Aquarium Lighting - FLOURO's "lighting for thought"

I have been running the planted tank for a while now and, I have been unhappy with the plant growth - I double checked my flouro's and, they were tri-phosphor t8's. On previous planted tanks I have used say a 3 foot flouro with predominantly a blue spectrum + a 3 foot bulb with a predominantly red spectrum. So Basically never used tri-phosphor t8's by Phillips or NEC before however, was told they were good for aquariums.
Now after doing a fair bit of research I have discovered that these particular tri-phosphors are very high in the green spectrum of light therefore, appearing brighter to the human eye. For fish only aquariums this wouldn't pose a problem however, for planted tanks such as mine this is not beneficial as the plants absorb predominantly the red spectrum for growth.

Basically the best type of bulb for planted aquariums which I might add aren't hugely popular from what I can tell in Australia (or sydney at least) are the flouro's which are high in the red spectum of light + blue also .... but, red being more important.

Both bulbs are 30 watt - therefore giving my tank a total of 60 watts of lighting to 120 litres of water = 2 watts per liter which should be very sufficient for a planted tank.

Go check out the following links for some more information on lighting:

http://watershed3.tripod.com/lighting.html
http://aquaticconcepts.thekrib.com/Articles/AFM_Lighting.htm

20000k 150 watt + some corals etc

As you may have read it is important to replace your Metal Halide(MH) bulbs every 12 - 18 months as the wavelengths of light (colour) tend to shift therefore, not giving your corals etc etc the best spectrum possible. When I first started this blog I added a 150 watt MH with I believe a 13000K bulb. I purchased the tank + accessories of eBay so wasn't 100% sure how long it had been since the bulb had been changed so decided to purchase a new bulb.

There are a number of different types of MH bulbs available i.e. in terms of Kelvins. The standards ones you are able to find in OZ include:

- 6000K (High-end planted tanks - gives your aquarium a very yellow looking light)
- 13000K (Marine aquarium - with some corals however, lacks blue wavelengths therefore, corals won't look as nice - probably not the best for Small Polyp Stony {SPS} corals - white looking light )
- 16000K (a mix between the white and blue spectrum provided between 13000K and 20000K - would work well for reef or coral free aquariums - crisp white light)
- 20000K (This brings out the best colouring in your corals + gives your water a colour similar to deep ocean .... blueish lighting)

Everyone is different and prefers different lighting for their aquariums but, I would suggest you go for the crisp white light as a minimum for your tank if using MH's.
Another reason that I did change my lighting to 20000K bulb was because, I noticed that my SPS corals weren't doing as well with the old 13000K bulb. I recently bought a Acropora and after putting it in my tank it appeared to go a tinge of brown (Itc ould just be due to a conditioning period....). I have read and, I don't know how plausible this but, when the wavelength of light drops off the Zooxanthellae in the corals move forward i.e. into the top layer of the coral and therefore the coral loses its colour and, goes a brown colour due to zooxanthalae being brown (Not sure this has been proven either way). I can say however, that after changing the bulb the Acropora and Montipora's colouring improved.

So have attached a couple of pictures so you can compare:

Nice Flouro Orange Fungi

Bi-Colour Hammer Coral (LPS)

2 x Monti Plates
Acropora (was a dark brown when I fist put it in the tank but, now is starting to colour back up)

Go check out this link

Was doing some research on Acropora's and found this great link:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=180538

I am currently running 1 x 150 watt 13,000K Aqua Medic Metal Halide (MH). All the soft corals are loving the lighting but, my acro doesn't seem to be responding as it is a little brown (not bright blue as when I first bought it). The MH I purchased off eBay second hand so just to be safe I think it would be time to change the bulb.

Will update once new lighting is in.

White spot out-break (and I have corals!!!)

I am writing this blog because, most saltwater enthusiast will have problems with White spot/Ich at one stage or another and, if you have corals sometimes you don't have a spare quarantine tank etc available.... The only option can be to treat the fish in the reef tank.

So when I first set-up my saltwater tank I didn't have a cooling mechanism set-up at all and because, its summer here we can get 40 degree days; leading to 30 degree's inside the house (which is fully tiled). The saltwater tank did at one stage get up to 29 degrees and, I think it was what had caused the outbreak of the white spot i.e. maybe accelerating the growth of the parasites.
The temperature over this period did fluctuate from 25 - 29 degrees all in one day - not the best for any tank.
So anyway the only fish to get the white spot was the sailfin tang - from my research I believe that tangs do seem to be pretty sensitive to changes in aquarium water parameters so are good indicators to something being off. I did know that the temperature fluctuations were no good for the fish however, had no real way to fix this that was within budget at the time. However, I did a few days later come up with a solution i.e. attach a fan to the inside of the stand that would continually cool down water in the mini-reef and, now the temp stays at around the 25 degree mark (a cheap solution if you can't get your hands on a chiller or a fridge).

The sailfin started off with small little specks of white spot and, eventually did start to flick itself off the rocks and, I also did notice the blue wrasse flick itself once or twice and, maybe have one or two white specks appearing.

Now if you were researching the ways to cure white spot you may have heard about putting the fish into a freshwater bath (raising the pH to the correct level - then bathing the fish for a few minutes ... I have also heard of bathing it for a few seconds and, then doing this again in 4-5 hours). Now that was the original plan however, the sailfin was way to quick to catch and, the only way I would have caught him was if I demolished the whole tank first! so that plan fizzled out.

I rang around a few shops and, no one experienced enough new how to cure the white spot without hurting the corals..... So for a week or so I kept all parameters as prefect as possible - the sailfin or any other of the fish for that matter had any problems eating. And, my second plan was to make sure the water quality etc was great and, maybe the white spot would cure itself. But this didn't work :<

FINALLY i found a product that was coral safe called "Myxazin" and, treated the tank with this. It leaves a little green tinge (not bad like malachite green more like Bactonex) to the water and, doesn't seem to bother the corals at all and, I can attest to this. So its been two days now (48hrs of treatment) and, the white spot seems almost gone and, the cleaner wrasse seems to be having a field day picking off the parasite from the sailfin tang.

Lesson - make sure you maintain a stable water temperature.
Also please note none of the corals were adversly harmed by this misadventure :>

There is a link to Myxazin on the top right of the blog :>

planted tanks - some interesting links for diagnosing defiencies in your plants...

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_nutrient.htm


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidgEmzJRtFfCt3SS_wXhJPaB9EekZYTD7YqmvAnKctnFYniVYgaikvi1weWr2VkFK__vyWxfaFE8BfLrFuRfoHIBtZrpgC1qICXYWJbNku3eo05hOWjVQgLP5g2K7lU_3BKuWXxCwSLr0G/s1600-h/3591814040_bc03c264a5_o.jpg

And, just when I thought I was done..... Freshwater Update

As you can see from my previous freshwater blog post my freshwater tank was looking a bit bare.... I was hoping I could just keep cutting the plants and, replanting however, this was taking a bit longer than I hoped. So I popped down to my local fish shop - fishbowl aquarium in carlton NSW where ken (the owner) has a bit of a fetish and, good knowledge of planted tanks and, quite a nice display tank also. I had previous purchased a whole bunch of plants + crystal red shrimp after seeing his amazing display - this is what inspired me to go this way rather than having a discus tank.... the shrimp really are a surpirse once you notice they are there :> just when you think you have seen and, kept it all something else inspires your interest.

SO I went and, purchased the following four plants:

- 1 x Amazon Sword

- 1 x Lace Fern

- 2 x Rotala Rotundifolia " Colorata"

- 2 x Ludwigia Brevides

I purchased these to fill out the background of the tank and, over the next few weeks I hope to fill out the foreground with some short-hair grass and, others types of small plants. Also, purchased 4 x Otocinclus Arnoldi fish (sounds like autostinkus) which are really good for planted tanks and, they seem to be getting stuck into the algae in my tank which at one stage was growing a bit wild. Apparently cherry red shrimp also love algae - so should make a good combo with the Otoclinclus.

2 x Otoclinclus + 2 x neons

And, now some vid's

saltwater with addition of some new fishies

I have just added a cleaner wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus) and Green Wrasse (Haliochoeres Chloropterus)to my three foot saltwater. The Green Wrasse has the most amusing behaviour when scared.. it buries itself in the sand and, then doesn't emerge till the next morning. I believe it also does this when sleeping - really peaceful with the rest of its tank mates.

The cleaner wrasse seems to be widely available in all the shops at the moment and, this particular one has had no problems eating brine shrimp and, slowly picking parasites off it's tank mates. It is quite an amusing fish to watch as it swims around constantly and frantically. I have done a bit of research on this particular fish and, it seems as though there existence in the wild is become threatened by the aquarium hobby :<>


My tank is really starting to flourish and, some of the corals are even growing back over old wounds (i.e. as purchased in the aquarium store) - the LPS corals all seem to be getting longer membranes growing around the actual coral polyps. I have attached a few up close pictures of the corals below. The Xenia has sprouted some new colonies that seem to be growing all over the place - not sure how the iodine additive does aid the growth of the soft coral however, the Xenia sp. appears to be growing super well.

The addition of some new corals

I found a aquarium store in my local area that was moving shop and, as a result had a whole bunch of corals they were trying to get rid of. I snatched about 5 montiporas + a polyp coral and another of which I am unsure of the name of at present all for $60.00. Admittedly they apparently haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to these species so they looked a little lacking but, they have made a great addition to my tank (all a similar red colour). I have attached a few pics and, I am quite chuffed about how far the tank has come since I started it 5 weeks ago. The funny thing is my skimmer isn't skimming that much .... yet nitrates, phosphates, ammonium, nitrite all remain at 0 (except for nitrate). I have been feeding the fish/corals rotifers and brine shrimp.

above is a picture of the Frogspawn coral growing really nicely (very easy coral to keep in your tank) and, also attached a picture of the polyp corals I picked up (Zoanthus sp.) which also seem like quite an easy species to get growing well. I have of course been adding a trace elements + calcium and iodine.

Peace out

3 foot salt fishy

So as promised I wanted to attach a video - I have added another 8 1/2 kg of live rock + one piece had a small pulse coral colony. I also added a mushroom which I hope to propagate and, help grow all over the tank. As you can see the corals have now all opened up; I have been adding Fuel (a.k.a. trace supplements) + feeding them rottifers and brine shrimp and, the occasional dose of Iodine, calcium and sera coral food. I went away for about 5 days and, when I came back the pulse coral seem to have died a bit.... I suspect the protein skimmer had sucked all the nutrients out of the water i.r. trace elements and so it started to die. However, it seems to be recovering well - once I got back home I turned the protein skimmer off and, dosed the tanks with trace supp's etc etc and, all the corals have never looked better.

So on a compatibility scale all the corals seem to be quite happy together and, as a guide are quite easy to take care of - Although I have read that the pulse corals are a little more difficult to care for.

Water chem:
Ammonium : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 10 - 20 ppm
Calcium : 440ppm