why is my zoa like this?

Stickboy15 · Dec 21, 2018

also get some better test kits the api kits suck. Hanna checkers make life so easy.

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

bronxreef said:
My 2cents.... light yeah def upgrade don’t have to be fancy expensive ones neither check out the for sale forums here and local reef sites even Craigslist and apps like offer up, I got my Radions on Craigslist dirt cheap. Instant ocean salt is fine either one I use the cheaper one the purple bag I’m getting the same results as the expensive one I started with Red Sea pro nothing change after o switch a year ago. For filtration many options work but again try to snatch a skimmer on the use forums but if you have anything my first reef worked well with a canister filter and chemi pure but a skimmer will def be Better. Best advice do things slowly but def start with your lights which your corals will appreciate. Try adding some live rock as well slowly.

The one thing thing this hobby is teaching me is patience when I rushed things I kill things... corals and fish don’t like rapid changes it stresses them out

thank you so much I truly appreciate your I put...I'm scoping searching for light, and going to my lfs about live rock .....and going slow..thanks and merry Christmas

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

Stickboy15 said:
also get some better test kits the api kits suck. Hanna checkers make life so easy.

planning on just that ..thank you!

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

Stickboy15 said:
do you have a rodi machine?

no yet I'm still searching

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

any recommendations for testing ?

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

NewbyREEF said:
any recommendations for testing ?

eg hanna specifically

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

NewbyREEF said:
Im going to order the API CORAL plus and hope that helps and upgrade to two t8 and then LED.

changed my mind to led from Amazon

Rakie · Dec 21, 2018

To reiterate what people have said... The person who gave you this tank has no clue what they were doing, and it's evident by the gear the tank came with.

Lights: A 4 bulb T5 setup will be enough for that tank, and cost effective.

Flow: a pair of Tunze 6015 would be a good easy, cheap, reliable start. These pumps will never give you issues, even if you outgrow them they will keep working.

Filtration: You will want some live rock to get things started, and maybe a skimmer down the road (HOB skimmer like AquaMaxx)

Test Kits: Salifert for -- Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrates. Hannah Checker for Phosphates.

This is the bare bone basics and cost effective stuff. People will tell you to get cheap chinese equipment and for the same price you can get much better stuff, I would highly avoid that trap. It's not worth it.

NewbyREEF said:
changed my mind to led from Amazon

9/10 odds we would recommend against this. You don't want stuff off Amazon for the most part as they don't carry the major brands. And I would advise against LED's for now while you're new to the hobby.

NewbyREEF · Dec 21, 2018

Rakie said:
To reiterate what people have said... The person who gave you this tank has no clue what they were doing, and it's evident by the gear the tank came with.

Lights: A 4 bulb T5 setup will be enough for that tank, and cost effective.

Flow: a pair of Tunze 6015 would be a good easy, cheap, reliable start. These pumps will never give you issues, even if you outgrow them they will keep working.

Filtration: You will want some live rock to get things started, and maybe a skimmer down the road (HOB skimmer like AquaMaxx)

Test Kits: Salifert for -- Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Nitrates. Hannah Checker for Phosphates.

This is the bare bone basics and cost effective stuff. People will tell you to get cheap chinese equipment and for the same price you can get much better stuff, I would highly avoid that trap. It's not worth it.

9/10 odds we would recommend against this. You don't want stuff off Amazon for the most part as they don't carry the major brands. And I would advise against LED's for now while you're new to the hobby.

you ROCK!

sfin52 · Dec 21, 2018

Loads of options on lights. Led,t5 combo its up to you .

Filters that's up to you sump hob or canisters. They all have pros and cons.

Do go slow. Nothing positive happens quick in this hobby.

I do agree with getting some lr from a lfs. Beware some lfs are just out for cash .

Like said above a good rodi unit is worth it's weight in gold.

theKoolAidMan · Dec 23, 2018

Ok, let's just slow down a second. A lot of assumptions being made about what you want to do without anyone actually asking you your plans or wishes.

First, I'd highly recommend reading as much as you can on saltwater aquariums and reefs. Start with the pinned topics in this forum to get up to speed. After you do that, there are a few questions you should ask yourself before running out and buying lots of expensive equiptment.

If you're more of a visual or auditory person, I cannot recomment the BRS 52 Weeks of Reefing Youtube series enough. BulkReefSupply.com (BRS) is a fantastic online saltwater equipment store that runs a Youtube channel that looks into the products and science of reefing. Subscribe to it immediately. In this series they have 52 videos (1 per week) where they build a 160 gallon reef tank from start to finish. Each week they look at a different topic and make a decision on which equipment to purchase and why. This is probably the best primer on things like filtration, lighting, flow, etc.

1. Do you really want to keep coral? You can have a saltwater aquarium with just fish and invertabrates without coral if you'd like. The pros of this are that it's generally more forgiving from a maintenance and water quality perspective as well as cheaper in equiptment costs. Cons are that coral is frigging cool. If you want to keep coral, then as others have suggested you will need better lighting. That bulb is likely old so it's not producing the correct spectrum for good coral growth anymore, and only a single bulb isn't going to cut it for anything but the most undemanding coral. If you'd cool with not keeping coral, then lighting becomes purely an aesthetic choice and you do not need to run out and buy new lights right now.

2. Are you ready for the financial and time investment required? As you read through the pinned posts you'll probably see that keeping a saltwater aquarium is more complex than freshwater, and when you decide to also keep corals it becomes even more so. Not to mention expensive. Before you go dropping $$ on all the equipment people are suggesting, make sure this is really what you want to do mid to long term.

Now, if you do want to do this, and you want to keep corals, welcome to club! It's an extremely rewarding a deep hobby that allows you to play scientist, gardener, pet parent, and interior designer all at the same time.

Looking at the setup you have, you have a good start! I would look to address your needs in the following order, but like all the other posters, this is just my opinion and how I would do it, but you're not me, so take the advice you receive here and combine it with what you learn from other sources to make YOUR decision.

1. Lighting - A single T8 bulb MAY barely keep those zoas or some low light mushrooms going, but not much else. There are a ton of lighting options out there that don't have to be insanely expensive. My suggestions follow:
a. Name brand LEDs. The biggest name brands are AI, Ecotech Radion, and Kessil. There are others as well, but these are the three you'll see the most discussion about on this forum. They are more expensive but generally have good support from well established companies. They also have cool extras like the ability to control and schedule the lights to a minute level with a phone app.
b. Chinese Black Box LED. There are a lot of these brands out there that people here can help you with. Some are really pretty good, while others are junk that isn't even UL listed for safety. Ask around in the lighting forum or in this thread. There are a lot of people using them here. The advantage is that they are cheaper than the big brands. The minus is that they are often less refined from a design perspective and don't often have the bells as whistles of the name brand stuff. There has been some question on the quality of light produced due to the lenses used on some of them, but it's hard to argue with the results people are getting!
c. T5 fixture. These will be like the T8 you have now. They house multiple long fluorescent bulbs. The pros are that they can often be found cheaper than LEDs today and are a bit more plug and play. You pick the spectrum you want by choosing a bulb, and that's it, rather than many LEDs where you have so much freedom it can be hard to know if you're even providing the right spectrum and intensity for your coral. They also provide a more uniform diffused light with less shadows than an LED. They lack that nice water "shimmer" that LEDs provide, however.
d. T5 LED hybrid. These are what they sound like. A few T5 bulbs with LEDs in the middle. They combine the best of both worlds but are often priced as such.

My personal suggestion would depend on budget. If you're OK spending $500-$1000 on lighting, then go with something like 2x AI Hydra 26s or the comparable from another name brand. If cost is an issue, then I would look at a well regarded Black Box from Amazon or eBay or possible a T5. While I love the configuration of my LEDs, I do sort of miss the simplicity and plug and play nature of the T5 fixutres I used to use.

2. RO/DI Unit or source of RO/DI water - RO/DI water is recommended for an aquarium, but pretty much a necessity in a reef tank with corals. This is because your tap water almost certainly contains elements and compounds that at best will cause outbreaks of nasty algae and at worst may have copper or other elements that will straight up murder coral and inverts. MOST people who post here have bought their own RO/DI unit. A lot of folks, including me, recommend the one from Bulkreefsupply.com. Some people do not purchase their own RO/DI unit and instead will go to their local fish shop and purchase water. While this is cheap on a pure transaction basis, the cost does add up, and let's be honest, most of us hate lugging buckets of water from our RO/DI in the basement or elsewhere in the house. Who wants to lug water home from the LFS?

3. Flow - Corals of all types require water flow moving over them to both remove their waste as well as bring food and nutrients to them. There are a lot of options out there for all budgets. When I need basic, no frills flow, I often go with the Hydor Koralia line, but you really can't go wrong with anything from Hydor, Tunze, Sicce, AI, Reef Octopus, Rossmont, etc. Honestly, unless you want to pay a premium to get a DC pump (rather than the "normal" AC) I would just find out that you like the look of and has the amount of flow you want and fits your budget. I often go with the Koralias because they are priced right and I prefer their look to some of their competitors. It's basically just a fan to push water, so again, unless you want to get into paying for high end features, this isn't a huge decision.

4. Live Rock - Live Rock is simply any sort of rock that has beneficial bacteria growing on it that act as chemical filtration to remove harmful Ammonia from the tank, which can kill your fish and corals. There are lots of old rules about 1lb per gallon of water, but this is largely rubbish. Your setup MIGHT be a bit on a light side though, however I have seen many minimalist tanks that use very little live rock. I think most people here tend to think you need a lot more rock than you really do. Take care of the other needs first but read more about the nitrogen cycle, live rock, and look at other tanks you like before deciding on the type of and how much rock you want. This stuff is expensive, so I wouldn't rush out to get more until you have a firmer grasp of what you want the tank to look like. Even then, you shouldn't need much more as you already have a good start. Maybe just a couple more decent sized pieces.

NewbyREEF · Dec 23, 2018

so I got my first addition

NewbyREEF · Dec 23, 2018

and thank you for the consideration reflected in your post I appreciate that so much....

NewbyREEF · Dec 23, 2018

Stickboy15 said:
alright your gonna need to do some major changing
new light
new filter
40 pounds of live rock
high quality salt mix
and much more
that tank looks like they basically turned a freshwater setup and made it saltwater which is very wrong

I got a small start

NewbyREEF · Dec 23, 2018

off to YouTube hehe

Stickboy15 · Dec 23, 2018

where you get the dry rock?

sfin52 · Dec 23, 2018

theKoolAidMan said:
Ok, let's just slow down a second. A lot of assumptions being made about what you want to do without anyone actually asking you your plans or wishes.

First, I'd highly recommend reading as much as you can on saltwater aquariums and reefs. Start with the pinned topics in this forum to get up to speed. After you do that, there are a few questions you should ask yourself before running out and buying lots of expensive equiptment.

If you're more of a visual or auditory person, I cannot recomment the BRS 52 Weeks of Reefing Youtube series enough. BulkReefSupply.com (BRS) is a fantastic online saltwater equipment store that runs a Youtube channel that looks into the products and science of reefing. Subscribe to it immediately. In this series they have 52 videos (1 per week) where they build a 160 gallon reef tank from start to finish. Each week they look at a different topic and make a decision on which equipment to purchase and why. This is probably the best primer on things like filtration, lighting, flow, etc.

1. Do you really want to keep coral? You can have a saltwater aquarium with just fish and invertabrates without coral if you'd like. The pros of this are that it's generally more forgiving from a maintenance and water quality perspective as well as cheaper in equiptment costs. Cons are that coral is frigging cool. If you want to keep coral, then as others have suggested you will need better lighting. That bulb is likely old so it's not producing the correct spectrum for good coral growth anymore, and only a single bulb isn't going to cut it for anything but the most undemanding coral. If you'd cool with not keeping coral, then lighting becomes purely an aesthetic choice and you do not need to run out and buy new lights right now.

2. Are you ready for the financial and time investment required? As you read through the pinned posts you'll probably see that keeping a saltwater aquarium is more complex than freshwater, and when you decide to also keep corals it becomes even more so. Not to mention expensive. Before you go dropping $$ on all the equipment people are suggesting, make sure this is really what you want to do mid to long term.

Now, if you do want to do this, and you want to keep corals, welcome to club! It's an extremely rewarding a deep hobby that allows you to play scientist, gardener, pet parent, and interior designer all at the same time.

Looking at the setup you have, you have a good start! I would look to address your needs in the following order, but like all the other posters, this is just my opinion and how I would do it, but you're not me, so take the advice you receive here and combine it with what you learn from other sources to make YOUR decision.

1. Lighting - A single T8 bulb MAY barely keep those zoas or some low light mushrooms going, but not much else. There are a ton of lighting options out there that don't have to be insanely expensive. My suggestions follow:
a. Name brand LEDs. The biggest name brands are AI, Ecotech Radion, and Kessil. There are others as well, but these are the three you'll see the most discussion about on this forum. They are more expensive but generally have good support from well established companies. They also have cool extras like the ability to control and schedule the lights to a minute level with a phone app.
b. Chinese Black Box LED. There are a lot of these brands out there that people here can help you with. Some are really pretty good, while others are junk that isn't even UL listed for safety. Ask around in the lighting forum or in this thread. There are a lot of people using them here. The advantage is that they are cheaper than the big brands. The minus is that they are often less refined from a design perspective and don't often have the bells as whistles of the name brand stuff. There has been some question on the quality of light produced due to the lenses used on some of them, but it's hard to argue with the results people are getting!
c. T5 fixture. These will be like the T8 you have now. They house multiple long fluorescent bulbs. The pros are that they can often be found cheaper than LEDs today and are a bit more plug and play. You pick the spectrum you want by choosing a bulb, and that's it, rather than many LEDs where you have so much freedom it can be hard to know if you're even providing the right spectrum and intensity for your coral. They also provide a more uniform diffused light with less shadows than an LED. They lack that nice water "shimmer" that LEDs provide, however.
d. T5 LED hybrid. These are what they sound like. A few T5 bulbs with LEDs in the middle. They combine the best of both worlds but are often priced as such.

My personal suggestion would depend on budget. If you're OK spending $500-$1000 on lighting, then go with something like 2x AI Hydra 26s or the comparable from another name brand. If cost is an issue, then I would look at a well regarded Black Box from Amazon or eBay or possible a T5. While I love the configuration of my LEDs, I do sort of miss the simplicity and plug and play nature of the T5 fixutres I used to use.

2. RO/DI Unit or source of RO/DI water - RO/DI water is recommended for an aquarium, but pretty much a necessity in a reef tank with corals. This is because your tap water almost certainly contains elements and compounds that at best will cause outbreaks of nasty algae and at worst may have copper or other elements that will straight up murder coral and inverts. MOST people who post here have bought their own RO/DI unit. A lot of folks, including me, recommend the one from Bulkreefsupply.com. Some people do not purchase their own RO/DI unit and instead will go to their local fish shop and purchase water. While this is cheap on a pure transaction basis, the cost does add up, and let's be honest, most of us hate lugging buckets of water from our RO/DI in the basement or elsewhere in the house. Who wants to lug water home from the LFS?

3. Flow - Corals of all types require water flow moving over them to both remove their waste as well as bring food and nutrients to them. There are a lot of options out there for all budgets. When I need basic, no frills flow, I often go with the Hydor Koralia line, but you really can't go wrong with anything from Hydor, Tunze, Sicce, AI, Reef Octopus, Rossmont, etc. Honestly, unless you want to pay a premium to get a DC pump (rather than the "normal" AC) I would just find out that you like the look of and has the amount of flow you want and fits your budget. I often go with the Koralias because they are priced right and I prefer their look to some of their competitors. It's basically just a fan to push water, so again, unless you want to get into paying for high end features, this isn't a huge decision.

4. Live Rock - Live Rock is simply any sort of rock that has beneficial bacteria growing on it that act as chemical filtration to remove harmful Ammonia from the tank, which can kill your fish and corals. There are lots of old rules about 1lb per gallon of water, but this is largely rubbish. Your setup MIGHT be a bit on a light side though, however I have seen many minimalist tanks that use very little live rock. I think most people here tend to think you need a lot more rock than you really do. Take care of the other needs first but read more about the nitrogen cycle, live rock, and look at other tanks you like before deciding on the type of and how much rock you want. This stuff is expensive, so I wouldn't rush out to get more until you have a firmer grasp of what you want the tank to look like. Even then, you shouldn't need much more as you already have a good start. Maybe just a couple more decent sized pieces.

Well said .