NaMc
September 13th, 2003, 11:09 AM
Just thought I would toss this in here to give everyone else that’s starting out some good news. I'm running a 35G reef. Its my first attempt at keeping a marine tank. So far I have had wonderful luck with it. I took my time and let it cycle before putting much in. it has about a 3" Sand bed. I am using Two Aquaclear 150 filters as refugiums (Took out the filter media and put in macro algae, Grape calurpa I think) I run a 25W bulb over each one, the bulbs runs for about 6 hours, I have them on timer, they come on about 1am or so. Had a friend tell me it was good to run them on an opposite cycle as the tank). I use the original plastic hood for the tank, and I "adjusted it" a little to suit my needs. Adjustments include a 24" fluorescent strip with a marine glow bulb fastened to the underside of the lift up cover, altering how the main bulb sockets are in the light cover so that they fit normal sized bulbs, and put in two 11W Half and Half bulbs, and stuck a small computer cooling fan on the end of the light fixture to take out the extra heat. I am going to be adding two more fluorescent strips in place of the regular bulb sockets when I have a little extra time. The water temperature is ridiculously high, I can't avoid it(upstairs apartment, its stifling) but even at the 87F things seem alright, I would be happier if it was lower though. As far as livestock goes, I have one percula clown, two banggaie cardinals, one damsel, one scooter blenny, one serpent star, a few snails and a hermit crab. I have a blue mushroom coral, a green one, and some orange tip mushrooms. A beautiful brain coral, a couple of leathers, some metal star polyps, some green centered polyps (can't remember the type), and some orange centered ones (also can't remember the type). Half of my live rock was donated/puchased, and the other half (at the discovery of the astronomical price of live rock) is home made. the home made stuff looks awesome. Had lots of luck with this set up so far, and everything is doing very well. The only mishaps I've had are: Starfish ate one of my first frags, a lether. Weird. Had a coral beauty for a month and it just up and died one day, dunno why, havn't had a problem with any other fish (The damsel is my oldest, and the system is about six months old) So far this experience has been tons of fun. Hope this is useful for some of you, if anyone has any questions just post. Hope Every one has as good luck as I have!
Nate
Nate