water change/light question

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hi,

I am setting my 29 gallon tank into a coral tank, I hear you can keep some coral under 50/50 lighting? is this true? what kind of coral are they? I am all new to the coral setup. I was wondering just also how often you would recomend changing the water in a coral setup. I do have a few fish in the tank I would like to keep in there , they are two clown's and a basslet, how many fish would you suggest putting in the setup? and what type's? with possibly a few small other fish. any help would be great and thanx for your time................Shaun

[wwest]

Hey Shaun, Good to see ya.

About the only corals you can keep under 50/50 lighting are soft non light depended softies. I would go with either MH's or PC's. Or even both :) In all honesty i would find 96 watt power compacts That way you can have more of a variety of corals. I would do a 10% water change every week, but thats just me :)

[Rob]

well we should define what type of 50/50 bulbs they are.
are they normal fluorescent bulbs, or power compact. if they are PC your options are much greater than Normal bulbs

[wwest]

Yes, sorry i wasn't thinking right. I had in my head the fluorescent $40 fixtures thanks for the look out :)

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hey,

Yeah good to see ya wwest, I was down to fish n stuff yesterday and was talking to mike, I always go in there and talk to him lol he probably gets sick of seeing me coming in there. I use to be worse lol. anyways I just have a regular tube light I guess, I just replaced the original lighting with a coralife 50/50 and by the way I got me the water from water got 15 gallons yesterday thats some good water there. Doe's it seem to hold the ph? maybe one of these day's u can hellp me set my tank up for corals if u like. anyways thanks rob also they are 50/50 flourescent lmk what i can do if anything thanks..........Shaun

[Rob]

yeah, with regular 50/50 normal output bulbs your options are limited.
maybe some simple zoanthids or paly's (button polyps) maybe some Green star polyps as well.

as Wes mentioned you can look at non photosynthetic corals like a Christmas tree coral, or sun coral, etc.. but keep in mind these are more difficult and have high demands to keep them healthy

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hello,


Yeah I want to go with a nicer light setting just wanted to try something for now. is the T5 lighting any good? I see one in drsfoster I am looking at but would like to have some thoughts on them if possible. I beleave the T5 I am looking at is a nova extreme brand. Could you please let me know your thought's on these? anyways as far as the coral goe's, the buttons doe's it matter where I place these in the tank? I would just like to try the button polys and the green polyps. do they have to have high demand for water flow? My power head is on the back of my 29 clear to the top with the little plastic thing facing the top of the tank would this be okay or should I lower it in the tank? I am all new to this and sorry about all of the question's. Should I have a filter system on the tank? I have a rena filstar xp1 on it right now. would this be okay with coral I do have a few small fish in the tank as of now. anyways please touch up on all that you can thanks for your time and have a nice day.....................Shaun

[mikellini]

Live rock filtration would be nice, and give you something to put your coral on. I have a 29 Gallon tank, with a 65w PC bulb, and I suppose if I could do it all over again, I would still go with PC lighting, just maybe a dual 65w fixture like an orbit or satellite by current usa. Can't see much of a difference between them, other than an extra moonlight. anyone else?

[Rob]

T5 lights are great, and would really open the options up for you, more so than PC would

most button polyps and zoanthids do not like real high water flows, and should be fine anywhere under T5 lights

as far as filtration, in a 29 you should be fine with lots of LR, LS and a good skimmer, along with 15x flow
all of this is described in detail in various podcasts shows, if you haven't checked them out i would highly recommend you do .. :)

[mikellini]

Oh, and if you're looking into t5's, try and get a tek light fixture. The individual reflectors are what really make the difference between t5 and PC. The nova extreme has a single reflector that isn't even on the same playing field as the individual ones, such as in the tek light fixture or with icecap reflectors. I was just thinking on a cost vs. benefit scale, the PCs would be fine. Unless you're planning on keeping SPS and clams, in which case you might as well go with MH or Solaris LED

[Rob]

yes, good point, the tek fixtures are real good fixtures

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hello,


Hi and thanks for all the information I went ahead and got the T5 Coral Life strip, The fish store owner told me to get two of the T5s and I should be doing well. Thanks for all the information on everything. I will check into the podcast stuff I would love to check into the seahorse series. anyways thanks for your time and help everybody. I just got me some more Dead rock I should be doing great in the tank for the rock as far as it goes. got it and cleaned all the dead stuff off of it so I should be fine the lfs told me.................SHaun

[coral_beauty_angel26]

of course its got to cure, he said in a few months I would be good to take my canister off of the tank thanks again, rob,wwest , mike

[wwest]

Here is the link on how to listen to podcast's (http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/faq.php?faq=talkingreefsite_podcast#faq_talkingree fsite_podcast_subscribe) Any way you can take some pictures and show us your progress? we love pictures :) lol

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hi,


Yeah I will take some picture's soon hopefully it will work. I am not to good with computer's so ya know, anyways I will try my best and thanks for the podcast information I will download it. I guess I will be needing to redo the tank though as I have crushed coral in there right now as the substate. How much is your sand down there? do you know by chance? thanks buddy...........SHaun

[coral_beauty_angel26]

hi,

just got the podcast done its really cool I like it..........SHaun

[wwest]

Don't forget there is 89 more. :)

How do you like your light?

[coral_beauty_angel26]

:agree: yep and I am gonna be getting them thanx again this is a really good site. I like the light it is pretty sharp on that tank. I hope to get the other one soon also. I had the regular ole 50/50 on there and had it on and I stuck the new one up there LOL wow 50 times brighter it seem's. I kind of like it, but I am going to be making a few change's, I am going to change my tank before to awful long. my tank is oak trimmed and the light is black just dont care for that part of it anyways I want to go with a black trim bow front tank with stand. to make it all look better. I have the oak tank now its okay just am wanting a bowfront setup I guess. I have a red sea prism skimmer I am going to be putting back on it also. what kind of skimmer do you have? anyways if you like to talk on yahoo messenger or something sometime I can give you my id. Anyways yeah the light is pretty nice, should you replace the bulb's in it? I have read they last a while but to keep full spectrum I just wonder if it best to change them after a while? anyways take care.........................SHaun

[mikellini]

Just remember that the coralife t5 fixture is NO, and doesn't put out a whole lot of light. You may only be able to successfully keep soft corals. Not to worry, there are many nice ones...

[coral_beauty_angel26]

Hi,

Yeah I want to upgrade in the future but for now I guess it is okay. I would someday like to go up to the mh setup's. I am kind of trying to go the cheapest route as of now. LOL this hobby is expensive but it's all worth it if it's something you really like. anyways thanks for the input.................Shaun