12g Eclipse lighting

[ionracing]

ok so i had a 100g reef tank before so i am pretty knowledgable. i have a 12g eclipse tank that i have switched from tropical to salt. It has 20lbs of live sand and about 10-12lbs of live rock. i am honestly only interested in fish, mushrooms, polyps, and really not much else. The tank comes with a 12w lighting system. The two pc retrofits that will work have either a single 32w bulb or dual 32w bulbs. So the two questions are which lighting sytem should i do and once the retrofit is in the hood how do i keep the water off of it.

[Kerchakone]

I researched lighting for my eclipse 12 for a while. I ended up getting rid of the hood altogether (I ditched the biowheel too and put in a powerhead instead) and buying a current usa sattelite dual 2x40 watt for $90. WIth what you want you could probably get the regular sattelite 40 watt. So far my corals and clam LOVE it.

[InLimbo87]

Its hard to retrofit lighting into those hoods. I started out in this hobby with the Eclipse 12, but found it not to be well suited for reeftanks.

However, Kerchakone is on the right track. I believe going open top with it, with a simple fixture on top would be the way to go.

[Kerchakone]

Need to rearrange the rock and add a little more now, but here's a lighting pic.

[Kerchakone]

Weird, what's sad is that that pic makes it look better than it does in person.

[InLimbo87]

Kerchakone, not to sound harsh here, but you should seriously reconsider having that clam in there. They need very stable water parameters, very strong lighting, and can quickly crash a small tank when they die.

Just a heads up... Tank looks good so far otherwise. I've always liked the shape of the eclipses.

[Kerchakone]

Don't worry about sounding harsh, you won't hurt my feelers.

Water is very stable.
Calcium is high
Alk is 12
ammo/nitrite Always 0
nitrate 5-10
phos 0
pH 8.0
salt 1.024

I didn't even want the clam (still don't care either way). My girlfriend did/does.

I test the water 6 times a week and change the water at a MINIMUM once a week. No changes other than Nitrates (obviously) and alk slowly dropping between changes and calcium doing the same.

[ionracing]

ok i was thinking of ditching the hood altogther and get this lighting system Orbit Aquarium Light Fixture 2 x 40W SunPaq Lamps, 1 Lunar Light & Fan - 20 in. | Compact Fluorescent | Lighting Systems | Aquarium - ThatPetPlace.com but when i found out it was a bit to wide to fit with the stock filtration system i ran into a dead end. So to recap im fine with ditching the hood, buying the lighting system in the addresss above but what are your thoughts on only using a powerhead for water movement and mechanical filtration. I have 20lbs of live sand and 10-11lbs of live rock. I know the ls and lr are my primary filtration but i never went without major mechanical and chemical filtration so you guys give me your thoughts

[flricordia]

Originally Posted by InLimbo87

Kerchakone, not to sound harsh here, but you should seriously reconsider having that clam in there. They need very stable water parameters, very strong lighting, and can quickly crash a small tank when they die.

Just a heads up... Tank looks good so far otherwise. I've always liked the shape of the eclipses.

Sorry to have to agree with InLimbo87 but your lighting for one is not enough for a clam. I do believe with proper care they can be kept in nanos, but the lighting is the issue and MH is really the only way to keep them long term and with a nano heat becomes another issue. It may seem fine now, but it will eventually waste away. You should concider trading it in at your LRS for shrooms or rics or getting MH. You can do a DIY MH 70 wt for about $100 and your clam will thank you.
And your ph is low. Need to keep it at 8.4.

[flricordia]

Originally Posted by ionracing

ok so i had a 100g reef tank before so i am pretty knowledgable. i have a 12g eclipse tank that i have switched from tropical to salt. It has 20lbs of live sand and about 10-12lbs of live rock. i am honestly only interested in fish, mushrooms, polyps, and really not much else. The tank comes with a 12w lighting system. The two pc retrofits that will work have either a single 32w bulb or dual 32w bulbs. So the two questions are which lighting sytem should i do and once the retrofit is in the hood how do i keep the water off of it.

You should go with the highest lighting you can without overheating your tank. I would, as was suggested before, ditch the hood and go with a different light system.

[Kerchakone]

I'm not trying to argue as much as understand. Sunpaq bulbs claim to put out 95ish lumens per watt compared to metal halides average of 60-115 (more around 110ish). I'm running 80 watts at supposedly 90 (lets say) lumens per watt.

That's not as big of a difference supposedly as you guys lead on, misguided as it may be.

I have 6.6 watts per gallon (which is a useless measurement, i know) in a shallow tank with 95ish lumens per watt. To me that sounds like a hell of a lot of light and I wonder how it could get brighter without killing most of my coral that already appear to not like the lighting based on the bullseyes covering up and when moved to full shade open fully. I know on a large deep tank high powered metal halides would be needed, but you still think that I don't have enough light?

[InLimbo87]

Lumens aren't really a good measure when it comes to lighting. What you should really go by is the par rating. I'm not sure on the specifics, but I know it takes a whole lot more PC wattage to reach the par level of metal halides.

(Hopefully someone with a little better technical knowledge can chime in on this one)

[ionracing]

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopo...11881/size/big

here is the pic of the tank to help in the conversation. Any other ideas please tell me know. I really dont want to play with it later after its cycled through

[Kerchakone]

Nobody can explain it to me?

[ramora]

nice little tank.