Second & Third questions regarding my previous thread.  I think I have finalized my species listings and have decided to do the Gulf of Mexico Patch Reef biotope theme over the Caribbean theme.  The tank is 90AGA with ~30g sump.

My Species List: Large Sea Mat (Palythoa grandis), Knoby Gorgonia (Eunicea sp.), Christmas Tree Worms (Spirobranchus giganteus), Porites* (Porites sp.), Assorted Gulf Sponge, Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni - clan of 4-6), Pistol Shrimp (Synalpheus brevicarpus - mated pair if possible), Astrea Snails, Scarlet Reef Hermits (Paguristes sp.), Orange Marked Blue Hermits (Calcinus sp.),  Emeral Crab (Mithrax sp. - experimental as others have had problems), Cherub Angel (Centropyge argi - mated pair), Peppermint Bass (Liopropoma rubre), Blue Chromis (Chromis cyanea - shoal of 3), Beau Gregory Damsel (Stegastes leucostictus), Horned/Seaweed Bleny (Parablennius sp. - Ophioblennius atlanticus may substitute), Neon Goby (Gobiosoma oceanops).

The species list was put together from Natural Reef Aquarium (J.Tullock) as well as research from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sactuary.

*will substitute with Indo-Pacific species with similar growth & color

Lighting I see mixed references to lighting requirements to what I want to keep.  Some are low light and others are high light but all are recommended as compatible within the same tank.  My original plan was to use VHO however this will not be accomidated with the canopy that I am using .  The canopy has a center brace at the top and AGA highly recommended not to remove it.  This leaves me no choice but to use MH pendants . 

So my Lighting Plan B is to use two single lamp 250W DE-HQI pendants (Ice Cap) and supplement with Actinic VHO (installed at the back 6" behind the door and brace).  I will cut two square holes for the pendant to sit in such that the bottom of the pendant is level with the bottom of the top of the tank.  I will have hooks on the pendants so that I can raise (turn off first) them to open the door.

Lighting Question:

Will this light be too bright for the christmas worm rock.  The gorgonia and porites should love it and the polyps should be indifferent.  Will shading the work rock under overhangs and caves be adequate or will I need to dim the lights some.  If the 2-250W is ok, what color temp would you recommend with VHO actinic supplement (ok, I realize this is subjective but thought I would sneak it in).

Skimmer Question: As we discussed before, some of my inhabitants will require heavy feeding (phyto and zoo).  A heavy skimmer goes with out saying.  Currently looking at the Euro-reef 5-3 (90 gallon rated).  Euro-reefs have quite a rep of being underrated, will this be enough or do I need to go higher.  Next step up is $100.00

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A Side Note:  Anthony, I missed the September edition of RK magazine and did not see your note: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-09A/index.php

Thanks for your message as it is very encouraging.  While I am not one of the 'poor-folk' we all see on tv and I did not loose my house, I have been working in Mississippi since almost the day Katrina hit and have not been with my family in New Orleans since the week after the storm.  While I do get to drive home on holidays and some weekends, most of my time is spent on condominium insurance and repair issues (over $100k in damage, most not insurable) or gutting my family members houses for either a rebuild or a tear-down.  The parts of town that are the worst are in fact also the poorest and its sadening it had to be that way, but around here, high ground is $$$.  I live in a low area, I just did not have a levee break in my part.

Not all areas destroyed were poor and black - but most of the residents in the other communities will be able to rebuild or relocate; the distruption to their lives is not going to be any greater than most typical disaster seen in this country any other week or month.  But they will have direction or a plan (or multiple plans).

Living in a part of town that is mixed white, black & hispanic and mixed income of low-mid-almost high, I see a neighborhood that could be a model for future development.  I am within walking distance to (2) elementary schools, a playground, a grocery store, (3) haircust places, about twenty places to eat - spread across all price ranges, a bus route, LFS (see this is aquarium related ) and lot more...yet I still drive .  And even with the mix in income, race and religion, no gun fights in the street, perfecly safe to go jogging at night.  Our crime is no greater than that of anyother middle class monotonous demographic community.

What you said about poverty could not be any truer, my fiance is from Peru, and not even Lima at than but a town of Chiclayo, just like a scene out of the move 'The Mexican' - great movie btw.  I grew up with just my dad and two brothers, my dad having only a HS degree and selling auto parts.  Our favorite show was Married with Children cause it was pretty true to our life (without a mom though ) and pretty dam funny.  Our living conditions didn't come close to Angie's family.  We have appreciation for poverty.

What everyone saw in New Orleans can be fixed, but it would take the nation to do so as the city and the state were poor before the huricane, not there just flat out broke.  Unfortunatly not enough of this country has a true appreciation to be willing to make the drastic sacrifices needed to raise the poverty level...but that ok because globilzation will enlighten us.

Sorry for the sidetrack.  Please make recomendations on the aquarium.  While the post is primarly for the lighting and skimming recommendations, feel free to comment on the tank stocking.

Chris

The VHO is truly not needed IMO unless you simply want to have a dusk/dawn effect. Else save the money/electricty. Any MH lamp you buy (including 6500K) will have enough or even too much blue spectrum (at the expense of daylight). No worries.

Seek a 10k K bulb ideally... or if you want more blue, then a 12 or 14k K lamps.

Skimmer choice is quite fine here too... really because a skimmer size has only to do with bioload and not tank size (the skimmer has no idea how big the tank is its hanging on IN my RC skimmer production thread I address the issue of skimmer ratings rather early in the thread pages).

And thank you for your personal insight and comments on the Gulf region situation, my friend.

kindly, Anth-

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Anthony Calfo

The two together will give you slightly more than 30X turnover (sps tanks take 40-60X turnover for perspective)

You don't need the ocntrtollable ones IMO... just the cheaper ones and run the full time opposing each other for random flow patterns.

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Anthony Calfo

You are correct about their aggression.  They get mixed reviews across all the boards, some swear against them, others have them without problem.

What I like about damsels in general is the way they 'show' their attitude, IME (limited) its the only fish that you can always count on being on patrol.  Unfortuantley, there are not any reef compatable wrasse to fit this biotope as they would be similar.  The tank is a foot too small for the atlantic tang IMO.

That leaves me with a choice of the Beau Gregory, Jewel and Sergent Major.  The jewel browns out with age and can get upwards of 8"   Its a toss up between the Beau Gregory and Sergent Major.

Nonetheless, this would be the last fish to be stocked and if I get to this point and am happy with it, then I will skip it.

I am open to other recommendations however it must conform to my gulf biotope plan, be reef & invert safe and play nice with dwarf angel, basslet, chromis and blenny.

Also, if anyone is aware of any Gulf corals that are aquacultured, please help a fellow reefer as I would like to include 1 or 2 more species.  I would like to bring the coral species to about 5; I currently have 1 polyp, 1-2 gorgonia and 1 SPS.  To my knowledge, there are no mushrooms or LPS native in the Gulf.  The area is known for its brain corals and they are illegal to collect but are legal if farmed or aquacultured.

Chris

As for cnidarians, all hard corals are off limits unless they come in attached to aquacultured rock.  But, Ricordea are ok.

As far as the basslets, I want to have the peppermint basslet.  An additional basslet such as a gramma may not play nice, plus the gramma's are lower caribbean where as the basslet is Gulf of Mexico.

The gulf coral dilmma makes this interesting.  The ricordea may or not be fitting to this biotope depending on where you look.  I may or may not add it as I will wait for to see how the polyps and gorgonia fill out the tank.  While the SPS collection ban is in place, I have (on very rare occasion) crossed gulf/caribbean species aquicultured for sale at some of the RC sponsors, that is legal and comes with a higher $$$.  If all else fails, I will use some Pacific closed brain coral and approximate the gulf corals as I plan to do with the porites.

Also, once the water clears up and gulf rock collection continues, I will contact the aquiculture rock guys and see what corals they have on their rocks.  If any are of interest, I will pick those up.  Just dont want to fill the tank up with aquacultured quarry rock.  But then with the Red Tide event last year, it may be a while before there are any significant coral presence on their rocks.

Chris

Do a keyword search of the common name over at wetwebmedia.com and see the overview for husbandry. Then take the genus over to fishbase.org and review the list of species/pics. The pics really don't do them justice either. Truly a fab fishy group.

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Anthony Calfo