New readers questions on setting up the reef aquarium

I just got your book in the mail yesterday and have started reading it. I think it is going to be very helpful. Thanks!

I have a several questions regarding my tank.

1.) I recently purchased a used 100 gallon tank. It has been setup for close to a year and been professionally maintained. It has a mix of corals, inverts and fish. It only appears to have about 70-100 lbs of live rock and I want to add more. My local store has some Marshal Island rock that they claim is cured. How would you recommend adding it so I don't crash my tank? I am looking at adding 50-75 lbs.

Well... if you have fish, inverts, corals its going to be a problem. You don't want to add rock even though its cured in the store. When you transport the rock from the store, there will be enough die off to cause a significant cycle which Im sure your existing livestock will have difficulty adjusting to.

You have a couple of options

1 purchase all the rock at once and cure/cycle it at home in either a separate tank or even a new garbage can. It will take about 2-3 weeks to cycle.
2 Purchase smaller amounts something like 10-15 lbs at a time. Your tank should be able to handle that.
3 They have been using tap water since it was setup. If I switch to purified water, how long would you think it will take to overcome the problems associated with tap water?

Are there problems? If you have algae problems, using purified tap water, kalkwasser and new lighting should straighten any previous problems in about 2 months. Of course this depends on how aggressive you plan to be with initial water changes. agressive= initially do 60% every 2 weeks for 2 months, this is using a high quality salt like instant ocean or reef crystals, and being sure to replace *all* evaporation with kalkwasser. If you don't have significant problems, just follow the recommendations of regular maintenance in SRK

3.) It currently has 4 VHO lights 3 on an Ice Cap Ballast and one for dusk lighting on a tar ballast. Two are white and 2 Blue actinic. It came with another Ice Cap ballast and I have room for 2 more lights. What would you suggest for lamps in these? There were several corals that were receding due to not enough light. (according to the guy who has been maintaining it) They have been moved to one of his tanks with mh lighting temporarily to recover.

Sure, if you have the room. I would think another 2 actinic white would be the way to go. The ideal situation would be 2 VHO 5500K white 2 VHO daylight & 2 of the actinic blue.

The only thing I suggest is to consider the long term costs of replacing the lamps and their operation. You don't want the future to be dictated by a couple of existing corals, unless of course you'd rather go with a higher intensity lighting. I just have to warn you.. its going to be expensive in the long run

you will have 6 110 watts = 660 watts / 100 = 6.6 WPG which is certainly not unheard of on the other hand... 440 / 100 = 4.4 which is more in the range of my recommendation and will save you at least $150 per year maybe more depending on your electricity costs and how long you have the lamps run daily.

Im glad you find the book useful. If you have any other questions just send them along. Also, if you take some pictures of your tank I'd be happy to put up a few pages of your tank on my website.

Best regards and good luck

Robert