The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Wolfgang]

Its a good light but I still say avoid Halides unless you are planning for a chiller as well. They are very expensive to buy, expensive to run, and are very hot. You Can keep clams and most any kind of coral under T-5s now a days. Even anemones do well under t-5s.

T5s are cheaper to buy, use less energy, put out less heat, and bulbs are much much cheaper. Trust me. I have used halides before and also gotten an electric bill for $600 as a result. Think of all the cigars you could buy for $600

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

Its a good light but I still say avoid Halides unless you are planning for a chiller as well. They are very expensive to buy, expensive to run, and are very hot. You Can keep clams and most any kind of coral under T-5s now a days. Even anemones do well under t-5s.

T5s are cheaper to buy, use less energy, put out less heat, and bulbs are much much cheaper. Trust me. I have used halides before and also gotten an electric bill for $600 as a result. Think of all the cigars you could buy for $600

Totally agree.
If I were not to do T5's for whatever reason(s), would do standard VHOs.
Last thing would be Halides for thanks to living in Florida.
When my son had them, my electric bill was about $100 per month more, minimum (of course chiller involved also).

[fissure]

T5's all the way. Depending on tank depth (24" or greater), you can overdrive T5's with an icecap VHO ballast and get great performance. T5's will keep anything you want. SPS, clams...ect. I ran halides and with all my uncovered sumps in the basement I used to evap 2.5 gallons a day. Didn't want to invest the money into a ventilation/heat exchanger, so took down all the sumps and big tank.

Just ordered my aquapod 24G. Now im shopping live sand and rock, Im thinking a mixture of Fuji and Carribiean. also theres a type that has a shelf look to it. cant remeber the name of it, but probably get some of that too.

thinking about 30 pounds total, probably a bit much but then I have it.

sweet! Thanks for the ispration and well hey here goes another slope. Between my cars, motorcycles, Boats, And cigars, Im freaking screwed!

anyways, Here goes nothin!

Oh any reccomendations on sand?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by darb85

Oh any reccomendations on sand?

Go with live sand.
It is neat.
Clean.
Has bio for you to help establish the tank.

BTW,
Don't believe it takes weeks to cycle a tank.
I have cycled many, many tanks and thrown in thousands of dollars of fish, with no problems.
The trick is three days use of a product called Bacter Vital.
Works like a charm.
I also use it quite often to set up hospital tanks asap when needed.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Go with live sand.
It is neat.
Clean.
Has bio for you to help establish the tank.

BTW,
Don't believe it takes weeks to cycle a tank.
I have cycled many, many tanks and thrown in thousands of dollars of fish, with no problems.
The trick is three days use of a product called Bacter Vital.
Works like a charm.
I also use it quite often to set up hospital tanks asap when needed.

Good to know.

I was planning on live sand but is there a brand thats good or is it kind of a generic buy in bulk kind of thing?

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by darb85

Good to know.

I was planning on live sand but is there a brand thats good or is it kind of a generic buy in bulk kind of thing?

There are not too many companies doing that from what I recall, unless more have popped up.
Any will be good.
It is not cheap as compared to regular sand but well worth the difference in price.
What I love about it is that you don't clean it. Just drop it in the tank and in no time, it all settles down and the tank is clear as can be.