switching from soft to hard

[miller]

i have a 46 gal with soft corals and i am in the process of getting a 72gal planning on hard corals been reasaerching a good bit just wondering about any tips or suggestions on this transition


thanks

ken

joppa md

[geofloors]

That's a tough question. I'm sure several of us here could give you a many paragraph response. I'll try to narrow it down a bit.

When you say hard corals, do you mean SPS, LPS or both?

Do you want to know about water quality, water movement, lighting requirements, different equipment, etc.

These are all things that will help narrow down the response so you don't get overloaded with info from a long response.


George

[miller]

mostly want to know about water quality and different equiptment

thanks
ken

joppa md

[dgasmd]

Well, that is a 6 week seminar in itself http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif Any specific questions about those subjects? You ahve a tank with corals now. What do you want to know in particular?

[NAGA]

I am doing a changeover in the 750g. I am doing sps though for the most part. I am slowly removing the soft corals in the tank and buying sps's to replace them. In addition I am treating the tank with carbon more often by changing it once a week. I am also adding two more 400watt lamps for a total of 4 lights. Protein skimming remains the same however, I may go to a larger one(although I have one rated for 1250gallons http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif ) Water movement I have in the tank is already pretty high, so that is remaining the same.

All in all more light, less soft corals, agressive carbon treatment, and perhaps more skimming to create a more ideal enviroment for sps corals is what I am trying to do. I am pretty new though to doing sps's. Ask me in a year for perhaps a better answer http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[miller]

i was debating about using a sump or not also i now add calcium/alkalinity buffer would i need to add more items for sps corals

[NAGA]

A sump would be better...........especially a larger one......."the solution to pollution is dillution". If your going to do sps's then Ca & Alk have a little more importance with the tank thriving more. A Calcium reactor or a Kalk reactor will be a likely purchase though.

Jeff

[chideloh]

Equipment you need for SPS, also good for LPS.

Drilled tank (my choice over reef ready and hang on overflow box)
MH lights (150 HQI, 175 or 250 watt)
Actinic lights
a good Protein skimmer
if you decide to go with SPS only then you may want to consider closed-loop for extra circulation
Calcium reactor
Nielson reactor (optional)

It's a start http://www.cmas-md.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

HTH