needing some help.

[duck]

I have a few questions.... I purchsed an odd shape tank I am finding out and need some help. I would like to try my first salt water tank.. .

I would like to try and have some soft corals mushroom and live rock. I might have a fish or two in the tank (small ones)

The tank is 36x12x12

It came with no lid lights or pumps... just a tank .. paid 15 or 20 bucks for it. I have a large hob filter from a 40 gallon freshwater tha tI could use for agitation.. and I also have an extra heater.


I have read and understand about liverock and the sand I need to buy... I understand how to cycle the tank...
What I am having trouble understanding is filtration, lighting, and pumps.

I understand if I have enough boifilitration I won't need as much or any mechanial filtration..


for this size tank what size pump should I be using and what exactly does it do.. just move water??

As far as lights I see alot of technical jargon here... I am wondering If you could just go to walmart and get some shop style flourecent light fixtures.. and a "Sunshine" bulb.. or
"plant life" bulb. and cover the tank with a plexiglas lid
and put the light on top of it facing downwards. This tank is Shallow. I've seen alot of people using those screw in flourcent lights... seems like a good cheap alternative to other lighting..
does any company make a 36 inch long hood with incadencent style screw in fixtures on it I could use this type of flourecent in?


How much light will I need...


Skimmer.. will I need one eventually.. ???

 

[mogurnda]

That shape is actually very nice for photosynthetic organisms like corals. Good breadth, but shallow so the light doesn't have to penetrate too far.

There is more than one way to set up a reef tank, but my preferred arrangement is:
-lots of live rock
-no mechanical fitration
-protein skimmer
-lots of circulation (10-20 X tank volume/hour)

I also like to have a refugium, which is a separate tank with only a sandbed and macroalgae, for exporting nutrients and growing tiny organisms for food. Not necessary, though. You could even wall off one end of your tank as a small refugium with a bit of plexiglass.

As far as lights I see alot of technical jargon here... I am wondering If you could just go to walmart and get some shop style flourecent light fixtures.. and a "Sunshine" bulb.. or

The problem with this is that normal output (NO) fluorescents don't put out the intensity or spectrum you really want. Even plant bulbs don't tend to have the blue part of the spectrum that corals want. Mushrooms may be OK, but soft corals will probably not be happy.
Compact fluorescent (AKA power compact or PC), or very high output fluorescent (VHO) put out more intense light and you can have a good choice of bulbs with the right spectrum. Something like the 36 inch, 96 watt unit shown here will work very well for you.

Screw in flouorescents will also work, but again you have to be careful to get the right spectrum. A color temperature below 6700 will not give very good growth and may encourage bad algae growth.

 

[roberthellen]

I know this sounds stuped but i am looking at going in to marine and yuo say no macanical filltration by that do you mean a sump system could some one explan this to me and what is the best size tank to start with i know that every one says biger is better but i dont have that much room would a 16 uk gallons be ok?

Thanks for the help rob:OT:

 

[duck]

Wowzas

Hey Dave thanks for the reply..

If you have a couple of extra minutes I am still not totaly understanding this light stuff....

You mention NO lights VHO lights and PC's.
How can you tell the VHO from an NO.. is it just from wattage???

Can you find VHO lights and stuff in normal hardware stores or chain sotres?

Does the way they plug in have anything to do with if they will be NO or VHO??? I see 36' flouresence utlity lights for undercabinents and shops for around 9 dollars..... they look very simular to the picture you just posted me... Could I get that fixture and get just a bulb somewhere else??? 85 bucks seems like alot of money I could spend on live rock...


And the pumps.. do they just hang on the back or does there need to be pipe work and routed ordirecting the water in any special way... do I need any kind of air bubbler or does the turbulence from the power heads cover oxygenation...



thanks very much man for helping me with this..
I am very excited while at the sime time reserved I want to understand this process before jumping out and messing up.

 

[mogurnda]

Unfortunately, lighting is one of the biggest expenses, and one of the most important, if you're keeping corals. Wrong intensity or spectrum, and you may as well keep a fish only with live rock tank.

Appearances can be deceiving. The corallife hood I posted puts out 96 watts of the proper spectrum, has an acrylic lens, and cooling fans. I use a similar 130 watt fixture over my 20 tall, with no glass lid. You'll be lucky to get 30 watts of the wrong spectrum out of an undercounter fixture that looks similar.

VHO lamps look like NO, but they are overdriven to use about 3 times the wattage and give off about twice the usable light.

PC lights are skinny and bent into a U shape. They are more efficient in terms of light per watt than VHO, but some say the spectrum's better with VHO. 100 watts of PC will do a good job for many soft corals in your tank. You can retrofit something, using a kit from Aquarium Hobbyist, but it's actually cheaper to buy the corallife hood after you add bulbs and fans.

With a shallow tank like yours, you could do it with NO, if you can get 4 (or more) bulbs over the tank. The cheap bulbs won't work at all, so you will need to factor in the cost of two 10000 K and two actinic lamps (or a similar configuration).

One other possibility is to hang two VHOs with internal reflectors (the reflectors are in the bulb) over the tank. You would just have to buy the bulbs, the endcaps and the ballast. That won't be cheap, either.