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Old 01-06-2016, 09:14 PM
Animal-Chin Animal-Chin is offline
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msjboy, you haven't done a water change in 3.5 years?





For the Fluval Sea 24 I'd guess the lights are totally fine for soft coral, that line of products by Fluval should support easy coral.

weekly waterchanges of 10% minimum but I'd recommend one 5 gallon jug a week though for your tank. Buy a blue 5 gallon water cooler jug from the grocery store. Use this to mix 5 gallons a week. When you have your first empty salt bucket, it holds about 5 gallons too so you can use that to remove the old. Great system and will only take you 10 minutes a week.

If you are leaving the house for more than a few days you're going to have to worry about evaporation. Your tank will loose a lot of water because it's about 26 degrees all the time. Keep fresh water on hand to top off. If you get tired of dealing with top offs you can get an auto top off for about $100 that will keep your tank topped off all the time. Most of us have one because we get tired of evaporation lol. Its a great investment. Lights can be on a timer. Most pet stores will sell light timers for about $14. Get one! And then a auto feeder. Most salt fish will eat flake or pellets while you're away. Some only eat frozen (like anthias) so this can be an issue.

If you don't want to automate, I hope you have a friend near by to come by every couple of days.

31 degrees will kill coral. I run fans in the summer but in Vancouver we don't have to worry much. If you can do a chiller then for sure. If not, a fan running over the surface usually knocks the tank down a degree or so.

Really at this point its about your budget. If you have a lot of funds available, you can have that tank so you don't have to touch it. If you don't want to drop an additional $1000 into your tank right now to not have to worry about all that stuff above then you just need a good maintenance plan.

An auto top off is my first recommendation, especially if your tank is open top.
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