Wild collection ideas

[Ilawis]

Thank-you for the heads up/warning
As I mentioned this is my first marine tank however it's not my first tank
I use to have a fish room with 36 tanks in with a large variety of fresh water fish
The lighting is not a problem I'm a electrician by trade so getting the right lights for a good price won't be a problem
The tank and sump won't be a issue either as they won't be the first tanks I've made
The way I'm figuring it is the bigger tank you have the more stable the water chemistry
Thank-you for the rundown on the fragging the corals but i still won't do it unless I've seen how it's done because I don't want to risk any of them dieing not would I want to harm any of the natural reefs
Tho that is part of why I'm asking it's not the entire reason it's too get a feel for the community about a growing reef and the ways that we can increase our stock without damaging the natural environment
of course for my own tank I would want to know what I'm putting in there and how it interacts with what else I have in there otherwise it would be careless of me and demential to my overall plan for the tank

 

[fishfanatic80]

Look on YouTube how to frag corals.. There's dozens of videos to show you how to do it. Your right a large tank will have more stable conditions but regardless it's more money in salt and maintainence. It's good you can save money on lighting by diy but make sure you have the right spectrums and intensity for corals. The lighting is the most important part in any reef tank if you don't have the proper lighting the tank won't succeed. I've been reefing for quite awhile now just giving you some heads up. Fragging is the only way and most practical way to propagate corals that's why it's done all over the world with much success. But I also highly doubt that wildlife fish and game will okay you taking out anything in the ocean without permits I'll be following the thread to see if they allow for it

 

[Ilawis]

Awesome thanks for the information
In your option what parts of the spectrum would give the most success some people I've spoken to say led won't give a high enough spectrum into the red or blues so they use led for lighting it up and helogen for the spectrum tho I have seen people setting up with led only setups?
Also is it blacklight the gets those amazing glowing colors on the corals?

 

[fishfanatic80]

Deep blue actinic lights give the corals that glowing color, me personally I'm over that look, not a huge fan of it when the lights are really deep blues. I do like a little blue with my white light to make it a nice crisp sunny day look. Kessils have no red light spectrum in them, I heard that was more for plants then corals. But they have high blues and white, the intensity is very strong only keeping them at 100% for two hours in the day. LEDs have come a long way in the hobby most people here exclusively use leds with few still using t5s and metal hallides. LEDs give off less heat then hallides and last longer also more cost efficient.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

There is a aquarium that sexually breeds corals, I forgot the name but it's in Australia and the aquarium uses natural sunlight, I think there was a article about it in national geographic magazine a few years ago.

 

[Ilawis]

Yea I've been thinking I'd use led for most of the time metal halide for a few hours a day just for the spectrum and was wanting something to make them "pop" like the blacklight on special occasions

That's really cool about the sexuslly breeding corals I might have to look into it