New to saltwater - Page 2

tdwyatt · 08-14-2005, 11:28 AM

Welcome to TRT

Skeety, GOOD POST!

skeety · 08-14-2005, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

Skeety, GOOD POST!

Thanks! I hope it helped him/her.

I know how much help all of you gave me in the beginning, and how far I've come as a result. I sincerely just wish to do the same for the next set of newbies.

eguiyab · 08-18-2005, 12:41 AM

Everyone here has helped me a great deal. Reading up on other post and articles has really cleared alot up for me and made me realize that THERE IS ALOT MORE TO LEARN. At times i feel like i may have stepped into something that is way over my head but with your help i think ill make it through okay. So far i have gotten my SG to about 1.023-1.024 and a PH of 8.2-8.4. One test says im good and one other one i cant seem to really read... Ill get my lfs to double check for me. Im about one week in and i know i got a long way to go. I got my protein skimmer up and running and its actually starting to pick up some junk. I think i've got it adjusted okay for now. And like skeety suggested... i made sure it was rated for higher use so when i upgrade my tank. Today i just added about 20lbs of live rock and aquascaped it. I think it looks pretty decent and a fair amount of rock to start with.
Most of my rock looked pretty good, only a few minor "dead" area's but mostly greyish with a few spots of purple and pink. One rock however is pretty brown... whats that mean?? There were larger chunks of rock that were a majority of purple and pink but they were to big for me. I opted for smaller more quantity of rocks...
Im looking to get some used PC lights this friday and then i gotta sit on my hands for a while.... i know it will be hard to do but ill try. I am actually finding myself just staring into an empty tank and just watching the lights reflect into the bottom of the tank... can wait till theres other stuff i can see too!!!

skeety · 08-18-2005, 09:53 AM

we...want.....PICS!!!!

tdwyatt · 08-18-2005, 04:47 PM

yup, PIX! You'll appre ciate your system better in a year or two when you have something to compare it to.

eguiyab · 08-19-2005, 02:22 PM

hehehe... you guys got it.. Lemme find my digicam and ill snap a few.

eguiyab · 08-25-2005, 01:05 PM

Alright, I havent' been able to find my digi cam but pics will be up soon.

I do have a question about lighting though. The other day I was able to pick up a used PC light fixture for 100cnd. It runs 2X55w lights. Has one switch and one cord. Now my dilema is how should I run it? The guy I bought it from also has a MH retro kit 250w that he is letting go for cheap. I also have a DIY moonlight kit and an old NO florescent fixture. As far as the 3w min to every gallon, i got that covered already with the PC lights right? Now I know if i go with the MH I will be able to keep harder corals and help intensify the colors everything else, but will it cause my tiny 33g to evaporate and heat up like crazy? There are some real beautiful softies so I dont have to absolutley have hard corals. Plus the room under the canopy issue! its only 36 wide by 13 deep.

Now what bulbs and should I run in the PC if i just stick with the PC?? 50/50?? and my moonlights? or 10000K in the pc's, an atinic in the NO fixture and my moonlights?

Since the fixture I have, the bulbs are only about 21inches.. the kinda cross over eachother at the center. Could i run one 10000K bulb and one attinic bulb?? but i guess that would be the same as running two 50/50 right?? duh! hehehe

I would like to keep the dusk to dawn effect as much as possible and will be running everything on timers... I kinda like the look of just attinics at night, especially since the tank is next to my bed. By the way, to attinics serve any photo synthetic purpose or purely for color enhancement and show?

Any advice on how to run my lights with the equipment i got or can obtain would be much appreceated !

reef_noob · 08-25-2005, 01:37 PM

watts per gallon isn't exactly the best measure. Ultimately you want PAR (photosynthetically available radiation) but since measuring that requrires expensive equipment, the w/gal measure is used as a very rough guide. One bigr issue with the w/gal measure is that it doesn't take depth into account. Water depth cuts par considerably, so if your tank is very tall, that 110w isn't doing much for the bottom of the tank. That said, assuming average tank dimensions, 110w is at the low end of the requirement range. You won't be able to keep lps or a lot of softies. Leathers, mushrooms, xenia and star polyps will all do well with that level of light, but not much else. It's a good start, but you may want to consider saving up for a good MH or T5 setup. If you ever want to keep sps or clams, there isn't much point in buying anything but MH.

eguiyab · 09-02-2005, 12:50 AM

Here finally are some pics of the tank.
Since these pics I have added 1 new maxijet 1200 with a hydor water deflector on the rights side of the tank pointed right down the center of the tank (longways). I got a 175w metal halide retro kit, I just put in this evening and still wondering how to run my lights.
By the way the bulb that i got with the retro kit is a coralife 5500k bulb. What would my main advantages or difference would i have if i went with a dif color temp??? Im afraid that this 5500k about 6 inchs above the tank is already to much.. what do you guys think??

motorslave · 09-02-2005, 03:12 AM

Are those pics with the 5500k bulb? You should get some realy good growth out of that temp bulb. That is right around the best spectrum for growth if Im not mistaken. That bulb alone should look pretty yellow. As the you get into higher spectrum you will see the color in the tank get whiter and then bluer when you get up to 20,000k. Now if my learnin serves me well, you will see slower growth in coral but the colors will pop more in the tank. Alot of the choice in buulb color comes down to two things, what you want in growth (as far as what lighting can influence, many factors also play into this) and personal choice-what overall color you like to see when you look at the tank.HTH (and I hope my spectrum analisys is correct!)

Robert

motorslave · 09-02-2005, 03:12 AM

Nice tank BTW! Looks great!

Robert

eguiyab · 09-02-2005, 09:21 AM

Thanx everyone.
No, those pics taken were only with 110w PC fixture. Not sure on the color temp of those. No pics of the Metal Halides yet, but soon. As far as the current color temp on the bulb... I think ill stay with it. Im supplementing with 1 NO attinic at the moment and maybe change up the Metal halide when the time come, especially since they are fairly pricey.
I really like the look of just attinics on in the morning and evening, so even if i go with a 20000k... ill be running attinics about an hour before and after they shut off. Im trying to get as much dawn to dusk effect i can. Ill keep posting pics as the tanks gets more interesting.