# the lights for our new fishtank



## roafamily (Jul 30, 2012)

good morning to all
me and the capitan got a 30 gallon salt water tank and have a few questions:
1. we bought the tank from another guy who already had it up and running for a few years. he drained it fri and we got it sat and we made our saltwater came out good after the fish store tested it. will the water clear up? do we want it clear?
2. we got some rocks with anemones, we were told to get lighting so we got a blue light and white light which i think are t5s. do the lights have to be on 24 hours a day?
3. do we need to get a filter if we already have a built in sump
below is a pic of our setup


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Ok:
You need at least 1lb of Live Rock per gallon of water, this will help clear the tank also. THe T-5's are ok. A 4 lamp unit would have been better suited for corals though. You might want to look into getting a Protein Skimmer, as this will remove organics from the water column before they become an issues with water quality. Next is water movement, you will want powerheads in there to move 15-20x your water volume, being as you are going to keep corals. Then again, I see yoiu either have a sump or a external pump by the look of the return lines on the right.
The water will clear up, it will take some time.


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## roafamily (Jul 30, 2012)

thanks for the reply 1lb of rock per water thanks so i need to get some more rock can i add that now or shall i wait?


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## JohnniGade (Dec 22, 2011)

roafamily said:


> thanks for the reply 1lb of rock per water thanks so i need to get some more rock can i add that now or shall i wait?


Their might be differnet opinions, but since you its already new you might as well just get it in there. Cant mess up much I think, because its already quite unstable


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## Reefing Madness (Aug 12, 2011)

Yes. You can just throw it in there. Its not going to mess up the cycle at ths point. But will help considerably.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Lighting typically is run 12hrs, THis depends on ability to have nite ,dawn ,day ,dusk phases.{4 seperate lights on different timers}. I've been told daylight does not a lot vary where most our stuff comes from ,but I like to add alittle seasons to my tanks and keep lights on alittle longer in summer and shorten them up a little in winter. Maybe just trying to optimize veiwing during longer days and not be blinded in the winter(can't believe it will get dark at 5:00 pm again this Dec) Your filter apears to be built in on back with surface extraction (nice). Invest in your own test kits and come to understand your "target" values.A little curious about water you used to make your mix.


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