Kaymanager

so next set of questions i and i hope you all can bare with me. i have been on here almost every night( to the great unhappiness of my wife who thinks i need to see doctor phil for my addiction) and most of the time when i read everyones post and about all the things you all put into your systems i might as well be back in high school in french class( i took spanish if you get my point) so again i hope you all can bare with me and deal with my many many many questions that will more than likely arise.

what is the real purpose/ benefit of having a refugium on your system? is it mandatory?
what would be the best lighting system? i have 2x24watt t5 and i going to be putting another 2x30 watt fixture on it soon. what is everyones opinion on what kinda corals i can get with these lights?
i dont have a drilled tank but i was debating on trying to set up a sump. 1: is this possible: 2 if so how would i go about doing it? 3: how much do you think its gonna cost?
we will leave it at this for now. more to come later.


fts



feel free to leave honest opinions and suggestions. open to new ideas

Great looking tank.

what is the real purpose/ benefit of having a refugium on your system? is it mandatory?

The benefits of having a refugium is it will help keep nitrates low, a place where pods can repopulate, and you can also store macros there and more live rock for filtering. Another thing you can do it put in a remote deep sand bed in which will also help you with nitrates. You do not have to have a refugium or a sump but it is better if you do it adds volume to your tank and helps keep parameters in check.

what would be the best lighting system? i have 2x24watt t5 and i going to be putting another 2x30 watt fixture on it soon. what is everyones opinion on what kinda corals i can get with these lights?

Does your T5's have individual reflectors? If not I would see if you can put some on or trade them in for some that does. If so than 4 bulbs are good you could probably keep soft corals, zoes, and a few LPS's. If you want to add SPS's than I would suggest trying to put 6 or even better 8 bulbs on your system. The trick with T5's is trying to get as many bulbs you can fit on your system for ultimate par. Just make sure they have individual reflectors to get the most light and par out of your bulbs.

i dont have a drilled tank but i was debating on trying to set up a sump. 1: is this possible: 2 if so how would i go about doing it? 3: how much do you think its gonna cost?

Yes it is possible but, I do not have enough experience with pluming and drilled tanks so I cant help you here. Sorry. but, I am sure someone else with more experience will be glad to help you. You can also post on the forums in the filtration section. Here is a link: Filtration

HTH

Hey, welcome to TR

Someone has done a moving article on the site, maybe one of the mods will have a link for you. 2 weeks, so we prob better get on to it soon.

ok question time. I'll use yours & just answer them underneath ok.


what is the real purpose/ benefit of having a refugium on your system? is it mandatory?

No, its not mandatory. A refugee is nothing but a safe haven for your critters, combining that with some rockwork, some sand, some macro algae, or all of the above, & you can see its only a benifical add-on so to speak

what would be the best lighting system? i have 2x24watt t5 and i going to be putting another 2x30 watt fixture on it soon. what is everyones opinion on what kinda corals i can get with these lights?

There is no such thing as the best lighting system, its subjective based on your animals needs & your own personal preferences. T5 are good, 2x24watters are ok, you can keep as far up as mid range corals or "moderate tagged" corals. Try to focus on what you'd like to keep based on experience level, google some coral pictures & see what you like vs what you thing you can keep. Then you can buy equipment & research how to keep them. Not the other way round ok, your just wasting your money that way

i dont have a drilled tank but i was debating on trying to set up a sump.
1: is this possible:
2 if so how would i go about doing it?
3: how much do you think its gonna cost?

Great idea, if you pulling the tank down in 2 weeks, then there's no better time.

Try this link
Drilling a Tank

as for costings, it will depend on 2 thing, whether you do it yourself, or get someone else to drill it.
If your drilling your own tank, then it comes down to how much you want to spend on your diamond cutting hole saws

Hope that helps

I have thought about drilling it but then it comes down to 2 things money and I have the worst luck ever. Meaning it will be my luck that it would cost me my first born child and it would break leavig me stuff outta luck cause my wife won't let me bring one of bigger tanks in yet. I keep trying but with no luck lately . So what would be the secod best way to add a sump system to it? And how easy is it to set up a fuge? And what all exactly do I need to put into it? Sorry to sound like such a it's just that even though I have been in and out of this hobby for 17 years I have never been in serious I have just kinda tinkered with it. Ad now I have alot to catch up on. Thanks for your helpful comments v and rayme. But it seems v your the odd one out. I have read alot of dicks threads and acouple of others and most of the people on here are state side. Your the only one not so it looks like you need to move over here.

if your not drilling, then cascade is the next logical step. Means getting creative.

Yes, definitely not state side, i enjoy being the odd one out anyways.
Its funny, i never thought id like hanging with Americans, cause stereo typically the ones ive come across had little in the way of a sense of humor. But once they get to know you, they learn to open up abit more.

what are my options in doing this?

I need some help kinda planning out this tank. There are soooo many beautiful fish ad corals that I like but haven't decided exactly what I wanna do. My wife loves the sps corals but won't let go of the money for me to buy mh. And she likes alotta color in the tank so what are your suggestions for some good hardy relatively inexpensive corals and fish. I have some sun polyps and a shroom so far with a oceallis clown, yellow tailed damsel, and a yellow wrasse and I have stalled due there being SOOO many awesome creatures. So I am looking for some great ideas from anyone willing to give em. I ask becuase v is always yelling at someone on here for not planning ahead so I am just trying to get some help so I am not the focus of anyones rage.

so its been alittle while since i have posted any progess on here but some has been made. didnt end up setting up a larger system like what i was hoping for due to size of my apartment but i am ok with it. as much as i want a bigger system that can all come in due time. so here are some pics of where things are now.

here is the newly moved system. man was it a pain in the neck and man do i owe my neighbor a good steak for helping. i went ahead and added another 40 lbs of ls to make a dsb which i love the look of better too.


also set up a qt tank while i was watching my dt to make sure i wouldnt have a cycle. plus i have continued to use this as my qt system.


here is all the old things in the new qt system( all set up with old rock and water) i watched the testing on this tank too to make sure of no cycle. didnt have one and was very pleased with.

everyone is alittle cramped but they did fine once the settled in. kept in here for about 3 weeks before i moved everything.