I was wondering what was needed to make my salt water tank a reef tank?

Question

I have a salt water tank and I was wondering what lights where need and what else was need to make it able to have reefs I have just plain old aquarium lights?

Answer 1

It would help a little to know what size your tank was to be able to give you recommendations based on the size, but if it's a fairly low tank (up to a 30 gallon), you could probably get by with compact fluorescent or T-5 lighting. Anything deeper, or if you want to keep stony corals, you should consider a compact fluorescent-metal halide combo, or straight metal halides. Unless you're getting something with very specific needs, a 10,000K lamp, or a 10,000K with 03 actinics will give you the best quality lighting for corals and anemones.

I would also suggest a protein skimmer if you don't have one already, to help keep the nutrient level in the tank low.

Beyond these, what you'll need will depend mostly on your current conditions, and what you want to keep. If you're pH isn't up around 8.2-8.4, you will probably want to use some kalkwasser to bring it up. This also adds some calcium to the water, which will benefit any stony corals or clams/bivalves and snails. Some corals need added iodine, or other trace elements, but you will need to research these as you chose your inverts. If you do weekly partial water changes, a good salt mix will replenish most of the trace elements removed.

As long as you have some fish in the tank (reef safe), these will provide some food particles in the water for the filter feeding organisms.

If you only have a filter for moving water, you might want to add a powerhead or two to increase the water movement. This will help keep food particles in suspension for the filter feeders, but you may need to turn the skimmer and filter off for a while following feeding so it's not completely removed from the tank too quickly.

Answer 2

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