smart lites

[teog]

I posted a message a few day ago about being new to the hobby and starting a 24 g reef tank. You all gave my great advise. Thanks!
I had to upgrade to tonight to a 29g tank since my other tank broke in moving it. i also went out and bought 27 pounds of marshall island LR. I know that this isnt enough for my new tank. And I have 20lbs of ocean sand and 20lbs of live sand. This give the tank around 3inches of subsrtate.
I have 3 questions. Should this type of LR have stuff growing on it? It has some coraline algea(purple stuff) nothing else though.
My second questions is can I mix florida aquaculture rock with it? Im going to tampa this weekend and would like to buy 15lbs of it.
Also would a 65watt 24 inch coral life smart bulb be sufficient. Or could I get buy with a 24inch dual light, one bulb being day and the other an actinic? I was told with the later light I could have soft coral and the lr and anomes. But not hard coral. I was then told with the smart bulb set up I could have all corals.
Again thanks for helping!

 

[adrian]

Teog, a 29 is a great little tank, not too small and big enough to keep a good bit of stuff in. When you buy live rock its not going to look too spectacular. After a couple months in your tank, assuming the conditions are correct, your rock will be full of life, if its good rock, the coralline will begin to spread, certain macro algae may begin to grow, and sometimes you get little extras like polyps, sponges, feather worms, ect. Give it time, it always looks a little bland after the curing process. Yes you can mix the Florida aquacultured rock to it, it would add to the diversity of the tank. If I were you I would wait on the lighting until you can get something with a little more bang. A 175 watt MH with a 55 watt actinic PC would work well for most anything except the most light demanding sps and clams. A single smart lamp wont do much for you and IMO PCs are a poor choice for lighting a reef. Do some reading on lighting before you do anything, your LFS dosnt sound to up on their lighting. HTH
[ August 31, 2001: Message edited by: ADRON420 ]

 

[andymi]

I think it really depends on what you plan on keeping and the power of the PC's. A lot of people talk about watts, but K's are also very important. I have seen people keep many different types of soft corals under Power Compacts and they look fine. Some corals just may need to be kept closer to the top than others. However, you will probably not be able to keep clams at all, but some pulsing xenia at the top of the tank and such would probably do ok.
--Andy

 

[up north hermit]

FWIW,
I totally agree with ADRON420. In addition, when you are finished researching lighting, I would then decide what animals I would like to keep and then do a research on what the specific lighting needs are of those specimens, then light your tank accordingly.
IMHO, you just can't answer these continuously asked questions about lighting, and address if PC or VHO or MH is appropriate to an individual tank. I believe the question to be asked FIRST is what do I want to keep? And then address the lighting issue to match the needs of the animal requirements.
Just my humble .02
HTH
Hermit
[ August 31, 2001: Message edited by: Up North Hermit ]