46 gallon SPS tank........

[Greatreefer]

hey all, im new to this site, I was just wondering if you can help me with setting up my 46 gallon acro clam tank. Just need some advise on lighting curculation and so on.... ill be posting some picts of my tank here shortly but just wanted some much needed advise

thanx,

B.J.

 

[CarlaW]

Welcome to RF.
What are you gonna do for a substrate? I'll wait for the pics to really get into it, if that's ok. Is this your first venture into sps and clams, and/or a reef tank? We are gonna need to know that too.
You are gonna find that there are alot of people here to help you out with some real good info. Welcome again

 

[Greatreefer]

the tank is already setup and been running for about 3months and its all cycled and ready to go. Now, Ive done clams before, but NOT with any success. I will take pictures later today and let you look at em'

 

[CarlaW]

Cool, we'll be waitin. Clams in general are gonna need alot of lite, aka metal halide. There are people who have had success with clams under vho or pc's, but I think most people have more luck with the halides. HTH

 

[reedman]

Have to agree with Charlie on this. MH is highly recommended for clams and SPS. There are some species you can keep without MH, but it becomes more difficult.

Two parameters that are key to success with both SPS and clams are calcium and alkalinity. Keep them stable with Ca at about 420 ppm and Alk between 8 and 10 dKh (others may chime in on this one) and. The key is stability and very slow changes when necessary.

On flow, it's a matter of getting the flow high enough to keep detritus in suspension until it can be removed by your skimmer (or other means if you are not using a skimmer).

 

[Greatreefer]

Sorry guys, I am unable to post pictures right at this moment, but heres the low down on my tank. Im running 2x 96 2x 65watt PCs for circulation, I have 2x maxijet 1200's and a magdrive running as the return from the sump.
I hope this will be enough flow to grow acros. Ill be posting pictures here shortly so, you can see what im talking about .....
what my plan is for lighting, is to run a 150-175 watt 10K MH with the 2x 96watt PC's do you think that will be enough wattage as far as attinics go to not get washed out by the halide?

thanks,

 

[kevinpo]

That should work fine for both lighting and flow.

HTH,
Kevin

 

[Greatreefer]

so, the 175 watt with the 96watt attinics should work? Now my question is will this be enough attinic to give it that nice 50/50 look cuz the last time I did MH the tank was yellow. and that was really UGLY! even with the supplement attinics. so, I guess a 10K bulb is what color, white? I know that a 65K is yellow a 20K is blue so, I guess my next question is what type of bulb.

 

[reedman]

If you are looking for more of a white with a hint of blue go with the 10K + actinic supplement. If you really like a blue tank, go with the 20K + actinic supplement. 10K will be brighter, but not as blue. Both have a pretty good spectrum for corals.

 

[NaH2O]

Welcome to Reef Frontiers!

 

[Macbeth417]

Greatreefer:

I am moving my 30gal sps tank with clams to a 46gal bow in the next few weeks, feel free to PM me if you want to talk anything over. I love to design systems and talk reef nerd.

-Erik