lighting and general Q's

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A

-[AnThOnY]-

AC Members
Jun 12, 2008
237
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New Orleans, LA
Ok so i just picked up a 47 gallon (very) tall :), its 18wx20lx30h, anybody know where i can get a light fixture small enough to fit the top but still have enough light to actually do anything. Im planning to set this up for my girlfriend for her birthday, she has no idea :perv: but im excited i got a really good deal on the tank so hopefully i can get good deals on other stuff

Will being building a stand for it too, so im all about the DIY aspect, if anyone knows a way i can make my own lighting fixtures, if that would be cheaper

right know she has an 18 gallon hex that i gave her about 6 months ago, she has 3 damsels, a spotted mandarin and 2 cardinal fish, thats going really well. With this new one im going to be stocking with 2 seahorses (not sure what type yet) her mandarin, going to have to get rid of the damsels (store credit :)) and hopefully can keep the cardinals but they might be a little too excited to keep with the sea horses

any help with the lighting or any general help would be awesome

Anthony

so far with lighting the best i got was this
http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~idProduct~SL1533.html
its 11in x 11.5in x 5in so that would be more than small enough, but i dont know whats best
 
Ace25

Ace25

www.centralcoastreefclub. com
Oct 3, 2005
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www.centralcoastreefclub.com
For lighting, if your just sticking with fish any light that you can make fit and makes the tank look pleasing is fine, which if your doing seahorses, more likely you are doing just fish only because seahorses and "reef" don't really go hand in hand. That light that you linked to while it is a good light, would be very excessive on a seahorse tank. You can get away with a much cheaper light if you wanted, although you could get that light at put a 20k bulb in it and it would also work very very well... a little too well for just seahorses.

Seahorses hate flow where as corals love it. It does actually sound like an ideal size tank for seahorses though which is a rarity that someone has the correct type of tank for the species they want to keep (your case TALL tank). Usually someone finds a good deal on a tank that is used, then trying to make fish they want work in that tank.

Cardinals and mandarins (also Pipefish) are probably the only fish you could keep with seahorses, but I will admit, I have ZERO experience with seahorses myself so please don't take that statement as absolute truth. Just knowing the nature of both cardinals and mandarins makes me believe they would be ok in a mature (big copepod population) tank.
 
7itanium

7itanium

AC Members
Jan 31, 2009
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Spokane, WA
if its fish only... the light doesnt really need to be that intense-- any 18" light will be fine

if you are doing a planted tank... go buy a different one- as this is a horrible size to use as a planted tank
 
A

-[AnThOnY]-

AC Members
Jun 12, 2008
237
0
0
New Orleans, LA
thats the reason i got the tank because it was so tall, it was perfect for this, for the most part i was going to do just fish, was also going to get a small starfish most of the time they are good with sea horses unless they are big then they are known to actually take down and kill them, was going to do a little live rock, not gonna do any coral, was going to make a "wall" type structure in the back and i wanted to try on both sides of that to find some tall sea weed type plant that would give the sea horses a nice area to grab onto with their tails, but i dont know what i can actually find that will be that tall
 
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