Am I on the right track?

[newnanoman]

Hello everone I'm a newbie, At first I just wanted to start a fowlr tank but then I seen all these beautiful nano reefs on here now I want to go that route. My tank has just completed it's cycle, Here's my setup

10 Gallon aquarium
20 pounds of aragalive figi pink substrate
10.5 Lbs. of live rock fully cured
50 watt heater
whisper 60 H.O.B. power filter with live rock crumbled in chambers (300 gallon Hr.)
Lighting: 28 watt coralife 50/50 compact fluorescent lamp

Since I was going to just have a fowlr I didn't get much for lighting. So here's my questions (1.) What kind of soft corals would i be able to have with 2.8 watts per gallon. (2.) Do you guys/gals think that 300 gallon per hour is to much current for what I'm wanting to accomplish
(3.) I was trying to go with natural filteration do you think that the 2 pounds of live rock frags I have in my H.O.B filter and 20 lbs of live sand is enough to support some soft corals?

Thanks

 

[rich415]

At that low of lighting, you can keep mushrooms and leathers, but not much else. Some mushroom might "reach" out for lack of light. If you double that lighting you can keep Zoa's and LPS. I would also put in asmall power head and point it toward the cascade from the HOB filter. This will break up the waterfall and give better circulation throughout the entire tank. Finally, going "natural" is fine for filtration, but it is hard to do it without a protien skimmer or refuge. I, personally, will never run another reef without both.

 

[newnanoman]

Thanks for your reply, that's kind of disappointing I seen on http://www.aquacon.com/coralpackages.html a whole list under nano coral packs that said that they only required two watts per gallon. do you think they are doing thi sjust to sell them or are the ones listed O.K. for 2 watts per gallon?
Thanks again

 

[wav3form]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7586208#post7586208 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newnanoman
Thanks for your reply, that's kind of disappointing I seen on http://www.aquacon.com/coralpackages.html a whole list under nano coral packs that said that they only required two watts per gallon. do you think they are doing thi sjust to sell them or are the ones listed O.K. for 2 watts per gallon?
Thanks again

Now i'm just a noob at reefs but all the research i've done shows that you would need much more than 2 watts per gallon to have these animals thrive. Not just watts per gallon but quality of light per gallon. I'm pretty sure they just want to seperate you from your money as fast as possible and will say anything to do it. Same approach my lfs takes. They do look like they have some nice corals and other stuff and good prices. Might have to check them out.

 

[newnanoman]

So does anyone know of any softies that will be ok in 2.8 watts/per gallon. I realy like the Star Polyps, Multicolor Zooanthus Polyps, Kenya Tree Coral, and Torch Coral but I don't want to buy them if they will not be OK with my lighting.

 

[ShY]

What lights do you have on your tank? Its not allways about "watts per gallon". There are several other factors that contribute to lights to coral such as what kind of lights, tank depth, and coral placement to the lights. You can get away with the shrooms and leathers but i would suggest placing them high in the tank.

 

[newnanoman]

My lighting is Coralife 20" Aqualight Power Compact Strip Light- 1X28Watt - I bought it @ http://bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=24049;category_id=1875;pcid1=1843;pcid2=
There is a full description there my tank is ten gallons is it 12 inches tall. Thanks for the replies keep them coming. I found this page interesting http://www.aquaworldaquarium.com/marine_reef_aquariums_made_easy.htm
it gives me hope