Would I be able to keep SPS?

[ofthee]

Hello, I am a fairly successful, poor, cheap skate reefer, but slowly I have managed to put together my eclipse tank. It is a 29 gallon, with a countercurrent skimmer,

lighting is

2 55 watt pc 7100k, and 6500k

1 24 in triton ->20 watt
1 24 in blue moon -> 20 watt

Tank residents are:

1 caulastrea
brown polyps
sand polyps
green zooanthids
2 photosynthetic gorgonians
assorted mushrooms
1 recovering polyp of xenia
1 finger leather
star polyps
1 knobby/bumpy sps which grew from dime size, to silver dollar size it is green/brown

I am currently adding iodine strontium, and kalwasser
as well as aragomite in my makeup water

Because I have this sps that came off of live rock, I got to thinking maybe I could keep some sps in my tank. Woiuld my tank be able to do it with the equipement I have now?
My general tests all come out 0, but I cannot test calcium

but since I added kalwasser the caulastrea seems to have grown. Any help would be aprecciated

[Cracked Fish Man]

Ofthee,

I can probly give a prtetty good answer here but first please help me understand what you have for lights. I have had the Eclipse system before. It was my first salt tank 4 years ago.
What I am confused about is how you got the PC's set up since you have little open surface area in the hood of the eclipse. This was my biggest problem and what made me upgrade. The Eclipse come with 2 standard florcents. The bulbs can be upgraded to bigger tubes but for the life of me, I cant see where you have the PC's set up?

[billsreef]

Cracked Fish Man, it is most likely that ofthee has done a popular modification of gutting the original contents of the eclipse hood and installed DIY lighting.

ofthee
That lighting will support some sps placed in the upper half of the tank. Depending on what you have for internal circulation you might need to add a powerhead or two.

When it comes time to replace your bulbs you might want to consider replacing the 7100k PC with another 6500K and run both the NO flourescents with actinics.

[ofthee]

hello, I have the pc's hanging over the opening in the hood, I use tinfoil as a reflector. The original florescnets are in the hood, they are i triton and 1 bluemoon 24 in. I am waiting for the time to drill the hood, so that I can put the pcs in the 4 inches available behind the existing lighting. But I may just do the eclipse pc mod, and put the NO's in the 4 in space

[Cracked Fish Man]

Ofthee,

You basically did what I did to mine. The only down side to the 4" opening is that you probly have a hard time dispercing all of the PC lights efficently. Sounds like you have a nice set up as it is. More light never hurts and you can probly keep some SPS in there. I kept brains and mushrooms in mine. I think your main problem may be temp.

Good luck.
CFM

[ofthee]

hI, thanks for the replies. I assume you mean heat temp.
If I were to leave the cover off the eclipse, would that help? I Don't have problems now, with the florescents being so close to the water, but maybe the pc's and florescents together will really heat it up. What would be the best solution for the heat problem?

[ofthee]

what would be a good first/intermediate sps which would
fair well with the tank setup I have

[billsreef]

A couple of possibilities are Montipora, Hydnophora, Tubinaria, Pavona, some Acros.

[Cracked Fish Man]

Ofthee,

Yes, I meant temp. I am not trying to be a pain in the ***. This is just an open discussion. I just cant see how you have 2 24" 55 watt PC's in that 4" space. The full intensity of the light probaly will not get to the H2O. So You are not getting the full 6watts apx. per gal. Still its enough for what billsreef recommends. I had 3 20 watt florescent tubes on mine. If you have 150 watts of light hitting that water then you have a temp problem. You may be able to mount some fans over the 4" opening. That would help but get reedy to add apx. 1 gal per day for top off.

CFM

[ofthee]

Hello, Sorry if the tone of my last message was negative, I didn't mean it to be. My eclipse hood has 4in of space between the lights and the filter. That is barely enough to put the 2 pcs in. I was planning to put a piece of rain gutter material as a hood addition to reflect the light, but you are right, right now, there isn't even close to the amount of light geting to my tank that is really available. I think your idea of the fans is good, I will have to add that into my equation, when the time comes for driling the final holes for the lighting.

[ofthee]

hello again, I will have a picture of my tank on the web soon, my friend just took pictures of it an d its inhabitants with his digital camera, maybe I can show you what the deal is with my lighting. Thanks for all the help