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wheres the calculator for electricity bills?

corals will do ok in your tank but they wont speard as much or as fast i mean when i started i had 1 watts over a 10 gallon hexagon tank i kept a few things bush corals ect but when i got pc's then my corals started to grow.

if you can get some Pc's (power compacts) they are ment to be 3x the brightness of 1 T8. when and if you get the pc's then your options will be more open.



HTH

99% of all corals will die in your tank, with the present lighting you have. All the corals that NEED lighting, NEED lighting that is strong, and as close as the strength of the sun as possible. They have a special algae that grows within them, that they feed off of the waste of the zooanthid algae. The algae, does not nessicarily give off the color of the coral. As if it does, the coral is brown. Brown corals are considered healthy, but not attractive to aquariists. Colorful corals, have other things in them that create the color.

Some corals that do not require the high lighting, need to be fed. Such as the sun star polyps, chili corals, many of the gorgonians, and others. These have to be target fed. Target feedings, are when you turn off all your power current devices, and make the water stand still. Then you take your food (brine shrimp, myosis, ect) and directly place it on the polyps. Example; food source in a cup with water, take a turkey baster and fill it, then easily squeeze it out into the water, directly on, over, and around the coral. Then watch it eat for a few minutes. The polyps will grab anything that fall on them, and they will take it in. Once done, you can return the pumps all on.

With your low lighting, there are a small few of corals that you can "try", and might do OK, but not considered really well. Some of the mushrooms will be OK. Most sponges will be OK, as long as they do not get eaten buy any of the fish. And some, very few, leathers MAY do OK. But, I would suggest none, other than those that require target feeding, who do not require lighting at all. But you must be prepared to target feed them, or they will die quickly. The problem with corals, is they do not show signs of illness on them, until it is too late. In other words, if you slack on your care, once they show signs of deterioration, you have lost them. It is rare to bring a coral back, once it starts to die off.

HTH....

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There is always a bigger fish...

OMG! i think ive found a Pc light compatible with my 30(actually 29 gal...) gal tank-the light is 130 watts, but i dunno if i can sneak it in without the other people of the house noticing it.

how much...will going from 18 watts on to 130 watts affect the bills tho

Probably not much really.

Reefcentral actually has a calculator somewhere on their site where you can figure out electricity cost, as long as you know the k/w per hour cost.

an open brain coral does not require high light. Do some reading and you will see it lives at depths where there is little of the red spectrum (most penetrating) present. they do need to be supplimented with food, though. I use microvert. IMHO

that will work in your 30 very good but you wont be able to have alot of fish . Your corals will do fine.

Im only planing to get two maroon or perlicula clowns, the rest will be corals and some sea anemone(reef tank)

Of course thats possible, but I really don't think its going to help you out too much. It will be a marginal improvement at best IMO.

K not back to the main question....what corals should i get now?????????Or do i have to wait because i made a change to my tank?

i think you'll have to wait but a good begeiner coral is xeina.

IMO, maroon clowns get too big for a 29 gallon tank. Those clownfish can reach a considerable size. If I were you, I'd stick with maybe some smaller fairy wrasse or a pair of ocellaris instead.

What kind of corals are you interested in?

Your lighting will not be good enough for SPS, so you're basically limited to softies and LPS if anything...

More later...


[hr width='40%'][font color="#000080"]I want to stand with you on a mountain,
I want to bathe with you in the sea,
I want to live like this forever,
Until the sky falls down on me…[/font]


-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

SPS's are to hard for a begeiner IMO and will only survive in exelent condtions. LPS are quite good look out for the candy cane its realy nice even under actinics.

Yeah, i just found out that i have a reverse osmosis unit in my kitchen under the sink!(its used for drinking water) Do you think I can use that water for my fish tank?

Umm...I thought all houses had RO type units under their sinks. I'm planning on getting a seperate one for my reef tank but...

I usually use the kitchen sink water when doing WC's on tanks with sensitive/sick/new shishies, b/c it's the best filtered water in the house. *shrugs* You can also get RO water from most LFS'.

I believe ReefCentral has some sort of electricity bill calculator or something like it, I never really paid much attention to it, but if you want to visit the site, the link is as follows.

[link=http://www.reefcentral.com]http://www.reefcentral.com" style="COLOR: #3c4e82[/link]

RC has some very good beginner articles that AnYoNe setting up a reef tank should read.

I dont know how everyone else is taking this, but I'm getting the feeling that it's going to be hard for you to get good lighting on this tank, because of the people you live with or something? It's important to consider that in a marine tank, reef especially lighting is critical. You cannot skimp out and expect thing to be okay in the long run. Reef tanks are all about research, patience, dedication, and aren't just a hobby, they are an investment.

I'm not trying to steer you away from the idea of one, I'm just saying I think you need to plan this out a little more. If you want corals and anenomes, you're going to need to actually pay attention to the lighting you're using.

About the clownfish- gold striped maroon clowns get bigger than the white ones. So depending on which one you wanted to get...

Ocellaris clowns and true Percula clowns both stay small enough to have a pair in a 29 IMO, especially the latter. True Percs max out at about 3 inches, give or take. >.<

HTH a bit more.


-Ferret


[hr width='40%'][font color="#000080"]I want to stand with you on a mountain,
I want to bathe with you in the sea,
I want to live like this forever,
Until the sky falls down on me…[/font]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

haha no all my other houses ive lived in didnt have RO units, i figured out cuz my grandma bought it for her saltwater reef tank which is like 100 gallons and had a lot of beautiful stuff in it. It was a customized one my uncle built and it costed a ton of money. I used to stare at it when I was a kid... and now its empty and has spider webs in it

He could keep a sun coral, but thats a fairly poor coral to suggest as a starter coral. Although they are not photosynthetic like many corals, they are much more demanding in their feeding needs.

Depends on your lighting. Lighting makes all the difference in which corals you can keep, as well as which corals are the hardiest, and/or the easiest.

Please completely descibe your lighting, and we can help you much better.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

Ditto!!!

Info info info please!

*crosses fingers for SPS corals*

ACROPORA!!!

Like Marc said, what kind of corals are you planning on keeping? Sofies, LPS, SPS? Clams, zoas, etc. Some of this will be determined by your lighting as well. Basically, if you have MH the possibilities are endless!

Picking out corals is fun. :%)

Also---what type of fish and inverts do you have? Certain fish like to munch and destroy polyps...

-Ferret


[hr width='40%'][font color="#000080"]"I know that you are something special, To you I'd be always faithful
I want to be what you always needed, Then I hope you'll see the heart in me"[/font]


-Formerly known as the Ferretfish