220 gal. reef help needed

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Perhaps... but in the end i have coached more that 20 people personally who have been keeping successfull no hassle tanks from these methods. I know my methods work. especially for newbies who are still learning about husbandry and don't want a PIA tank that requires a ton of maintenance at any time.

let the others say what they want. i know what i say works.
 
Brought the tank home today. the fish, coral, and other inverts are in a quartine tank at the persons house that geve me the tank. the live rock is in a 85 with a buch of power heads under a 400 watt ML for now. the tank is empty I need to plum the Do/DI top off unit, wire the electrical for the lights, and pumps. I need to set up a fuge. I will post some pics and info about the skimmers and hopefuly I can get some tips on weather they are big enough, I dont think they are. I had thought the tank had crushed coral but it is live sand. not the finest stuff I have ever seen but is is sand. thoe lights are 3 200 watt ML's and 2 blue tubes not sure of the type yet I dident have time to get in to the lights. Pics soon.
 
I hope some of the helpful people are still checking this thread. I looked over the skimmer's they are Red sea hang on the backs (prism pro I believe) One is missing the collection cup so I assume it was not being used. I can see I will need a better skimmer but I hadent planned to do a reef this soon and funds are short. If i do not add any more corals or fish right now will I be OK or should I dig in to the bank and just get a big skimmer?
 
I tried the red sea HOB skimmer. It was super loud so I returned it.

I use the TurboFlotor 5000 shorty and also have a TurboFlotor 1000 multi. The 5000 is rated for 400 gallons and the 1000 is rated for 250 gallons. I have the 5000 on a 210 gallon and the 1000 on a 95 wave.

Any skimmer is gonna set you back some dough, but they are worth it. I didn't add my 1st first fish and 1st coral until the tank had been running for about 4 months. The first things in were some snails, crabs, hermit crabs, and shrimp. The first fish I bought were 5 green chromis (this was the only time I added more than 1 fish at a time). The first corals were some mushrooms. Then I added a velvet damsel, and green star polyps.

After the chromis everything else went into the tank 1 organism at a time. it took about 1 year to fully stock my tank with bought corals and fish. At the 6 month mark the "beginner" corals had started spreading to different rocks so I figured the tank was mature enough to handle the "intermediate" and "expert" corals. Going really slow allowed me to save up for each purchase and ensure I was doing something right with their care.
 
Well, bad start right out of the gate. The hose I ran to the RO/DI burst and made a huge mess in the basement.
 
It was not the hose from the RO/DI that burst they are plenty thick enough not to burst. I was not thinkng properly and used my Python vacume hose to run from the sink to the RO unit and that burst due to the presure from the facuet. I moved the Ro to the sink and ran a longer low preaure line to the tank. I had no idea it would take so long to fill the tank. I will put some pics up soon. My computer is broke at home and I only post at work.
 
The initial fill does take forever. If you only have one tank you can use it to fill up a resevoir for an auto top off system. You can use a series of solenoid valves, relays, and manual float valves to ensure your tank or sump is always at a preset level. Then "Y" the output to a container that you use to mix for your waterchange.

You will not be disappointed by starting the whole process with RO/DI.
 
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