Hello!
I've been haunting the FW forums here, on and off for about 6 years, and now that I finally have something running again (4 year hiatus), I'm starting to get my old SW itch again (and it's real itchy lol). The thing is, I'm in grad school now and am on a pretty tight budget for the next year or two, so I'd like to keep start-up and maintenance costs down. Therefore, I'm leaning towards setting up a nano-reef and finally taking the salty plunge after almost 9 years (and scratching that itch!).
I was hoping you regular reefers could help me out with some ideas I've been throwing around in my head.
The livestock I'm considering consists of ~10-12lb live rock, zoanthids, mushrooms, some soft corals like leather, finger, or Xenia, maybe a tube worm or seastar, and some typical clean up crew critters. The equipment I'm looking at so far includes:
-Maxi-Jet 600 or ZooMed Powersweep 212 for circulation
-50W heater (likely a Rena Cal)
-AC 200 I've had sitting around for years
-lighting?
The lighting is the main issue of course. I first considered a DIY hood consisting of a combination of daylight and 10,000K screw-in CF lamps but that seemed to be too much hassle and not as cost-efffective as I'd originally anticipated. Another annoying thing is that lighting here in Canada seems to be pretty pricey. So now, I'm looking at either 2x28W Coralife Aqualights each with a 50/50 lamp, a 40W Sunpaq w/ Lunar, or a 24" 65W 50/50 lamp (all the lamps seem to include 50/50s).
So I'm wondering, with the kinds of animals I want to keep, which lighting option do you think is best? Would I be able to get away with a 40W Sunpaq? Those lamps are quite economical when it comes to replacements, it seems. If I went the 2x28W option, would the fact that the 13" lamp length play an important factor in where I could place corals? Lastly, even though the 65W doesn't fit over a 10 gallon, the bulb is about as long, do you think I could place a 65W fixture to adequately illuminate the aquarium?
Sorry it's a wordy post but I want to make sure I make the right choice in lighting and gear before I go off the deep end, so to speak.
Many thanks in advance!
I've been haunting the FW forums here, on and off for about 6 years, and now that I finally have something running again (4 year hiatus), I'm starting to get my old SW itch again (and it's real itchy lol). The thing is, I'm in grad school now and am on a pretty tight budget for the next year or two, so I'd like to keep start-up and maintenance costs down. Therefore, I'm leaning towards setting up a nano-reef and finally taking the salty plunge after almost 9 years (and scratching that itch!).
I was hoping you regular reefers could help me out with some ideas I've been throwing around in my head.
The livestock I'm considering consists of ~10-12lb live rock, zoanthids, mushrooms, some soft corals like leather, finger, or Xenia, maybe a tube worm or seastar, and some typical clean up crew critters. The equipment I'm looking at so far includes:
-Maxi-Jet 600 or ZooMed Powersweep 212 for circulation
-50W heater (likely a Rena Cal)
-AC 200 I've had sitting around for years
-lighting?
The lighting is the main issue of course. I first considered a DIY hood consisting of a combination of daylight and 10,000K screw-in CF lamps but that seemed to be too much hassle and not as cost-efffective as I'd originally anticipated. Another annoying thing is that lighting here in Canada seems to be pretty pricey. So now, I'm looking at either 2x28W Coralife Aqualights each with a 50/50 lamp, a 40W Sunpaq w/ Lunar, or a 24" 65W 50/50 lamp (all the lamps seem to include 50/50s).
So I'm wondering, with the kinds of animals I want to keep, which lighting option do you think is best? Would I be able to get away with a 40W Sunpaq? Those lamps are quite economical when it comes to replacements, it seems. If I went the 2x28W option, would the fact that the 13" lamp length play an important factor in where I could place corals? Lastly, even though the 65W doesn't fit over a 10 gallon, the bulb is about as long, do you think I could place a 65W fixture to adequately illuminate the aquarium?
Sorry it's a wordy post but I want to make sure I make the right choice in lighting and gear before I go off the deep end, so to speak.
Many thanks in advance!
