saltwater tank

Question
Is it good to add distilled water when saltwater evaporates?
what type of light will i need for mushroom corals in my 10
gallon fish tank i know its harder to have a 10 gallon reef
tank


Answer
Hi, for mushrooms you need at least 4, but preferably 7, watts per gallon, so you might consider 2 24 watt compact fluorescent lights.  I would make sure they are 10,000K and actinic 420nm.

To achieve a watt/per gallon ratio for your tank, you'd multiply say 5 watts by ten gallons.  That makes 50watts per gallon.  You would want either a T5HO unit with 2 bulbs or 3 bulbs equalling to or greater than 50watts total, or you would want a compact fluorescent light equalling or greater than 50watts, but make sure, please, to get the proper spectrum of saltwater light.

No to distilled water.  

Distilled vs. Filtered/Reverse Osmosis water -

Distilled water is water that has been evaporated and then condensed back into a new unit.  Some of the bad minerals and metals are still present.

Reverse Osmosis Water (your best water) can be purchased at almost any grocery store by bringing your own blue fill bottle.  I buy 5 gallons for a dollar at our store.  It's super filtered and all metals and trace metals are removed.  This is preferable.

If you can't get the R/O water, please, at least buy Distilled/filtered.  That means it's not only distilled, but they filtered out the metals as well.

I hope this helps.  Happy holidays and happy fish-keeping.
Renee