Corals and lighting question

[tava716]

Hey all!

I have a 90 gallon 4 feet long with a 4 foot actinic, 3 foot 10K and a 3 foot hood with nothing in it yet. THese are your regular standard aquarium hoods (no VHO or Halide).

What kind of corals/clams and stuff will servive with this kind of lighting?

I am thinking of filling the empty 3 foot hood with another actinic. I really do not like the yellow light from 65K and another 10K would be too white. I like the blue tint I get right now.

thanks!

James

 

[steve-s]

So how many bulbs in total would you have with everything used?

4x40w NO actinic and whate else?

Kinda iffy given the depth of a 90 gal (24") but you might get by with some regular Discosoma sp. mushrooms. Hard to tell without all the info. Not the answer you might have been looking for but in all honesty if you replaced the endcaps and upgraded the ballasts, a 4x110w VHO would do very well for LPS and a wide range of softies.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Kensn]

I agree, for an upgrade get a nice electronic ballast (icecap) and (4) 46.5" VHOs. Later if you decide to go MH you can still use the VHOs for atinics. There are alot of tanks that do well with VHO, but I think your NO bulbs will limit you to only a few things.

 

[tava716]

Steve,

I have one 4 foot actinic adn one 3 foot 10K right now. I have room for one more 3 foot bulb. I do have some mushrooms right now and have had them for about 6 months. They seem fine.

 

[steve-s]

Another 30w NO addition won't help much in terms of coral new diversity. It will help with the shrooms you have now (self propagation) though and improve their color some. Would also help with coralline but I doubt much more than that... sorry.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Pauls]

I have to agree with seve. You will need a lot more light to really keep any coral. Try to upgrade to icecaps and vho or even power compacts. I run pc's 2 65 watt bulbs. U can get rertofit units for pretty reasonable. Its definatly worth the money to upgrade and keep a larger varity of animals.

 

[Krish]

Just wanted to say hi to my buddy James and that I'm glad to see how much progress you have been making lately with your tank! I don't know much about lighting and corals, so I won't add anything stupid here(LOL). You've got great guys here Paul, Steve, and Ken who are sure to get you sorted out.

 

[reefland.com]

I guess if there is something you could keep it would be Tubastrea sp., a non-photosythetic coral. These corals do require meaty feedings since they receive no energy from light sources.

 

[tava716]

Well, Thanks for the honest advise gang. I guess I will have to begon saving for some better lighting.

Krish, how ya been man? Hows the tank looking? Still am not getting any skimmate from my ASM G3. It has been about 2 weeks now. I have the water level in the skimmer set so the bubbles are just at the bottom of the collection cup. You can see from the pics that the water is just where the grey plastic ring is. Have some yellow residue on the collection cup tube, but nothing spilling over into the actual cup. I guess I just don't have a very large bioload with only the 3 fish and 55 lb of live rock and the urchin and stars. I have oticed that my PH is a lot higher. I guess all that air in the water is helping. Used to be 8.0 and now is easily 8.2.

Do you think I need to raise the water level in the skimmer?

 

[Krish]

Krish, how ya been man? Hows the tank looking?
Nice and empty(LOL) I don't know if you saw my latest thread, but I removed the backwall and got rid of the bio-balls and I'm stocking up on LR now. The tank has to come down to re-tile and change up some things. We'll see how it goes. About the skimmer...Not really sure. I'd maybe pm Steve(Wrightme43) and see what he thinks because he has a lot of experience with them. Good luck. GTG...I'm using a friends computer and we are leaving now.

 

[bigd]

I have a G3 as well....my guess is you need to raise the riser. When I first set the riser the bubbles are about half way up the collection cup.

Just play with it till you find the sweet spot. It took me multiply times of flooding the cup to get the hang of it.

 

[wrightme43]

Have you washed it yet? You should be making skimate. If you just wanna see it work, over feed for a few days. LOL
I can see in the collection cone that its doing its job.

 

[tava716]

Wrightme43, Wash it? What do you mean? (sorry). I did wash it out with hot water prior to installing it, I also let it run in the tub for about an hour with water at your normal bathwater temperature.

You are correct, there is a light brown film built up in the collection cup tube, but I do believe that my bioload is just so light that there is just not anything to really skim. I think that build up comes from when I clean the glass off (which I do 3 times a week.

 

[tava716]

Bigd, I have done away with the riser tube and installed the gate valve modification. It allows one to really fine tune the water level (and it keeps your hands dry. LOL)

 

[tava716]

Bigd,

You can see the gate valve mod in this photo. If you want instructions on how to build it, just let me know.

 

[bigd]

Im fimilar with the gate valve mod. Try closing the valve a bit more then.......you should be producing skimmate even with only rock in the tank. I've never seen a tank with a decent skimmer that could not produce at least some skimmate.....get those bubbles up higher is my guess.

 

[tava716]

Right now the bubbles are at the bottom of the collection cup tube. I will raise them up until they are half way up the tube.
Thanks!