I need some help

[ratimpulse]

I have a 29 gallon AGA tank and im not new to the hobby. I was slowly converting it from softies to SPS when i saw a beautiful planted tank. It was amazing and I sold all my coral and the one baby yellow tang i was holding for a friend is soon going to be gone im going to be working on my tank.

basically its topped off using Ro/DI water, 150 watt 14K MH light, 20% water change every two weeks.

A few questions

-The depth of the sandbed and should there be any mixture of substrate?
-inverts? I was thinking of doing like the rock structure on one side like a reef wall of sorts leading into the macro area. I was going to keep my two clowns and keep a yellow goby in there.
-Basically any other good sites for information.

 

[graveyardworm]

The depth of the sand bed is going to depend on what type plants you intend to keep. Many macros will do just fine with little or no sand. Some of the calcearous plants do require a sand bed, and the seagrasses will also require a sand bed. A 6 inch sand bed would allow you to keep most plants available at the moment.

Some people incorporate mud substrates into thier sand bed. So far I've found this to be unnecessary but my success is far from long term. If you dont use mud then a good aged sand bed, 6 months or older is important for sand dwelling plants.

Your design and stocking sound good and the lighting is perfect aside from possibly using a lower k bulb, but considering how shallow the tank is 14k should still provide more than enough usable light for the plants.

From what I've found looking around RC is probably the best single source of information for planted tanks. Check the stickies at the top for more info and links. Also check RK mag for articles about Macros, and Seagrasses.

 

[ratimpulse]

I can do a 10K bulb or something