New to RC and to the hobby. Some friendly advice please.

[SFosse]

Hello Reef Central. I am new to the hobby and could use some advice. I have a 47 gallon, 20x18x30 tank. I currently have 60lbs pounds of LR in it atm and 50lbs of sand(30dead/20live). I have a aqua ramora hob Skimmer with the Maxi-jet 1200 pumb as well as 2 Maxi-jet 1200 powerheads in the tank. I am currently using the Odyssea 24" 130w compact atm for lighting. I was wondering if this is a good set up for a started tank. I want to try corals as well as a few small fish in this. One of my concerns is the depth of the tank 30". Will i need to upgrade the lighting for this?

Here are a few pics of my tank atm. I do have rust/brown color algae growing in the tank. Sorry for the crappy Pics. Camera isnt that great.

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thanks for your time.

 

[iCam]

Hello, and:

[welcome]

An upgrade in lighting would depend on what type of corals you would want to keep. As far as the rust/brown growth, it is either diatoms or cyano bacteria. Both are common in newer tanks, and should go away on their own considering the water quality is good.

 

[SFosse]

Pretty much everything i know i have learned from this forum . Any suggestions on coral and LS? I know with the lighting i have i couldnt have some of the more sensitive corals near the bottom. just trying to get an idea as to what i could get with this lighting.

 

[jeffb3t]

Personally, with your set up I would go for some easier corals like mushrooms and zoos. Green star polyps should do good as well. From my experience, they don't need that much light and should do fine. With a depth of 30" though, I would consider t-5's or a single MH for the light lovers.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

all soft corals on that lighting. Upgrade to a 175 halide if you want hard corals or a 250 based on your depth of your tank.

Or its now possible to just use t5 lighting to house sps and other hard corals.

 

[SFosse]

Any suggetstions on a model that would fit my tank. It is only 20" long so dotn have much room to work with. i would prefer a hot light rather than one that i need to suspend from the celing.