Lighting?

[Frogspawn]

i have a 30g and have a 150watt MH light. would that be enough to house inverts or corals that need high lighting needs? say Sps's or Anemone's (Carpets) those kinds of things?

 

[MT79]

In short yes. Some people would say a 250w or more is needed to get the best coloration, growth, etc. out of high light corals, such as SPS like brightly colored Acroporas. But, IMO, a 150 over a 30 would give very pleasant results.

 

[lando]

I agree. Depending on placement. I would put the high-light corals like acros toward the top so they receive the the best light. Anemones would be fine as well, however, I would very leary of housing a carpet anemone in a 30gal. They can be very distructive ans should be provided with plenty of room. I suggest a BTA instead.

 

[Ziggy953]

I agree with Brian on the anemone! BTA will do much better in a 30, carpets are expensive and are more difficult to care for.

 

[melosu58]

I agree also that your lighting should be enough. As Brian said place your High light corals on top.

 

[Frogspawn]

well here the story.i am sad to say my best friend for 22 yrs is moving away form me. he got me into the hobby and there no way he going to be able to move his 75g reef set up all the way to LA, so he parting with his best friends( his corals and fish) and givin them to his best bud. he has a few sps and lps corals and has a green carpet anonome. thats about med size. hes about 1 year old and in great shape. i am also reciving a few hermits and snails and a golby and o.clown. if i dont take these guys the chances of the corals and invters living are very slim. the local fish store is taken some of the fish that i know i will not be able to house but would not touch the anomone do to the fact they cant keep them alive long enough to sell them.(due to poor lighting and low water quality) i know my tanks not fully mature but i cant let my friend just let this anomone die. thats crul. he would never do it on purpose but he will never make the move.

my question is. is it posible to house this little dude. i will folow what u say to a "TEE" and do my best. but i got to try.
thanks for your help.

 

[tecwzrd]

Do you plan on upgrading in the future?

 

[Frogspawn]

i will up grade. when i get out of school and get a bigger place. i am going to get a 125g

how fast will they grow? my friend said hes had him for a year now and only grew a little bit. i have a 55g i could set back up but i would probley get into a lot of trouble with the landlord if i did. lol. (who needs a house right?)
Can this be done?

 

[MT79]

When dealing with anemones, size can be misleading. They will often overinflate, especially if the lighting is less than ideal, in order to increase their surface area to catch more light, maybe prey too. Measuring the actual growth, or predicting it, would be difficult IMO. As far as tanks go, I think the bigger the better in your situation.

 

[macman7010]

Frogspawn,

You can get some nice small sized BTA's for a decent price. Dr Mac and sons (www.drmaccorals.com) was selling some BTA's for 30 bucks that would be perfect for your situation. If you called them and told them what you had they may hook you up with something that would work. If you take the carpet you could see if a local fish shop would trade you it for a BTA or at least some credit towards one.

I have a green carpet in my tank and when I got it the thing looked small but man when it inflates a whole different story. Plus carpet anemones would swallow up any small fish that got near them since they have a strong sting. Considering in a nano-set up you will want small fish I would seriously go with a different anemone and keep your friend's carpet just long enough to find it a suitable home.

Kudos btw on the nano setup. I looked at your pictures and I like how you did things with the CPR Fuge and BAK PAK skimmer, good thinking. I have a group called Reef Preservation and Coral Reef Aquariums on FaceBook. If your a FaceBook user you outta join and post some pics of that, I think the folks in the group would be interested to see it.

 

[Frogspawn]

i will PM u on that .
what is face book and where do i go to get it?

as for the CPR refuge and CPR bak-Pac Reef ready skimmer. i like them alot. i used a Wet-dry filter on my 55g before i had to tear it down do to weight on the floor. i didnt want it to go through and hurt some one down stairs lol that might hurt. but i got to say i am not one for the wet-dry filter. dont get me wrong it did a great job of keeping my nitrates down but as for mechanical filtration it sucked. it was like the overflow would only pick up debrie that floated right in front of it and everything else settled to the bottom and at the time i didnt have a clean up crew because of my N.Trigger, lionfish and puffer. i had them for years in that tank and i always seem to be vacuuming up the excess food every time i fed them.

but with this refuge i have a small water pump in the main tank that pumps 200gph and i always see it sucking in extra food and waste. the cool thing about my refuge is it is set up so theres not alot of movement in it and it gives time for the waste and food to settle to the bottom of the refuge where my hermits and snails eat it all up. i even have some cheto in there for nitrate help also.
as for the skimmer. well the skimmer should idealy be on the main tank. but i ran out of room due to the fact my light takes up 2/3s of my space on top. but i been producing some fair amount of skim off it. i dont have a big bio-load yet so i wont get much i only have 2 fish both are Oclowns and 38lbs of live rock plus some in my refuge.
i got to say i will never go back to using a canister or power filter. i get great results with this to quit now lol