Thanks Deb. Mitch, yup, that's the one. Sad thing is I bought it in September, and it has taken me this long to get to this point. First, rearrange the basement make some space, then fix the walls, paint in behind, etc. etc. and yadda yadda yadda. I know, excuses excuses, and I am full of them...
ops:
Aesthetics are an important requirement for this tank. I've put up with crappy looking stands and canopies for long enough, I want my setups to look as nice as all you guy's setups out there. There is not a
single tank I've ever seen that I didn't think was nicer than mine (probably everybody feels this way, who knows....)
The sides are indeed right now just the slats. I was going to wait and see how much "light spillage" there is through there. The inside of the canopy is not yet prepared, so I was going to see how it was once that's done. Where the tank sits, the sides are really not all that noticeable so it might not be the biggest deal (there will be fans on the sides so some light spilling out is unavoidable, but hopefully not too obnoxious). My 75g hood has the fans on the side and I don't find the light spilling out from there to be too distracting.
Seriak, this tank is a one-to-one replacement of my 50g tank, which has DIY lighting 2x175W/10000K. Very happy with these bulbs, more importantly, the ritteri anemone is very happy with these bulbs. This tank's sole purpose will be to provide a home that hopefully showcases this animal with the focus it deserves (you can see a picture of it at
http://members.shaw.ca/reefs/delphinus/index.html .... that picture was taken nearly a year ago ... it doesn't photograph very easily .... it looks much nicer in person, honest!). This will be the new home for the anemone, plus the two percs pictured and their buddy "Half-Pint-O-Tang" (a very spiffy yellow tang that coincidentall also was given to me by Deb! 8) ) I don't use a cover glass. For mainly two reasons. 1) too much trouble to keep clean 2) want to keep up evaporation rather than restrict it, it's far better for the tank that way and 3) (I never said I could count
) I figure if I spend $10-$20 per month on electricity per bulb, I want to be sure that as much of that light that I'm buying is useable to the animals below and getting into the tank and not bouncing off somewhere and becoming useless. The one upgrade I'm making with the lighting is I am switching to perpendicular reflectors. They will sit approximately 4" off the water surface. Another future upgrade, if I ever get the cash, is, I want to switch to electronic ballasts. Unfortunately the cost of going to Icecaps is somewhat prohibitive for me right now,
but maybe if I can save up for some. Or maybe Fulham will hurry up and release their "175W Highhorse" ballast that they've been promising for a while now...