Mon May 19, 2008 3:52 pm GMT   Reply      

greetings to all. I have been reading the posts here for a while now and doing tons of research prior to setting up my 75g tank. I have my substrate picked out, my filtering system (2 over-the-tank 60's and one marineland 360) chosen and the basic idea for aquascaping sketched out. I am cool with cycling my tank and have a great local store, Aqua Zoo in Webster Texas. My question is on lighting. Can I go to the local 'homeowners hell' and do my own flourescent light setup that will hang from the shelves above my tank? The light from the lfs is 48" with spots for 4lights.They want $200 for it plus I would have to buy the lights to put in it. Do I have to use a 48" light or can I go smaller?
I have a 10g setup with Freaky Fred the manic catfish in it and that was a no-brainer I picked up from the evil empire about a year and a half ago with a standard hood light. He is thriving with just the gravel and a nice piece of driftwood. But 10g is not 75g! I have it sitting in my bedroom and after 3 months it is driving me crazy! I'm ready to start and hopefully have it cycled and populated by the end of summer.
Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Tue May 20, 2008 6:45 am GMT   Reply      

Leighann,

LOL @ "homeowners hell" store......wow you hit that right on the head eh....

Let me type you a little story...............a guy goes out and buys a brand new powerdtroke 4 door 4 wheel drive pickup, then he buys a 20 foot trton bass boat witha 250 horse force max motor, a GPS satilite controlled color skreen fish finder, all the top tackle from all the pro shops, fills the boat with premium gasoline and goes to the water heads out and reaches down and picks up his daughters "hello kitty" fishing pole ......................????? see where I'm going here, lol

lighting IMO is just as important as filtration, the wrong spectrum of light will breed algaes, wash out fish color, generally degrade plant and livestock health, etc etc etc...................now depending on what your doing, salt/ fresh/ plant/ coral etc will dictate what type and range of light you'll want..............it sucks that they cost so much but if you reseach online there are some deals out there....look at Petsolutions.com, Drs foster and smith.com, and others....they have sales all the time, there are alot of DIY fixtures and tweaks out there too...................................now again depending on what your plan is for the tank......others can help with a specific type of light

so let us know.....good luck , Snowboss

Tue May 20, 2008 9:08 am GMT   Reply      

Snowboss, thanks for the reply! Loved the fishing analogy (that I would have no problems with! I was fishing and hunting with my dad from a young age!). My setup will be a community tank, nothing to fancy to start with. I will cycle my tank with 2 or 3 angels and some live plants that my lfs has generously offered. Their glass man has custom made me covers for the top that should be ready for pickup any day now. I may have hit the proverbial jackpot as of last night. My plumber came by to fix a bathroom fixture and saw my tank just sitting there and said that he had one he wanted to get rid of. It was a nephews setup that has been in storage for a year and he wants to get it out of there. I am going to call him next week and see about picking it up! He doesn't know if it is 75g or 125g. Either way, it is fully equiped with lights and custom cabinet and fluval canister filter! Woo Hoo!

Tue May 20, 2008 3:12 pm GMT   Reply      

holy crap man ...nice score !!!!!! let me know iftheres any parts or pieces forsale...im always looking for bargains.....................lol

Angels and live plants................im assumeing this is a fresh water set up? if so...get in touch with PeterKarig and Poeticirony....they are just a couple of the fresh people that I have talked to.......they have awsome tanks and good advise...like i said along with a lot of other people too.............Boss