FEEDING MANDARIN DRAGONET

26 posts • Page 3 of 3

Discuss all topics related to saltwater / reef tanks.


gazzaruk
 
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:26 pm

by gazzaruk

Hi please can you explain in easy to understand ways for me to keep my psycodelic manderin from starving i have had him 2 weeks and i'm sure he's lost weight, my tank is a Juwel Rio 180 with just a internal box filter Live rocks and corels. I can hopefully buy some copenoids from ebay but how do i keep replenishing them? will they grow and breed in my tank? My manderin is only small approx 2cms long. Many thanks Marine newbie Gary


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

Gary, you really need to set up a refugium for the pods to live in in order to keep up with the manderin, unfortunately you probably should have gotten the refugium going about 3 months before the manderin arrived - -as Shigara has informed us, manderins eat pretty much the entire time they are awake, so you will have to by him pods until you can keep a steady established reproduction system going......good luck


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

Schigara & DH,

So if I'm understanding correctly i can run T-5's on my new tank {7 feet long 30inches deep}{26-28 inches to the sand} for "work" lights and then put a few {3-4} small MH pendants around the tank for shimmer affect and maybe even target lighting on a clam or nice coral - - -but basically letting the VHO's do most of the work? - - sound like a decent theory? i do like the idea of haveing multiple types of light to make everything look more natural

Boss


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

also, when figureing out penatration of said lighting - - -does a person just figure the water depth or do you have to take into consideration the height the light fixture is above the tanks as well - - - -I.E. 24 inches of water with the light 10 inches above the tank - - -is that 34inches or 24 inches in penatration??? - -i understand that a MH hanging on the cieling isn't going to be as productive as one hanging right above the water of course, lol

Boss


schigara
 
Posts: 468
Joined: Fri Mar 14, 2008 5:42 pm

by schigara

Boss,

In theory, yes. Your tank will most likely be just 18-22 front to back so that really limits the available area for lighting. Considering a T5HO needs it's own reflector to be effective and the average reflector is about 2.5-3 inches wide, this doesn't leave much room for more than 6 or 7 T5's or 2-3 T5's with enough room for Halides inbetween.

For the second question,

Penetration is directly proportional to the reflector used and it's height above the surface. Your average single ended bulb with spider reflector is most effective at around 7-12 inches above surface.

The newer Coralvue Lumenbright reflectors have been shown to be most effective at 12-18inches above surface..

With the shape of your tank, if you want shimmer, Halides will have to be the "power", with T5's for supplementation because of the physical space required for their reflectors and the path from the reflectors to the tank.

Also for argument sake, a halide 10 feet above water surface can be just as effective as one at 5 inches. It would just need a custom reflector to aim or channel it.


Snowboss4492
 
Posts: 2098
Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2008 11:24 pm

by Snowboss4492

understood, thanks for the breakdown

Boss

FEEDING MANDARIN DRAGONET

26 posts • Page 3 of 3

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