Another new guy to the hobby. Need suggesstions.

[deejeff442]

i have to look that one up.i just got home from the lfs .i thought i needed a new pump for mixing my saltwater and forgot i have 4 #4 korilias from the 250 when i put the mp40's in there .duh.
of course i had to get something while i was there.i bought a brain nice and red and a neon orange frag of zoas.kept it under $100 for a change.the reef is looking pretty sweet theses days

 

[mmyuki]

One of the guys from my LFS said he has a smaller reef tank and has a chip as well, but he said he pays special attention to it and hand feeds it daily, gave me some pellets and I have been doing that with my chip and with my brittle and havnt had any problems yet, I am keeping a close eye on him though. I still have not bought any lights yet but had another question about them.. Are the four bulb t5 ho to much for my 30 or should I just get a dual t5 ho? Also what is that coral I have on that LR in my last photo on page 10? And Jeff you need to get me some photos of your reef I would love to see!
Too much light for my tank?
http://www.***********.com/Coralife_Lunar_Aqualight_T5_Lamp_High_Output_Fixture_24_Inch_T5_Fluorescent_Light_Fixtures-Coralife-ES08604-FILTFIT54U-vi.html
If it is I can go with the dual aqualight lunar instead.

 

[gemmy]

I personally would go with a 4 bulb setup for a 30 gallon tank. Also, you may want to edit your link and just post a picture of the fixture. They don't like links like that on here.

 

[mmyuki]

Oh, I didnt know that I've been posting links like that since day one when I started here on this site! I will try and change it. Do you have any reasons why you would use a 4 bulb instead of a 2 bulb? I am just excited to buy the fixture but want it to be one I will enjoy and my corals will enjoy.

 

[deejeff442]

here is the latest of my tank.

 

[mmyuki]

Very nice shots there Jeff thanks for posting! Is that a reef with no fish? I would like to get a bigger tank but need to be patient and buy a house for it first hah, plus my lady wants to get married like yesterday so that too needs to happen first.

 

[deejeff442]

there a some fish but they saw the first flash and hid.getting married will set you back for sure.do the smart thing and go to vegas .

 

[mmyuki]

It actually wont set me back to far, I have a guy selling a 125 gallon with stand and canopy for $300 off craigslist. I want to rip out the wall between the kitchen and living room when i buy the house and put it in the wall, good thing my dad is a carpenter, hvac tech and plumber and im a carpenter and hvac install, so putting it in the wall and getting it going is not an issue. Too bad she wants this big beach wedding and stuff but thats ok we'll figure it out.

 

[mmyuki]

Well it has been a little while since I have gone ahead and posted any pictures here on the site, not much has really changed inside the tank but I will be re aquascaping and changing the entire top of the tank with a four bulb T5 HO fixture that should be here any day, I will be adding a frag rack, some egg crate top so none of my fish can carpet surf and I will be fragging my PSP once my frag plugs get here any day as well. I will go ahead and grab up some photos tonight after work and a video in the next couple of weeks will follow with it on my first fragging experience.

 

[deejeff442]

hell yea pics would be nice.i am about to clean my 250 and do a water change.cant seem to get motivated and get off this chair though.

 

[mmyuki]

Thanks for staying with me here Jeff, pics will be up tomorrow.

 

[mmyuki]

Well I have some new things and still need to add some others, I have added a Firefish Goby and a Yellow Watchman. Question about the watchman is what should i be feeding him and do I need to somewhat hand feed him? he just doesn't seem to come out and eat with the others when it comes feeding time. The first pic here was my old setup with all the old stuff.

Alright second photo here will be the tank with the new lighting fixture up and running.

Alright now I also added something that is a little new to me still which is my frag rack, I know the point of it and will hopefully be able to start fragging my PSP very soon, some of them died off when I brought in my choc chip star, he also took out of shroom frag I had in there.

But once I started looking for my Watchman the other day I saw this little shiny gem sitting on my C.C starting to grow!

Then last but not least I have my full tank shot with all the neat new DIY stuff I added.

I was thinking about getting a HOB Protein skimmer but wasnt sure if I really needed it and I will be adding in another 20 pounds of base rock tomorrow since all the stuff I have in here now is live, or at least partially live. Now since I have a 4x39W T5 HO fixture that is giving me 5.2 watts per gallon, is that enough light for some hard corals or only softies, shrooms, zoas?

 

[deejeff442]

looking good.you sure have some coraline going there.i would get rid of the freshwater looking background and get a solid color like blue or black.
i have never ran t5's so i am not sure if thats enough light for sps .just guessing i would say no.sps is tough to keep without alot of light and a ton of water flow.
i wouldnt worry about the goby .he is probably eating in the rockwork.my blenny wouldnt come out for the first two weeks and now he is always out.just watch to make sure he isnt getting picked on.

 

[mmyuki]

I've been keeping an eye on him, he comes out from time to time but doesn't stay out for long, hes not getting picked on from what I can see. The back round is a saltwater coral looking back round but I would just go black if needed. Coraline growth was going very well for a while but I have not had to do any scraping on the sides or front in a week or two now which is strange. I'm still looking to buy an orange clown and maybe a flame angel to finish it with fish, then add in a couple cleaner shrimp once i get this damn top on the tank, I tried covering it with egg crate so nothing could crawl out but cannot seem to get that to fit in the inside frame of the tank, suggesstions there would be nice. I was thinking about taking out that fake rock on the left side of the tank but my fish seem to love hiding inside and sleeping there at night so I don't really want to move it.

 

[deejeff442]

what is the fake rock made of?looks pretty real with the coraline on it.i wouldnt worry bout the goby.fish dont always do what we want.i barely see my flame hawk.he is always darting in and out of the rock.a few seconds here and there.i have never bothered with egg crate.i have had a few jumpers over the years though.i found my blenny in my overflow a few days ago ,on the outside box.scooped him back to the dt and 2 minutes later he acted like it never happened.

 

[mmyuki]

The fake rock is made of some sort of plastic I assume, coraline grows very well on it though, fish like it but it looks a bit off of the other rocks. So you wouldnt worry about topping the tank with anything? I have two gobys and I know they like to jump.. On that protein skimmer what would you think get a hob one or dont worry about it? I also think I need some more flow in the tank I only h ave those two koralia #2s from this site i got a while back I was thinking about getting 1 or 2 more for some serious flow.

 

[deejeff442]

i dont remember what size tank you have.if you want to get rid of the fake rock the fish will find new homes no problem.i had a lot of that plastic rock when i had my 150 f/o tank.crazy how much that plastic costs.when i would clean it the paint would come off.so i gave it to a friend who keeps freshwater fish.i would replace it with base rock .just because its a by far better natural filter.#2 korilias are pretty weak. probably good to add at least another one maybe a #3 .i keep alot of flow in my tanks.my 30 qt has 2 #3 korilias in it plus two hob filters.
i kept 2 #4 's and a #3 in my 55 when i had it running but still needed more imo.now i run the mp40's but it took me a year to bite the bullet to spend the cash but worth every penny.if you can afford it look into an mp10 for the tank with the 2 korilias you have that would be a great set up.the mp10 is around $200 but they are just incredible.

 

[deejeff442]

oh i forgot.i havnt run a skimmer in 10 years on any of my tanks.i had a 90 reef for 15 years and didnt have one.i am going to get one for my reef tank i have now just because it is getting extremely stocked and i dont want a crash.but if you add more rock and flow i wouldnt worry bout it for now.

 

[mmyuki]

I have a small 30 gallon, will replace with base rock no problem.. I don't have #2 koralias my bad, I have two koralia nanos which say they pump 425 gph each, but still doesn't seem like enough flow for my tank. I was wondering if maybe I should add maybe just 2 #4s or maybe an mp10 would need to save a bit to buy that, wifey already on my ass about how much Ive spent on this tank hah! My water seems pretty clean until you see the top of the water, pretty murkey like a film on the top of the water sometimes, not always but time to time, was thinking about adding a dual bio wheel and replacing my current filter or maybe even just adding it to it or adding on a hob skimmer what you think?

 

[mmyuki]

I got you on the skimmer, will forget about it, maybe just add a dual bio wheel.