more water questions

[fallinapart]

I have tested my water and here are the results
PH 8.2
ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5
salinity 37ppt or 1.027
phosphate 0.5
calicum - 420

I have a 55 gal with 70 pounds of LR and 60 pounds of LS, a 10gal fuge with cheato and mangrove trees and protien skimmer.
Currently only have 4 small frags of coral, but hope to change that this weekend. I'm wondering if my water parameters are ok to be adding more coral frags. I also run 2 48" T-5 lights with actinic bulbs and the whole setup is 5 months old. Biggist question is calicum to high? & is Nitrate of 5 an acceptable reading.

Live Stock is 1 saddleback clown, 1 Foxface, 4 PJ Cardnial, 2 firefish and 1 scooter blemmy plus 2 shrimp (still there today) snails and crabs.

Norman

[fishdoc11]

Params look fine to me with the exception that SG is a tad high. If you want to keep Acros that P reading will most likely brown them out a bit and the lighting is inadequate.....you might want to upgrade the lighting a bit for whatever you want to keep. Calcium is great....assuming good test kits were used.
Chris

[fallinapart]

Thanks for the info, and "that P reading" meaning "PH"?? is to high? and lighting improvemnets would include what? another T-5? The 2 I have now, each one has 28 watt 10,000K daylight and 28 watt true actinic 03 giving me a total of 112 watts at present. How do I need to improve the lighting? this is a standard 55 gal, 48" X 12" X 20" tall. Thanks for your help

Norman

[Tennsquire]

Your pH is fine. It's [P]hosphate that can brown out lots of sps. Nitrates will come down with water changes. Depending on what frags you want to keep, I agree that's not a whole lot of light.

[fishdoc11]

Yes P= phosphate

So you have 4 48" bulbs total?

Chris

[waynesworld]

The big question is what corals and where you are going to put them I know there are some people that swear by the T5 and since you have 4 lights. Do all 4 cover the whole tank? I am not smart on the t5 but Jack runs them only I think. if you are not getting into sps or some clams you should be fine.

are you going to the frag swap sat?

[TitansFan]

What test kits are you using? The only ones that usually pick up the "P" as Chris calls it are quite expensive. Yah the SG could come down some if you want perfect but by no means is what you have now a killer. Everything looks good to me. Are you using good quality reflectors on your T5 lighting?
In the end the only eventual problem I see is your foxface. Mine got HUGE! He might like a bigger home eventually.
Get some corals! Enjoy the frag show!

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by fishdoc11
Yes P= phosphate

So you have 4 48" bulbs total?

Chris

Yes, 4 48" bulbs, of course I took the advice of the lfs when they told me early on that those lights would be enough to keep coral, of course I did not know enough to ask what kind etc. now I just know enough to ask questions

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by fishdoc11
Yes P= phosphate

So you have 4 48" bulbs total?

Chris

Yes, 4 48" bulbs, of course I took the advice of the lfs when they told me early on that those lights would be enough to keep coral, of course I did not know enough to ask what kind etc. now I just know enough to ask questions

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by waynesworld
The big question is what corals and where you are going to put them I know there are some people that swear by the T5 and since you have 4 lights. Do all 4 cover the whole tank? I am not smart on the t5 but Jack runs them only I think. if you are not getting into sps or some clams you should be fine.

are you going to the frag swap sat?

I'm looking for SPS hardy versions, and I'm still reading a book on corals and learing from all of you. But the lights cover the whole tank. I also plan to going to the swap this sat.

Norman

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by TitansFan
What test kits are you using? The only ones that usually pick up the "P" as Chris calls it are quite expensive. Yah the SG could come down some if you want perfect but by no means is what you have now a killer. Everything looks good to me. Are you using good quality reflectors on your T5 lighting?
In the end the only eventual problem I see is your foxface. Mine got HUGE! He might like a bigger home eventually.
Get some corals! Enjoy the frag show!

The reflectors are built in the the housing for this light set, each has it's own reflector.

The phosphate kit came from the lfs from RedSea. I got one for phosphate and one for calcium as suggested by crumbletop, as I plan on adding some frags this weekend.

Norman

[waynesworld]

Find some real hardy ones some will be plain looking but if it is a new tank you have to give it time before you jump into anything major also go slow do not try to put 20 new things in your tank at once you end up with some small pieces of rock and get frustrated.

BTW what church do you work at? I have a lot of stuff if you need anything let me know I prob have it laying around.

[DMBillies]

Norman-
I'm just checking on the lights, because that is my major concern for you at this point for adding corals (particularly SPS). It sounds to me like you have 2 x 2 bulb fixtures. When you say they have individual reflectors, does that mean that each bulb has a reflector or that each fixture has a reflector? I'm not getting a good sense for that from the rest of the posts.
The reason I ask is that the power of t5's is really in the fact that they are small bulbs and therefore can have reflectors that surround each bulb. This directs the light coming out of the back of the bulbs around the (relatively thin) bulb and down into the tank. That's not to say that T5's without reflectors for each bulb are necessarily bad, but they aren't going to get as much light down into the tank and you will be more limited on what you can keep (in other words, no really light loving sps or clams). That said, you should be able to keep some lower light SPS toward the top of the tank. I'd look for some montiporas to start with. I've also had really good luck with bird's nest. Depending on your light and other water params you might not get the greatest color, but they definitely do ok in a wider range of parameters.

And, like waynesworld said, take it easy at the swap and don't try to get too much. You can always get frags locally (and at our swap in January) as you gain confidence and figure out what is going to do well in your tank with your maintenance schedule.

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by DMBillies
Norman-
I'm just checking on the lights, because that is my major concern for you at this point for adding corals (particularly SPS). It sounds to me like you have 2 x 2 bulb fixtures. When you say they have individual reflectors, does that mean that each bulb has a reflector or that each fixture has a reflector? I'm not getting a good sense for that from the rest of the posts.
The reason I ask is that the power of t5's is really in the fact that they are small bulbs and therefore can have reflectors that surround each bulb. This directs the light coming out of the back of the bulbs around the (relatively thin) bulb and down into the tank. That's not to say that T5's without reflectors for each bulb are necessarily bad, but they aren't going to get as much light down into the tank and you will be more limited on what you can keep (in other words, no really light loving sps or clams). That said, you should be able to keep some lower light SPS toward the top of the tank. I'd look for some montiporas to start with. I've also had really good luck with bird's nest. Depending on your light and other water params you might not get the greatest color, but they definitely do ok in a wider range of parameters.
OK, these are called Aqualight T-5 units by Coralife. there are 2 bulbs in ech unit with one reflector for the unit which is 3" wide. My biggist concern is if I need to replace this lighting I'm using or just add to it? and thank you for all your help

And, like waynesworld said, take it easy at the swap and don't try to get too much. You can always get frags locally (and at our swap in January) as you gain confidence and figure out what is going to do well in your tank with your maintenance schedule.

BTW what church do you work at? I have a lot of stuff if you need anything let me know I prob have it laying around.

[B]Find some real hardy ones some will be plain looking but if it is a new tank you have to give it time before you jump into anything major also go slow do not try to put 20 new things in your tank at once you end up with some small pieces of rock and get frustrated. {/} BTW what church do you work at? I have a lot of stuff if you need anything let me know I prob have it laying around.

Thanks, I will go slow, & I work at the Kingwood Heights Church of Christ. Thanks for the offer to share, but I don't even know if I need something until I ask a question here or read some other post about this hobby. It really is a lot of fun and I love learning new things. (So you can teach an old dog new tricks)

Norman

[crumbletop]

4x54w T5s should be fine for SPS in a 55, as long as you have the individual parabolic reflectors. In actuality, even with single reflectors you'd be fine for most things. What bulbs are you running?

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by DMBillies
Norman-
I'm just checking on the lights, because that is my major concern for you at this point for adding corals (particularly SPS). It sounds to me like you have 2 x 2 bulb fixtures. When you say they have individual reflectors, does that mean that each bulb has a reflector or that each fixture has a reflector? I'm not getting a good sense for that from the rest of the posts.

Messed up the 1st reply so here it is again
OK, these are called Aqualight T-5 units by Coralife. there are 2 bulbs in ech unit with one reflector for each unit which is 3" wide. My biggist concern is if I need to replace this lighting I'm using or just add to it? and thank you for all your help

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by crumbletop
4x54w T5s should be fine for SPS in a 55, as long as you have the individual parabolic reflectors. In actuality, even with single reflectors you'd be fine for most things. What bulbs are you running?

Each unit has one 28watt 10,000K bulb and one 28watt True Actinic 03 Blue bulb with a "highly polished reflector" for each unit and I run 2 units on the tank. Thanks

Norman

[crumbletop]

Ahh. Those sound like normal output T5s. Those are only good for a fish only. You'll have trouble with any kind of SPS with those, IMO.

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by crumbletop
Ahh. Those sound like normal output T5s. Those are only good for a fish only. You'll have trouble with any kind of SPS with those, IMO.

Hmmm. OK, I should upgrade to HO lighting? When looking for lights, I should be concerned with total watt output? 1/2 of it Actinic lighting? or what exactly am I looking for? What specs do I concern myself with on the package or advertisment?

Sounds like my frag swap money is being transferred to lighting upgrades

Norman

[waynesworld]

What type of room do you have in the hood? I have a 250 pendent that you may be able to put into it and use the T5 for supplement. You can call me 4283262 and we can work something out if it would work.

[crumbletop]

Do you have a canopy? If so, you can get something like a TEK retrofit kit. If not, you need something like a TEK 4 bulb fixture. If you have a canopy and it is tall enough, you could also possibly work something out with Wayne -- but in a 55, I'm not sure of the coverage you'd get with one 250.

[fallinapart]

I have a DIY made from 1 x 12 pine and painted, so there is at least 10 inches in the top, plus I can leave off the lid as it is not attached, only sits on top of the whole canopy. Just not sure that there would be room for both T-5's and waynes 250. I'll give him a call and chat about size later this evening.

Norman