Reef Keeping advice

[Pan]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

also blogs seam to be backwards from the way stuff is entered, so it looks like your putting water in befor you even look at the equipment.

I think the lighting section needs to be revamped, trying to group LEDs MH and T5s togeather doesn't work as they are still very different lights and intensities, SPS will grow under a NO bulb if you saet it up right, so saying you need this or that isn't realy accurate with out more explanation.

you could talk about Floressents and then go through the types starting with NO, VHO, PC, T5
then talk about HID and there different sides and types,
and finaly mention LEDs

I still have not seen anyone with a sps domanated tank using LEDs only or have heard no feed back at anyrate, so I don't even know if I would mention this in a newbe guide.

Are you doing advanced or newbe, you don't need a phosban reactor, heck they wern't even invented untill my tank was running 5 years already, do I have one... yes, do I use it no.. I am converting it into a CO2 reactor for my fresh water planted tank.

for flow wiseI would say for a SPS tank 20X flow rate is to little, that would be a min for a softy tank. IMHO, for SPS 50X would be a min, but how are you making that flow how much is through the sump or do you even have a sump as a choice?

Also getting back to the advanced/newbe you start talking about all this other stuff Zeo, ect... Keep it real simple, tank, lights, flow, skimmer, and some way of maintaining Ca, Alk, Mg ect.. ,mention that you can dose them as required, then mention that a Ca reactor and Kalk can work, if you go right to the advanced stuff it will discourage a lot of people because of the work involved and the cost. there are ways to have very low maintenance tanks that are very nice.

Steve

As per the 20x flow rate part etc....there was actually a few articles in various reef magazines (which i will attempt to find) that suggested how much flow was not nearly as important as how it was actually flowing.
When it comes to this hobby we think we know a lot, when we really know very little. (I mean everyone including the ``experts`` I think even the RC chem guys have stated more than once they really have no idea on the actually chemistry of a saltwater aquarium...

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

As per the 20x flow rate part etc....there was actually a few articles in various reef magazines (which i will attempt to find) that suggested how much flow was not nearly as important as how it was actually flowing.
When it comes to this hobby we think we know a lot, when we really know very little. (I mean everyone including the ``experts`` I think even the RC chem guys have stated more than once they really have no idea on the actually chemistry of a saltwater aquarium...

yup, both are very important, thats why a lot of though goes into how to set up flow in the tank. but a good compromize is to stuff as much flow as you can with out blasting anything, so lots and lots of dispursed turbulant flow.

I had about a 120X turnover in my 94 gal, but you could put your hand anywhere and it was just a gental flow which also kept stuff in suspension which is the key.

Steve

[rocketlily]

Since we are talking about flow here, would you all recommend the Red Sea WaveMaster Pro / Maxijet Powerhead Package - Regular http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/wm...-+Regular.html for extra flow in a 90 gal.
this would be on top of 2 Hydor Koralia - 4 Water Pump (1200 GPH)

[Pan]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

yup, both are very important, thats why a lot of though goes into how to set up flow in the tank. but a good compromize is to stuff as much flow as you can with out blasting anything, so lots and lots of dispursed turbulant flow.

I had about a 120X turnover in my 94 gal, but you could put your hand anywhere and it was just a gental flow which also kept stuff in suspension which is the key.

Steve

Yep, good points.
Same reason I have a huge flow through the sump, it was desinged and partitioned for it