reefer time

saltynewbie · 08-01-2007, 02:03 AM

I'm still a novice to the saltwater world but have managed to keep my salt water tank running with little problems for about 6 months now. It looks nice and all but a recent trip to the pet store left me wanting a coral and anemones. Man, the set up at the store was something else. Obviously I need more light as currently I am just running flourescent tube lights. However, at the same time, i don't want to get in over my head and have evrything go sideways. How much more work is involved in keeping a coral tank? Also, will my current fish be ok in there? I have a coral brand shshrimp, a emerald crab, a few clowns, a yellow tang, and a damsel. I have a bout 120 lbs of live rock in there so that shouldn't be a proble,. I've taken out all media from my filter and let it work as a pump. I also have a separate pump in the tank for current and a protein skimmer. Is this all I need to go to the next level? How much lighting would I require? Sorry for all the questions but I' just want to know whether it is worthwhile. I don't want to spend hours a day fooling around with the tank.

gm333 · 08-01-2007, 05:11 PM

Upgrade your lighting to t-5 and you will be able to keep tons of corals. Metal halides are great, but they do put off alot of heat. Vhos are good as well, but the bulbs need replaced more often and also add a lot more heat. Not to mention with t-5's you have a lot more choices on spectrums than vho or halides.

Heymybigfish · 08-01-2007, 05:13 PM

hi, sounds cool. how many gallon tank? they say for hard coral and such, about 5 watts per gallon is great....and possibly only 2 watts per gallon for soft corals. you need an Actinic light...which are expensive. for my 55 gal, i have a 260watt light...it was 250bucks....if you have 120lbs of live rock, im assuming you have between a 75-110gallon? so i would shoot for a 320watt at minimum.....good luck

saltynewbie · 08-01-2007, 09:09 PM

yeah, my tank is about 140 gallon. I don't really know the difference between soft or hard coral. Please explain. Also, according to the 2watts/gallon method, I would require about 280 watts of lighting for my tank in order to keep corals. I just want a few corals and some anemones (bubble tip anemone would be ideal). T5s are also substantialy cheaper than netal halides so this sounds like the way to go for what I really want. Is it harder to maintain a tank with T5s and corals (such as water quality, etc)?

Andyoybna · 08-01-2007, 10:21 PM

Well, GM, I must slightly disagree with the spectrum on T5, vs MH, with MH, you have higher spectrums, starting around 10k, up to 20k, with T5s, I believe the highest is 10, or 12k, but of course you have 6700k, actinic, etc, but T5 are definately cheaper in the beginning, and to maintain, and of course they have more lumens per watt than I believe any other lighting source.

Salty, what are the dimensions on your tank? This is a huge factor, I'm thinking it is probably 72", if so you may be better off getting MH, since there are no 72" T5 bulbs yet, and IMO they would probably be too fragile at that length. You would be forced to use 24" bulbs, and you would need a lot of them.

The difference between hard and soft coral, is the hard corals have a calcium based skeleton (live rock is dead hard corals for the most part) Soft corals are just tissue, if a soft coral dies, it just releases all of its water, and turns into sludge more or less.

As far as water quality goes with corals, a lot of people say the lower the nitrates the better, however, IMO/IME some of my corals tend to do better with higher nitrates, even in the 40ppm range, I guess more for them to feed on in the water colum.

saltynewbie · 08-01-2007, 10:56 PM

My tank is bow shaped. It is exactly 5 ft length 28 inches deep and 22 inches wide at the middle of the bow (middle of tank).

saltynewbie · 08-04-2007, 06:34 PM

I've posted the dimesnions of my tank on the last reply. I went to the local fish place today and the guy there suggested an economical alternative to metal halide. I can get a 4 ft compact flourescent canopy that puts out 260 watts for about 300 dollars. I can set it right on the glass in my tank (my tanks is 5 ft long). Do you guys think this is enough ;light for my tank dimensions. The guy in the store said I can keep the corals closer to the top and that anemones will adjust themselves accordingly. I can get metal halide but it will be an awkward setup. I basically want soft corals and some anemones.

CubsFan · 08-04-2007, 06:50 PM

You can get a set of 260 watt JBJ power compacts for $160 from hotaqualights.com, but with a tank as deep as yours I think that you would probably be better off getting some metal halides.

saltynewbie · 08-04-2007, 08:52 PM

Crap!!! The compacts would have been a quick and easy fix. Do you guys think it is ok to rest a 4 ft metal hailde kit on the glass that goes across the top of the tank?I was thinking of resting the canopy on some blocks that would in turn rest on that top glass. This would allow the lights to be at an appropriate distance. I heard it is not a good idea to rest too much weight on that glass as it holds the tank together. It's too bd about the compacts. I guess cheap and easy never works!

CubsFan · 08-04-2007, 09:03 PM

Your tank could support the metal halide lights but I think you would have an issue with heat if you did this. I have a 90 g bowfront i have my lights mounted from the ceiling to help with the heat (easy to do u can buy the stuff from wal-mart to do it for $5). I also have my top off with a fan blowing across the top of the tank with the halides on.