Another newbie lighting question

[djbarnes88]

I have studied the archives of countless message boards and I am having trouble finding the info I need so here's my questions.
I have just purchased a 90 gallon tank with a wet/dry and an overflow. Assuming I am able to find some Aragonite sand without having to pay an arm and a leg I will use this as my substrate (3" to 4"). I am starting it out as a FOWLR but will definitely add corals down the road. Iknow that MHs are the favorite but taking cost into consideration I was considering a 4 bulb VHO retro (440 watts). Below is a link.
http://www.fishworlddirect.com/index.shtml
If I go this route will I be able to keep a good variety of corals. I sure that some of the more light sensitive SPS are out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I was also wondering about my PH. In my area PH is very high, off the chart, but my hardness is very low so buffering will become very important, would it be beneficial to place CC in my sump. Thanks for the help.

 

[Jolieve]

You can still keep a good variety of corals under those lights and end up with a beautiful tank. There are some amazing lps and soft corals out there that I am sure you will love.

Some suggestions for your first tank (these are mistakes I made when setting mine up). There are three things that you will need to spend a fair chunk of money on. It's important that you do not skimp on these items. Get them on ebay if you can, that will save you some money.

RO/DI Unit for filtering your tapwater. With that high ph... you likely have other nasty things in your tapwater as well. I started my tank up with my high ph tapwater and ended up with a huge hair algae bloom that took over the entire tank within a month. I am still fighting it off four months later.

Skimmer: Go Euroreef, Precision Marine. You will end up spending about 250$ for a skimmer for that size system. Do not plan to spend less, do not accept something that costs less. With skimmers, you get what you pay for. Research the skimmer you want to buy then purchase it on ebay if you can, that will save you a few bucks.

Deep Sand Bed: Crushed coral is... well.. useless and a pain the rear to maintain. Four inches is the minimum depth to get the good denitrification. There are so many reasons to have a dsb, and so very few for not having one. With your tapwater being what it is, and with the tank being as large as it is, I really recommend that you do this. You will not regret it. If you can get southdown playsand from Home Depot in your area, this will save you some money. It's about 10$ for 50 pounds of the stuff, but do not buy any other playsand. They are not all the same, it MUST be Southdown. You will need about 140 pounds of sand for this depth in your tank. If you can't get southdown.. save the money and buy caribsea.

One last word of wisdom. This is the mantra of this hobby. Only bad things happen quickly in saltwater aquariums. Take your time. Save your money, spend it wisely and most of all, do your homework before making a final decision on anything that you put into your tank.

Good luck, hope this helps,
J.

 

[Carpentersreef]

djbarnes88......

Jolieve..good answer!

Mitch

 

[djbarnes88]

Thanks for the response. As far as the skimmer goes that is a planned upgrade. The system came with a Seaclone 150 that I am hoping will at least get me started. I also was planning on going with a DSB assuming I can find the sand. I am also on a local forum and none of our Home Depots and Aragonite sand. What I was wondering is if CC inside the sump would offer some buffering? I would love to get a RO/DI system but I don't see it happening in the near future. Thanks again for the much needed guideance.

 

[Jolieve]

Seriously, check ebay for those RO/DI units. You can get one on there dirt cheap. Just make sure you buy from a seller with lots of positive feedback. It's one of those must have things. You could probably find a nice 4 stage unit for under a hundred, possibly even less than that. Do yourself a favor and get that unit as soon as you can, otherwise you are going to regret not having one.

Crushed coral won't offer you any buffering, what it will offer you is another thing to clean. The stuff is useless to you. Do the dsb in your main system, or you can do a four inch dsb in your sump (providing flow through the sump will not disturb the sand.) Skip the cc, the stuff is... well... cat pan liner.

J.

 

[ckentling]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=20756

here is the RO/DI I bought, and it works awesome, took care of ALL My algea issues, It was the best Franklin I spent on my system.

Christian

 

[Cabreradavid]

I would get that upgraded skimmer as soon as I could. The Seaclone you mention can handle about 30 gallons max IMO (some others on the board think they are only good as bookends). I would not trust it with a tank bigger than that. You are going to generate a lot of protein gunk cycling your tank, and feeding your fish (depending on what they are).
Also, the bio-balls in a wet dry tend to turn into a nitrate factory ( a lesser concern with FOWLR, but will become one if you go reef) and should not be needed if you have live rock and a DSB.
Also, I would suggest sitting down a while to think if you ever want to keep some of the SPS corals and/or high light demanding clams. A lot of people buy less expensive lights in the begining and end up buying metal halides later on because they decided they wanted to start keeping SPS etc (especially with taller tanks). So they end up spending more in the long run than simply getting metal halide to begin with. If you don't want to, VHO's are great (and there are some clams and SPS that would do ok with that lighting). Just some thoughts.

 

[taikonaut]

>... others on the board think they are only good as bookends

The above statement stands out since it gives too much credit/usefulness to the device.