Teevee:
Just a thought before you start building a super deep tank, what kind of lighting are you using? 30 inches is a long way down,

I like the tank size 60x30 (deep) X24 (I was thinking of building one that size myself once I move out of mom and dads house.

Are you thinking of buying it from MITCH at Inter-American Pet Suppley in Calgary. If so keep us all updated on your progress. I would like to hear some thoughts on time, quality etc.

josh

another question

If you buy a tank with 30 inches of depth, how does that affect your lighting set-up. As I understand it a MH bulb is good for about 2 feet X 2 feet is that correct. With this style of set-up would you not have a shaddow either in the front or back of the tank?

Josh

a MH can give good coverage to a 3 foot span if mounted right and using the right reflector.. but in the case with a 30 inch wide tank I personaly would leave about 4" of sand around the reef that I don't need to light anyways.. how often do you see SPS growing on the sand? well unless you have looked at Brad's tank laitly :wink:


Steve

Ummm .... have you ever seen a real reef? Plenty of acros grow right out of the sand bed. Ok, I guess there might be a superstructure of rock under the sand but to the untrained snorkelers eye they look like they're gowing out of the sand.

sorry I ment in our average tanks.. I personaly like to keep room open around the reef to clean the glass easy.. don't know about you or anyone else but if I had the room I would have a large sand bed for the LPS that don;t need 400 watts of baking MH but in reality I would probably end up with to much rock and fill that up also... :wink:

either way a MH can light a 30" didstance with little trouble.


Steve

Steve, we got a new Mag 18 and it is quieter than the old one, but still noisy. :(

weird, you are going to have to stop buy and see if it is much noiser than my two mag 12's..

Steve

hey i appreciate all this input people. i don't want to screw this up and regret a rushed decision.

i will be running two 400w german 10k MH's over the tank, not sure if i want actinics yet (or perhaps i should say, i can't afford them off the bat). i will also be doing an approx. 4" DSB. i would like to add some contours so i may look into making it deeper in some spots. i won't be going nuts with the LR, rather than making a wall of it, i want to put down a sort of L-shape mound of it. if possible i would like to leave enough room for the fish to swim around the back, but i don't know if there will be enough space. the 48x30x30 will be 187 gallons, which is a heck of a lot, so i may go with the 48x30x24 (provided i decide to go 30 deep rather than 30 high, after i see des' tank).

i am dealing with mitch at IA, yes. so far everything seems very reasonable. the 120 quote i got from him was about $450, sump at $100. getting the tank edges ground and polished added $96, but i think that's both front and back, and i might only get the front done. i'm not exactly sure how it looks yet so i can't judge. he said that if i call in advance, i can drop by their shop, which i plan to do, perhaps the morning before i head to jon's before i head to the calgary meeting. :)

:!: update :!:

ok the higher-ups within the home (dad and mom) have officially declared that i cannot put more than 120 gallons of water in my bedroom. if i want to do a bigger tank in the office downstairs that's fine by them, but i'm never down there, so... 120 it is, 48x24x24.

oh well, at least it will be cheaper! :)

My LFS can get you custom tanks at an amazing cost, I got a 48x24(front to back)x20 tall for $250, took a week to get it. If you want the phone number give me a private message.