lighting Question

[aquage]

Hey everyone, new guy here and had a question about lighting. 29g "used to be an eclipse with the canopy filtration" everything cycled its been about 4months now, water parameters are where I like them, i pulled all the filtration "pitched the canopy" so the only thing thats filtering is my skimmer and a little mesh baggy i have some carbon in. the tank is 17inches deep, I have 130w pc and 72w t5's I was wondering if thats enough to try SPS? As i am new to the hobby I have killed 4oo$ plus in corals cause i could not keep my hands out of the darn tank, cause i was constantly moving stuff around, I have everything where i want it now and i have duct taped my hands together. I only have 2 Zoa frags that seem to like me, and thats it. So aside from me keeping my hands out of the tank. And my lighting question, any advice would be great! thanks!

[dbartco]

I would think so. Want a few frags to try out. Not real fancy, but free in Reston. Green Poccillopora and blue tipped staghorn.

 

PS, think about joing the club, I may give more!

[ctenophore]

Your lighting should be fine, but before you start putting sps in, make sure you can keep everything else alive. Skimmer + carbon should take care of anything residual on your hands assuming you wash them before you dig around in your tank. Something else was probably killing your corals, so you need to figure that out first.

[aquage]

I realized I was reading my calcium test wrong the other day, I thought it was where it should be when in fact my calcium was way low, was at 150 or less. Could that have been the reason for the deaths? I'm now using Kalkwasser in my top off water for evaporation to get it back up....hmmmmmmm

[dbartco]

150?

 

Wow, real low, with little sps and ANY water changes, it should be higher than that. What kit are you using?

[jason the filter freak]

are you sure about the wattages on you lighting? props on giving your tank good time to cycle

[Jon Lazar]

aquage,

 

150 is an unusually low for calcium in a tank with no LPS or SPS corals. Monthly water changes alone should keep your Ca within healthy levels.

 

Something is not right here. Maybe you test kit still isn't providing you good info, or you need to do periodic water changes, or your salt mix manufacturer forgot to add the calcium to your bucket. I would figure this part our before adding more corals, because you may have water chemistry problems that go beyond your calcium levels...it's unlikely that calcium is the only thing wrong with your water, and your alkalinity and magnesium are also probably low.

 

Since all you have in the tank is two zoa frags, I would consider doing some large water changes (50%) with good calcium levels to help fix your tank chemistry across the board.

 

To answer your question, the amount of light your bulbs emit depends on a lot of factors: ballast type, reflector type, height of bulbs, type of bulbs, location of corals, etc., but it sounds like you have enough wattage. I would try a hardy, inexpensive coral like a montipora digitada and see how it does.

 

Jon

[aquage]

I do water changes bi weekly about 4-5 gallons, my wattage was correct as posted 2x65watt Pc's and 4x18watt t5, thats 202watts. brand new, Coralife is the maker, the t5's have no fans but the pc have 2fans built in the the unit that houses it. I built a rocklift and have a powerhead blowing underneath all of my rocks, about 1-2 inches clearance between the sand and rocks and one powerhead blowing on the rocks. I must be reading or doing something wrong when I test. I will test tonight when I return from work. and post a pic, hopefully that will help you to help me! I really appreciate the warm welcome. I only wish i joined sooner! thanks again