sifuentes31 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Hello guys. I just purchased a used lighting system from RCA. Great Price for someone on a budget. (till i upgrade to LEDs) My question is will this put out enough light for an anemone? Not sure which anemone yet. Any suggestions? Also which corals would do great under these lights. It's a 48" Coralife deluxe i think and i have a 55 gallon FOWLR right now but hope to take the plunge to a full reef this summer. Any advice would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 4 bulb or 2? I had 2 rose bubbles under a 4 bulb Pc 48" fixture and they did great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I had compacts (3) 48" on my 58. We kept an rbta in it and it even split. Remember you will need to replace your bulbs about every six months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 it's a two bulb. Was thinking about getting the 50/50 for now on both sides. Later Modifying it with a some LED's (cool white) around the sides of the fixture and buying full actinic bulbs for the PCs. Yeah i saw those rose bulbs. Would love to have them. Would keeping them on a high rock closer to the bulb help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 it's a two bulb. Was thinking about getting the 50/50 for now on both sides. Later Modifying it with a some LED's (cool white) around the sides of the fixture and buying full actinic bulbs for the PCs. Yeah i saw those rose bulbs. Would love to have them. Would keeping them on a high rock closer to the bulb help? Do you know the total wattage? Dave- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Not sure yet. Will look at it closer after work. When i turned it on last nite it was plenty bright. Think it has the 10000k bulbs in it right now since i didn't see any blue on the bulbs. i placed it over the tank to see the difference and already it brightened up. Still need new bulbs though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I've had bubble tips under similar lighting and you "should" be able to keep them but more light would be better. They will also walk around so sometimes it's moot where you start them at but higher is probably better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I had a nem in my BC29 that was stock 36 watt PC. It did great and grew like a beast, sold it off and she split 1 week after getting into her new home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 I have two 65watt bulbs in it. So now after reading, i should be able to get an anenome then. My next question is how much softies can i place in the tank at one time and what supplements should i put in the water? I heard purple up had alot of good stuff in it. After reading a lot about it here and other sites it seems people love it and love to hate it. Has anyone else used it here? I'm just trying to get beginner softies for now to learn on and then later on advance to a slightly harder coral.. Baby steps... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 15, 2012 Share Posted March 15, 2012 I'm assuming you're putting this in your FOWLR tank. Place the nem in the tank before adding anything else. This way it can find it's home & you won't be moving things as it mows across them. Purple UP = Snake Oil (my opinion) used it during the seeding process of my life rock and did nothing. I think most softies will work in you lighting, mushrooms, some zoas, frogspawn, candy canes, & most LPS (these are what I had in my 58 before breaking it down). I did not use any supplements in this tank. Are supplementing anything now? Keep an eye on the tank, when PC get old algae starts to grow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Yup just a FOWLR for now. No i'm not suplementing at since all i have are fish. I guess i said Purple up because it trace elements in it and i'm looking for the simplist way to keep the LPS and softies alive. The anenome is easy since i feed my fish mysis already but i know the softies need healthy water. So far everything looks great in the tank but i have noticed in the past few days 6 of my dwarf cerith have died. Is this somthing to be concerned about? But i still have plenty of them around the tank though. And great advice about the Nem. I'll buy that first then start the softies... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 (edited) Softies are a good start imo super easy corals, I have never been able to kill one of those. I didn't really like softies at first but they really grow on you. so far we have some type of finger leather, a devils hand, kenya trees, diff types of mushrooms, toadstool, 2 diff types of gsp, cespitularia, palau nepthia, zoas, and just picked up a nice yellow figi leather today! Mine are either under t5s or leds, I keep them in. the lower half of the tank, so far so good. Only lps I've tried so far is a favia, a pectinia and a branching goniopora (lps, or...?), all of which are still pretty new. We will see if we kill any of those lol. Edited March 16, 2012 by Bannerfish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 So what exactly do you feed them? Or do they just filter the water...Oh and all 6 Cerith are OK. What's weird is that they hadn't moved from the sand floor for almost 3 days and this morning all of them were on the glass. Weird....guess they just had gas... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Yes they will feed from the water the water column,but I would target feed it. How much I belive depends on the size. I spot fed ours with mysis from a turkey baster. Gently sqeezing the baster over the nem, I would feed your fish on the side furthest away from the nem or the food will be stolen. We feed every other day. As it grew we spot fed it pieces of Krill, then graduated to whole silverside, with the large pieces we feed once a week. Once we started feeding them a whole silverside we feed once a month. Remeber th more you feed the more it will produce waste by-products. Good to here about the ceriths. We have about 5o tiny snails piled up in the corner of the tank, when lights out they are all over the front glass. Dave- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerrickH Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Thats a lot of feeding! Did they not split? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 As far as feeding I don't bother feeding my BTAs and they split at least once a year. If you come across any blue coral (it's a brown octocoral with a blue skeleton) it's not affected by the BTAs sting, everything else I have is to some degree so follow Daves advise and let it get settled in first. Regarding how much livestock to add at one time, I wouldn't think 4 - 6 small frags at one time would not be a big deal but several large colonies may be. As you get to know your system better and it matures you'll get a good feel for what you can do, one thing you can do is test before and after each addition to see how water parameters are affected. I use CaribSeas AragaMight which is the powdered form of Purple Up and have been happy with it. What ever calcium supplement you use monitor the calcium to evaluate how well it's working, I've had to go to calcium reactors on a couple of tanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Great advice! I still have to buy a few test supplies before i start stocking my tank. Any suggestions? The local petsmart and petco (which is closer to me) have a lot of API testers. Are they anygood or should i just get the jumbo pack of tester thats $30+? It had a lot of test tubes and testing liquids. As for the calcium i was going to do what Mark C did on one of his videos and put it in the ATO water. Seemed easy to do . I'm thinking that's what you do (TimFish) with the CaribSeas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dapettit Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 I think Mark C was adding kalk to his top off to keep his pH stable. I think is dosing a BRS calcium & magnesium with his aqualifters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 Oh yeah your right. Its been awhile since i've seen it. BRS has a lot of cool stuff. I'm really going to look into it now and get somthing soon. Hopefully theres a Group Buy coming again soon for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 . . . have a lot of API testers. . . that's what you do (TimFish) with the CaribSeas. I use mostly the API test kits (DFWMAS did a comparison study and API compared very good to more expensive kits). I would encourage you to read Randy Holmes-Farley's articles on Ph, Alk and Calcium. Kalkwasser will maintain pH and alkalinity in a tank but it does so by reacting with the CO2 in the tank, it is not adding buffering components. Randy Holmes-Farley also reports use of kalkwasser alone may drop magnesium over time and he talks about pickling lime to use to make kalkwasser. If you have a heavy clacium demand both kalkwasser or a calcium reactor will work better then aragamite. When I use aragamite I may add it to the make up water or to the water for water changes or directly to the tank. Here's a video of a tank that for the last 4 years gets about a 1/4 cup every other week with a 10% water change It occasionally also gets some superbuffer but no other supplements: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted March 16, 2012 Author Share Posted March 16, 2012 That's a beautiful tank. I sure will read it tonight. Great about the API test kits. I'm going to get some today after work. The only kit i have right now is the Ammonia and everything is reading 0 or very low since i started in Jan. So far i have two Blue Damsel, Cinnamon Clown, Bicolor Angel, and an Engineer Gobi. These fish love to hide almost all the time So the added beauty of coral and an Anemone will be a huge PLUS!!! If all goes well i might get a Condi Anemone tonight , if the deal doesn't fall thru......Definetly need to consider the equipment that BRS has to offer. Thanks Timfish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted March 16, 2012 Share Posted March 16, 2012 Thank You! I know some people have had success with condylactis anemoies but I've never had one live more than a year or so. BTAs on the other hand reroduce for just about everybody and the red variety is probably one of the prettiest anemonies around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted April 9, 2012 Author Share Posted April 9, 2012 So i finally purchased a Rock Flower Anemone and it's doing fine. Now, like the fish, it's hiding on the back side of a rock near the sand. It looks healthy though but it's hard to see in the tank. Looks like my cinnamon clown is sort of hosting it. He rubs himself on it then returns to his corner in the tank. Oh well as long as its healthy he can go where ever he wants to. Its very beautiful now that it has opened up fully. I'll take a pic of it soon...if i can....Still want a rbta though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nwehrman Posted April 9, 2012 Share Posted April 9, 2012 Would love to see a pic! Nicole Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted April 10, 2012 Author Share Posted April 10, 2012 Here is my Rock Flower in a Weird location......Its not fully open just hanging around the floor....like i said.... WEIRD....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.