saltwater newbie attempting a 55 gallon reef

[BTB0923]

that's good to hear about the powerhead, sand level should be fine and look's great in the pic's for the Fuge lighting I just have a regular aquarium PC nothing special because it's a place for zooplankton and they don't need bright light just a regular cheap PC. The flood light will be fine until you get a regular PC just watch to make sure it don't affect the temp.

mr.reef24

PC= Power Compact, right? Am I going to be able to find a PC bulb that will fit in the 75 watt clamp-on fixture pictured in my previous post??

 

[BIGgourami]

i thought you were using a T5?

 

[BTB0923]

i thought you were using a T5?

I am using a T5 for the display tank. I'm going to get that light next Saturday. The light I'm talking about right now is a second fixture for the refugium part of the sump. You can see it in the pics a few posts back.

 

[BIGgourami]

ah...
so the sump is a 75?

i didn't see a link or anything for a light... but if it's a 2x 24" fixture you'll find them no problem
if it's a single 48" i don't think i've ever seen a 48" PC bulb

 

[BTB0923]

Actually the sump is only a 20. The display tank is only 55 gallons so a 75 gallon sump might be a bit overkill

The light is a screw-in lightbulb type deal with a clamp to attach it to the side of the sump. Like I said before, you can see it in the pics I attached a few posts back.

EDIT: did you mean the sump light at 75 watts?? I think I may be misinterpreting your post

 

[mr.reef24]

PC= Power Compact, right? Am I going to be able to find a PC bulb that will fit in the 75 watt clamp-on fixture pictured in my previous post??

yeah PC is power compact you could go to your LFS and buy a 5 gallon PC light for probably around $20.00.

mr.reef24

 

[BTB0923]

I would like to get a bulb that I can screw in to the 75 watt max fixture I already have. These are being referred to as "mini" compact...does that mean they aren't the same? or will any of these bulbs work?:

http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=1444/form_keyword=mini%20compact%20bulbs/rd=1/skd=1/st=query

Does zooplankton really have light requirements or does it just come down to how aesthetically pleasing you want the lights to be?

 

[mr.reef24]

I would like to get a bulb that I can screw in to the 75 watt max fixture I already have. These are being referred to as "mini" compact...does that mean they aren't the same? or will any of these bulbs work?:

http://about.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=1444/form_keyword=mini%20compact%20bulbs/rd=1/skd=1/st=query

Does zooplankton really have light requirements or does it just come down to how aesthetically pleasing you want the lights to be?

well most of my tank's I use to breed zooplankton have varied condition's but all have regular PC's and mostly a slow flow through them and I feed Phytoplankton quite often along with having some nice macro algae in there and rubble rock. I utilize a deep sand bed and keep the temp. around 78F and salinity around 1.022 and PH at 8.3 and have great success.

mr.reef24

 

[BTB0923]

The replacement part for my leaky RO/DI unit showed up! I've got it on there and no more leaks but I'm still having a couple issues. Seems like the storage tank is not filling up very fast if at all and I am using a lot of waste water. I'm going to have to let it run for a day or so before I can be sure its not working correctly though.

At least I finally have RO water to use to top off my tank. I'm having what seems like a LOT of evaporation every day. This may be normal, I'm not sure...but it seems like I am having to put almost a quarter gallon of new RO water in daily to keep up with evaporation. Does that seem like a lot? I'm afraid the salinity fluctuations might pose problems in the future. I'll post water level before and after pics later.

Also, I've found the bulb I want to use over my refugium...

 

[BTB0923]

I'll post water level before and after pics...

Is this a normal rate of evaporation?? The first one is the "default" water level where salinity is perfect, the second pic is about 30 hours later.....