Next I did away with the filter. I kept the hood but I cut the filter out with a rotzip and put in a hang on overflow box that drained into a wet/dry in the stand. Save yourself a load of money and look for a DIY on the wet/dry. They are very easy to make. If you do it right you can keep the nice clean look of the hood and still have all the right stuff running. Let me know if you need any help. Best advise, take your time, do it right the first time and enjoy the process.

Best,
Nick

Hmm...hat means if have to take my hood pretty much off of my tank now then? It's the eclipse 3 hood. So Ima have to break or cut off my stock lighting. That sucks. Wish I woulda jus bought the red sea setup. Damn. Ok so it looks like the power compact coralife with 2 65watt lights should work? Should I go 10,000k and a actinic?

[kwest]

So yall are saying the red sea max system 130d is not a very good system? It has about 4warts per gallon, built in protein skimmer and all the other goodies. Seems to me like it would be a great system