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Unread 10/08/2012, 03:54 PM   #4
coralsnaked
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Austin / Port Aransas, TX
Posts: 1,479
I would suggest before we can give informed advice we ask what are your tank parametetrs IE size, type of equipment water quality ect... and then what do you want to put into your tank IE what type of corals do you want. Then we can give prudent advice on when if ever your set up can handle what you want. Here are a few and i mean very few guidelines to point you in a direction of sorts.
Lighting means lumens and Lum = total watts divided by total gallons of tank not sump

Soft Coral = 2 + Lumens
LPS = 3+ Lumens
SPS = 4+ Lumens

Circulation means total gallons per hour to include filtration and powerheads
Soft Coral = 10 X total tank gal
LPS = 20 X total tank gal
SPS = 30 X total tank gal

Water quality means Sa = 1.024-1.027, Am = 0 Nitrates = 0 Phos ,.02 and other factors...
Soft Coral is most forgiving Nitrates <20
LPS not so much needs lower Nitrates < 3 ppm and higher Alk = 10, Ca = 450
SPS needs excelelnt stable water quality of an established tank Nitrates = 0

This may lead you to the next step of what you can have versus what you want and we can go from there...

Happy Reefing


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