New to the hobby with a 220

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

hello all,

I recently got into the hobby about 2 months ago. A close friend of mine had this tank with a ton of sps/lps/fish. He went on vacation for a few days and his pump failed. Pretty much lost everything besides a few Duncan’s, candy canes, leathers, lobo, rock flower and 2 clowns. he had let the tank sit around for a few months with little care. When I got the tank from him it was FULL of algae. Anyways, we broke down the tank emptied it all out, moved it to my house and set everything back up. Since then, I’ve gotten protein skimmer, sump/fuge, pump, fish, lights etc. my water parameters are pretty stable now and have been for a few weeks. I’ve only done one water change so far (1 month mark) and I’m coming up on the second one. I’m sure I will be pretty active on r2r as this build goes! I’ve researched so much about this but man is there a lot of information to take in.
On another note. My yellow tangs are ALWAYS fighting each other. They’ve been at it for about 1 month now and the more aggressive one has killed my kole tang and my blonde Naso. I’m in south Florida. Anybody looking for a yellow tang!!?? $15 he’s yours. Just give me time to catch him.
Ph 8.2
Ammonia <0.25
Nitrate/nitrite 0
Phosphate 0
Dkh 9
Calcium 460
Salinity 1.025-27
Temps 78-79

Ron Reefman · Dec 28, 2018

Welcome to R2R and the hobby! What a way to start into the hobby... with a 220g tank! Ask questions as the people here are very friendly, well, 99.9% of the time.

BTW, I'm in SW Florida and I pass by your way 4 to 6 times a year when we go snorkeling in the Keys!

I'm a bit surprised by the yellow tang behavior. You could probably trade it in at an LFS for credit or coral. And there are several clubs in the S Florida area where you might find a reefer to trade with.

Good luck.

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

Thanks Ron! I’m always out in the keys fishing! I’m not worried about the unfriendly people lol. The yellow tangs are crazy lol. I want to take one out in the near future and add another blonde Naso and a purple tang! I’m looking to go sps dominant!

On another note, I’m a little unsure about my lights. I know I’ll get bashed for having MarsAqua lights and that’s fine. If anybody has a problem with my lights they can feel free to buy me the more expensive ones lol. I had to dish out to much to get the setup put together. I’m waiting on my reactor and rodi to come in! Next is chaeto and pods. I’ve noticed a ton of pods already in the dt in the early morning. But my question is, does anybody have any idea what the par readings on mars aqua are? Since I’m new I have no idea if my coral needs more light or less light. The leathers seems to like the lights at 100% blue and white. The tank did have metal halides prior 2 250w Radions. My Duncan’s tunes have turned light brown from green in some areas. Idk why.. any clue?

SPR1968 · Dec 28, 2018

Great pictures and tank, thanks for sharing all of them with us

And welcome to R2R!

DSC reef · Dec 28, 2018

Awesome tank!

#WelcometoR2R

Lovemyreef2015 · Dec 28, 2018

Ron Reefman · Dec 28, 2018

Jaam said:
Thanks Ron! I’m always out in the keys fishing! I’m not worried about the unfriendly people lol. The yellow tangs are crazy lol. I want to take one out in the near future and add another blonde Naso and a purple tang! I’m looking to go sps dominant!

On another note, I’m a little unsure about my lights. I know I’ll get bashed for having Mars Aqua lights and that’s fine. If anybody has a problem with my lights they can feel free to buy me the more expensive ones lol. I had to dish out to much to get the setup put together. I’m waiting on my reactor and rodi to come in! Next is chaeto and pods. I’ve noticed a ton of pods already in the dt in the early morning. But my question is, does anybody have any idea what the par readings on mars aqua are? Since I’m new I have no idea if my coral needs more light or less light. The leathers seems to like the lights at 100% blue and white. The tank did have metal halides prior 2 250w Radions. My Duncan’s tunes have turned light brown from green in some areas. Idk why.. any clue?

Don't be intimidated by anybody who runs down Mars Aqua fixtures! They are reasonably well made, they are the least expensive of the better 3 watt led fixtures and they can grow healthy coral just a well as a pair of Eco Tech Radion leds at $750 each. The Mars Aqua fixtures may lack some of the controlability (more than 2 channels and sunrise/sunset) but your corals and fish really don't care! That's a human preference.

If your 220g is 24" deep you can probably run them at 100% if the corals are down low in the tank. More likely you should run them at something like 40 to 60% white and 80 to 100% blue. This is a bit higher than I would recommend for other 3 watt fixtures because Mars Aqua runs the leds at 1.85 watts and all the others are at 2.2 watts, so they are a bit more intense. If the tank is 30" deep, then 100% is probably OK. The PAR for the Mars Aqua is based on my best guess. I used to have a variety of other Chinese Black Box leds run at 2.2 watts and in 24" of water at 100% on both channels you are in the 75 to 150 PAR. But that's just a guess.

IMHO corals are pretty adaptive to light if you give them time to acclimate. I think the general consensus would be zoas and soft corals need less (100 to 200 PAR is plenty), lps a bit more but they are quite adaptable, and sps the highest (200 to 300+ PAR).

The duncan may want more light (WAG- Wild butt Guess). And it can take time for the zooxanthellae inside the coral to feed it enough (photosynthesis) to color back up. My duncan is only 6" to 8" deep in the tank and gets about a 200 to 250 PAR during the midday.

BTW, great looking start to the tank. When that thing gets lots of coral growing it should be awesome!

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

Thanks for the welcomes everybody!

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

Ron Reefman said:
Don't be intimidated by anybody who runs down Mars Aqua fixtures! They are reasonably well made, they are the least expensive of the better 3 watt led fixtures and they can grow healthy coral just a well as a pair of Eco Tech Radion leds at $750 each. The Mars Aqua fixtures may lack some of the controlability (more than 2 channels and sunrise/sunset) but your corals and fish really don't care! That's a human preference.

If your 220g is 24" deep you can probably run them at 100% if the corals are down low in the tank. More likely you should run them at something like 40 to 60% white and 80 to 100% blue. This is a bit higher than I would recommend for other 3 watt fixtures because Mars Aqua runs the leds at 1.85 watts and all the others are at 2.2 watts, so they are a bit more intense. If the tank is 30" deep, then 100% is probably OK. The PAR for the Mars Aqua is based on my best guess. I used to have a variety of other Chinese Black Box leds run at 2.2 watts and in 24" of water at 100% on both channels you are in the 75 to 150 PAR. But that's just a guess.

IMHO corals are pretty adaptive to light if you give them time to acclimate. I think the general consensus would be zoas and soft corals need less (100 to 200 PAR is plenty), lps a bit more but they are quite adaptable, and sps the highest (200 to 300+ PAR).

The duncan may want more light (WAG- Wild *** Guess). And it can take time for the zooxanthellae inside the coral to feed it enough (photosynthesis) to color back up. My duncan is only 6" to 8" deep in the tank and gets about a 200 to 250 PAR during the midday.

BTW, great looking start to the tank. When that thing gets lots of coral growing it should be awesome!

Thank you sir! The tank is 30 deep! They seem to be ok. My buddy I got the tank from wants to change the lenses out to 90 degree. I will eventually get nicer ones but these will do in the meantime. As far as ramping, I control it

Ron Reefman · Dec 28, 2018

IMHO, don't bother with the lenses, they really don't make much difference. I used to work for a company that sold led fixtures for aquariums and they supplied me with a set of 90 degree lenses and I tested the difference (yes, I have a PAR meter). I don't remember the specific difference, but the company decided not to even offer 90 degree lenses as the difference was negligible. Just start saving for better fixtures and watch for good used ones to go up for sale. If you don't want 6 channels (for fussy color control enthusiasts... like me) or sunrise/sunset (again for human enjoyment) then good quality Black Box leds aren't very expensive. You could even get a couple of them that look almost like yours and run all 4. Turn them all 90 degrees so they run front to back. That should be enough light for any coral and better light at the front of the tank than any high end fixture could do hanging in the middle of the tank!

saltyhog · Dec 28, 2018

Welcome to R2R! I agree with Ron. Even though I have relatively high end lights (AI Hydra 52HD) there is no denying that the black box lights can and will grow coral well. The depth of your tank is a little more of a challenge but completely doable.

Excellent job with your research so far. Don't be bashful about questions. I see you like tangs, we have some excellent tang experts here to help with any compatibility issues. Unfortunately they are all individuals and it's always possible to get behavior outside the norm!

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

Thank you salty hog! My biggest issue is that I don’t know if the light is sufficient for my tank or not. I do like tangs. I also like schooling fish. I had two female anthias but they died out of nowhere. I’m letting the tank settle a little more. My buddy says he’s going to flip the bed soon for me. Whatever that means lol. I may lower the canopy a few inches. Who knows. I’m going to have to start pan handling on the side of the highway to keep up with this

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

This was the tank 45 days ago

Geebs19 · Dec 28, 2018

WElcome to R2R!!

saltyhog · Dec 28, 2018

Jaam said:
This was the tank 45 days ago

To quote a very old commercial, "you've come a long way baby!"

I assume your friend means he is going to stir the sand bed. Is this the same sand that was in the tank when you got it? If so, it's not a deep sand bed so it shouldn't be any problem since it's already been disturbed recently. If it were me I would vacuum the sand bed with water changes for a while to remove detritus. I use one of these. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pro-clean-gravel-wash-with-squeeze-starter-python.html

Some prefer stirring the bed, and I will go back to that when mine is in a little better shape. I use one of these to stir the sand bed. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/eheim-plant-tongs.html Or you could just use a turkey baster to stir the sand, turning your flow as high as possible to keep the "junk" in suspension to be eliminated by your filter socks.

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

saltyhog said:
To quote a very old commercial, "you've come a long way baby!"

I assume your friend means he is going to stir the sand bed. Is this the same sand that was in the tank when you got it? If so, it's not a deep sand bed so it shouldn't be any problem since it's already been disturbed recently. If it were me I would vacuum the sand bed with water changes for a while to remove detritus. I use one of these. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/pro-clean-gravel-wash-with-squeeze-starter-python.html

Some prefer stirring the bed, and I will go back to that when mine is in a little better shape. I use one of these to stir the sand bed. https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/eheim-plant-tongs.html Or you could just use a turkey baster to stir the sand, turning your flow as high as possible to keep the "junk" in suspension to be eliminated by your filter socks.

There’s about 3-4 in of sand. The stand covers about 2 in. That is the original sand that was in the tank. I’ll look into those items! Thanks a bunch brother!

reef lover · Dec 28, 2018

Welcome to r2r !!

Jaam · Dec 28, 2018

reef lover said:
Welcome to r2r !!

Thanks!

hdsoftail1065 · Dec 28, 2018

Welcome to R2R!!!

Ron Reefman · Dec 29, 2018

Jaam said:
Thank you salty hog! My biggest issue is that I don’t know if the light is sufficient for my tank or not. I do like tangs. I also like schooling fish. I had two female anthias but they died out of nowhere. I’m letting the tank settle a little more. My buddy says he’s going to flip the bed soon for me. Whatever that means lol. I may lower the canopy a few inches. Who knows. I’m going to have to start pan handling on the side of the highway to keep up with this

I hope we have relieved those fears. Two Mars Aqua led fixtures is a very good start given you really need to give this system some time to settle and mature (again) to it's new environment. You've made a lot of changes and it will take some time before things really stabilize. It can take months to get pass possible diatom, algae and bacteria blooms. You may not have any of those, but given the poor condition of the system when you took it over, anything is possible.

You said you want to end up doing an sps dominate tank, that takes time and patience! Eventually you will want more light, but you really aren't far from where you need to be with just the Mars Aqua fixtures. Even just 1 or 2 more Mars Aqua fixtures and having all 3 or 4 turned 90 degrees (perpendicular to the length of the tank) would be more than enough and would only cost you $100 to $200 plus some work changing the way they fit in the canopy.

Keep up the good work.