looking for advice please

[muzz]

hello all, i am rather new to the reef keeping hobby, and i need a bit of advice.

to let you know what kind of tank and such, i have a 45 gallon tank, with 2 power compact lights, 65w each. i set if daylight 12000k, and the other is 65w daylight blue. they are both made by odyssea as is the tank. i have two power heads, one with rotating motion, and the filter, with a total turnover of aboput 950 gallons per hour. i keep the lights on a timer, running about 11 hours per day.

there is roughly 50 pounds of live rock, numerous starfish, few cucumbers, tube worms, and the like, which all came along on the rock. i also have one neon damsel, and two clowns(ocellaris?). everything and everyone seems to being very well.

my water parameters are ammonia;0 nitrites;0 nitrates;25ppm, temp 81 degrees, no phosphates, and the alkalinity is fine according to tests, but dont have actual number readings.

on to my questions now........... i want to buy some different corals and an anenome, preferably a bulb. i have been reading and researching like a madman, and it seems like the BTA's are the "easiest"(i use that term loosely) to take care of. i have read that many of you have your nitrates at 0, how do you do this? will the lights i have be enough for an anemone? will they work for any corals(i know this is a broad question, as corals differ in the amount of light needed form one species to the next)? is my turnover rate on my water ok?

many posts on here at RC say to do research, and i have done a lot, which i have enjoyed, but hearing from people with actual experience firsthand is the best in my opinion. also, i have read in many many places that carpets are one of the hardest to keep in an aquarium, yet i see many people on here posting about the problems they have with them, i cant imagine there are that many experts out there that can keep these anems alive. am i wrong in thinking that way? anything i purchase, i want to live of course, and not just live, but thrive. any help and info would be appreciatted, just remember that i am rather new at this, so if i forget something or say something that doesnt make sense, you will understand. thank you all very much,
muzz

 

[Slakker]

Get those nitrates down before you even think about getting an anemone...also, your tank should be up and running a minimum of 6-8 months from the END of your ammonia cycle before you add an anemone. I think that more water changes might help bring down the nitrates.

Yes, carpet anemones are extremely difficult to keep alive in captivity, but people buy them and kill them without thinking.

And no, your lighting is almost assuredly inadequate for an anemone...you should probably upgrade to at least a T5 fixture, and I'm sure someone with a little more experience than I will be able to tell you the wattage and bulb combination and all of those goodies.

 

[muzz]

thanks, i do about a 5 gallon water change every week.....i will make sure to keep up wioth those. and i will definitely wait to get an anem. until my tank is very stable.

as far as the lighting is concerned, i was told by lfs, and i have read that using power compacts is good. that you can not compare the wattages between pc's, and ho,vho,or other lights. having 2 65w pc's would be almost equal to roughly 270 watts using vho lighting. is this correct? also, what are t-5 lights? i grow plants(bonsai trees), another wonderful hobby, so i know about mh lighting. i just think on a smaller tank like i have, 45g, MH would be way to hot, and i would always be fighting the temp. in the tank. time to do some more reading.

the problem with this hobby is, technology is changing what people do, and it seems over the last 30 years or so, every decade there is a "new fix", or the best thing to buiy........ and then it changes or gets proven wrong or inferior. also, it seems liek there is no actual "science" to saltwater, as there are as many opinions as there are fish. that is why i am looking for advice from people like yourself, that have some experience, and can help me out so i do not commit the same errors that others have already.

 

[oyam123]

getting a 250w MH pendent would be fine for your tank.
T5 are nice and will do for mots anemones.

 

[Slakker]

T5 is a newer type of fluorescent bulb that puts out more light than PC and actually takes up less space, so you can fit more T5 bulbs in the same size fixture. VHO is pretty outdated, as far as I know you're correct that PC is more powerful than VHO, but certainly not T5.

 

[timrandlerv10]

i have a 175w mh and all it did temp-wise was make my heater stay off during the day. i must have mounted it too high, because my nem actually moved up the water column to get closer...but i cant put any more holes in the ceiling, so we'll have to wait a bit to get a better mounting.

i wish i had gotten a 250.

 

[raoul]

I've got a 250 mh over a 30 gal and, as stated above, the heater doesn't have to come on. In the summer it does get hotter, but we installed a simple computer fan on one side of the hood and a few holes on the otherside and that keeps our temps in check during the summer.

 

[Slakker]

To even improve on the 80mm fan, if you put one on each side both blowing the same direction (one pulling air in and the other moving air out) it'll increase airflow over the bulbs even more. A little trick us PC nerds use to keep things cool in the box.

 

[raoul]

Thanks for the tip! It's good to have pc nerds around My brother-in-law is a pc nerd, and he definately comes in handy!
My 30 seems to be alright, but we don't know how the 75 will do, it hasn't gone through a summer yet with mh lighting. I'll keep this in mind.

 

[Slakker]

You can also create a bank of those 80mm fans and blow it over the water as a sort of macgyver'd cooler, but that'll increase evaporation a lot.

 

[muzz]

with the cost of t5's and mh's being fairly similiar, which would u go with and why? while looking up different lighting on the net, i see many units that have mh along with t5 or pc's and lunar lights, are these "all in one" systems a good buy? they do look pretty cool. the cost of upgrading lights seems very expensive though, i will wait until i upgrade tanks, as i dont think the tank i currently have is worth the upgrade. i am assuming the pc's will be ok for fish, live rock and sand, and some corals, especially low to mid light needing species. are they ok for those?