55 Gallon Progress

[Embowe]

So far my cycle has been progressing "as scheduled"...my ammonia spiked a little over a week ago and has been on the fall since (its about .3 now) My nitrites are on the rise but show no sign of dropping yet (5.0+) .... Just waiting for everything to settle out so I can start thinking of a clean-up crew...I still need to decide on lights. I am tossed up between the Odyssea MH setup from Aquatraders (read the whole thread and willing to give them a try) or a set of T5's from Catalina (6x54w bulbs w/ indivudal reflectors)....I figure on going mostly LPS with mabey a clam...My only concern is the amount of heat I am going to get with the MH setup...as I really dont want to invest in a chiller...Here it is as it sits today, excuse the cloudy water..just did a little aquascaping....
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g312/embowe/IMG_2262.jpg

[MR PALM BEACH]

Nice aquascaping, good luck with the build.

[papagimp]

Looking good, keep us posted.
The aquatraders light would work fine, same with the t5's, but just to give ya little reference, I've got a 6 bulb t5 fixture over a 55g at the moment (teklight), I rarely turn on the last 2 bulbs though, 4 is more than enough, even for a clam. Both this fixture and my MH's from aquatraders heat up about the same, not much difference, I use a simple desk clamp on fan i picked up at walmart, makes all the difference in the world. Tank sits around 82 at the warmest part of the day, no central heat/ac either, so i think you'd be fine with either option.

[Embowe]

You really think a 4bulb t5 setup would allow me to keep a clam?...I figured I would want atleast 6 bulbs ....it would be great if I could get away with a NOVA 4bulb...I just know I want/need indivudal reflectors....

[papagimp]

ON a 55g, definatly. I had a very nice crocea for some time, sold him though and the guy who got it killed it quickly (he was using 4 x 110w VHO's but I"m sure the bulbs were old as they come)

I had trouble keeping mushrooms in my 55g cause the T5's were just too bright for em. I've since gone with all softies/leathers in this tank and moved all my LPS/SPS to another system, since the move, i've had to hang my fixture about 10" above the water to get the desired results with a tank full of shrooms, leathers, toadstools, zoo's, stuff like that, easy to keep low/med light stuff.

Another thing to consider, some clams, such as the deresa's can handle lower light than the crocea's which are a very high light intensive invert. But I'm sure 4 bulbs would be fine. A friend of mine just stuck up 6 bulbs on her 225g tank and keeps plenty of SPS under them.

One last tidbit of info, may wanna consider this: I purchased the 6 bulb fixture with the intent on upgrading my tank sometime in the future. When I finally got my 75g setup going, we actually used the 6 bulbs on that for awhile, then stuck it back on the 55g so I could try out some MH's instead. going from 6 x t5 to 2 x 250w MH's and i had to move some species higher in the tank. I even stuck a 3rd 250w on the 75g a week or so ago to make up for the T5's not being on there, now it's looking more comparable to how it was. (bulbs on the mh are questionable though, may be old, PFO ballast on two of em, Icecap on the 3rd) But to the point, getting a 6 bulb fixture now will allow for some upgrding in the future....as we reefers like to do, lol.

[Embowe]

How long can I expect until my nitrites start dropping....I forget how long it took on my last tank...

[chatyak]

It is different for every tank depending on how cured your stuff is etc...

[colotl]

papagimp,
Where in the tank did you place your crocea and how far was the fixture from the water? Just curious cause I have one and would like to move him down so I can see the green color instead of purple.