Newbie tired of searching

[little_fish]

So you have the tall 125 then. Those lights are going to limit you because the T5 lighting wont penetrate down to the bottom very well, and its going to limit what corals you can keep. You might be able to keep LPS at the top, but i think you are looking at only softies

 

[Gofish]

So you have the tall 125 then. Those lights are going to limit you because the T5 lighting wont penetrate down to the bottom very well, and its going to limit what corals you can keep. You might be able to keep LPS at the top, but i think you are looking at only softies

I'm not sure what you mean by tall 125. I have a 90 gallon bowfront :dunno: I didn't mention but should have, I will only consider doing softies. You are a stickler for details and I like it :mrgreen:

 

[little_fish]

My bad! I thought you had the 125 tall, but I still think that light is going to really limit your options. Its lacking individual reflectors for the bulbs, and it makes me a little nervous that none of the product descriptions i looked at even mentioned a general reflector.

 

[Gofish]

My bad! I thought you had the 125 tall, but I still think that light is going to really limit your options. Its lacking individual reflectors for the bulbs, and it makes me a little nervous that none of the product descriptions i looked at even mentioned a general reflector.

I looked. It has individual reflectors for each bulb. The fixture looks like it lights up the tank the same as the LFS's coral tanks. It is bright. Anyway, I'm just going to do softies.

I have had a krill shrimp in the tank to promote the cycle for two days and it is surrounded with white slime. Some of the Fiji live rock I bought has coral on it, polyps. One fell off the rock and I thought it died, but this morning it attached itself to the overflow near the bottom of the tank. Plus, there are a few feather dusters on one rock. It starting to come together! :bounce:

 

[Gofish]

Thanks for all your help so far. I apologize for posting this in the wrong sub-forum. I just realized there is a section "New to Reefing." That is definitely where I belong. If a mod could move this to that section, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again for not berating me, I'll go to the kiddie pool now :mrgreen:

little_fish, just to clarify, how many lumens per gallon (or water column depth would make more sense) is the rule of thumb for soft corals?

 

[parrotchute]

How much live rock do you have in there now?

The live rock will do WAY more than the bioballs - here's another vote to get rid of them before you add some fish.

Good water movement and plenty of rock should solve most of your issues. Lumen is a poor measure of light intensity for photosynthesis. PAR is better. I THINK soft corals need about 150-200 PAR. There's not really a conversion, but you could always google what kind of PAR readings people got with your type of fixture.

 

[parrotchute]

And to add, try adding a cheap soft coral, put it near the top of the tank, and see how it does! If it opens up and grows, you're good.

 

[little_fish]

+1 'chute

and ill move the thread!

 

[sandman]

I use bioballs in my sump. I never touch them, only replace the pre-filter weekly. Someone once told me, you're not a scientist doing a science project so don' try and get creative and move stuff. Set it up in your sump and tank and let it be.

I am fairly new but don't biobals help create and maintain neccessary elements? My sump is a livingcolor and those come with bioballs.

 

[little_fish]

the idea behind bioballs was that they would provide a large amount of surface area for bacteria to colonize, thus helping your filtration, but what actually happens is that they end up trapping a bunch of junk that just rots and then releases nitrates, phosphates etc back into the water column which doesnt help you. Its better to just have rubble rock in that area and plenty of porous rock in your tank. Stuff doesnt settle out as much with the rocks, so it gets removed instead of allowing it to rot.

 

[parrotchute]

I use bioballs in my sump. I never touch them, only replace the pre-filter weekly. Someone once told me, you're not a scientist doing a science project so don' try and get creative and move stuff.

At first you won't really notice anything, but as the tank ages, they tend to send nitrates back into your tank as a waste product, like little fish said. And what kind of aquarist are you if you're NOT treating it like a science project! :Cheers: It's the only way to see what's going to work in your tank- personally, tinkering is my favorite part!!

 

[Gofish]

So far I have 30lbs of live rock. I'm getting about 30-40lbs more this week.

As far as the lights, I'll do a trial run on a small piece of coral nearest the top of the water column like you suggested chute. Thanks!

Regarding bioballs, what I'm having trouble understanding is why a pre-filtered bioball wet/dry setup somehow traps nitrate-causing debris but activated carbon, rubble rock, crushed coral, sump filters, canister filters, etc. or even live rock does not... Increased surface area for nitrifying bacteria production is the goal of all bio-filter media. However, bioballs when used right and not submerged trickles water through them providing lots of beneficial aeration as well. Win-win in my book. The trick is simple, you have to pre-filter them and keep the filters relatively clean just like the filter in your overflow, sump baffles, or on your return pump. I have three layers of filter pad (porous to micro) that the water from the display tank has to pass through before it touches the bioballs.

Now with that said, I also have live rock in my sump after the bioballs and a refugium. I feel I have well covered all the mechanical and biological filtration.

 

[parrotchute]

This is a partial explanation.

And from WWM:
"Maybe oversimplified, but... Being “exposed” to the atmosphere the aerobic bacteria on the bio-balls are very efficient at converting Ammonia to Nitrite to Nitrate, but this media/application does not provide the anoxic and anaerobic environments required by the differing bacteria strains that would reduce the Nitrate further. As such, these filters can/do often produce more Nitrate than the live rock/substrate can handle efficiently, resulting in the buildup of this compound. A trickle or wet/dry filter, or better yet a fluidized-bed filter, can be very helpful with quickly converting the highly toxic Nitrogenous compounds to less toxic Nitrate...on those systems that can typically handle a higher Nitrate load (FO/FOWLR systems). That’s not to say that some hobbyists don’t keep successful “reef” systems using these methodologies, but “my” preference for reef systems is to support bio-filtration through “natural” media (live rock and DSBs)"

And on top of that, the overwhelming experience by the people in the past who have used bioballs and found their tank looking better after removing them.

I know you're sticking to your guns, but we really have no vested interest in whether you keep your bioballs or not - we're just trying to help!

 

[little_fish]

Crushed coral, sump filters and canister filter all trap stuff and we dont recommend using them either.

 

[Gofish]

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/8/chemistry#section-10
I know you're sticking to your guns, but we really have no vested interest in whether you keep your bioballs or not - we're just trying to help!

Hey-ohhh. Easy buddy, I appreciate the help! I really do. Knowledge is the key to success, passion just rocks the boat. I'm more interested in knowledge for now, thanks.

I see there is a lot of debates out there regarding the infamous bioballs and my jury is still out. They do help with bio-load for a fish only type tank but don't convert nitrate to nitogen effectively according to Dr. Internet. But, I'm going to consider doing some kind of DSB.

In the meantime, I have added some turbo snails for a little bio-load. Hopefully fish on Friday, tell the pope!