Evaporation and Lighting

bigeyedfish

bigeyedfish

Member
My 55gal is in its second week, just now starting the break-in cycle. I notice every morning that i have to add more freshwater due to evaporation. Will this settle down after a while or is this normal? i figured maybe adding some new fresh H20 once a week or so. Temp. is 79F by the way.
Also a ? about lighting. I have 2 x 24" at 20W perfecta-lights that came with the hood. Are these sufficient for my live rock?? I was thinking of upgrading to VHO super actinic, 75w each.
thanks sorry for the long post.
 
jess

jess

Member
You should only have to add a little but of water every 2-3 days. But i due know people with reef tanks that do there top off once a week
 
ubeturwrasse

ubeturwrasse

Member
top off wont go away.....sorry
and your lighting will be fine for live rock, but thats about it. it will not sustain corals.
 
cyn

cyn

Member
I top off about 1.5 gal per day in my 55. I use RO water and every other day add Kalk. So far, so good. The coraline alge is booming and everything in the tank is doing great. It sounds to me like you are using tap water, and I hope not. If you read the posts here, you will find many experienced folks that will tell you not to use it. RO water is available at most LFS and many Walmart stores. Well worth the investment in my opinion.
HTH,
cyn
 
reef 1

reef 1

New Member
Water evaporation is normal and in my 135 I have to top off when my wet/dry return begins to emit small air bubbles, alerting me to the fact that there is oxygen getting into the return. I use a tupperware conainer and put R/O water directly into the tank. The lights you currently have are not enough to maintain live rock. The rule of thumb is 3-5 watts per gallon for a reef tank with live rock. Sub Compacts are awesome.
 
justinl

justinl

Member
A water softener does not help. They do not remove anions like nitrate and phosphate. They just remove calcium and magnesium and add sodium.
Buy a Deionizer for about 40 bucks. I have one and it works great.
 
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