New Set-up

[yorkcoparamedic]

What does eveyone use or recommend for the correct watts/gallon for a tank that is going to contain soft corals, inverts, and a few fish. This is of course without being specific on exactly what species are going to be kept.

I have been reading several articles and books and wattage requirements vary from place to place. I seem to be getting a 2 to 7 watts/gallon range. The lower side of the range in the area of 2 watts would be good for softies and the higher up would be more appropriate to hard corals correct?

I currently have a Coralife T-5 36" light w/ 2-21W bulbs. I am thinking this is not going to be enough if I am doing my math correctly.

29g tank that has 2in of sand.
Dimensions 36 x 12 x 15 = 6480 cubic inches (29g) of tank cap. or 5616 (24.3g) if you minus the 2 inches of sand.

I am working with 24.3 gallons of water for figuring lighting needs.

42 watts total output / 24.3 gallons of water = 1.7 watts/gallon

Should I add another lighting unit? Or replace this one for one w/ 78 watts total output. The would give 3.2 watts/gallon.

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, we don't really go by WPG in the marine side of the hobby as it's pretty much a useless measure . High powered lights are a requirement for keeping any corals and more important is having good reflectors on those lights. If you want to use T5's, I typically reccomend 2-4 tubes spanning the length of the tank with individual reflectors for softies and some easier LPS, and if you want to get into the difficult LPS, SPS, Clams, or Nems you should prolly have 6 length-spanning tubes with individual reflectors.

In your specific case, if the Coralife fixture has 2 reflectors (one for each bulb) you should be ok in supporting softies. Don't expect rapid growth, but they'll work well for you.

 

[Musho3210]

watts=electricity used, not light output, and more specifically and important, PAR output.

Softies, there are all sorts of them, shrooms, zoas (nice corals, well to be specific they arent corals but they are treated the same, but these look terrible as a centerpiece coral, they are more of a secondary coral. Leather softies can be good centerpieces, but love high light and high flow, and some of them grow really fast and really big, sounds good in the beginning to have a fast growing coral, but starts to become a pain later.

Personally, i wouldnt go the softy route, they just arent my type. Look into lps, these guys IME like a lower light and lower flow.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

Thanks guys! I opened the lighting fixture and there is only one reflector for both tubes. I am going to the LFS this week and get another fixture with at least two more tubes. Should I get 2 more white lights or one white and one actinic? And should they be 10,000K or a mixture of different light ranges?

I googled PAR because I had no idea of what it was. I found out that it stands for Photosynthetically Active Radiation. But nothing really told me what to get, how much is good and what is over kill, and what types of corals thrive off of it and those that dont. I shall continue my search for more input on PAR requirements.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Lynden]

The gas pocket is released and the tank can be nuked

This is a myth actually, toxic substances will form but they will be neutralized the moment they hit oxygenated water. Nitrate pockets are real but these won't nuke a tank.

As for lighting, anything about 6500K or higher will work. It's a matter of aesthetics; 10000K gives a cool white that when balanced with a couple actinics makes a very beautiful colour. 6500K and actinics look great too in my opinion.

Mushrooms will expand well under lower lighting, and in my opinion they can make a great "centerpiece"; it's a matter of opinion really, and with a bit of effort (and unfortunately lots of $$$ in many cases) any 'natural' setup can be fascinating and visually pleasing.

Other corals I would recommend for you are Capnella, Sinularia, Sarcophyton (not S. elegans; these need tons of light) Xenia, and any of the colonial "anemones" (zoas, palys, mushrooms) and other lower light softies, plus most LPS.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

Thought I would post a couple of pictures of my progress so far. Thanks to everyone that helped answer my constant questions. It is greatly appreciated!!!

Just after adding substrate and filling up.

The next day and also after adding a plane blue background.
I also removed 1" of substrate at the recommendation of many. I have 2" now.

Q Tank in my wood shop. Just got the rock today!

Don't look like it is going to be enough. 26 lbs of it though.

Got a RO unit today as well. Also recommended by many people.

To keep the dog and also dirt and contaminates out of the water I got a good lid and drilled a couple of holes in it. One for the pure RO water tube, one for the air stone line, and another for a one-way-valve to let off any pressure that might build in the bucket. I have several 1g water jugs from distilled water to store extra water in too.

That it for now!

 

[Lynden]

Good start. Keep it up!

 

[chrissaysyes]

Awesome man! Love the QT tank, you could also use that bin as a sump later on.

 

[SkiFletch]

Lookin good. One word of advice, either get a garden hose timer for your RO unit to shut it off after a certain time, get a float valve to shut the unit off when full, or put the RO bucket in a basin or near a drain. Cause the one time you forget to turn it off, get sidetracked, and go to bed, you're gonna wake up with an awfully wet woodshop

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

Thanks all. Yeah, I need to read up on the use of sumps. I have heard good things but not to sure how to go about it right now and also I might not have room for the sump below my tank. The tank and Q tank are on different sides of the house right now. Right now I am focusing on keeping the water quality good in both tanks and finding better lighting that will let me keep several different species of coral.

Now that I'm making RO water I should be able to get my NO3 down in my main tank. It has been 20ppm for the last week. One thing that I noticed happing was my NO3 dropped to about 10ppm last night and my PO4 increased from 0.1 to 0.5ppm. I have been using distilled water for the last couple of days for tops off so this might be the reason for the change. As for everything else it is staying nice and stable. I have pently of time to get things as close to perfect in the tank though. I am not in any hurry! I dont plan on putting any fish or corals in the tank until late January or early February. I might get a small cleaning crew in the tank a week or two after placing the LR in the main tank.

Anyone have live plants in their reef tank to help with the unwanted algae, or just macro algae? I really like the look of Codiaceae (Maidens Hair) algae.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Just macro here...the only plant I would consider growing would be mangroves but I would rather not have them sprouting up in my display tank.

 

[Lynden]

Seagrasses can also make insane displays. In addition being angiosperms (the only ocean living ones) they will often flower.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

I think I got lucky with the LR! All of the LR I picked was from the bottom of the tank, which could have been curing for at least a week or more.

Q Tank water chemistry.
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 10 to 20 approximate
NH3 = 0

All of the levels have spiked and then dropped in the correct order --->NH3--->NO2--->and now increase in NO3. I am going to do a water change in the Q tank and watch the levels again for a couple more days (maybe a week) and then place the LR in the main tank.
-----------------------------------

I need to do a couple of big water changes in the main tank. I still have high levels of NO2 and NO3 in the water. Now that I have RO water I hope this will make a difference.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

Just did a 20% water change in the main tank. I was starting to see diatom algae and some bright green algae spots in the sand. I think those green spots were cyanobacteria. Anyway, I hope the water change helps. I want to get the LR in tank within the week and get a small CUC working on the algae that has started to grow.

Also next on my list is a HOB fuge so I can start growing macro algae and VHO lighting for the main tank.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

Just upgraded the lighting from the T-5's to a Coralife Power Compact Lunar Aqualight. The new lighting unit has one double tube 96W 10K Daylight fixture and one double tube 96W True Blue Actinic fixture and good reflectors. There is also two moon light LED's and dual cooling fans as well. The first light setup was not going to cut it after doing some more research, but it will do fine for the Q tank. I should be able to keep softies, SPS, and some of the hardier LPS corals without getting MH.

I also got rid of the Hydrometer. It was worthless, the needle kept getting stuck after two days in the tank. I purchased a Sybon Refractometer. It is a pretty good one. Calibration was a snap and it showed a SP of 1.025 when the other was showing a anything from 1.022 to 1.028.

The LR is cured now I think. Looks good, smells fresh, no stowaways noticed in the Q tank. I am going to put it in the main tank in the moring after I make more RO water.

Still planning on getting a fuge in the next couple of weeks to grow macroalgae.