Getting Antsy!

[Doc]

Originally Posted by simpleman

Oh and my plans for it are a little uncertain. I'll move over my inhabitants from my lil tank, from there on I'm uncertain. A certain better half of mine is trying to talk me into Sea horses, I'm not so sure that's the way to go.

Sea horses are cool. They are really slow eaters and need to have amazingly passive tankmates. Ones that show zero aggression: red firefish, certain blennies or gobies, maybe even a mandarin goby - in the future. It can be done, but really tough. they get sick easy and just aren't really hardy

-Doc

[simpleman]

Yea i know I've been doing a lot research on the Seahorses. Personally I don't care much for fish. The ones I like don't seem to be all that reef safe (angels, great white sharks, octopus, you know the usual). I was thinking that if I do go with the Seahorse I would end up with a mandarin and a couple crocea clams (all this assuming the tank is well established)

[simpleman]

I believe the VHO's are 40w. It's a really nice light setup and I got it for a steal ($200 bucks). The guy I bought from said he was keeping sps in it.

[Doc]

great buy!!! You could keep a few pygmy angels in that 55 if you like and skip the sea horses altogether! I love me some angelfish!

-Doc

[yote]

Sounds like you got a pretty good deal.
Was the rock and sand kept wet?If not,then you'll probably have a full out cycle.If it was kept good and wet in saltwater,then probably not much of one.

[reeffreak]

Congratulation on your new setup.That light fixture will allow you to be unlimited when it comes to corals and clams.Just so you don't go off buying the wrong bulbs-a 48'' VHO bulb is 110w not 40w.

[simpleman]

Thanks for the tip reef! Being you are the resident lighting expert where do you recommend I pick up new VHO bulbs? One or both of the bulbs needs replacement. One has a red/purple hue to it and the other is white. I think if the red one is still good (not sure?) but I want to get rid of the white one and get a full actinic. Any thoughts?

[simpleman]

Yea Yote the sand and rock was kept wet, I actually bought it off the owner of my LFS, he upgraded his tank and gave me a hell of a deal! Whole setup rock and all was $400!
The reason I'm confused here with the cycle is that I've always bought tanks second hand and have never actually seen a cycle. I just want to be sure that I can put my couple hundred bucks worth of critters in the tank without killing them.

[Doc]

I would still wait a week. Lack of patience has killed more critters than anything. Your water needs time to adjust to the rock and sand nutrients since it was pure salt water, etc (that is how I think of it).

Most people have a combo of white (10,000k) lights and actynic lights (6700 K). It is up to you and the colors you want to bring out of your fish and coral. I don't like the purple hue on my tank as much as the true boue (6700K)

-Doc

[reeffreak]

Originally Posted by simpleman

Thanks for the tip reef! Being you are the resident lighting expert where do you recommend I pick up new VHO bulbs? One or both of the bulbs needs replacement. One has a red/purple hue to it and the other is white. I think if the red one is still good (not sure?) but I want to get rid of the white one and get a full actinic. Any thoughts?

First,make sure the supplementals are VHO and not normal output bulbs.Hamilton makes both VHO and NO bulbs with their metal hallide systems.You can buy VHO bulbs cheap at Dr. Foster and Smith or Premium Aquatics for around $20 each.You can also buy VHO bulbs directly through Hamilton if you prefer-Hamiltontechnology.com.