[nautilus]

I am naive newcomer at learning curve and have some questions. I can understand skimmers filters water chemistry but what puts me off setting up live reef tank and wait couple more years instead is lightning. I have impression that lightning systems for marine aquariums are still at developing stage, shops offer only those ugly heavy industrial looking ceiling hanging overpriced lightning units. Why not to use beautifully designed wall mounted halide spotlights or floodlights instead? Or halide plant growlights? Or new full spectrum tubes which would fit nicely into tropical aquarium cover?
Also some reef tanks have sliding cover glasses (doesnt glass cut off some part of spectra?) like in article about marine tank setup in last Practical Fiskeeping but some books do not recommend to have cover at all. If glass cover can be used why not light with halide lamps through aquariums side wall (under propriate angle of course in order not to blind fish) and use tropical aquariums cover for light tubes?

[Ninong]

Hi nautilus, welcome to Reefland!

Originally Posted by nautilus

I have impression that lightning systems for marine aquariums are still at developing stage...

Everything is still in the developing stage. That's just the nature of things. However, there are many very nice luminaires specifically for reef aquaria that are quite advanced. Some of these are very expensive but you get what you pay for. For those willing to spend that kind of money, there are fixtures with their own onboard computers to regulate the photoperiods of the metal halide lamps, the supplemental actinic lamps and the artificial moonlight lamps. These can be programmed to duplicate natural conditions, including moon rise and moon set and the phases of the moon. Sounds pretty advanced to me. http://www.giesemannlicht.com/page.php?page=home
http://www.giesemann.de/
http://www.ab-aqualine.de/
http://www.sunlightsupply.com/aquarium/index.shtml
http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...ure.asp?CartId=

...shops offer only those ugly heavy industrial looking ceiling hanging overpriced lightning units.

I have no idea what is available at "shops" in the UK, but there is a very wide range of lighting options available online, especially if you don't need to worry about meeting U.S. electrical requirements.

Why not to use beautifully designed wall mounted halide spotlights or floodlights instead?

There are wall mounted halide spotlights in use already but they are not as common in the U.S. as they are in Japan. Just check out the various Japanese reef tank website for examples. Here are a few examples in our archives: More Japanese tanks.

Or halide plant growlights?

Those won't work -- wrong spectral distribution.

Or new full spectrum tubes which would fit nicely into tropical aquarium cover?

If you're talking about the new T5 HO fluorescent lamps, then yes, those do fit nicely into the typically undersized, low-end commercial aquarium canopies.

Also some reef tanks have sliding cover glasses (doesnt glass cut off some part of spectra?) like in article about marine tank setup in last Practical Fiskeeping but some books do not recommend to have cover at all.

I have NEVER seen or heard of a reef aquarium with a glass cover. True, some of the aquarium manufacturers offer glass covers with their tanks but no one actually uses those over a reef tank because of heat and gas exchange issues. It might be possible (although I wouldn't recommend it) to use glass covers on a fish-only marine aquarium with normal output fluorescent lamps but you really can't get away with that over a reef aquarium because the appropriate lighting produces too much heat.

Was the PFK article about a reef aquarium setup or just a typical fish-only marine setup? I can't believe they would recommend glass covers for a reef tank but then I didn't think they would run that dumb article about clownfish requiring host anemones in captivity either.

If glass cover can be used why not light with halide lamps through aquariums side wall (under propriate angle of course in order not to blind fish) and use tropical aquariums cover for light tubes?

There are several reasons why it would be inappropriate to light an aquarium though the side wall and refraction is just one of them. Another obvious problem with that is that it would be unnatural and confusing as hell to the tank's inhabitants. Many fish orient themselves to the light and ALL photosynthetic animals (corals, clams, anemones, etc.) orient themselves towards the light.

[nautilus]

Thanks Ninong for good advise and links, much appreciated!

Was the PFK article about a reef aquarium setup or just a typical fish-only marine setup? I can't believe they would recommend glass covers for a reef tank but then I didn't think they would run that dumb article about clownfish requiring host anemones in captivity either.

It was about setting up live rock (40 kg) 120cm tank with fish, in PFK 11.2004 extra "Practical Marine Fishkeeping", thats what really confused me. I cite from "Beating the heat" where they had problem with hot weather:
"I had the sliding covers open and reduced the lightning, but it did'nt seem to help much"
And then:
"Neil had left the sliding lid open during the hot weather to let some of the heat escape, and the fish ended up on the floor, behind the cabinet"
On illustrating photos one could also see sliding lid cover well (and photos did not show ligting system used for some reason). As I have lost some of tropical fish like that as well I always wondered when reading reef aquarium books recommending no covers how such accidents can be avoided. Using covering net?
BW
Nautilus

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by nautilus

It was about setting up live rock (40 kg) 120cm tank with fish, in PFK 11.2004 extra "Practical Marine Fishkeeping", thats what really confused me. I cite from "Beating the heat" where they had problem with hot weather:
"I had the sliding covers open and reduced the lightning, but it did'nt seem to help much"
And then:
"Neil had left the sliding lid open during the hot weather to let some of the heat escape, and the fish ended up on the floor, behind the cabinet"
On illustrating photos one could also see sliding lid cover well (and photos did not show ligting system used for some reason). As I have lost some of tropical fish like that as well I always wondered when reading reef aquarium books recommending no covers how such accidents can be avoided. Using covering net?
BW
Nautilus

Nautilus,

I didn't realize that PFK now has a marine edition but I see from their website that they do. I'm familiar with the regular magazine that covers marine and fresh. http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...e_magazine.php

I'm not impressed with many of the articles that the editors choose to publish in their magazine. I know a couple of authors who no longer submit articles to them because they were concerned about the advice offered in other articles appearing in the same issue with their article.

From the brief summary of the article that you read, it appears that they are featuring the very first reef tank set up by one of their photographers, Neil Hepworth. Obviously Mr. Hepworth's efforts were misguided judging from his unfortunate results. Perhaps the article was meant as a "don't do as I did" sort of thing???

As Mr. Hepworth learned to his chagrin, you cannot keep glass covers on a reef aquarium without running into heat problems unless your ambient room temperature is below what most people consider comfortable. Whether you can run an open top tank with no regard to jumping fish depends on the fish you keep. Some species hardly ever jump, others jump regularly. A fully enclosed canopy with ventilation fans is one solution to that problem.

My 120-gal (100 Imp. Gal., 451 liters) tank is an open-top tank but I have constructed shields made of black acrylic which are mounted on the tank's perimeter to prevent my fairy wrasses from jumping out of the tank. I have a white eggcrate cover on top of the tank over the front area that is not blocked by the light fixtures. That may not be necessary for most species, but it is for fairy wrasses and a few others known for their olympic level jumping abilities.

Here is something that Giesemann, the German light fixture manufacturer, offers as a perimeter shield: http://www.giesemann.de/en/meerwasse...g/stratosl.php That's a 6" tall aluminum shield that is mounted on the top edge of the tank. It may or may not be sufficient protection depending on the particular species that you keep and their propensity for jumping.

This picture will give you an idea of how I solved that problem for my tank. The white eggcrate rests on top of the black acrylic shields which are mounted on the tank's top edge. The individual pieces lift off for access to the tank.

[Poseidon]

If you plan on keeping fish known to be leapers you can use a material we call "eggcrate" here in the states. It is a series of 1 cm plastic squares. THat way air and light can travel through unimpeded (for the most part) yet it stil provides protection to leaping fish. I have also used this material to build a platform in the back of my tank to raise my liverock higher and make it look like I have more then I really do. I bought a sheet for $10 and it measures 2' x 4'.... here is a picture of the platform. Different use for same material:

[nautilus]

Hi Ninong,
thanks for telling about eggcrates and perimeter shield, this would keep peace in mind that fish will stay safely in tank and will keep my marine cat- Maine Coon who loves to splash in water- out!

I didn't realize that PFK now has a marine edition but I see from their website that they do.

This was just special edition extra to regular monthly one

From the brief summary of the article that you read, it appears that they are featuring the very first reef tank set up by one of their photographers, Neil Hepworth. Obviously Mr. Hepworth's efforts were misguided judging from his unfortunate results. Perhaps the article was meant as a "don't do as I did" sort of thing???

No it was rather supposed to be article a successful reef tank setup, actually he had very good results for the end and there were 12 photos from different tank step by step setup stages, thats why this article caught my attention. He had temperature problems later because of hot weather not because of halide lamp which he did not use. He used instead 60cm T5 lighing unit plus T8 Blue Moon and Daylight fluorescent tube-I wonder would it be enough for sustaining all this live rock and his corals in longer term.This article totally confused my view I built up by reading reef tank books.

[nautilus]

Hi Mike,
thanks for advise and for lovely photo! As I told Ninong, eggcrates seem to be good idea not only lifting corals and keepig fish in but also keeping cats out. It looks like you are also using some interesting sand biofiltering system?

[Poseidon]

LOL!!! I didn't even realize Ninong beat me to the post... I was in the middle of typing a response and left the computer... came back and finished the response and there was Ninong mentioning the eggcrate...

YES I do use a DSB and live rock for my main filtration. I also use a fairly large skimmer. No mechanical filtration, except occasional use of "poly fill" from the fabric store. I use it when I scrape my glass, that way all the scraped algae gets caught in the filter and then I remove it from the system. It is in my overflow for only a few hours, until the tank is clear...