couple questions

[dkerns06]

First, I found a tank on craigslist that I was thinking about making into a grow out tank. It marine land 27 gallon cube with stand, skimmer and light. Now Im not sure on the specific of the skimmer yet but its only $125 for everything which is well below retail. My question is, the current light on it is a marineland double bright LED. I know this will not be enough for a grow out tank, but my though was if I bought a second double bright LED and put it on; do you think it would be enough for sps if i tier the tank out using egg crate. What I plan on doing is making a shelf a few inches under the water line using the egg crate and then possible other lower shelves for lower light corals. Think something like this.

Second. What is the best way to figure out the daily dose for calcium and buffer. I was thinking if I get my KH up to a set point, say 11, then dont dose for one or more days. Then test the KH and divide the change by amount of day then I will know how much the tank is using, given the fact the I know how much of my KH solution it take to raise my tank by 1 point. I had it down before but I added several new colonies of acros and its really sucking down the calcium and buffer.

PS, Kalk and Calcium reactor are out of the question.

-Thanks, Dave

 

[Raceimage]

I actually quit dosing, shut my calcium reactor off, and began doing smaller water changes more often and my corals took off. My system has a total volume of about 150 gal. I am doing a 15 - 20 gal water change every 2 - 3 days. I am also experimenting with lighting. I have a T5 8-lamp fixture on a track and 2 - 250 watt MH attached to the ceiling. The t5's are on a timer and I slide that out of the way for a few hours a day to run the MH. The corals also seem to do better with the metal halides. You could do the 70 or 150 watt MH clamp-on lights on the 27 gal.

 

[krshlln300]

I think the tiered setup is a brilliant idea! if it works, go for it!

 

[Python73]

I actually quit dosing, shut my calcium reactor off, and began doing smaller water changes more often and my corals took off.

There's some magic in that sentence...