newbie looking for a refrence site

[diastech]

hello all,

i am a bit of a newbie to the hobbie, but i have been addicted to it since i started. right now i have a 90 gallon reef ready tank with a couple of lps and some polyps. but i am looking through the pics of the BRS forums from members and i so amazed at all the diffrent colors. i was looking into getting some more color into my tank, but i wanted to do my research and see what goes good with what and lighting requirements. etc. i have enough light for lps only, i dont have any metal haylides and i dont plan on getting them at the moment.

can anyone share any real excellent web sites on the net where i can look up this information? i have been visitng liveaquaria.com, but there isnt really any big choice and it doesnt compare to the colors i see here.

also, i am very new to buying coral. i cant afford to keep going to the lfs to buy corals, but i was looking for some deals here to get started. any tips on how i can buy, swap corals on BRS site? like a primer or a reference post somewhere?

thanks in advanced for your help, suggestions.

 

[Bruno]

:w to BRS

There are many people out here with corals for sale I'm sure they will all chime in!!

 

[Cjtabares]

There is a BRS marketplace you can find some good deal there.

 

[diastech]

well i guess part of the problem is i dont know what i am looking for or whats being posted. i am very new to all this and most of the info i have gotton is from my LFS when i am shopping. so i see what i like and ask questions on it.

anyone know of any sites that are excellent references?

 

[diverbh4]

this site is a wealth of information as well as reefcentral.com. Just ask questions and they will get answered probably twenty times by the end of the day by BRS users.

 

[stingythingy45]

My advice would be to get a good book about corals.
There's even books on corals for the aquarium at Barnes and Noble.
You're going to want to know the difference between softies,LPS,SPS.Their needs, what's easy corals,expert corals...ect...ect.
Nothing like a good book or reference guide.

http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/productlistas.asp?cid=99&did=5

 

[s_kelley]

Ill second the recomendation for a good book. Just go to Barnes and Noble and grab a coffee pick up a few and start reading. If you find a good one, buy it!
If you have any questions about any types of coral just ask, theres a ton of us that were in your situation not too long ago, so ask away!!

 

[sciknen]

What kinda of lights do you have? Filtration? Best bet is to just shoot someone a pm to buy some corals. I trade alot because money is tight and i want new corals but can't afford them so i just trade.

 

[Cjtabares]

If you become a paid member, it's only $20 the price of a book, the club has a library that you can borrow books from.

 

[Joey]

IMO; You don't need Metal Halides to have hard corals in your tank But i will recommend at least T5 for a 90g i will go with 6x54w t5 setup or retro fit if you do have a canopy go with icecap 660 pre mounted retro fit its the best ballast for T5.But my friend has some orange caps on his tank with power compact and it looks good you just need to check your par reading. i have tried every light out there except LED setups and my fav is the T5 Pc Low par,MH Heat issues electric bill $$$$ And they dont cover as much as the T5,The T5 gives you The PAR readings you need low heat and electric efficient.Here some pictures from melevs tanks compare the PAR and you will see T5 is Better

 

[KSC]

You're comparing a 40g tank to a 280g tank.....So about 9 watts/gal. of t5 to about 3.4 watts/g of mh. The winner is.....

 

[JohnK]

FWIW the club has a library that will be at most meetings. Members are free to check out books, and we have quite a few of them.

I'm the librarian so if you make it to a meeting, find me and I can help you pick out a couple of good books for your needs.


Once you do have an idea what your looking for, one of the best ways to save $$ and get some cool stuff is to watch the for sale fourms in the week or two before a meeting. There are usually a lot of really good "frags" FS, and if you come to a frag swap (meeting) you can often get many frags at one time.
If you go that route, be sure to arrange your trades, in advance.

 

[smartfish]

This is a good sight to start reading i found it helpful.. www.wetwebmedia.com

 

[Joey]

You're comparing a 40g tank to a 280g tank.....So about 9 watts/gal. of t5 to about 3.4 watts/g of mh. The winner is.....

Where do you see a 40g tank ? Because for the size of the fishes in the images above you can clearly see that there is no 40g tank there those two tank are the same gallons.And its all about PAR evenly in the tank with MH u get more lights in spots,you will wast more money,And you will have heat issues

 

[KSC]

You're right, he's running 12x 36" bulbs. Your other comments are debatable...

 

[jamesdong009]

My advice would be to get a good book about corals.
There's even books on corals for the aquarium at Barnes and Noble.
You're going to want to know the difference between softies,LPS,SPS.Their needs, what's easy corals,expert corals...ect...ect.
Nothing like a good book or reference guide.

+1
Take your time and do some research. The search button is also a great feature

You're right, he's running 12x 36" bulbs.

The bulbs are overdriven though, which also causes excess heat and premature bulb life.

There are pros and cons to both T5's and MH's, but let's not make this into a T5 vs. MH thread. There are plenty of those around

 

[diastech]

thanks for all the info.

i think i am going to join BRS, for now. i just ordered a book on coral propergation that was real popular on amazon. once i read through that and get a little more familiar, i will ask to borrow some books and going to meetings. i dont want to go there totally green.

i was thinking of starting a small tank for frags to learn from. i wanted to use it for getting small frags and growing them for my display tank. if i got a 40 gallon breeder tank that would be used strickly for frags, what would i need for filtration? should i start a new thread on this?

 

[Blueflu1]

Yea, what exactly are your lights? MH you can have anyting. T5 you can have nearly everything. Power Compacts, your very limited. If we know your lights, we can help more.

I have a 90 too. I have 2 250 wat DE metal halides with 4 T5's. I did have a heat issue because my lights aren't far off the water. I raised them a bit and got a sweet deal on a chiller on here. No problems now. (Heat wise at least)

You can get great deals on here. Some are in the members marketplace though, so its good that your joining.

 

[diastech]

right now i have power compacts putting out a total of 260 watts and i have a 48 inch light strip with reg. florecent lights with 2 x 40 watt bulbs. its enough for now, but i was planning on upgrading in the spring to t5 lighting. the tank get very hot with the power compacts.

i have a small canopy for my tank so i was planning on making something custom fit when that time comes to upgrade my lighting.

 

[Joey]

right now i have power compacts putting out a total of 260 watts and i have a 48 inch light strip with reg. florecent lights with 2 x 40 watt bulbs. its enough for now, but i was planning on upgrading in the spring to t5 lighting. the tank get very hot with the power compacts.

i have a small canopy for my tank so i was planning on making something custom fit when that time comes to upgrade my lighting.

I will go with icecap 660 retrofit they even have it premounted that all you need to do is screw to your canopy "plug and play" and its not expensive