Lookinf for suggestions/ideas

[C&C]

I am sort of new to reef keeping, having about two years experience five years ago with a fish only tank.

120 Gal
130 Lbs Fiji LR
5" DSB
100 assorted snails/hermit crabs
candalactis anemone
zebra anemone
2 common clowns
hippo tang
yellow tang
peppermint shrimp (one climbed out and died don't know how??)
a ton of xenia
candy cane coral
red/blue mushrooms
green button polyps
green star polyps
brown hairy mushroom
Yellow Gorgonian


Water:

salinity 1.025
calcium 410
alk 5.9, working on raising it
PH 8.2
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0
Temp 78.5-80

Equiptment

2 X VHO actinic Ice Cap
2 X VHO white (GE) Ice Cap
2 X 40 Watt actinic
Red Sea Berlin skimmer
6 X maxi jet 1200 power heads
Home made stand/canopy
grounding probe
2 X Cooling fans in canopy

Additives:

Sea Chem reef plus
Sea Chem reef advantage calcium
Sea Chem complete
DT's Phytoplankton

Thats about it in a nut shell. It has been set up for about 6 months and has been quite stable. Everything seems to be going fine. I would however like to add a lot more corals both soft and hard to my tank, I am looking for suggestions as to what would be a good idea given my setup. Or any ideas to improve my setup.

Thanks Chris and Claire

[afss]

First let me say welcome. :cheers:

Sounds like you have a good system on the go. I would just keep stocking it slowly. Maybe add some halides. I love the difference mine have made. What part of NB are you from?

Scott

[IJO]

Hi C&C,

Your setup sounds interesting... do you have pics to share?

IJO

[Michael_Lambert]

The other main thing that you want to do is to raise your Cal upto about 480. and drip Kalk Mix.

[Chrismo]

Sounds like a good setup, but depends on what other corals you want... Everything except your anemenies will be more than fine with your setup as is. I think you'll have to feed your anemenies a lot to make up for not having Super bright lights

Depending on what else you want, I think more lighting would be good. You have more actinics than you do non! As I understand it (and I'm no expert), Actinics are mostly for looks and have a low percent of photosynthetically available light. MH is nice, or maybe just switch one of your actinics for a 10K? :idea:


gluck!

[C&C]

Being in the army I am in Gagetown Newbrunswick. And as far as I have read people have had good luck with VHO lighting as aposed to MH. I wouldn't mind going to MH however my tank is 24" deep and that means 250 watts X 3 which equals a whole lot of $$$$$$$. Anybody have a good idea as to what type of setup I should could use that is cost effective. I am a DIY type of guy so not too much is out of the question when it comes to building wiring. Its just that I know how much ballasts can cost and I already have two Ice Caps for my VHO's so the though of more money scares me a bit.

[afss]

don't get me wrong.. vho are great.. I lived without halides forever, just added one 250 over my 90 gallon a few months ago and am impresed with the difference. I think the only negative things to the halides are the heat and the cost. I think your tank would be fine with 2-250 watts suplimented with your vho's.. if you went this route there would be virtually nothing that you would have issues keeping as far as lighting goes. As it is you are probably ok with most things



Scott