ummm, sup

[chandu64]

Hey err one, sorta new to this site. Now that you know a little about me, I would like to tell you about my tank. I have a 29gal. I have an overflow box and wet/dry that is rated at 100gal. I have a Rio 1700 return pump. i put a t in the pipe work so i have 2 return valves. Mounted in the canopy, i have a 65wt satilite power compact. So far, I only have 8lbs of live rock with intensions to purchase more. o, and 40lbs of live sand. I have been running this system for about 2 weeks now and still have my readings at .25/.5/20ppm. Getting a little impation't and had a few questions.

1. If I by the live rock little by little, will that give me a constant ammonia/nitrite reading due to die off of each new peice of rock?

2. My 2 return valves are pointed down toward the LR, but i found an article saying that i should have one pointed at the surface of the water, one towards the rock, and then it said to buy a third pump. i want to eventually have a reef tank and i am ignorant of what kind of circulation i need. if the article was indeed true, i was ganna but the maxijet 1200 with a rotating, ummmm, thing. i thought that should be plenty for a 29gal, but again, im not sure.

3. what gravey made out of?

4. i was ganna ask a question about my lights, but would first like to get a respond from some body who know A LOT about them.

5. I am planning to buy a protein skimmer. would it be better to buy a hang on to go in the tank, or one that goes in the sump?

6. Heater, tank or sump.

7. Once all LR is purchased and readings are all at 0, what is the best way to approach buying corals( I currently no nothing about them)

8. Is it normal to grow different kinds of algea during the cycling process.

9. Did the vice president really shoot some guy in the face?




That's all for now, thanks for your responds and such. Play with matches


p fizzle

[ski1297]

HI chandu64. Welcome to TRT! Its best to try to put all your live rock in at first if you can. If you buy some now and then some in a week or two you might get a cycling process for a long time. Flow on the rocks is good and flow on the top of the tank is good to. In reef tanks lots of flow is good. Can not help you with the gravey. I can help you with the lights so just ask. In sump skimmer would be the way to go. Do you know what kind you want? Heater in the sump. When the water is right for corals just take it slow one at a time. Now what type of corals goes hand and hand with what lights you have. You are going to get a lot of algea during the cycling process. Thats why its good to take your time. And yes the vice president did shoot some guy in the face. How I do not know. Any more Qs just ask. You might want to post any more Qs you have in General Reef Discussion more people might look at it.

Ryan

[tims]

Welcome to TRT!
i moved your thread so it will get more people to see it..

[whatevva]

Welcome to TRT Chandu!

[chandu64]

Thanks Ryan. Still a little unclear about the water flow. Is what i specified(the one valve pointed to surface, one pointed to rock, and the maxi jet w/ rotating.....thing) good enough? About the lights. The power compacts I have were taking out of the mouting they were in. now it is screwed into the canopy. the fish store i go to did this for me, so i no there is no potential for disaster. One of the lights is a blueactinic and the other is white. the white one is daylight 10000k and the blue one is 460nm actinic.
I plan on taking that lamp out, and in the place of it, put a 10000k daylight lamp in which both the lights are white(not the 50/50 daylight/actinic). Then what I was planning on doing was to mount another retro fit kit in the canopy, the same 65wt power compact, but using a actinic lamp(both bulbs are blue). this is wear im confused. this was all suggested to me but i had questions i didnt ask. and here they are.
1do i run both units ate the same time during the day
2are the actinics basicly "nightlights" i can leave running all night.

Im not sure if i put that in the right way for n e one is not me to understand, so if you need to ellaborate, let me no, hope you no a hole bunch about lights, thanks again

[tims]

those PC lights are fine how you have them.
if you decide to add another fixture, that is cool. you dont have to change out the bulbs at all, the actinic helps withthe colors ..YOU .. see , and ya dont really want to run them all night.

oh yeah we love pictures.. so please feel free to post a few of the set up and lighting ..

[ski1297]

The flow should be good. Actinics just give the corals that glow look. You can run the actinics all day but have them start 1hr before the 10k and stay on 1hr after the 10k. Moon lights are what you run all night.

[chandu64]

so what i want to do is basiclly have a 24hr set up. i want to go ahead and do the 2 fixtures, the one 10k and the one actinic. but i also want moon lights, specificly those moonlights i see in reef pics all the time, it's kind of a dark purple, but im not to sure. i found a site that sells them, but im not entirly sure thats it, and on the web site, the sell more than one version of it. if some body could take a look at the site and tell me what i need, that would be great. http://www.northcoastmarines.com/moonbeams.htm

and about the water flow, should i go ahead and point the one aat the surface and leave the one down and get the maxi jet. the only reason i keep asking is because i've read that if you have bad water flow, your corals will die off from having there waste collect on them, so this is something i want to be sure of. Thanks a bunch everybody, this site is freagin awesome. dont forget to bring a towel

[ski1297]

For the most part moon lights are just so we can see the tank at night. Its not so much bad flow as not enough flow. You just do not want any dead spots in the tank. For moon lights I would go with some thing like this. http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...usa.asp?CartId=

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!



flow is good. some people think you can never have to much flow. there are people running 70 times the gallon rating of their tanks in flow per hour!! that is like you having over 2000gph in your 29!! i only have about 7500gph in my 125. i would not get the rotating direction thingy. they tend to get jammed in the SW environment. they do well in FW though.

i am the local moonlight nazi. i think they tend to do more harm than good. if you really want something to see the critters at night with, get yourself a red lensed flashlight. i can give you a couple of threads to read if you want to know more about why i think moonlights are just a gimick.

get the biggest skimmer you can for the tank. this is the filter system for the tank. the skimmer and the LR.

G~

[BGJ223]

Welcome to TRT, you can to the right place for great info. Sounds like you are on the right track for your tank. As mentioned before, you might want to buy as much live rock as possible at once. Also, flow is a really good thing in a reef tank.

Originally Posted by Geoff

Welcome to TRT!!



i am the local moonlight nazi. i think they tend to do more harm than good. if you really want something to see the critters at night with, get yourself a red lensed flashlight. i can give you a couple of threads to read if you want to know more about why i think moonlights are just a gimick.



G~

Moonlight Nazi (AKA Geoff)
I would like the links to the moonlight hating articles.

[chandu64]

Does n e one have any suggestions on extra water flow, i e what kind of pump, how large, constant flow vs. random surges. Can you specify exactly what kind/brand of pump so i can further research it on the web. So to sum this all up for this post. everybodys thoughts and i deas collaborated to this;
Heater and protein skimmer in sump, LR all at one time, actinic lights on an hour b4 and after 10k, nobody knows what gravey is made out of, and i never got a crystal clear answer about the return valves(pointed in a different direction) and would love to hear suggesetions as to what exactly to buy. yeah, im that type of guy


Im sure this wont be my last post but i would like to go ahead and thank everyone for there 2 cents. I really appreciate hearing everyones thoughts and opinions. thanks
~alex~


o and also, ski, are you sure those moon lights will give me that dark blue nocturnal lighting that i am so desperatly looking for? thanks

[tims]

ah think CLS closed loop system for your extra flow...a pump, PVC pipe and you are set.. take a look at the soponors and the internal and external pump.. i like sequence pumps.
the moon lights can come in a few colors of youwant them too. take a look at the Lebos.com site... they havea nice spread on lights for that..

mmm gravey ... tastes good, made from flour, waer , fats. salt pepper , and other various spices

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by BGJ223

Moonlight Nazi (AKA Geoff)
I would like the links to the moonlight hating articles.

this is an earlier discussion of the week thread about moonlights, there are a lot of references in there.

for flow on that size tank a few Seio pumps would do wonders for the flow.

G~

[skeety]

Welcome to TRT!! Everyone here is really helpful! Ask questions...read, search...read....take in as much as you can!

see this post for another guy who's pretty new to things. Might be some info in here that would be helpful to you as well:

http://thereeftank.com/forums/showthread.php?t=72845