is my setup worthy...?

[petermai]

my tank has been stocked with mainly softies and lps. i would like to keep just a few frags of sps towards the top of my rock work. please give me some inputs about my setup and whether it's appropriate to keep sps. i will be moving up to a 100gal next month but for now...

tank: 55gal long. 60lbs lr, 50-60lbs ls

sump/fuge: 20gal/chaetomorpha/LS/rubble

return: eheim 1060

skimmer: MRC MR-1 in sump/mag 5

calc react: coralife, 20lbs CO2 tank, solenoid/gauge
aqua jr controller.

heater: 150watt in sump.

lights: 2 175watt SE hamilton 14k bulbs/ballast

flow: 3 powerheads and the return.

tank parameters

ph: 8.0-8.29

temp: 78-80 F

amm: 0

NO4: 0

NO3: 5

livestock:

1 chromis

1 2" blue tang

1 pajama cardinal

1 clown goby

1 cleaner shrimp

1 large fighting conch

various and numerous hermit crabs, nas., and astrea snails.

softies & lps: gsp, kenya trees, mushrooms, frogspawn, pulsing xenia, zoo's, open brain, pipe organ, that's about it.

so what do you think? i apologize for the long post but i'm really interested in keep sps and i don't want to cause any uneventful death to these creatures. thanks.

peter

 

[waterfaller1]

I would keep an eye on that clown goby..especially if it is yellow.

 

[djcool563]

Other then the goby your setup is fine for SPS.

 

[dascharisma]

In my opinion your ph swing is huge. Also, if you don't test for calcium and alkalinity, you aren't ready for sps.



Brad

 

[marcrothschild]

A ph swing of 0.29 is not huge, mine varies from 7.8-8.0 . You should test for Ca, alk, and Mg. Your set up seems good to me....have fun!

 

[Rurouni Kenshin]

What kind of powerheads? Whats the tanks turnover? Whats the tanks Po4 level?

 

[petermai]

PO4...0

Calcium....450

alk.....9-10

i dose iodine and mag on a weekly basis.

turnover rate is at....400-500gph including everything from power head and return.

also, the clown goby is the turquoise color but they're basically the same as the yellow ones.

 

[wakefreak33]

I would up your return flow and try and get rid of your nitrates. Otherwise, you have a great set-up

 

[petermai]

i lied, my flow is actually higher than i thought. i just bought a pretty big frag at a lfs in san jose for 15 bucvks. it has about seven stems on it mounted to a round plug.

today i noticed the polyps opening up quite a bit. but i have no idea the type of sps it is. i have no camera so the best i can do is describe it literally...

the body is is pinkish while the tips are sky blue. the polyps don't come out of little cylindrical extension from the main body like the other sps i've seen. mine, the polyps seems to be coming out of tiny little half bowls extension from the main stem. at this point. i see the growth pattern to be branching upwards only. so what do you guys think. i'll borrow someone's digi cam to take a pic soon. thanks

peter

 

[kroe]

peter: you need WAY more flow. I have a 55 gallon and am running about 3800 GPH of flow. IMO flow is just as important as light for SPS, and the normal rule of thumb "5-10X per hour" is grossly inadequate when it comes to SPS.

 

[nseawater]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6965174#post6965174 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kroe
peter: you need WAY more flow. The normal rule of thumb "5-10X per hour" is grossly inadequate when it comes to SPS.

How do you judge by flow rate?

Tank volume x 10 = flow rate

So if you have 65g tank, the ideal flow rate would be in the range of 3000gph.

That's 65 x 50 = 3250gph turn over.

Am I understanding this right?

Right now I have 2 x 1100 seios and 650ghp of return from a mag drive - that's about 2850gph, right?

 

[petermai]

as far as flow...i don't know what brand of powerheads they are because i bought these a while ago when i was doing freshwater. i have two black and bulky ones(one says 402 on it while the other says 802). i have small 15watt pump that pumps water behind my rock work, then i have a 20 watt pump blowing water from the back to the front of the tank but it's main purpose is to keep bubbles out of my cpr over box. the over flow box is rated at 600gph but it's regulated by a eheim 1260 return pump.

all in all i have 2 strong, 1 medium, and one weak power head, along with the return from the eheim. i only have one sps in the tank at the moment and it's recieving flow from the 402 power head that is pointed towards the glass and reflecting onto the coral.

do you guys know what the flow rate on 402 and 802 powerhead?

 

[sidog1]

peter, i believe those are the old aquaclear powerheads. i think 402 is about 400 gph and 802 is about 800 gph. you may want to go with about of seio's since they are relatively inexpensive. i got 2 1100's in my 38 gallon along with a mag 5 for a return pump.

 

[petermai]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6965661#post6965661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sidog1
peter, i believe those are the old aquaclear powerheads. i think 402 is about 400 gph and 802 is about 800 gph. you may want to go with about of seio's since they are relatively inexpensive. i got 2 1100's in my 38 gallon along with a mag 5 for a return pump.

thanks for the clarification.

yeah, i've been meaning to switch over to the seio but these powerheads has been with me for years and they have never given me any problems. i have a mag 5 also, it's a nice piece of hardware, it is running my MR-1 skimmer at the moment.