Pet Paradise

[racer69]

Jenn, your light set up would be fine for lps and sofies as well as zoas, mushrooms and rics. I have all of those in my 33 cube and only have one 96 watt pc. We can discuss the closed loop later, but it is more efficient and looks nicer than power heads.

As far as the salt discussion goes, I only use IO with weekly water changes (never missed a single one) and my corals grow rapidly and are quite healthy. That is over a three year span. I never add iodine and I do add strontium and magnesium once a month as I test for both. I don't add anything I can't test for. No offense here, but salt is salt and if you do regular water changes, you will get your trace elements. If you don't do them, you will need to supplement.

 

[JinxXx0085]

I'm bored again...

I think I'm good with salt mix... now I need to decide on what substrate I really want to use. Light colored or dark colored ones.... any ideas?

 

[Huhhhhh]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10022138#post10022138 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JinxXx0085
I'm bored again...

I think I'm good with salt mix... now I need to decide on what substrate I really want to use. Light colored or dark colored ones.... any ideas?

Lighter substrate will make your tank look brighter. Darker will suck the light up.

 

[JinxXx0085]

I have always seen tanks with agaronite substrate which is real light of course. I want to see the tanks with darker substrate. I haven't had any luck of finding an example.

 

[Thurge]

I have black Calcite in my Mantis tank and like the look of it. Its just him and some LR with a Normal output florescent so there really isn't anything to look at, but I am thinking I will set up another tank this afternoon and tomorrow, for another mantis tank. I have approval for another tank as long as I can do it without spending any money.
I will try and take pictuers as I go.

 

[Huhhhhh]

Here's a link to a thread I started awhile ago about black sand. There are some links in some of the reply's that have pic's of tanks with black sand.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1106505

 

[JinxXx0085]

Thanks for the link Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... oops wasn't that too many h's?

I think I'll go with gray coast from petsmart like this one

Thurge, I still would love to see your FTS. I am not going to be buying the substrate that soon but maybe this week!

 

[Thurge]

K I will post up some pictuers over the next couple days.

LMK if you like what you see, and we can work out a deal. I probably still have 100#.

 

[JinxXx0085]

That sounds good Thurge!

 

[Thurge]

http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n175/TheThurge/Black sand tanks/

Sorry I took so long. I got a day behind setting up the new tank and I was hoping that the mantis in the tank would open up his burrow. The spearing mantis tank is the new tank, its a 10 gallon and is lit with one NO florescent bulb. Hairy's tank is a 15 gallon also lit by one NO florescent bulb. Its a little dirty even though i do weekly big water changes.

 

[JinxXx0085]

Thanks for showing me the picture of your tanks Thurge!
What is the substrate grain size?
You mentioned that you had 100# in previous post... Can you tell me what this means?
Thanks!

 

[bigsittingrock]

100 lbs

 

[JinxXx0085]

Oh... I knew that! Yeah... really!
Thanks bigsittingrock.

 

[Thurge]

I would have to say its grain size is under 5mm.
I had 2, 5gallon buckets of it, but oddly most of one went into my 10. I think the wire strainer I was using to rince it was actually "graiting" the gravel down to sand. I'm contemplating experimenting with the rest in the one bucket to see if that is actually what was happening, and make a DSB in the reef sump.