Thinking of upgrading, few q's

F

fishiefishie

AC Members
Nov 12, 2006
242
0
0
I may have a 55gal being passed to me soon. Before I take it though I wanted to find out if it would work budget-wise.
Mainly lighting. For the soft corals I am just getting into, would a 260w PC fixture be enough? It would have 2 12000 k and 2 blue actinics. That works out to roughly 5w/gallon, but with the depth of the tank (standard 55g), I wasn't sure if it would be enough.
Also, other than 2-3 more powerheads, another bag of sand and 25 lbs of LR, is there anything I would need to add?
On my 20 long I have a HOB filter with purigen, carbon and couple small mangrove plants, a sweeping powerhead and a large HOB skimmer.

Thanks for the help... need to decide kind of quickly as the guy is going to pass it to someone else if I don't take it and he's got to get rid of it soon.

Oh, before I forget, it was used for housing a bearded dragon. I know you can wash it out and use it for FW, but want to make sure about SW.

Thanks, again!
 
The biggest thing I'd check is to make sure it was built to be an aquarium and not a terrarium. The difference will be the thickness of the glass (and perhaps the way it is braced). If it wasn't meant to be an aquarium, there's the risk that it won't be able to support the weight / pressure of being full of water.
 
you only need two decent powerheads total in a 55 gallon. 2 #3 koralias would be sweet. the lighting will be fine. make sure and change those PC bulbs every 6 months or sooner though.
What size is your tank now?
 
I got him to measure the thickness of the glass... it's a hair over 1/4" thick. There is a brace on the top in the middle, he said he couldn't remember if there is one on the bottom and no one was there to help him look.
Does that sound like an aquarium tank?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom