New 46 gallon bow front
- Thread starter melmel
- Start date
melmel
Reefing newb
Thanks :) lol. I knew before I started that this hobby was going to be costly but I am trying to save where I can, but if I have to I will by a higher priced skimmer in a heartbeat if it means it will benefit me in the long run. Is 10000k daylight and 460nm lunar lights good enough for my tank if I want corals and inverts?
Kully3xf
Reefer Madness
in all honesty, saving where you can probably wont work out. I tried doing this in the start and it just cost me nearly double in the long run. 10,000k daylight, is good, lunar lights don't really matter, they are just so you can still see the tank etc at night. but you will need some actinic lighting, 10,000k makes the water look kinda green, especially if you have some algae in there. The actinic will not only make the water look 10x better, it will also help with the photosynthesis of coral and stuff.
but back to trying to save money, for instance, i didn't want to shell out $ for a really good power head, so i bought 3 decent ones... so instead of buying a 250$ power head, i bought 3 50$ ones over 5 months... 150$, and wound up scrapping them all for the 250$ one cause the 3 couldn't do the work of the 1. I tried to build money saving sumps, and wound up making mistakes and stuff that just dosn't work...
in the long run, i have always spent more money by trying to save money.
plus if you save up and buy the best you can, you'll wind up with a better and easier to maintain tank in the long run. In my opinion it's worth saving the money and getting all the best stuff in 6+ months, than getting ok stuff and starting the tank right away, it will greatly improve your overall tank love
melmel
Reefing newb
Thanks for the tip. I may need to return my powerheads. I got these 2 1300GPH Wave Maker Coral Fish Pump Aquarium Powerhead 5000L/H Marine Vibration | eBay
and I thought they would work but they are kinda cheap :-?
and I thought they would work but they are kinda cheap :-?
little_fish
Moderator
Hello and Welcome!
You have gotten lots of good advice, so far! Especially the part about spending the money to get quality equipment the first time around.
The lights you have arent good enough to keep corals, so you will need to upgrade the lighting if you want to go reef.
Also there are tons of amazing fish out there that will live happily in 46 bow, so dont limit yourself to only clowns! Check out the site below to see all sort of cool fish. Just make sure you check out the size requirements, reef safe or not, feeding requirements, attitude etc. Also for the first year you will be limited to only one fish for every 10 gallons, but once the tank matures some you go over a limit by a few fish - if you have planned ahead. If you have lots of aggressive fish, you cant keep adding more fish otherwise they can get nasty towards each other and new fish
Saltwater Fish: Marine Aquarium Fish for Saltwater Aquariums
You have gotten lots of good advice, so far! Especially the part about spending the money to get quality equipment the first time around.
The lights you have arent good enough to keep corals, so you will need to upgrade the lighting if you want to go reef.
Also there are tons of amazing fish out there that will live happily in 46 bow, so dont limit yourself to only clowns! Check out the site below to see all sort of cool fish. Just make sure you check out the size requirements, reef safe or not, feeding requirements, attitude etc. Also for the first year you will be limited to only one fish for every 10 gallons, but once the tank matures some you go over a limit by a few fish - if you have planned ahead. If you have lots of aggressive fish, you cant keep adding more fish otherwise they can get nasty towards each other and new fish
Saltwater Fish: Marine Aquarium Fish for Saltwater Aquariums
melmel
Reefing newb
Thanks so much for the help. The lights I have say they have actinic lighting too so is that good enough for a reef. I got them because they said they were reef lighting so if I got the wrong thing please let me know. I really appreciate everyone's help. :D
chichimom79
reef junkie
One 10K bulb and one actinic isn't going to be enough light. While it may be the correct spectrum, it isn't enough wattage to satisfy the needs of coral and anemones.
little_fish
Moderator
+1 Chichi
melmel
Reefing newb
okay so what lighting would you all recommend for coral?
chichimom79
reef junkie
Oh, there are a lot of options...T5, Metal Halide, LED. Try looking at some of the build threads to get lighting option ideas :)
