How much lighting/adding sand bed?

[Dorkel Marine 1]

I want to add a sand bed to my 10 gal. should i put it on top of my present cruched coral substrate. How slow should i go when adding the sand. How much lighting is recomended for a soft coral reef. I have a 55 watt pc. I was told it would be fine. I have read other bulletin boards and they are suggesting i need more. Confused. Also;and i posted on buy/trade; I'm looking for some sand to seed this sand bed. also would like to buy some soft coral frags in the future. Also what is a recommende alk. test kit and calcium test kit. what additives are you guys using for a soft coral reef. enough questions. Thanks in advance. Happy reefin George Muller.

[ron101]

Hi George,

"I want to add a sand bed to my 10 gal. should i put it on top of my present cruched coral substrate?"

The finer the substrate grains the more efficient your sand bed will be. Since you have a short tank you don't have the height to play with. So if you have the finer type of crushed coral, it should be satisfactory, if not I would replace it. A 3" sand bed would be a reasonable compromise for a 10 gal.

"I have a 55 watt pc. I was told it would be fine."

More than adequate for a 10 gal (aka nano) soft coral reef. In fact going with more lighting may well cause temperature problems.

"Also what is a recommended alk. test kit and calcium test kit."

I use the Salifert kits. Higher intial cost but they go a long way and have a good reputation for accuracy.

[Dorkel Marine 1]

Thank-you Ron 101. It was reassuring to hear someone say the 55watt pc would be alright. Good news today. Had the fridge fixed. Got talking with the guy and he has a big marine set-up and said phone him anytime and he would lay some soft coral frags on me for nothing. Mind you the bill was high enough. going ahead with the sandbed. thanks again.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

For a pure softy tank, 55W PC on a 10G should be fine...most softies should be fine except for specialty corals like the Fuji Yellow Leather. A good reflector should help improve lighting.

As for additives...no need for them. Your best bet is to do water changes to replenish the trace elements (like iodine). I would say....10% water changes per week or 1 Gal per week. And ditto for Salifert.

As for your sand bed...IMHO I would get rid of the crush coral. Over the long term, it causes problems with food particles getting stuck in the sandbed. Your best bet is to buy some fine calcium based sand from LFS (like J&L). It is expensive and a lot of work, but it will save you nitrate and algae headaches in the future. It should be as fine as domolite...the stuff you put on your lawn to lime it.

We are having a group meeting this month in Coquitlam and Surrey. Maybe you can bounce some of your questions to our local experts and see what they have to say.

- Victor.

[stephane]

all the above are right but I will add this

The best way to start on sand bed is
http://www.rshimek.com/reef/Default.htm

as for test kit a tank that size is very easy to maintain but you have to know that change occur realy rapidly in 10 gal.

I recomand to 10% water weekly to or 20% other week

the best alkalinity test I found is the seatest fast test 10$ and will last for years

Calcium test are IMO useless in your case 10% water change will replennish your calcium whith softy

The important ting is PH I recomend you a PH meter if you could affort it he could save you a lot of $ in the long run you will have a PH reading every day other than that you will end get borred do you test the first six month and after do it less and less frequently en ending with a crash. PH are the heart of your tank when PH get low you know it time to add buffer if buffer could not get the PH up buy there own you
have organique buildup and need to do maintenance
so IMO PH is the most important in your case.

All other amoniac, nitrite, nitrate ....... are
the last ting I will buy in your case do you maintenance regulary + keep your hand off will give you the best result + read and read and read .........

as far as light I tink it s goog but adding a good reflector will praticaly do like adding another PC ;)

[ 14 June 2002, 15:44: Message edited by: stephane ]

[Dorkel Marine 1]

:Hello and many thanks to reefburnaby and stephane of Quebec. Stephane your tank looks great and really enjoyed your photos. Thanks again you guys for your input. I'll take out the crushed coral and have already lined up some calcium based sand from J&L. Next question. Should I maybe add about 5 lbs of sand at a time and let it settle is that to fast. I would like to maybe take all livestock out and do it all at once. My concern though is that the water parameters might go a little wacky. But then its just plain sand. Appreciate remarks in advance.

[stephane]

The worst will not happen when you will put the sand in and you could do it at once. you will have a big cloud for a week but other than that evryting will go right

the ting to be VERY CAREFUL is not put out you crushed coral at once but slowly small part at time

about getting all out of the tank there no problem but it is alway better to dont play to much in the tank if you live roch are ther for a long run criptic zone have create and sponge and
other fauna take place under the rock and small cavern if you play whith the rock all those zone are change and then that good fauna
will slowly die and decompose im the tank so disturb the good balance in your tank

if you tank have less than 6 month dont worry notting realy have already settle so it will make
very small difference