Lighting and Calc question.

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Hi,
This is my first post but I've been reading up on this board for a while now and just wanted to start out by thanking everyone for all the great info they post on this board. Now my situation....

I have a custom made 230 gallon glass aquarium (72Lx24Wx30H) with an 80 gallon sump. I have all my equipment (skimmer, pumps, r/o unit, etc.) except for lighting and a calcium reactor. I want to eventually add corals to the tank but am going to start out with about 300 pounds of fiji live rock and a couple fish. I have a few questions....

1) Is it ok to add the clean-up crew soon? How do i acclimate a clean up crew in my quarantine tank and then get them all out to put in my show tank?

2) Should I get the lighting and the calcium reactor now even before any corals are in te tank or will the live rock prosper without strong light and calcium reactor?

3) What lighting set up do you recommend?

Thank you so much. Nick.

 

[karlas]

1) Is it ok to add the clean-up crew soon? How do i acclimate a clean up crew in my quarantine tank and then get them all out to put in my show tank?

after the tank has cycled that is the best time to add the clean up crew. most new tanks have the diatom alge bloom and if added can start gettin on it. also with the clean up crew you can add them directly to the tank

2) Should I get the lighting and the calcium reactor now even before any corals are in te tank or will the live rock prosper without strong light and calcium reactor?

if you get the corals you will have to definitly get better lighting. but with just lr lighting really doesnt matter. calcuim helps corraline grow but it is not needed. with lr most critters come out at night and if the corraline does grow different colors grow in different levels of light

3) What lighting set up do you recommend?

for your size tank metal halides are the best and has the widest range of corals and clams that can be kept. pc lighting is good also and most corals can be kept with pc there are a few that cant. one thing the mh get very hot where the pc put out a lot of light but dont get as hot.

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

Karlas, thank you for your reply. that is the other problem with the MH that i would need to get a chiller. How about those smartlites? are those any good? and if MH, how may watts and how many bulbs?

 

[Anonymous]

IcantTHINKofONE hi!-you may not need a chiller-plenty of people have their tanks run at 84 deg. during the summer mo.s without a problem.the bigger concern is STABILITY of the temp.(3 x 250 watt 10k's should do you great, one placed at the middle, and the other two placed midway between the ends of the tank and the middle bulb.).if the room is kept at a temp of 78-80, then the fans in the hood, plus a clip on for evaporative cooling, should be more than adequate.(a room ac is cheaper, maybe, than a chiller, and you also benefit!)you may want to use pendants from the ceiling if your that concerned, you can raise 'em to counter the extra heat output.
imo- you can definitely put the rock in before the lights-keeping the tank 'dark' for 3-4 wks will help avoid an algal bloom-and some good(25%) weekly water changes for that period may let you get by w/out a cycle 'spike', and any photosynthetic 'gifts' that come in on the rock, will still pop out later.
please remember to add the fish 'slowly!' when you're ready to start, even with a nice size tank like that!luck

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

vitz, just 3 MH bulbs? no flourescents?

 

[Anonymous]

some use supplemental flour. for actinic addition, some don't. imo-the halides have all the blue range par you'll prob'ly need-if it's a matter of personal visual taste, go with the 20k, they are bluer.i also think the 'point source' effect of halides looks much more natural.but the lighting setup opinions and experiences are as varied as the number of corals on the reef!
3 x 250 watts of mh lighting should definitely be enough(i used 3 x 175 mh on a 75 gal low[18x18x60"] and had to continually prune my corals, and my croceas stayed healthy, as well as my bubbletip, everything grew.
remember- it's just one suggestion that'll work, there are other combo's you can do
i don't prefer flourescents 'cuz: the heat source is kept closer to the tank (though fans may make this a non issue),and they need more frequent replacement, making them as, if not more, costly than halides, which give more 'bang' for the buck.
i'm sure you'll get plenty more suggestions here to consider!

 

[ChrisRD]

I think there are different schools of thought on lighting the live rock. I've gotten live rock before that has lots of little polyps/corals attached. If you light the tank from day 1 you'll probably have some more algae issues initially as the tank cycles, but you'll also save some of your photosynthetic hitchhikers. 3 or 4 weeks of darkness might be enough to kill off some photosynthetic organisms. Something to think about...