surge deivce?

[herpsandreefs]

I wanted to install a new surge device on my 50 for SPS. I have 2 65 W compact flourescent (1 atinic 1 daylight). The surge would use a toilet flapper and drain about 1 gal in 10 secs roughly. Can i still keep softies and more gentle corals atthe bottom, or will this be too much flow. I also have a 900 gal/hr pump running as main with 3 ft head. Can i do SPS & soft coralswith this setup? Any help appreciated. Chris

 

[hillbilly]

I don't know about the surge device, but you will need quite a bit of flow to keep sps corals happy. I don't think I would keep softies and stonies together in such a small tank. If soft coarls and stonies compete for real estate, the stonies always lose. You also need more intense lighting (such as MH) to keep sps corals from all turning a ugly brown and worse case slowly wasting away. You also need a nutrient poor tank for the most part, with a increased calcium level to keep them growing. My advice would to be to not mix softies and stonies unless you have a fairly large tank, and experiece keeping both long term.

 

[herpsandreefs]

So PC wouldn't be enough? I was just thinking about a few SPS and my calcium is around 400-410 ppm. As for nutrients I'm going with a more plankton friendly tank so for filtration I will soon have a macro refugium and mangroves which I hear remove large amounts of nutrients. Should I still wait until I get MH/bigger tank? Thanks again
Chris

 

[hillbilly]

PC's are not intense enough to keep sps color. They lose color and turn brown almost without exception. I have heard about people keeping them with PC's, but I've never seen it. In fact, I doubt you could keep the color with them. I've kept stonies since 1997, and the easiest way I've found to keep them is in a BB tank, with tons of flow, a powerful skimmer, CA reactor, and intense MH lighting, such as HQI's. I know some people use a fuge, but I've never found I needed one. I do use a sump though for equipment and to make water changes easier. Why not just set up a seperate tank for your sps? It would make things easier, as soft corals and sps don't really make great tank mates. Soft corals are found in much calmer waters than stonies anyway.

 

[herpsandreefs]

Definatly don't have room for another tank, I'm at school.
If my flow isn't a jet at anything, like a surge with 1 1/4 PVC so it is well disapated, its ok for soft corals? After seeing a surge i action I really liked seeing the corals and fish lean and sway to the side every 10-20 seconds. Thanks for the advice! Chris

 

[hillbilly]

If you can make it work, I say go for it.