SPS Question

[deantheking]

Hi Guys

I have been reading a lot about lighting a tank for sps corals.
I am currently running 2 39w t5's in a 30g or 120l tank.
I have one frag in there and it seems to be doing pretty good so far. Do I have sufficient lighting? Would an extra 2 t5 bulbs be overkill? My tank is about 40 cm deep and the frag is placed pretty high up.

 

[Holyreefer]

Lighting is always an issue of concern when addressing ANY SPS corals (As far as on the reefer side)-Us
Here are a couple of links you can read that helped me understand the lighting systems that are available to us

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=380913

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dw/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-08/ac/feature/index.php

As far as the t-5's from what i have read they are pretty, intensive like MH bulbs but not as hot. And what type of coral do you have a frag of?

 

[iCam]

[welcome]

 

[deantheking]

Thanks Holyreefer, those are some good links.
I have two frags, one brown acropora and one pink stylophora.

I have another question, I live close to the beach and i do regular water changes with NSW and have been doing so for a year. Everything is my tank is very happy. I did a test to see my Calcium levels over a month. My levels were pretty good, never dropping below 370ppm. So surely if i have a 120l tank and i am dosing with C-Balance from 2 little fishies, why do i need a Calcium Reactor?

I only ask this question beacause i am new to SPS.

 

[Holyreefer]

Welcome to Reef Central by the way...
I'm glad you liked the links, did they help?
The NSW wc's you arent really losing there at all, i mean we reefers try to imitate what you have access too for free...

The calicum reactor would help because in the invent that something happenend to your tank you you would be able to stabalize the calcium levels... You don't have to go with a calcium reactor you can continue to dose

But price wise i'm sure you'll save a bit with a calcium reactor compared to dosing

 

[Wiskey]

You could use a DIY 2 part and make the solutions for pennies.

Ca reactors are nice because they don't require me dosing anything every day, but I don't like a few things about them.

What I am going to do is buy a dosing pump tell it to dose 60 ML of each part of my DIY 2 part every day then all I have to do is leave it alone. When the tank uses more CA then I just bump the pump up a few ML. This will be far easer to setup, won't lower my PH, will be stable/consistent and hopefully trouble free.

Whiskey

 

[deantheking]

Some pics

Brown Acro

Acro