SeaFish Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 i have a 12 gallon flat back hex tank, with a built in overflow and wet and dry filter. the current power head that is in my tank is a 145gph penguin 550. This power head pumps water back into the tank from the wet and dry filter. i have about 20lb of live sand and about 15lb of live rock. i keep the temperature at about 84 degrees F. currently i have two cleaner shrimps, 2 hermits, one blood shrimp, and one pistol shrimp. I also have a clarki clown, small watchman goby that has bonded with the pistol shrimp. My lighting system is two retrofits from custom sea life. Each of the retro fit has a 50/50 light and each puts out 32 watt for a total wattage of 64 watts. Currectly there are no corals in my tank. Curently i do a water change every week and about 2 gallons each time. the tank has been running for about 6 months now. all readings are within normal. My question is, do i need another power head? If so how many more and what rate should it be pumping the water per hour? should i add some more live rock? Should i add some more live sand? Is the lighting system enough for any kind of corals? if not what kind of corals can i keep in his tank with this lighting system? Do i need another filter for this tank? if i need another one, what kind do you recommend? How often should i change the water in this tank? and how much water since this is a 12 gallon tank? Do i need a skimmer? I need some clean up crew that will eat left overs thats not eaten and need something that will eat algae of any sort. What do you recommend that i get? Well, if anyone have anything that they can suggest weather if its good or bad i would like to know and hopefully correct before its too late. please share opinions freely. thank you all in advance/ Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted October 6, 2002 Share Posted October 6, 2002 you worry to much.. Ask Printerdown. LOL he takes care of my light work HAHAH:P Link to comment
SeaFish Posted October 6, 2002 Author Share Posted October 6, 2002 i do agree i worry too much =). i just dont want my whole tank to go wrong and die on me. so if there is anyone with soem good advice or some good insights, please share them with me. thank you all in advance Link to comment
Brianc_4 Posted October 7, 2002 Share Posted October 7, 2002 you do worry too much, but here we go, 1) you may want to add another powerhead to provide counter current, get one with an adjustable flow rate if you are worried about blasting your tank. 2) 15lbs live rock for a 12 gal should be fine, at this point is more aesthetics than filtration needs. So, do what you want with this one, just be careful adding new live rock to an already established tank. 3) In regards to the live sand, again this is up to you. Some people run no sand, some run with a couple of inches, and others will have a deep sand band (at leats 4"). Nothing is a standrad rule here. You will find advocates and enemys o all three of these methods, I perefer a DSB. 4) I don't know the height of your tank, but in general, over 5W/gal should be good enough for just about anything except SPS.(I am assuming these are PC) 5) I don't think you need another filter. 6)10% water change is what I do once a week. .7)do I need a skimmer?? NEED, probably not. This is a topic that a lot of people will debate. I personally run one on my 20, but no many others on this board without one who have had great success. 9)Clean up crew...Diversity is the key. They all have slightly different tastes. Be weary of crabs(with the exception of red and blue hermits). I would reccomend astrea,cerith,nassau,queen conchs..and any other snails or conchs you can find) just beware that the conchs may grow large10) Well. I've given you some short answers to some long questions. I would recommend doing a search on this board on "sand bed", "live rock", "filtration","lighting", "water change", "skimmer", and so forth. I guarantee you will foind thousands of posts that will provide you with days of reading and a bunch of good info. Good luck, Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted October 7, 2002 Share Posted October 7, 2002 LOL, ummm well I was really excited to find this post as I though that my earlier post was on here for sure!! ...see my post in the beginers forum for explination of this random and confusing reply... I sware that I responded to this question and my reply vanished! LOL, did you post 3 of these by chance??? -i'm hoping the answer is YES! ... .... Link to comment
SeaFish Posted October 7, 2002 Author Share Posted October 7, 2002 thank you all for ur help...yes i accidently post three times. i was still getting use to the system. sorry about that. =) Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted October 7, 2002 Share Posted October 7, 2002 THANK GOD!! AND THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME!! I THOUGHT FOR SURE THAT I HAD GONE NUTS!! lol... When I found the second one i was sooo happy, only to find that my reply wasn't there earlier!! YAAAAY!!! Whooo! I don't think I have ever been so happy to hear of a repeat post on this site!! I was really scared there for a sec!! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.