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  #1  
Old 03/28/2006, 01:45 AM
.223NATO .223NATO is offline
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This ones a doozie!

I will start off by saying I'm brand new to this hobby and new to this site. I have found many things here very informative and helpful in my expedition into reef keeping. So heres the scoop:
I started out by buying a 100 gallon aquarium from a company called Aquagiant. They mostly specialize in freshwater equipment and sales but I thought their products were very nice and quite well priced. Well as I soon found out a little miss-information and unsureness and I was up the creek without a paddle. Aquagiant tanks come with a canopy specifically made for their tanks. They are seemless glass aquariums which means they have rounded corners on them. Now they have a door the length of the hood at the rear which houses two small pump filters which just basically give you room for some media and mechanical filtration. Also the lighting which is built in only houses three fourty watt bulbs. Now I started off only thinking that I was going to do a fish only aquarium so I didn't think the lighting was a big deal and I just added two fairly large no-name canister filters (which work great by the way) and there, I was done I had everything I needed for my fish only aquarium. Now being a student and not having a lot of money I decided to "seed" 100 pounds of the coralife reef rock with thirty pounds of premium fiji live rock. This has been working quite well (but slowly) and I adeed some shrimp and a few clown fish and inverts that are all reef safe. I then decided my aquarim was too bland with no corals and was told with the lighting I had that I could simply add some zoos and some toadstools, etc. Now these seem to be doing great so far (about three weeks) but now I have decided to get a little deeper into it and add some lighting. My problem is I have no room under my hood to add any and everything is already built in so I'm left with a bit of a situation. Now also when I started I was told a fish only setup wouldn't ever require a protein skimmer which I'm really wishing I had put in. Now I have no rooom to fit any hoses into my tank for a potein skimmer (or a sump for that matter) and I don't think I have enough lighting.... Any suggestions would be appreciated.
  #2  
Old 03/28/2006, 02:22 AM
ChunksInClemson ChunksInClemson is offline
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Ouch!! Seems like ya should have done a little more research on aquariums! With that said, we're still left with this problem. To be honest, I would probably try to sell the tank and start over from scratch. I know that is not what you want, but if you want corals, etc. then this tank isn't gonna cut it IMO. You're gonna have to have a protein skimmer, no way around it. How old is this tank? How easy is this canopy to take off? Have any pics?
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  #3  
Old 03/28/2006, 02:28 AM
jpfelix jpfelix is offline
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gut the canopy and put in some t-5's. you may be stuck without a skimmer.
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  #4  
Old 03/28/2006, 02:29 AM
bertoni bertoni is offline
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[welcome]

Well, some people have nice tanks without skimmers, but a skimmer is a very good safety net. I use them on all but the smallest tanks.

What is the wattage and bulb count?

How big is the tank? Can you post a picture or a link to some information?
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  #5  
Old 03/28/2006, 07:41 AM
Dastank Dastank is offline
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I had a similar problem with a canopy on my tank. I built the stand and top myself and was sick at the thought of having a manufactured hood on my tank. I did a lot of research and size comparisons. I went with a T5 setup and the light is incredible. It took a little modification inside the hood, but you can get a lot of light in a hood with T5s.

As far as the protein skimmer, I have one tank with and one without. Both are doing great, but I always change a little extra water in my non-skimmer tank. No problems so far.

Good luck!
  #6  
Old 03/28/2006, 12:23 PM
.223NATO .223NATO is offline
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The tank is two and a half months old now. The canapy is very easy to take on and off the problem is it jus tlooks so damn good! haha I suppose I could make one... the problem is going to be with the rounded corners...... It has three 40 watt bulbs on it right now and MY Digital camera is busted so I can't get pics right now sorry... I may be able to borrow one from a friend though... I will keep you guys posted... thanks for the input!
  #7  
Old 03/28/2006, 12:27 PM
.223NATO .223NATO is offline
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http://www.aquagiant.com/index.html this is what my tank looks like....
  #8  
Old 03/28/2006, 12:55 PM
Puffdragon Puffdragon is offline
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Is there room to put an Ice Cap 660 ballast on the back of the tank then rewire for VHO. The bulb you are using are the same size as 4' VHO bulbs and with those 4 bulbs you have 440 watts
instead of 160. This will cost you though. an Ice Cap ballast is about $160.00 and the bulbs run about $20.00 piece. The ballast you are using is probably smaller than the Ice Cap. For the skimmer, the only thing I see is drilling the tank. Tough call on that one.
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  #9  
Old 03/28/2006, 01:12 PM
Jeff_edge540 Jeff_edge540 is offline
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Ok - here is my recommendation (after looking at the aquagiant website). Loose the hood. That is your issue.
Hang a light from the ceiling (either VHO/T5, PC or MH). I'm assuming you have the 125gal (48" wide). There is a bunch of good lights already prefab'd for a 48" aquarium.
Us a hang-on-back style overflow to a sump where you will house a protein skimmer. You could even hang the overflow on the side of the aquarium.
Problem solved.

Beautiful tank by the way.
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  #10  
Old 03/29/2006, 12:42 AM
bertoni bertoni is offline
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If you can fit a T5 or VHO system with good reflectors into the hood, that would support a fairly wide range of corals. Otherwise, I agree with ditching the canopy.
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