Newbie Lighting Question - PLEASE HELP

[swezey]

Hi folks! First of all - let me say I sure am glad I found this site. It looks like a great community and I'm excited to be a part of it. Now.... I recently purchased an existing SW fish only tank. It supposedly has live rock although honestly it doesnt look like much is happening with it. The system is about 8 years old and I really dont know all the names of the components as I see many people post here. Hopefulyl I will learn them as I go.... I do know the fish I have (mostly). They are:

3 4 stripe damsels
2 yellow tail damsels
4 purple damsels
1 dominoe
1 betta
1 yellow tang
1 choc chip starfish

and one small mostly white fish I don't know what is. I lost the anemone and one small mostly white fish during the move and the clown fish a week or so later. This was Thanksgiving. Since then everything has been fine. The tank is 180 gal 72" X 24" X 24". Now here is my specific question (sorry for so much background). I do want to get some coral, etc going but feel the lighting needs changed. I have looked and looked and decided (at least preliminarily) to go with the Nova Extreme with lunar lights. My questions are:

a) Does any have any experience with this system? What do you think? Anything to watch out for?

b) How much light do I need for a tank of this size. They have the following models:

Model L 10K Actinic Lunar I/C Fans Dimensions Watts Amps

1120 24" 2x24watt 2x24watt 2 Yes Yes 24" x 7.25" x 2.5" 96 0.84

1121 36" 2x39watt 2x39watt 3 Yes Yes 36" x 7.25" x 2.5" 156 1.34

1122 48" 2x54watt 2x54watt 4 Yes Yes 48" x 7.25" x 2.5" 216 1.86

1123 48" 4x54watt 4x54watt 4 Yes Yes 48" x 14" x 2.5" 432 3.72


Any help you can give is appreciated and thanks again!!

 

[Yarr]

depends on what you want to keep in the tank. IMO i dont think that type of lighting will suffice for a lot of the corla sthat people tend ot keep. I, myself have only fluro's and my system i scompletely held up by the fact that it isnt enough. It wont be too bad for fish only systems or with some soft corals and stuff. but the majority of stuff wont b able ot be kept successfully.

The live rock you have is probably fine unless it was left outside the wayter and stuff for a while to dry out. You usually dont see a whole lot of action there intially. There are heaps of critters that live inside them that you may never ever see.

Your fish selection is also a limiting factor in what you keep in a tank. Damsels in general will pick on other fish. When adding new fish u nned to make sure u can cater for their needs in regards to water quality, food, and other tankmates. You alos need to make sure that if u do keep corals and polyps and stuff that those said fish wont eat and pick at them

Did you get the water from the guy you got tha tank from also ? If not then i am not suprised that these things have died so far. the tank needs to go through its cycle to build up benificial bacteria that helps break down the waste produced by everything in the tank. This process can take up to 12 weeks.

If you can post yoru water paramters then we can give you a better idea on what we think is going on with your tank and can give better advice

my advice.. go slow. get the right equipment. dont skimp on a protein skimmer and research everythign before do add anything to the tank.


And finally..

Welcome to RS

 

[Woodstock]

Ditto to Yarr~ That tank is long and deep... you will need, at a minimum, 500 watts of PC lighting...and then you'll only be able to keep lower light type corals (softies, some lps, etc.) My choice would be Metal Halide lighting...but if that's not an option, just be careful of your coral choices. Also, chocolate chip stars are not reef safe and will eat anything that stays still long enough.

Welcome to Reef Sanctuary!!

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Lighting can be VERY expensive. If you can afford a metal halide lighting system I would go with that and try to decide what corals you want to keep. Soft corals (low light corals) try to get around 4-5 watts of light per gallon, medium range corals aim for 6-7 watts of lighting and hard corals aim for upwards of 8 or 9 watts of lighting per gallon of water. The best way to figure this out is grab a coral book , view pictures of corals and see what you want to keep.If you go with hard corals and have alot of lighting you can keep low light corals but you just have to place them lower in the tank under shelters or in shaded areas in the tank.

 

[Barcochris]

I agree that the lights are important to what you want to keep in the tank, but first I would look at getting a good protein skimmer, if you do not already have one. Could you post what equipment ie. filter and such you have or at least what it looks like and then maybe we could help you in the right direction. there are so many ways things can go wrong and this site helped me avoid most of them

Welcome to our little corner of the web

 

[ReefLady]

Welcome! Looks like you've gotten some great advice already.... just one comment on the lights you're looking at-

The lighting units you mentioned only go up to 48" and your tank (if it's a standard 180) is 72" long. Your best bet is going to be using retrofit kits.

T

 

[swezey]

Wow - thanks for all the great advice already! I just posted like 8 hours ago (at 3:30 in the morning while I was surfing!!). I did move all the water that had come with the tank so it was well established (I believe). All the rock was kept wet during the move in 5 gallon buckets. I do know I have a Scotts True Reef protein skimmer as well as a UV sterilizer and three big power heads - the water circulation seems very good. I was thinking if I got 4 of the 36" Nova Extreme that would cover pretty much the length and breadth of the tank but I still don't know if this would be enough. This would be 8 X 39 watts of daylight and 8 X 39 watts of actinic. What do you think I could do with this and sorry for leaving out some of the background stuff.....

P.S. I thought about retrofit but the untis I have are 3 foot already (2 side by side to cover the 72") and I'd be keen on getting the fans and the lunar lights that come in the Nova Extreme so I thought new units would be better. Plus I'm not real handy with a screwdriver... *LOL* Thanks again - can't wait to read all the new posts!

 

[Yarr]

work out your water turnve rin the tank also. reefs need quite good water flow to keep going well. 10 - 15 times water turnover per HOUR is roughly where u wanna be. aim for about 15 times IMO. that is if you have 100 Gal of true water ( volume minues the space that the Live Rock takes up ) you want to be aiming for 1500 Gal per hour of pumping power.

Food for thought

 

[swezey]

Yarr,

Thanks for the tip about the water turnover - now I may not be understanding but do you mean I should run say 1500 GPH through the filters OR just move 1500 GPH inside the tank with the power heads?? Sorry this may be a dumb question but well... I'ma newbie. Also, Blue_Eyes mentions certain specs for watts per gallon but if I'm nto mistaken what we really want to measure is how much light energy (of a given frequency) per gallon, not necessairly watts, right?? Since different bulbs, reflectors, ballasts, etc will give different results, I think watts is the wrong way to look at this... (but maybe the onyl practical way??) Please let me know. Thanks!!

 

[Woodstock]

Turnover = ALL water movement including filters and inside tank water movement.

Lighting the Reef Tank

The commonly used phrase, "watts per gallon," is a way of expressing the lighting necessary for a tank by the ratio of the power used to illuminate the tank divided by the tank size in gallons. Many hobbyists suggest that an adequate amount of light would vary between four watts and six watts per gallon for low light coral and as much as ten watts per gallon (or more) for light loving coral. While such a rule of thumb may initially sound like a good idea, it should only be used as a rough guideline and not as a strict rule. Obviously, such a loose rule is misleading, and aquarists need to consider more than just "watts per gallon." Specifically, they must take into account the height and overall size of the tank. A tank that is 36 inches tall will require more light intensity to reach corals on the bottom than it would with a tank that is only 24 inches tall. For example, all 120 gallon tanks would require 480 to 720 watts of light based on the "watts per gallon" guideline, regardless of their depth, so a 120 gallon tank that is two feet tall, by four feet wide, and two feet deep would seem to need the same lighting as a 120 gallon tank that is three feet tall, by two feet deep, and three feet wide. The second tank, however, is a foot taller. Since the intensity of light decreases as the square of the distance from the light increases, the amount of light needed is much greater if the same corals are to be kept on the bottom of each tank.

 

[swezey]

Woodstock,

Thanks - I should be fine on the turnover then... I have three power heads + what the filter is moving. I think my probelm will more be the lighting. Right now I only have 6 bulbs (4 regular flourescent 36" 75 watts each) and 2 tritons (36", 30w each). I think I will get the T-5's and then maybe work the tritons in. It looks as though I was right about needing a different measure than wattage for a tank - it really needs to be lumens impinging on a surface area of known size at a known depth in the tank to see if you can support what livesock you want. But who can measure such a thingk without some crazy equipment?? Oh well, thanks again!! I'll keep everyone posted...