[RockynGran]

Newbees need help...

My husband and I have a new tank that finished the cycling about a week ago. It is a Oceanic 33 Cube. We bought a Coralife Aqualite yesterday. It is the one that hangs...

First question is... How far above the tank should we hang the light?

It came with a 10,000k bulb and it was recommended that we use a Actinic 15w bulb in our hood to try to get the whole dusk/dawn thing.

Second question is... Should we get the 14,000k bulb for the Aqualite instead?

Third question is... How long should we leave each of them on?

We had 6 Damsels and returned them yesterday.

We have 2 Clowns (Love em) and a Purple fire fish. We also got a Sleeper Goby but he died overnight. We have a purple tipped anenome. We have about 6 pieces of live rock that have many things growing...

Please help us so that we do this thing right.

[ginger7286]

I am new at this too, but I'll give some information I think I have retained. If the tank only finished cycling last week, you have overstocked the tank if the Goby died. Chromis are a good fish to start with, hardy and tolarant. I would not replace the 10,000K with a 14,000K get the Actinic, it helps simulate the natural lighting on a reef. Going with a higher watt bulb in a 33 gallon tank may cause more heat. Water should be between 75 and 80 degrees. I keep mine at 77. I would hang the bulb just above the top of the tank. Leave the lights on for a about 12 hours, again natural simulation. Turn on the aqualight first, a couple hours later turn on the Actinic. If you can invest in some lunar bulbs for natural moon light. 2-3 hours of total darkness helps the creatures that are nocturnal. You may not think you have any, but when the lights go out they come out and feed. Hope this hepls.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

14,000k is far enough into the blue spectrum that it generally does not need any more actinic light. 10,000k lite is pretty close to white and does need some blue. What wattage is your light?

[RockynGran]

It is 150 w.

[RockynGran]

Ginger,
We used Damsels when we cycled the tank and returned them before adding any fish. We have 1 anenome, 2 baby clowns, 1 fire fish (small) and we had the Goby. Everyone else is doing great. We have some mushrooms growing on the rock and they are doing good. I thought that from what we have heard that wouldn't be overstocked... But... being a raw rookie I suppose we could be wrong.

We are in San Jose, CA and the temperatures just this week have ranged from 55 to 90. The tank was on the low end 75 until the heat wave hit and now it will get up to 82 during the hottest part of the day. It drops right back to 77-78 when it cools down. Will this be OK?

[kwilliamskw]

Be careful with the temperature fluctuation. You want to keep it around 2 to 3 degrees per day, max. I had a huge scare about a month ago. We're in NC and we experienced the same weather, except it went from 50 low to 28 low in the matter of days. My wife and I went to the beach for a long weekend and I left my father in charge of watching after my tank. While I was gone, my heater went out and the heat in our house was cut off. When we got home, my tomato clown was swimming upside down. The temp on my tank was 60 degrees, where normally it stays at 78. Luckilly my clown and all my other fish except for a juvi.. naso tang survived. Now I have a backup heater. Make sure you have a good heater or two which are thermostatically controlled. And if you have a canopy on your tank, monitor your temperature carefully to make sure your light isn't generating too much heat. If it is, you may consider installing a few small fans in your canopy that will run during the day, then your heaters' thermostats should kick in at night to keep your temp. pretty close to the same at all times. But good luck and enjoy your tank!!!