Pictures and some questions

[Mark75]

This is 5 weeks or so into my 30 gal. long. I have 35lbs. Fiji lr and 4 Turbo snails and 3 Nass. snails and 2 Scarlet hermit crabs. I would like to by some live stock locally as from what I have seen you guys have some great stuff and great prices. My question to you guys that frag and sell is this. I bought 25lbs. of lr and 10lbs. of lr rubble. The smaller pieces of rubble went into my hob and the larger pieces are in my tank. I do not want to add any more smaller pieces of lr if I can keep from it. Can I give you guys the smaller pieces to put some fraggs on for me to purchase? Do you sell me just the coral and I stick it on the piece? I am new at this , how does it work? And by the way how does my setup look so far?

 

[acrodave]

most people have frags allready mounted for you. the 2 fish shopes should have them mounted also. i know for a fact that one dose

 

[Lint_Licker]

You might wanna upgrade your lights before going into corals. Looks like you have NO fluorescents which can maintain shrooms and grow hair algae really well but not most corals.

 

[Mark75]

Yea lint_licker the lights are what is holding me up. I plan on using the 4 bulb Nova Extreme T-5 HO, I just haven't ordered it yet. I know the Nova is not the best as far as T-5's go but the price can't be beat!! I can buy 3 Nova's for the price of some brands. Over a shallow 30 gal. I think the Nova will be fine.

 

[Lint_Licker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10490337#post10490337 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mark75
Yea lint_licker the lights are what is holding me up. I plan on using the 4 bulb Nova Extreme T-5 HO, I just haven't ordered it yet. I know the Nova is not the best as far as T-5's go but the price can't be beat!! I can buy 3 Nova's for the price of some brands. Over a shallow 30 gal. I think the Nova will be fine.

Thats exactly what I use and I have all kinds of corals, even acro's. Everything is growing super great! 216w T5HO's is equal to a 400w metal halide up to 18"s deep. Even if you have a 24" deep tank, once you figure in your sand, roughly 4-6"s deep, your tank will be 18-20"s after the sand.

 

[schwintosky]

How would Coralife 50/50 65W x 2 bulbs be for corals?

 

[imsqueak]

Mark, I know what you mean about mounting on your rock. Nobody routinely does that for you. And it's a royal pain to do it yourself. I never did this, but I think it would be a great help; drill some holes in your live rock in various diameters and depth about 1/4". I had much better success when I found a natural hole in the rock and just superglued it into the hole. (this recommendation is for SPS)

If you do it this way, you will look for people who will sell a fresh cut unmounted frag. Normally you buy a frag that is glued to a little rock or something and it's a pain to glue that rock onto your rock.

Nice rock in your tank, btw.

 

[Mark75]

Thanks imsqueak I bought the rock from Premium Aquatics and was happy with what they sent. I think I may have a macro algea problem very soon though. I have 3 different species growing very fast under two no flourescents I can't imagine what it will do when I get my 4-T5HO fixture! lol okay guys help me understand how this works, if I buy some Zoa's or sps from you guys what will I get? Will the Zoa' or sps be glued on a rock or will it be floating around in a bag? If it is on a rock can I remove it and attach it to my rock? The reason I am asking is I can see where if I am adding all these corals attached to lr my tank will not have room for water. Am I missing something?

 

[imsqueak]

Once you finish cycling look for macro eating fish (tangs come to mind first but there are other choices and since you only have a 30 you might want to try others first).

When you buy frags within the club most would prefer to sell fresh cut frags. Something to consider about when they are mounted to a rock is they are usually sold after they encrust (ie, healthy frag) When you buy frags from LFS they will be mounted on a rock ~they may or may not be encrusted. It's not rocket science, you have choices; fresh fragged, fresh mounted or encrusted mounted frag. I suggest 1st and 3rd choice.

 

[dww]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10493688#post10493688 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by schwintosky
How would Coralife 50/50 65W x 2 bulbs be for corals?

I have a 75 gallon with this light. but only in 24" and a 48"50/50 sun fluorescent light. I have some coral under this light and they are doing okay at this point. but. I do have my corals up close under the lighting. I will be upgrading my lighting to a 48" coralife or the T5's. I would really like to stay with the coralife because they look more sleek.
I don't know if this helps you with your question just thought to share info with you.
I’m sure the guys here will point you in the right direction.

Donna