Ideal setting for a reef tank?

serpentine5

Member
What is the ideal specific gravity, temp., and light times for a reef tank? I have had my temp set at 80, which goes up to about 83 with the lights on. I run the actinic lights on my PC for 12 hours and the 10k's for 10 hours. The actinics one hour before and after the 10k's come on. I try to keep my specific gravity 1.023-1.025 reading it with an ATC Refractomiter. Does this sound good?
 

tlk

Member
you are fine except I think your temp is too high. I try to keep mine between 75-79. I didnt notice any fish in your signature, but when they are added, most won't like the water that warm.
 

slick

Active Member
I think your temp is fine along with everything else. What do you plan on keeping your ca leve at? Also your alkanity?
 

sammystingray

Active Member
Reef tanks should be lower 80s IMO, and I believe a lot of research work agrees that corals do better....75 is way too cold for a reef tank in my opinion. Your salinity was given as a range....why? 1.025 or 1.026 is the most natural for a reef tank, but 1.022 or 1.023 is where I go with fish only tanks.
 

sammystingray

Active Member
OH yeah...twelve hours on the lights is what I go with. I'll even run them as long as 14 depending on the hours my fiance and I are working....I'm not going to look at a dark tank.:D If I were you, I would throw in another powerhead as well.
 
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elan

Guest
idealy, you should research an area where you want to get species from... fiji would have much different conditions than carribean species. .. deep water species also would idealy want specific paramaters are are much more sensitive to sudden changes in temp/salt/etc...
but, the majority of us usually get a mishmash of species for our tanks and thus we need to use some type of average...
anywhere in the average guidlines are fine, so long as there are no sudden changes in your paramaters...
IMO.....
the warmer the water, the quicker the organisms metabolism, and thus would require more food and nutrition but you would have quicker growth... only problem is, the warmer your temp, the less 02 can be saturated in your tank...
so.. whereas the carribean waters get as hot as the mid to high 80s in the summertime, and as cold as the mid 70's in the summer, the change takes place over a 6 month period of time.........
now what would be interesting is to know if someone has tried changing the temp this drastically over the years and have had any success.... maybe this is what we would need to do in order to get some of our corals to propegate... sorta like changing the light cycle on plants to make them flower.... i think 12-14 hours is growth cycle, and 8-10 hours is flower stage... but then again, i guess it all depends on why types of plants... but this is a saltwater forum.. so back to the topic.....
Personally...
i keep mine at 78 +- 1 ( i am still playing with my thermomiter.. but will try and keep it at 78...) I chose this temp because without the heater, my MH warm the tank from 76 to 78 by the end of thier shift.... so i just want the heaters to maintain this temp during the night... because two degrees is high fluctuation
but, you can change your temp from say 80 down to 76..... (you may want to do this during the winter months)... but the change should take you about 6 months... just like in the natrual ocean.
 

serpentine5

Member

Originally posted by slick
I think your temp is fine along with everything else. What do you plan on keeping your ca leve at? Also your alkanity?

I honestly do not know. What should they be set at?
As for my salinity, I try to keep it as close to 1.023 when the tank is topped off. I usually top the tank off once a week (more often since I just removed the glass tops) to lower the salinity back to 1.023. I do my best to not let it get higher than 1.025 when the water line is falling.
I am only looking at getting Nemo and his father (LOL) and a lawnmower blenny. I am not looking at getting any other fish any time soon, but we never know what the future holds.
 
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elan

Guest
i was looking at your livestock and noticed
Several Red Leg Hermits
Several Scarlet Hermits
arent those one and the same? or do you two different kinds of shrimp?
 

bang guy

Moderator
I agree with Elan that you should research your more delicate animals and match their natural habitat as closely as possible. Your 80F is fine for Carribean animals IMO. If you have some of the Red Sea animals you might think about raising it a couple-few degrees. They are normally found in waters hovering around 85F.
 

bang guy

Moderator

Originally posted by Beth
Bang, why do you have MH on your refuge and not on your display?

It's a long boring story. But I'll give the short version.
VHO looks better to me and the corals I keep seem healthier than under MH. I don't have very many high photon demanding corals like Acropora, etc. So, my display will stay VHO.
MH is cheaper in the long run to operate than VHO and I'm trying to convert my refugium to a Lagoonal reef so I'm slowly increasing the lighting down there.
I looked at LED but I'm not convinced that monochrome lighting is healthy for coral.
 
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