I want to start an Aquarium...

oooohh....I see, Gastanker...You wanna order a JBJ to run saltwater still?The 18w PC 50/50 should work well for that, and the 80gph filter would be awesome on the JBJ...I was confused at first, but now I get it...Do you know what you wanna do with the saltwater pico? FOWLR or do you want a reef with coral?

Pretty sure that's what I got, the TOM Deco. I want a dedicated shrimp tank so I was planning on using this tank as a shrimp tank. I'm also curious to try out a small saltwater so I'm thinking I'll order the JBJ picotype to use for saltwater but I'll swap out lights. I have a feeling 18w will grow algae in a 3g planted shrimp tank but it should be good for a 3g salt water - same goes with the filter. What is the JBJ filter rated at? The one that came with my TOM pushes a ton of water - I want to say more than the larger filters I have on my 29 and 40 gals, definitely more than I need for shrimp which have an almost negligible bioload.

150w over 6g seems like over kill to me but more light = more fun right? You can always just raise it a bit if you have algae problems.

lol...the t5 I ordered was was priced to sell, I'm only planning on running 2 of the 4 bulbs at a time, to save on power and prevent too much unwanted algae...Hopefully my refugium, stuffed with chaeto, will suck up all the nitrates and help out...The TOM filter is rated at 80 GPH, the JBJ is rated at 40GPH, so it only turns the water over in the tank 13 times an hour...It's been fine so far, cause I have a powerhead for added circulation, but the JBJ filter is adequate...I almost ordered a TOM Deco as my 2nd BECAUSE it had a better filter and light than the JBJ, but all glass won out in the end, especially since I was already planning on upgrrading the light and filter before I bought the first one...lol...But yeah, 78 watts going over 6 gallons, I'll save 2 bulbs as spares...so 13 watts a gallon? Thats on the high end still, but I'm planning on mounting it high on light hangers for easy maintainence access, hopefully I'll be able to dial it in.

Yeah. I love glass over plastic. Plastic can actually appear clearer if not scratched... but keeping it not scratched is a pain. A few inches hanging distance makes a HUGE difference - here 3" doubles the light intensity -


https://www.rollitup.org/cfl-fluorescent-lighting/489076-cfl-orientation-distance-charts.html

Aquariums make me want to get a PAR meter more so than growing pot ever has lol.

Haha, I know what you mean, the aquarium hobby had my buying a t5 in the first couple months, and I have yet to do that for my veg room...lol...guess what...As we were conversing, they just delivered my light!!!! First pics!!!

And here is the stock pico filter vs. the AC50


Random coral shot


And my other new toy, needed a new adapter ffor my oil rig, and figured out I can hook it up to my vape hose...Awesome hand held hash oil smoking device!

I ordered a custom oil rig for xmas - I'm thinking it'll be several weeks/months before I see it

Tank is looking good. Crazy, I like the looks of the larger filter even though it is larger. Seems more sleek to a degree.

That t5 has 4 bulbs, and you can get them in 6500k...it's 36", 156w, and It cost me about 88 bucks shipped...I think I'm gonna buy another to grow with!!!!! It's awesome, it has 2 seperate ballasts for seperate timers, so you can control 2 sets of 2 bulbs independantly...It also has 4 blue LED "night lights" for the saltwater tank that are on a seperate power supply, so they can runj on a different timer as well!

I'm loving it sooooo much so far, and I just barely unwrapped it and turned it on...

The AC50, the bigger filter, I modded that overflow screen into place, but it's a good filter!

Loving my new light, 2nd pico now has a CUC munching on a diatom bloom, and I finished my sump...Now I just gotta fine tune my overflows, get some Krylon fusion, and we're in business!! It's gonna be nice, it's going to like double the water volume for both tanks!

So, I set up my sump, haven't hooked it up top the picos yet....Also figured out the return, and I gottaa say I'm pretty pleased at the way things are turning out!

One bump to bring the fresh pics to the top of the page...

So here threy are, side by side with a 4 x 39w T5 over them, but I'm only running two bulbs ATM...one 10,000k and one Actinic




Here's a FTS of the pico I started first




Here's the new pico, sand is still settling...




Here's the sump, not hooked up yet, cloudy water cause I just added more Live Sand






And my new coral, a couple mushrooms and zoanthids...the zoa's were still closed, this is right after gluing the frag down to my LR...They look sweet now, all open with orange centers and neon green "eyelashes"

Nice can't wait to start me another one yeah gobies are hella kewl I had a male and a female. How you tell is the fin on one on its back is longer then the other if I remember right the long fin one is the male. My buddy still has my 75 gal system running which is in its 8th yr now. Very kewl crazy just staring at that shit and yes I know what you mean best time with the night lights on the shrimps and all that shit comes out to play. Take care buddy. Roll tru sometime. Stay Lit!!

Right on bro! I'm loving my picos, hope you get something started soon!! How you liking the HID lighting for growing?
I'm loving this shit, no more cfl's for me! (well, maybe for veg till I get some new T5's

that looks dope good job the lighting is beauty

meechz 024 said:

that looks dope good job the lighting is beauty

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Thanks, believe it or not, that is a 4 bulb high output 36" T5 over them, WHICH, I might add, I got new for 80 bucks shipped...I'm gonna buy another one with 6500k bulbs(an option they offer) for my veg tent soon!

Bored at work, rare down time...where all my aquarium folks at?

Tanks are looking great! I've been patiently waiting for my tiny tiny super slow growing plants to grow in. Blah.

Thats crazy! They're not covered with water? Very neat, still thinking about a saltwater tank? Btw, I added a moss ball to the freshwater tank... Not one of the cheap petco ones either, the real deal straight from Poland...lol

Metasynth said:

Thats crazy! They're not covered with water? Very neat, still thinking about a saltwater tank? Btw, I added a moss ball to the freshwater tank... Not one of the cheap petco ones either, the real deal straight from Poland...lol

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The dwarf baby tears is a real pain and grows super super slowly unless it has high high light and high CO2. By growing it dry there is no water to decrease the light intensity and the plants are exposed to much higher levels of CO2 than I could achieve in my water. No need to worry about algae growth either It's a real pain though having a tank for so long that I can't fill with water. I'm still interested in a salt water tank but it's not the priority atm and I'm about to have a pretty full plate.