46gallon bow front

my future 46 gallon bow front saltwater tank .i gave all my freshwater supplies to my son for his tank so im now going 100% no doubt saltwater.

i wont be doing the sump thing on this tank due to space, so i have to figure out another option .

im gonna ask questions and update the post as i go .

current equipment i have to work with:

x2 maxi jet 1200 powerheads
1- 550 powerhead
penguin 330 power filter (possible refugium)
coralife 36 " light with 2 6700k 96 watt lights
x2 plug in type boxes with 2-blue leds, looks cool when th lights are out . (unknow brand)




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oooh new tank! definitely do your research on lighting. I have a 36 bowfront FW planted tank, and I thought the light fixture I ordered was going to be good enough. However, because of the tank's depth, and the bow, the light doesn't penetrate as deep as I was expecting, and the bowed area is a deadspot for lighting. I'm sure this will be important for you if you keep any coral or inverts.

thanks for the advice i updated my equipment and light specs, dont know the model number it came with the tank ,can i upgrade the bulbs if i need to later?

i think it sounds like you have power compact lighting. That's what I have, and have my lighting issues. But I just thought of this: If you stack up your live rock fairly high, you might be able to get away with putting your inverts higher up to be closer to the lights if they need more lighting. Since my planted tank is pretty much at the bottom, I'm having more issues than you would. You might be lucky there, and hopefully someone with saltwater knowledge/experience can confirm!

Take the filter's out of the Penguin but leave the bio wheels. Fill the back of the filter with LR from a local saltwater shop and make a refugium just like you said. Your still going to want something for biological filtration though, A.K.A something to filter out debris.

thanks for th advise guys , ehat do you recommend for bio filtration?

ok hers a shot of the led light i was talking about anyone know who makes these? you can see in the pic on the left the reflection of the other one and what it look like when on.

Those look to be like LED moonlights. you can set them on a timer for when the main lighting goes out, these turn on, gives the tank a moonlit glow. Some say it's helpful for the nocturnal timing of some inverts and fish, idk. Looks cool though LOL

I have no advice but am watching closely this thread.

fishface30 wrote:

Those look to be like LED moonlights. you can set them on a timer for when the main lighting goes out, these turn on, gives the tank a moonlit glow. Some say it's helpful for the nocturnal timing of some inverts and fish, idk. Looks cool though LOL

yea i was hoping someone may know who makes them , i have 2 right now and was looking to find 1 more that would be great

I have a 46 gallon acrylic bowfront still in the box been sitting in my extra room for a 1.5 yrs now lol i need to get it set up

wblueus, 1.5 yrs. really??? what in the world have ya been waiting on???

I've seen those moonlights before, but for some reason they're not around. Either they redesigned the casing or discontinued, but I've checked 4 online sites and they don't have those particular ones anymore. good thing there are other LED moonlights out there nowadays.

yea ive been looking to cant seem to find them

Found it! I was looking trhough sites for a light fixture retrofit and saw it. it's at the bottom of the site:

http://www.aquariumarts.com/lighting.html

fishface30 wrote:

Found it! I was looking trhough sites for a light fixture retrofit and saw it. it's at the bottom of the site:

http://www.aquariumarts.com/lighting.html

Thank you , very much i just about gave up on looking . Your the man :)

Well plans changed again. Decided to build a stand & canopy for the tank.

The store bought tank stand that came with the stand has a lil wobble from side to side .ive tightened up the lock screws or whatever there called but still has lil movement ,it scares me to be honest not real bad but i dont wanna take the risk.
I also decided to make a stand just in case i decide to go the sump route.

I do have a question on building the canopy though, what height should i make it?i plan on using my coralife fixture as is , making the front of the canopy hinged and the top plywood except where the light would sit i was thinking using plexiglass lying on top of 1/2 plywood support brace. Would this be ok?

I ran a 29 sumpless and found hob skimmer/refugium worked quite nice. In my new setup I've come to love ATO system so much I'd never go away from sump.

RUSS722, i just finished building a tank stand for my 180 gal. myself. gonna post pics, as soon as i figure it out.

koolaid68 wrote:

wblueus, 1.5 yrs. really??? what in the world have ya been waiting on???

waiting on $$ for all the inside stuff LOL and more important i just got married with 3 kids and i have a tiny house and nowhere to put it now LOL

lil update here , finally gotten my stand bult . its not perfect but does the job. made this stand because the factory stand that came with the tank had a slight wobble and i just didnt wanna risk it, the bottom board is still drying and ill add it later. theres room down there for a 30 gallon tank if i decide to go sump later .

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Tank is up and runnng , just waiting on the water to clear.




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Hows the set-up coming along??

So far so good, i actually feel like i know what im doing i least i hope i do lol . water cleared up and i now have my raw shrimp in the tank ready to get the cycle started .that brown thig in the back left is pantyhose with the shrimp in it.


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yep yep hob skimmer/ refuge works great and are nice for smaller tanks. anything bigger then a 40 and i would start running a sump.

i got a red sea skimmer, and a ac70 modded to a refuge on my 30 flat back hex.

Any chance you can get hold of more "live" or even "dead" rock?
I would think that that would really help not just your tank to cycle, but also for the future.

I set up my first SW tank (30G) up about 8 months ago, started using a HOB and then built my sump with protein skimmer as a hang on. I should have run the HOB along with the sump for a couple of months I think. I had live rock in the sump along with some dead rock, but I think the porous stone in the HOB was fully acclimatised to the tank, so I saw a Nitrate spike, even though the sump has about 10-15lbs of live rock in it. My tank has about 30-40lbs of live rock wall in there too.

Are you looking to do Reef or fish only? That will decide your lighting requirements really.