220 gal. reef help needed
- Thread starter jeffG
- Start date
corals need to eat, that is the most important part. and they dont eat like fw fish do, they are filterfeeders. You need some microbiolical supplements up in that tank, from what i remember Seachem and maybe Kent make a reliable line. Other than that, the stronger the lighting, the better. Depending on what kind of coral and/or invertebrates you are keeping you might want a bit higher of a specific gravity as well....Hope all is going well and good luck!
aggressor09;1247297; said:
sorry, but i totally disagree. I have never fed my corals and they are all big, beautiful, and growing. you just need to provide good water conditions and adequete light.
Twitterbait;1254252; said:
All in one care is not a good approach to every coral out there. It all depends on what types of corals he keeps. He needs to research each coral to find out what they require in lighting, food, and supplements. Then pick a nice beginner coral, start from there, and add the more difficult corals as his tank and support systems mature.
Different corals require different foods. If you tank doesn't naturally provide the food that a certain coral requires then it will slowly disintegrate and die. If his corals are mushrooms or other types that can feed on floating bacteria and Zooxanthellae algae then light, fish, and fish food is all he needs.
Also you may need to add calcium to the water. Calcium is the basic building block of many corals. You may also need iodine and trace elements.
As for the wet/dry. I use one and would recommend it. It makes for great bio filtration due to the high amount of aeration. You just need to clean the bio-balls every so often. Clean half at a time. I put mine in the dishwasher, then rinse them off. People who don't ever clean the bio balls are the ones that say they are nitrate factories. I complement this with a DSB to provide the anaerobic portion of the filtration. I also have about 120lbs of liverock in the tank. Not because I need 120lbs, but because I want space for all of the corals that been growing and multiplying. I also want the rock in there for the fish and inverts. I also use a turbo-flotor skimmer with a pump. Along with these, additions I have a refugium with Chaeto in it and a 150 watt MH over it that is fed by the . I also have a calcium reactor. and a HI-S RO/DI system for changes.
lol, no offense but i still disagree.
while corals like different levels of lighting, none actually need food to be added. Everything in your tank is giving off phosphates (even the tank itself). since that is the general need for your corals, even in a tank that is skimmed and running clean your corals will still get enough fertalizer to live and grow. I have kept pretty much every major type of coral and i have never fed any of them (except filter feeders of course). in the last few years my tanks have not even had fish so they didn't even get fish food leftovers. it all comes down to the proper balance. Sure you can feed them extra if you want... but you then need to filter the water to pull the leftovers out.
keep in mind out tanks are closed systems. we must export nutrients at the same rate we import them or we are keeping a sess pool in the end.
Now bio-balls... that is another story. a standard 1" sand bed is going to have 100 times more surface area than a batch of bio-balls... and yes they have the same problem. the issue i have with them is not even the problem of them getting dirty, it is the simple fact that they don't provide the necessary growing conditions for the bacteria you really want! The bacteria that processes waste (nitrogenous compounds) into harmless nitrogen gas require ANOXIC conditions. so yes it is great that your water is getting all that air from running through the bio-balls... but that is also the big problem. for bioballs to work correctly they must be completly submersed in the water and then of course we come back to the issue of sand and live rock providing much better surface area.
so where am i going with all this... just a sec and let me think
The most amazing tanks i have seen for coral and fish are those which have the most simple setups. Tank drains to sump- sump has big *** skimmer to clean the water- water returned to tank and the cycle continues. These tanks generally have high flow and nothing to get in the way of the crap going from the tank to the skimmer and out. Now these can be BB or SSB (shallow sand bed) as long as the sand is stirred and kept clean and moving. DSB's can look great for a while but they all eventually fill up and explode.
don't even get me started on suppliments
calcium and alkalinity should be all you need to add. the rest comes with a water change.
this has been my experience and what i have learned from doctors in the field who have the tanks to prove it.
simple tank, simple sump, big *** skimmer = happy tank. (granted husbandry still plays a roll)
while corals like different levels of lighting, none actually need food to be added. Everything in your tank is giving off phosphates (even the tank itself). since that is the general need for your corals, even in a tank that is skimmed and running clean your corals will still get enough fertalizer to live and grow. I have kept pretty much every major type of coral and i have never fed any of them (except filter feeders of course). in the last few years my tanks have not even had fish so they didn't even get fish food leftovers. it all comes down to the proper balance. Sure you can feed them extra if you want... but you then need to filter the water to pull the leftovers out.
keep in mind out tanks are closed systems. we must export nutrients at the same rate we import them or we are keeping a sess pool in the end.
Now bio-balls... that is another story. a standard 1" sand bed is going to have 100 times more surface area than a batch of bio-balls... and yes they have the same problem. the issue i have with them is not even the problem of them getting dirty, it is the simple fact that they don't provide the necessary growing conditions for the bacteria you really want! The bacteria that processes waste (nitrogenous compounds) into harmless nitrogen gas require ANOXIC conditions. so yes it is great that your water is getting all that air from running through the bio-balls... but that is also the big problem. for bioballs to work correctly they must be completly submersed in the water and then of course we come back to the issue of sand and live rock providing much better surface area.
so where am i going with all this... just a sec and let me think
The most amazing tanks i have seen for coral and fish are those which have the most simple setups. Tank drains to sump- sump has big *** skimmer to clean the water- water returned to tank and the cycle continues. These tanks generally have high flow and nothing to get in the way of the crap going from the tank to the skimmer and out. Now these can be BB or SSB (shallow sand bed) as long as the sand is stirred and kept clean and moving. DSB's can look great for a while but they all eventually fill up and explode.
don't even get me started on suppliments
calcium and alkalinity should be all you need to add. the rest comes with a water change.
this has been my experience and what i have learned from doctors in the field who have the tanks to prove it.
simple tank, simple sump, big *** skimmer = happy tank. (granted husbandry still plays a roll)
Bio balls are not supposed to be submerged. The bacteria that turns nitrite in nitrates requires oxygen. Those are the onese you want living on them. The more oxygen the bacteria gets the more efficiently it can convert.
A different bacteria does the anaerobic portion of nitrifiction to make the nitrogenous gas. In a DSB you use sand sifting organisms to stir the sand and release the gases in small amounts. You can also use this with a plenum but my tank is large enough to make due without one. I guess you can toss in a deep sand bed and do absolutely nothing to maintain it then cry when you have your explosion.
Phosphorus occurs naturally but too much inhibits calcification in stony corals. Without calcification a stony coral will either stunt or start to disintegrate. As far as them occuring naturally in your tank, it would take a heck of lot of corals to eat the phosphates to a point that they didn't start to stunt.
The others like iodide, iron, molybdenum, and scrontium and a few other traces may not be needed in some tanks but corals and inverts that use these may need them. Depends on how heavy the stocking is for a particular type coral or invert that will actually use those trace elements.
The fish food is for the fish not the corals...
While I may not be the friend of a doctor... oh wait who cares.
OP -
Please read everything about everything you will put into the tank to find out the proper care of every organism you add and also the suprise organisms that you will find as your tank matures. Your tank will thank you.
Also, just keep posting and you will find more people that agree or disagree on different subjects. Pretty much every mainstream technology and process has its ups and downs, you just have to follow the instructions for each one. Many people try something and do it wrong and have a catastrophe then decide to tell everyone else it doesn't work.
A different bacteria does the anaerobic portion of nitrifiction to make the nitrogenous gas. In a DSB you use sand sifting organisms to stir the sand and release the gases in small amounts. You can also use this with a plenum but my tank is large enough to make due without one. I guess you can toss in a deep sand bed and do absolutely nothing to maintain it then cry when you have your explosion.
Phosphorus occurs naturally but too much inhibits calcification in stony corals. Without calcification a stony coral will either stunt or start to disintegrate. As far as them occuring naturally in your tank, it would take a heck of lot of corals to eat the phosphates to a point that they didn't start to stunt.
The others like iodide, iron, molybdenum, and scrontium and a few other traces may not be needed in some tanks but corals and inverts that use these may need them. Depends on how heavy the stocking is for a particular type coral or invert that will actually use those trace elements.
The fish food is for the fish not the corals...
While I may not be the friend of a doctor... oh wait who cares.
OP -
Please read everything about everything you will put into the tank to find out the proper care of every organism you add and also the suprise organisms that you will find as your tank matures. Your tank will thank you.
Also, just keep posting and you will find more people that agree or disagree on different subjects. Pretty much every mainstream technology and process has its ups and downs, you just have to follow the instructions for each one. Many people try something and do it wrong and have a catastrophe then decide to tell everyone else it doesn't work.
