New and need some guidance to the hobby.

[as2solutions]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to the hobby and want to do it right. I have a 180 gallon acrylic tank that has been up and running for about a year now and am seeking whatever advice you can provide to help me be a successful hobbyist.

So far, I have had a professional maintain my tank each month. Now, I wish to invest more of my time and learn the best I can. I plan to start maintaining the tank on my own and retain the professional on an as-needed basis only.

My job will be to perform the water changes and cleaning of filters accordingly to maintain water quality and overall health of the tank.

I have about 25-30 fish of various types ranging from clown fish to tangs and angel fish. So far, I've been lucky and not lost a single fish for about 11 months. I keep the tank stocked with plenty of reef janitors (crabs and snails) and also have two star fish that appear to be doing quite well.

I use only high quality food (pellets and frozen) and supplement with garlic extreme and coral smoothies. I also feed one sheet (3"x8") of seaweed each day.

The tank lighting is a Vertex Aquaristik Illumina SR 260 - 4' LED lighting system. I have a Reef Octopus protein skimmer, and an Ultra-V, UV sterilizer.

I have attached a few pics of my tank and equipment.

I have tried growing a few soft and hard corals, but they have not lasted more than a few days\weeks. Any advice would be helpful.

[greech]

Very nice tank. Nice lighting for sure!

Good that you want to be more active in maintaining your tank. To do your own water changes you will want to setup a mixing station. This can be a permanent system that always has water ready or as simple as a Rubbermaid or brute container with a pump and heater that you only setup when you need to mix water. If you don't have one already, purchase a good 5 stage RO/DI unit so you have a trusted water source.

From there you simply fill your container with fresh water, add salt mix and match temperature and specific gravity in your display. Typically the mix water is redy tone used after a few hours but I find it best to let it mix overnight.

You may want to ask what salt mix has been used on the tank so you can continue to use that or start mixing in another brand if you choose to do so.

The coral issue could be do to man things. Parameters off, fish or other livestock incompatibility, light acclimation are just some of the possibilities.

[as2solutions]

Greech,

Thanks for the quick tips and quick response to my post. I understand that the coral issue may be due to many things. I don't know enough about the "parameters" and am hoping to learn more from yourself and others.

The lighting is a pre-programmed simulation of "true" day light, and I run the "moon" lighting all night. Dawn occurs at about 8 am, and dusk occurs at about 7 pm.

I think I have pretty good water flow from the two jets at the top of the tank, but really don't know if it is enough to support good coral growth or not.

I also do not have any water quality measurement devices (ph, etc.) and would like to know if I can get something digital\computerized that would help me determine the water quality.

[greech]

You will first want to get a good refractometer to test specific gravity. You will use this instrument the most to confirm your mix water is where it needs to be.

The big 3 elements to monitor in a reef are calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. Those are all related and critical to coral health. I'm sure there are probes that can be purchased to monitor those parameters but I imagine that those probes and the monitor that runs them would be quite expensive. Most use colorimetric titration tests to test these parameters. Elos, salifert and Red Sea are some of the higher end kits with API being the more economical kits. Neptune Systems makes a controller called Apex and they are pretty much limitless as to what they can do. They do have probes for things like pH, ORP and conductivity...

http://www.neptunesystems.com/

Nutrient wise, your tank looks o be in old health. That said, having test kits for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates and phophate around is never a bad idea. You will use the latter 2 tests the most often.

Not sure how much flow you have from the return lines but you most likely will need additional flow for coral health. Extra flow is also beneficial to he overall health of our tanks whether corals are present or not. While possible, tough to have too much flow.

[raybyrne67]

With that setup you should have no problems with corals. I would get a good test kit Red Sea or another at that level of quality and test your water parameters for Ca 420,Mg 1300, Alk 9. Salinity 1.025. All the parameters should be close to these. Remember stable constant water paramaters are key. There are some great sticky threads on the New to the hobby forums that could be very helpful. Good luck and happy reefing.

[BlindZide]

Very beautiful tank indeed. Greech is right on the things you need to see whats going on in the tank parameter wise and for mixing salt (as usual, spot on greech) and so is Ray.

Great advice guys and I +1 to both.

[dkeller_nc]

I can make a few observations based on your pictures that may help you with trying out a few easy-to-keep corals.

First, the general/global advice: In order to have corals do well, you must have good and stable water parameters, decent flow, light of the correct intensity and spectrum, and efficient nutrient export.

You already have the base of what you need to do most of the above, though the LED fixture you have now will likely limit you to soft corals and so-called Large Polyp Stony corals (frequently abbreviated LPS). Small Polyp Stony corals (abbreviated SPS) will probably require a higher light intensity, though you may be able to grow some that are placed high in the tank near the LED emitters.

For water, as others mentioned, you need testing equipment/supplies for temperature, salinity, alkalinity, calcium, nitrate and phosphate (in that order of importance). Auxillary, "good to have" tests are magnesium, pH and ammonia.

Specific observations from your pictures:

You tank does not appear to have much of any coralline algae growth. That's a negative indicator for coral health, whether they be easy-to-care for mushrooms, zoanthids, and leather corals or LPS/SPS. What this likely means is that despite water changes, both your alkalinity and calcium are low, and (probably) the nitrates and phosphate concentration in the water is high.

The water appears to have a slight yellowish cast. This is an indicator of high dissolved organic compounds. If you want to check this, buy two inexpensive white 5 gallon buckets from the home store. Put about 4 gallons of newly mixed seawater (whether you mix it or buy it pre-mixed from your local fish shop (LFS)) in one bucket, and the same amount of your tank water in the other bucket. The color should be close, however if your tank has a high bioload, doesn't get frequent/large water changes, doesn't get an occasional bag of activated carbon run in the sump, or all three, the water from your tank will have a definite yellowish cast.

It doesn't appear that your tank has an automatic top-off system to replace evaporated water. That would suggest that you have fairly high salinity swings. You can keep the salinity stable without an ATO, but you must have a source of highly purified water and an accurate salinity measurement device.

OK, some specific recommendations on what to buy, in what order, and without completely overwhelming you with up-front expenses (this can be a very expensive hobby, particularly if you have a fondness for gadgets and "aquarium problem correction in a bottle" products).

Instrumentation:

Thermometer - this can be digital or the old-fashioned glass kind. There's a lot of very inexpensive, really crappy digital thermometers on the market. The can be used, but you need an accurate temperature reference to calibrate them. You can buy a very highly accurate glass lab-grade thermometer on Amazon for less than $20. I have one and use that to calibrate my digital thermometers.

Salinity measurement - the least expensive devices are hygrometers that measure specific gravity. They are cheap and easy to use, but are often inaccurate unless calibrated with a specific gravity standard solution. Refractometry has become the standard for salinity measurement that most reef aquarists use instead of hygrometers. You can buy manual refractometers, but you can also buy digital ones for about $100 that are highly accurate and pretty much bomb-proof in use.

Water Purification:

You can buy reverse-osmosis deionized water from a local fish store that will work just fine. But it can be a real inconvenience to lug 40 lb containers of water around, and you will need at least 4 of those containers a week to do your own evaporation and water changes. So most of us buy our own purification set-up.

There are many vendors of RODI systems on the net, and so many options that it will confuse the heck out of you if you don't know all that much about water purification. So to make things easy, buy a 5-stage "chloramines" system from Bulk Reef Supply. This is going to set you back some dough - about $250. But it beats the heck out of transporting large amounts of RODI or seawater, and will be cheaper than purchased water in the long run.

Test Kits:

There are, again, a lot of options on the market. However, in this area it's fairly easy to simplify because most test kits don't work well enough for saltwater reef keeping. As mentioned, your choices are basically Red Sea Pro and Salifert. Note that Red Sea kits are not the same as Red Sea Pro kits, and do not buy API or Tetra kits. Buy individual test kits. Combination kits are tempting for price and compactness, but invariably you will run out of one of the components long before the other ones, and have to buy an individual kit anyway. Buy the following for your initial purchase, then add others as your time/interest/budget will allow:

Salifert KH/Alkalinity
Salifert Calcium
Salifert Nitrate

For later (or now if your budget is sufficient):

Salifert Magnesium
Salifert Ammonia
Salifert Phosphate (you will eventually need a lower range with an electronic instrument, but not now)

Optional:

American Marine Pinpoint pH meter - you can completely ignore pH if you choose to, it's just not that important in the highly buffered chemistry of seawater. But if you really want to know, wet test kits just don't cut it for pH. Buy an inexpensive meter like American Marine's Pinpoint series. You can also buy a pH "pen" - these work fine for just checking the pH, and are a bit cheaper than a full-blown meter.

Other Stuff (Some of this you need to buy now to allow you to do some of your own maintenance):

Salt mix - most of us use Instant Ocean because it's cheap and you'll wind up adjusting the calcium and alkalinity levels of any salt mix, so there's little need to spend more. But all of the salt mixes work fine if you have a preference. The 200 gallon box is the most economical size to buy.

Seachem Matrix Granular Activated Carbon - you'll need this. Buy this exact brand. Don't skimp on carbon - there are good alternatives to Seachem's matrix, but if you don't know what to look for, you can also buy some junk GAC that will load your tank with phosphates.

Alkalinity and Calcium Supplements - You're going to need these to adjust your alkalinity and calcium levels once you get your test kits. Again, you can buy a lot of brands that will be just fine. But until you research it and make your own choices, buy Kent Marine Super Buffer or SeaChem Marine Buffer for alkalinity adjustment, and bulk Calcium Chloride from Bulk Reef Supply for calcium adjustments. Do Not buy liquid calcium and alkalinity supplements, nor anything that claims to adjust both calcium and alkalinity in one bottle or "system". At some later point you can decide if you want to purchase or use liquid calcium and alkalinity supplements, but for now you just need an inexpensive bottle of powder.

Media filter bag - basically, a mesh bag for you to put carbon in.

Final Thoughts

The most important thing you need to do is read. Reef keeping isn't really all that hard, but there can be a very steep learning curve in the very beginning. Reading Reef Central is a definite good start. If you want a comprehensive starter in book form, buy The Coral Reef Aquarium: From Inception to Completion by Tony Vargas.

Welcome to the slippery slope.

[as2solutions]

Thanks to all of you for responding.