Would 6,350gph be too much for a 120sps reef?

[*ReefeD*06]

I'm planning a 120 sps/clam and anenome reef with 2 250mh's 10k and 2 40w actinics, lifereef sump and skimmer. I just wanted to know if 6,350gph be too much? The flow would be created with 2 Tunze turbelle streamline pumps on a multicontroller?

[zhenya]

I don't think you can ever have too much flow in the sps dominated tank. I would however reconsider keeping anemone in a sps tank.I can tell you firsthand that it will/would travel or grow large enough to come in contact with your corals and kill them. I've lost quite a few to my evergrowing and dividing rose Entacmaea q. anemone
I think it was the biggest mistake I've maid since starting this tank.

[MtnDewMan]

I think that much flow would be just fine in that reef and I agree with Gene that you may want to rethink the anemone in an SPS dominated reef. If it travels, say goodbye to SPS along it's path. You may also want to reconsider the Actinic supplementation. 80W seems awful low for that lighting. I would think you would want at least 330 or 440 Watts of Actinic, but then again, that would be my personal preference.

[*ReefeD*06]

With the anenome i won't put a new one in the 120 because I was thinking of getting a Heteractis Maginfica. But I already have a green carpet with 4 perculas living in it. I was talking to the lfs and the guy said that the 80 watts would be enough if I went with the 10k's, I want a calm actinic effect not a bright purple but maybe i'm wrong. What are your opinions?

[MtnDewMan]

My opinion is that if you have 80W of actinics with 500W of 10000k, you will never even know the actinics are on .... I would say you would be better off not even putting them on the tank except for a very small amount of dawn dusk effect when the MHs are not on ...

[*ReefeD*06]

Would the vho's be essential? Because money is not the issue. I really want a calmer dawn and dusk effect. If the sps/clams need vho's then I will get them but if they don't then I won't. Could you also tell me if I should get rid of the green carpet and clowns or if I can slip by with the carpet? thanks

[MtnDewMan]

Essential no, beneficial yes ... The VHO actinics will provide light in a different spectrum for the corals to use. The 10000k probably has some light emitting in that spectrum, but not near as much as the actinics would have. So I think they are beneficial. But not essential. I personally like the coloration of the tank with sufficient actinic supplementation over pure 10000k lighting without supplementation (Like I said, I don't think 80W of light will be very noticeable).

I am certainly not telling you what to do, just providing my opinion is all I am sure there are others out there with similar or even contrasting opinions.

Regarding the anemone, to be honest, I don't trust them. Others might. I just trust that an anemone will always stay put. I am not familiar enough with them to be 100% sure though, but I personally wouldn't risk one in my SPS tank, but I do know others who have carpet anemones in their SPS tanks and have been successful with them.

[SPS100]

Im sure the sps will like the high flow..BUT the clams from my experience might have a problem with that kinda flow..

FWIW

[SueT]

I was just going to add that SPS100.;) Yes, the sps corals will love that flow but the clams will not. Clams like a very low flow which basically doesn't even move the mantle. I have my clams in a low flow part of my 180. The sps are in a high flow. This was not easy to achieve and as we are getting ready to do a closed loop, I'm concerned with how this is going to affect my clams. They are all doing great but change is hard sometimes. Something else to think about.

Practical Fishkeeping hag's. April 2003-Featured reef system.
my 180 ecosystem sps/clam tank:
http://berlinmethod.com/suet/
my 120 ecosystem sps tank:
http://suetruett.homestead.com/home.html

[Chris Lakies]

What type of sand be you gonna have - DSB? That type of flow with a DSB will look like a sand storm! I know because I have a 120 AGA and put a RIO HP 20 on one end blowing toward my SPS reef side and full blast (about 2300 gph) it was blowing my sand all over. I had to throttle it back about a 1/4. If you look at the link below you can see what my lighting looks like and some of the stuff I did.



My new 120AGA pics (not quite finished)

[Ilia]

Changed my user name but I will not be using a DSB. I will have about 1 inch of sand maybe even 1/2 just for looks.

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally posted by *ReefeD*06
With the anenome i won't put a new one in the 120 because I was thinking of getting a Heteractis Maginfica. But I already have a green carpet with 4 perculas living in it. I was talking to the lfs and the guy said that the 80 watts would be enough if I went with the 10k's, I want a calm actinic effect not a bright purple but maybe i'm wrong. What are your opinions?

From personale experience, H. magnifica will be too big for a 120 g. He will tank up 1/2 of the 120 g tank right under one of your light. No coral will be able to live within his reach.
Ablut the light, I would agree that 80 W of actinic light will not change color of the 2X250 W MH very much. I would use 220W actinic light if you like the actinic color. Consider PC or VHO Actinic rather than NO Actinic lights.
Minh Nguyen

[Reefland]

Back to the actinic's; do they emit enough light in any range to be effective over the 250w halides? I have ran our tank for 8 months now with no actinic, only the dual 250w 10k halides and have maintained excellect color's; some corals that were chocolate brown with lime polpys turned baby blue! If I were to add actinics to supplment the halides, could I expect any different colorations or would the tank just appear a bit bluer to my eyes?

I have asked this before and I don;t know if there is a true answer but from others experience (if anyone has ran just 250w 10k's without actinic and then added actinic later), was there any difference in the corals?

[Ilia]

I'm not expecting the 80W of actinics to change the color of the tank. I want to put them on just for dawn dusk effect. I want the 80W of NO because I like the calmer blue color and not the bright purple that the VHO's have.

[Ilia]

Could someone also suggest on the 1-1/2 inch of sand I'm planning. Is it a logical idea? Many of the German and Japanese tanks I see have no DSB's or maybe they just make a barrier.

[SueT]

On my 180g I run 3 250w 65k iwasaki's and also run 2 160w URI actinics. These are not purple but a nice blue. On my 120 I still run 2 250w iwasaki's and on this system I use 2 96w pc actincis. I also like the dawn/dusk effect. I do like the pc's over the vhos for the actinic effect. I think if you got into running more than 2 tubes of actinic you might see the purple I know you're talking about. I do like the pc's better though.

Practical Fishkeeping mag's. April 2003-Featured reef system.