few questions

[MattsSuperman]

I have a few questions hopefully someone can help me with

1. I want to try to get some copepods or something live that I can put in my tank for a food source or something similiar that would like reproduce and be beneficial to a reef aquarium. If anyone knows where to buy or what that would be amazing.
2. Does anyone know the specific specifications to sustain coraline algae growth I know a metal halide will do it but I want to have another tank set up and dont want to put money into another halide fixture. I know culerpa only needs a regular daylight bulb at around 500-650 k is this also enough for algae growth or do you need more and what type of light/fixture would you need?
Thank You

 

[koddyVT]

www.reefs2go.com - live food

 

[lighthouze08]

i saw UA selling live copepods in the bottle for $20

 

[dadyoj21]

My refugium has coraline growth on 6500 compact flourescent bulbs from lowes

 

[MattsSuperman]

ok thank you

 

[4adam12]

I've bought from Reefs2go and had good experiences. Sometimes they run specials on their pods buy one get one free and free shipping. If you end up going with them and you're around Roanoke let me know, I'd be interested in getting some more and splitting shipping.

 

[seafood luver]

Purple and pink coralline grows better under diffused or indirect lighting. Some Of the nicest coralline I've seen has grown under 10k and actinic fluorescent bulbs. Add strontium/molybdenum supplements to aid in the calcium uptake and you'll see an explosion in coralline growth, provided the current is also strong enough to keep detritus from settling on the live rock.

 

[MattsSuperman]

ok cool yea i have two 6,500k bulbs so I'm just going to have to get some strontium, i have like purple up and stuff like that ive been using like once a week

 

[seafood luver]

Try a bulb that leans toward the blue end of the spectrum like a 10 or 20k. A 50/50 would work too. Orange, brown and green coralline grow in the shallower depths of the ocean while pink and purple are found deeper. Simulate the deeper light spectrum and you'll grow the better algae.