Advice on Eclipse 3

[evogel]

Hi everyone! I am pretty new at all this (started my first 29 gal at the beginning of 2003). The tank is the Eclipse 3, and after much research, I decided to work on building a reef tank with mostly corals and inverts and a few fish. I have 45 lbs of live rock, from Flying Fish Express, which is really taking off, but I am concerned about my lighting and need some advice. I'd love to get some corals going in a few months or maybe sooner, but right now, the most wattage I could retrofit into the Eclipse hood is a 65w Smartlight. Am I right in assuming this is not enough? I don't plan on going for clams or any tough hard corals, but I'd like to get more in the tank than just mushrooms and leathers. I am guessing that someone here has experience with the Eclipse hood issue. How do I determine how much light I need and then how do I successfully get that over my tank? I am still in grad school, so I don't have a ton of money for mh lighting right now, although I do eventually want to go that route with a bigger tank.

Also, this may sound silly, but can someone please explain frags to me? I have read many websites about them, but am still not sure how they could be incorporated into my tank. Is that something I am just not ready for yet? Please help! Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[MikeP]

EVogel, welcome to MAAST! I'd give you a long dirty explanation on eclipse and lighting retrofits but I'm late for class. For and eclipse hood stock you could probably keep mushrooms, maybe zooanthids and the odd soft coral or two. There are may retrofit kits that are an exact fit for eclipse hood. Check out Coralife, Custom Sealife for products and check out hellolights.com and ahsupply for vendors. Also you can try championlighting.com but frankly that place can have really @#$@$ customer service especially if you don't know what you want - they do have a real nice selection though.

Lastly for specifics on what others have done check out what my fellow nano-reefers have accomplished over at www.nano-reef.com just do a search first to avoid the ESPI monster or post in the beginners forum if you can't find a satisfactory answer.

[utmachete]

sounds like deja-vu for me. Look I've been down this road before and I think that everyone in this club started just like you but this is my recomendation.
1. IF you are stretched for cash and you want to do a reef tank
a. try to sell your eclipse hood
b. try to buy a larger tank (many people are selling tanks now get one that is 55 or higher)
c. get some good lights (pc, vho, halides) it going to cost you the same as a retrofit + selling you eclipse hood.
d. use your small tank as a refugium
e. don't worry about having to buy more live rock you can use other rock and mix it in with your good liverock, it will turn into live rock within a month with good lights.
I'll finish this later got to go to class also.

[evogel]

Well, I agree that 29 gal is a little small, but then I forgot to mention that I am in a third floor apartment right now. You can see my hesitation to go much larger. Also, I don't know how long I'll be in this apartment and wanted to keep it small for moving purposes as well. So for now, I think I am stuck with the small tank. I am considering somehow putting together a canopy that would fit some 2x55 or 2x65 pc lighting, which at least would give me more light than the 65w I have now, but how much difference would that make? I am so glad to find people that have been here before!

[utmachete]

Well I think that your best bet since you are going to move is to stick with the 65 watt. Don't do anything to your tank and then when you move you should get a larger tank. 65 watts should be fine for some soft corals. I had an eclipse 1 on a 37 high when I started out but I spent about $150 fooling with the lights. I had 2 55 watt pcs in the end but I had to clean the bulbs all the time and a couple of times they broke. All my corals did pretty good I didn't see a whole lot of growth but they lived. I had problems with fish in this set-up. I stopped getting fish after I felt like I was turning into a fish natzi. There is some stuff called coral life it comes in a blue bottle. It's by no means the best additive for corals but I used it in my tank and my Ca levels stayed at 400 so you might try that.

I say save your money, when you move give me a call. I can hook you up with a 90 gal reef tank and 30 gal refugium for $550. Now that is a good size tank for a beginner. good price too

[utmachete]

Well I think that your best bet since you are going to move is to stick with the 65 watt. Don't do anything to your tank and then when you move you should get a larger tank. 65 watts should be fine for some soft corals. I had an eclipse 1 on a 37 high when I started out but I spent about $150 fooling with the lights. I had 2 55 watt pcs in the end but I had to clean the bulbs all the time and a couple of times they broke. All my corals did pretty good I didn't see a whole lot of growth but they lived. I had problems with fish in this set-up. I stopped getting fish after I felt like I was turning into a fish natzi. There is some stuff called coral life it comes in a blue bottle. It's by no means the best additive for corals but I used it in my tank and my Ca levels stayed at 400 so you might try that.

I say save your money, when you move give me a call. I can hook you up with a 90 gal reef tank and 30 gal refugium for $550. Now that is a good size tank for a beginner. good price too