Your input Please

[zeeter]

One of you said to avoid a sponge filter. I run string-fiber (cottony) filtration above my carbon which I imagine does the same thing as a sponge filter as far as mechanical filtration. Is this not recommended? Should I stick with just activated carbon?

Also the same person said that they change the carbon every 2-3 weeks. I read somewhere that activated carbon will stay active for several months. What is the general consensus on this?

 

[rogersb]

You would really have to post how much LR you have to say if you need more.

I would not have lights on that long. A LFS near me sells ORA frags and I asked them a similar question. I was told that ORA has tested the effectiveness of longer photo periods and they have not gotten any significant growth from longer periods. If memory serves me, they have some supplemental lighting such as t-5's for 8 hours but they only run the halides for 5 hours because corals in nature only receive the midday sun for 5 hours and have not evolved to use more than 5 hours of midday sun.

 

[Amphiprion]

Added questions

Im getting a 150w HQI MH de coralife pendant. phoenix 14k and I was wondering how high to start it? Or do 7" and just cut the hours?
Well, photosynthesis and photoinhibition are rate-limited, not time-limited. In other words, the total amount of time is less important than how much at one time. So, while corals can and do often acclimate just fine to reduced photoperiod, a more ideal method is to decrease the intensity at first.

More on the chateo. I have LR rubble and the golf ball sized peice in the AC 20. Would more LR be benifical or more Chateo? See I was wondering if I didnt have enough to do any good and I was guna add more LR. Or ill take the LR and make it just chateo.
Well, if you have adequate amounts of live rock to begin with (as rogersb asked), you should be covered there. As far as Chaetomorpha goes, fit as much as you can without the bottom layers becoming shaded. If the bottom layers get shaded out, they die and re-release what was assimilated. So more Chaeto isn't necessarily better or worse, depending on the circumstances. I would just stick with what you have and let it grow.

How long are your lights on? (not including leds ect.) trying to get a idea of whats appropriate. Im on lil before 8am and off by 8pm. ( only a 40w PC right now)
About 9.5 +/- hours for blue lamps. I actually have one of those variable timers that increases or decreases it randomly by like 30 mins. The main daylight lamps are on for about 7 hours, also variable.

comments in red again.

One of you said to avoid a sponge filter. I run string-fiber (cottony) filtration above my carbon which I imagine does the same thing as a sponge filter as far as mechanical filtration. Is this not recommended? Should I stick with just activated carbon?

Also the same person said that they change the carbon every 2-3 weeks. I read somewhere that activated carbon will stay active for several months. What is the general consensus on this?

Well, the avoidance of more traditional mechanical filtration is a bit of a debate. My personal preference is to do without and let the organisms that typically deal with it do so naturally. That's just me. If you like the look of more polished water, then no mechanical filtration may not be what you want. Just be sure to change it out often if you do use it.

As far as the carbon goes, more recent studies (I'll have to dig them up) show that they decline in about 2-4 weeks. I don't necessarily always change it religiously, but I'd say 2-3 weeks is the average. Incidentally, I've been following this sort of regime for as long as I've had reefs. It's mostly just ingrained, but coincidental that it turned out well. I just judged from when I could start seeing a tiny, tiny hint of coloration to the tank and that was usually the timeframe.

 

[zeeter]

Interesting. Well, I have almost a whole bag of fiber filter left so I'll use it up, then try without it for a while. The carbon definitely cleaned a lot of things up for me. It was very yellow before I started using it, then overnight it seemed to just clear up. I was amazed.

BTW: what do you use to contain the carbon? I started with a sock, then got some old panty-hose from my ex which seems to work better. is there a recommended container? When I first started I didn't use anything. Big mistake; filtration overflowed as the carbon covered the holes I drilled in the bottom of the box. Luckily it all just drained into the sump.

Interesting story: I asked my ex wife to give me a bunch of her old stockings for the carbon. She said sure. Then she called me later asking what kind. She has black, brown, white. What kind do I need? I said - I dont' care - I'm not wearing them!

 

[Ace25]

On my 75G I run carbon in a reactor, in my 29G I run it in a filter bag placed right under my HOB skimmer on my sump so the output of the skimmer falls onto the carbon.

 

[Amphiprion]

I had it running in a reactor initially, but it clogged too often for my tastes. I just run it in a media bag now near the skimmer effluent.

 

[Jstdv8]

I can think of many reasons to do 50% weekly waterchanges. Inadequate filtration being the #1 reason. I did 50% for a long time because of that, now I have better filtration but I still do 30% weekly on my 75G. I know a few locals with small tanks, 12G and under, that do up to a 90% weekly waterchange because they run NO filtration. No skimmer, carbon, etc, just a tank, light, powerhead, and heater. Most of the small tanks do fantastic with just the waterchange. One person I know has it on his desk as work so filtration is just a big added cost and mess of stuff around his desk so he decided to just do 10G waterchanges weekly on his 12G tank and it is thriving.

I suppose if you had alot of corals and No filtration, but that should only happen in a nano tank. Anything else and you are just throwing money away on mass amounts of salt.
Actually it would be way cheaper to just dose trace elements if that was the case. I don't see any reason to go more than 10% if you have a large tank with the correct amount of LR weather you run a skimmer or not.
My LFS saltwater specialist has 2 180g tanks (his samll ones lol) that he doesnt run a skimmer on at all and he has amazing coral growth and crystal water.
The purpose of changing water is to reestablish elements that would be consumed by living things in the tank. If you want to throw away money doing 30% plus changes a week by all means do it. the only thing it can hurt is your wallet.

 

[Ace25]

If you say so.. from 16 years of personal experience I disagree with you 100%. I mean seriously, dosing "trace elements"? Really? That is your answer? You should NEVER dose trace elements. Only thing that really needs to be dosed in a reef tank is Alk, CA, and Mag and those are major elements, not trace. Water changes remove Nitrates and Phosphates as well, which IMO is way more important than replenishing trace elements.

This is what my tank looked like when I did 50% weekly.. I ran into major problems when I moved so my tank crashed and I lost all those corals, but now with better filtration and only doing 30% my tank has never looked worse.

 

[FtwayneFish]

I duno what my poundage is in my fuge, I was hoping AC 20 would work for a idea of size, fill that with LR and a golf ball on top. I was asking kinda like which was better, Id take the worse of the two out and put more of the other.

Should your fuge light come on at night only? Mine runs 24/7. Pal told me it should run at night to keep PH the same or something like that.

I have my Halide now!!!!! So sweet. 150W, 22in to start then im lowering it a inch everyother day and stopping and going up a inch when it starts to raise the temp.

5.00 in premixed seachem reef from my lfs, it cant hurt each week. 5g jug doesnt take up much room where my old 2g jug was for my old 2.5g Pico.

Anyone wanna chime in on the corals only need 5hrs and anymore doesnt do anything?

So acintics this that. I have one main light. What should I run my 150w on my 10g nano. your opinion.

Thanks guys!

 

[Ace25]

Should your fuge light come on at night only? Mine runs 24/7. Pal told me it should run at night to keep PH the same or something like that.

Anyone wanna chime in on the corals only need 5hrs and anymore doesnt do anything?

So acintics this that. I have one main light. What should I run my 150w on my 10g nano. your opinion.

Thanks guys!

Fuge light should be run alternate hours from your main light, but as far as stabilizing the pH, that really doesn't happen. You would need a fuge light equal to your main light to do that which no one does. If you run your fuge light 24/7 you will run into problems like algae and cyano so it is not a good idea to run it longer than 10 hours IMO.

Like Amphiprion mentioned in another thread, it is more about "intensity" than it is "hours". With a 150w MH on a 10G I wouldn't run it any more than 8 hours a day.

Actinics.. with the MH you have on your tank I say they are not needed. I would replace the bulb with a Phoenix or Radium though. JMO.