Our 50 gallon tank from the beginning

[OurFishies]

I have the pics set up in order so that you can scroll through them on the http://ourfishies.com/gallery page (everyone is welcome to create a gallery account of their own on this site if you want somewhere to share pics, I started it to send to family and friends that were interested in our progress - plus pics of our puppy that came home from the pet store when I went to go buy coral...)

Our first attempt at a Xenia tree (it didn't make it)

We added four feather dusters, so I need a newer picture, but the big snails in our tank knocked a lot of coral down that I need to put back up (grrrr big snails grrrrrr).

 

[yote]

Thats a great looking system.
I see your anemone like the top rim.

 

[Piggy]

Tank is looking good.

 

[OurFishies]

Thanks guys! Yes the anemone loves the top, it went from the other side at the top to this side at the top (the hatching feeder is near where it decided to park itself this week).

We also had a problem with black hairy bacterial slime in the right corner for a long time. We finally got it cleared up and coral likes it over there these days. :)

 

[Oscarsdad608]

What kind of lights are you using and how old is your tank?

 

[OurFishies]

The tank is about 3-4 months since we switched it back to saltwater (the tank has been saltwater before). We started out with freshwater with mollies and added salt.

The lights are 10k Ocean sun (2), we have lcd's for nighttime, and I will have to ask what the lights are that we switch from daytime to nighttime lighting. We don't have halides... :)

 

[Oscarsdad608]

The reason I asked is because I wanted to know if you had enough light for your anemone. I think that is why it is always at the top. Good luck with it in a new tank and low lighting. Keep an eye on it. It is probably just a matter of time before it gets stuck in one of your powerheads.

 

[Bifferwine]

Oscar's dad is right, anemones need more light than most types of corals. Staying at the top of the tank on the glass is not normal behavior for an anemone. The lights you have won't support an anemone long term. If it starts to look bad, take it out right away. So many tanks have crashed because when anemones get sick or die, they tend to poison everything else in the tank.

 

[OurFishies]

My husband has had an experience with a dead anemone, ewwww, he does know what to look for when it is not surviving. Hmm, we were thinking about putting in an actinic bulb, but would have to set up a cooling system. The hood and stand were built by his grandfather.

The anemone opens up all of the way up there, and has looked healthy. The coral has also been growing fairly rapidly (we have limited the coral purchases to lower light corals I believe. The duncan needs the most light out of all of them). This is a lot more light than we had when we started the tank. We could possibly swap one of the "dawn" bulbs that are on all day for another regular bulb (there are a total of 4 lights up there).


I will have to check with our friend that works at the fish store and helps us maintain our tank (he maintains tanks outside of the store also). Maybe he can let me know on the light situation. He had us purchase really nice lights, but I wasn't aware that they weren't enough.

 

[yote]

To really keep the anemone happy,You should shoot for at least 9 watts per gallon unless you have T-5s.Then 4 to 5 watts per gallon would do good.

 

[OurFishies]

So we have 2 10k actinic bulbs and 2 10k coral life. :)

 

[Bifferwine]

But how many watts are each of them? It will say on the fixture usually.

 

[OurFishies]

Ok! I looked on the box and they are 32 watts each which is 128 watts, which is 2.56 watts per gallon. Which I guess is pretty low. :(

 

[Piggy]

Are the lights PC or T5's?

 

[Bifferwine]

2.5 watts per gallon is barely enough for the lowest light corals... Softies, zoas and mushrooms might be okay under those, but definitely not an anemone, which needs about 5 times as much light... If your anemone is doing okay so far, keep an eye on it. A couple people have been able to keep them under less light than is recommended, you may be one of the lucky ones. However, that's really rare. They usually end up slowly dying.

 

[OurFishies]

My husband says the lights are T-5's (the bulbs are pretty big around). Sadly there isn't more room in the hood of the tank. These guys fill it up completely!

Weird note though, when I look up the bulbs, I see a T-8 associated with them?

How does one get more wattage in under the hood?

 

[mudrummer012]

Weird note though, when I look up the bulbs, I see a T-8 associated with them?

Then those would be t-8 bulbs! What you have are either high output or regular florescent lights.

 

[Bifferwine]

Yep, T5s are different than T8s (but both are used for aquariums). T5s are much much much thinner in diameter than T8s, so if yours are fat around and say T8, then they are T8. Which are just regular fluorescent lights, as Mud pointed out.

You can get more wattage under the hood by doing away with the T8s. You will be able to fit a lot more T5 bulbs in that same space (because they are smaller around). T5s are a lot more powerful than T8s. You won't be able to keep anything but very low light corals under the amount of light you have now. Retrofitting some T5s into your hood would be the way I'd go.

 

[OurFishies]

Okey dokey. I will do a final verification on exactly what the lighting is with my friend who works at the LFS that helps with our tank, and verify that they are T-8 (I was looking up the brand online and that is what I came up with), or if they are actually T-5's.... bah! Confusing.

They said that the lights we put in were "nice" lights, but I guess nice doesn't equal enough. My husband had much less lighting in his old tank that he had running for years (it was not a reef tank though, so less lighting makes a wee bit more sense). We didn't skimp on the protein skimmer (but if you ask me what it is I can't answer that question, lol)...

 

[Piggy]

If the bulbs are long and skinny they're T5's. If they're fat they're T8. Usally it's on the bulb some where.