brain pickin

[liquafaction]

I think I just need reasurance, being new to the hobby, and spending as much money a I have.

I am 9 days into my cycle. Last I checked, 2 days ago:

PH............. 8.1
Amonia...... 4.0
Nitrite........ 0.0
Nitrate....... 0.0

I am doing a fishless cycle using shrimp, my water is cloudy as heck, which it seems that I can expect. For sand, I could not get my hands on the brands posted (whitecastle, and ?), but I did get playsand from the depot I am using biomedia to cycle, but intend to remove the bio media and buy live rock to filter later........ I gather I can do this as well? Finially I do not see algae forming, I have read that 3-5 days, you should see brown algae. Hopefully this is not a result of the sand I selected

On water temp, 80.5 is the highest it gets, and 79.3 is the lowest I can get it. Do you guys think 80.5 is to high? This is my plan for next spring was to buy a mini refrigrator, drill holes in it, coil up some tubing inside, and use that for a chiller. I do not plan on buying any live rock or fish untill I get back from vacation in october. With the cooler weather I should not need to cool the water untill next summer, unless the 80.5 will affect my cycle?

lighting:

2 coralife actinic bulbs
2 10,000k caralife flouresence
I have read that the flouresence are not good to use for coral and inverts. If they will work untill bulb change time, I would love to get my money out of them.

Anyone see anything that I have jacked up, or could improve, let me know........
thanks for the input

[DeltaUguy]

Here's the 3 things I see...

1) 80.5* is fine, you might actually want it alittle higher, maybe around 82*. As long as it doesn't go over about 84* you will be fine.

2) Do not run a regular lighting pattern during your cycle. The water will cycle fine without it and you will cut down on annoying algea. You probably used silica based playsand, which is fine, but it won't buffer your Ph up as it disolves like aragonite sand will.

3) flourescent lighting is fine, you just have to make sure the wattage is high enough. I have a 4 bulb VHO hood that rates at about 440 watts.

Good luck!:D

[mogurnda]

I agree with deltauguy. You're right on schedule, and should expect NO2 to go up soon. Don't worry about no algae, that will happen soon enough.

[liquafaction]

so if I am using 80 watt bulbs, I need 6 bulbs to get the light source that I need?

if this is correct, are you including the actinic (blue) light source in your wattage?, or just the 10,000k's.

[liquafaction]

My water source is well water (no addatives) I checked the PH before I used it, because the pool guys said it had a high ph when I had bacteria problems with the pool. Fresh out of the tap is 7.8

[DeltaUguy]

Total wattage of all bulbs.

[BrianH]

In order for us to suggest lighting for your tank, please post the tank size and what corals you would like to keep. ie soft corals, LPS, SPS.

Brian

[liquafaction]

100 gallon tank, types of corals need to be thought out as I become more edjucated on corals. At the moment, I really like softs. I am not sure though

[BrianH]

I would take the time to research what corals you would like to keep since in a tank that large and deep you will need MH lighting for any of the more light demanding corals and you could waste money by initally "settling" for PC or VHO lighting. JMHO

Brian

[mogurnda]

To expand on what BrianH said, it is a really good idea to figure out where you want to go. From my point of view, softies are a great place to start, but there are large polyped stonies that are less finicky as well. You can make a beautiful tank with any. Each species has requirements for lighting, water flow and you also need to know which species are aggressive or put out chemicals that inhibit others (yes, corals attack each other). The requirements of a given coral dictate what kind of lighting you will need and where in the tank it will go.
Fortunately you have time to read. Sprung and Delbeek wrote a pair of books that are excellent (The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates), one covering stonies and clams, the other covering softies and anemones. Damned expensive, borrow if you can. A single volume, that is at least as good (IMO), is Eric Borneman's Aquarium Corals, which is a lot less expensive. If you only get one, I'd suggest Borneman's.
Relax, read a little (a lot is better) decide where you want to go, then spend money on lights. The book is less than $30, the lights are a lot more.