WhoDey

I have been noticing on some of the picks of peoples tanks they have an air stone in there... the question is... Do you need to run one of these or is a powerhead good enough to get the right amount of oxygen into the tank? I will be running a maxi-jet 1200 in my 55 and wondering if that is good enough. I don't want to sufficate my critters...


Question #2... Lighting. I guess I need to update my lighting in my tank. Mainly because I am using my freshwater setup right now and I have one blue bulb and one yellow... looks kinda strange. Do I need to buy a new top alltogether or can I just swap out the bulbs? I really don't want to spend a great deal of money right now on lights but I want to give my live rock a chance to grow very nicely... i"m not planning on going to a reef setup anytime soon until I have some more experience. Is it reasonable to expect to spend 50-100 dollars on ok lights for now or is that way too cheap?

ahill3780

I have not used an airstone in my tank in a long time and I have not seen any negative effects from the lack. I plan to start using one soon though, just to test it out and see if I notice any improvement.

It is debateable whether the airstone adds significantly to the disolved oxygen levels in the tank, but I personally think that it will have a positive effect. The only way to know for sure I guess would be to have an ORP monitor, but that is not an option for me at the moment.

As for your lights, the rock will not require any specific lighting so go ahead and replace the bulbs for your current fixture. Something in the 10K range should work nicely.

HTH
Aaron

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