First Saltwater Aquarium and Lots of Questions

[gallahadd]

Good evening. First Saltwater tank and first post. Sorry in advance for length of it. Below you will find current tank setup. It is a 220 gallon tank with quite a bit of live rock and a sump (not sure on the gallon size). I bought most of this as an already established tank from the LFS but added more fish to it (yes probably to quickly to it but was told to get the fish in there somewhat quickly to prevent aggression). I added the Apex automation with the probes, replaced smaller pump with a pump measuring 800 gph through flow meter up from probably 300gph). I added a refrugium and put neptune light on it. They only had one Wavemaker (nero5) so i added 2x of the Neptune Wavemakers. I have one on each side close to back wall and blowing towards front glass and the nero on one side blowing along front glass. It has the redsea 600 skimmer. As you will see in photos, they had two blue light strips and 1 white light strip which i am replacing with the photon 48 v2 pro This week. I also added an ATO. I have the Apex dosage thing and auto feeder but not setup. I also setup the trident doing reading 4 times a day (lowest i could).

I had a very high nitrate (over 150ppm) reading even before adding the new fish (within the first week of them setting up tank. I have had them out twice to clean and do water change (probably 20-25 gallons) since setup on August 31st. I have also started doing my own water changes (2x 30 gallon changes) now that I figured out how and got the RODI and big enough container to mix the water and salt (Redsea coral plus). I also started NoPox at 30ml a day. Nitrates this afternoon are down to 40 ppm and phosphates are between .25 and .40. I am leaving the fuge light on 23 hours a day. I bought 100 micron socks and am rotating the secondary to primary and clean one to secondary about every 3 days. I am feeding two pinches of flakes, maybe a pinch of pellets, and roughly 3 frozen cubes once a day.

The LFS told me to be doing the bi-ionic 2 part additive like 2x a week but once i got the trident setup i noticed my ALK was over 12 and Calcium was over 500. So I stopped adding it until i could get the numbers down. But since I stopped adding it my PH has been slowing dropping (7.9-8.1). I just added a CO2 scrubber that is feeding into the skimmer. It is now giving me a PH of 8.1-8.26. I just turned the return pipes angled more towards top of water to try to cause little bit of aeration to increase the PH a little more since read that 8.3 is best for coral. Current reading as of this post is 12.7 ALK, 487 CA, 1279 MG, 8.19 PH, ORP 283, TMP 78.9, salt 33.3 with a flow of return pump at 811. If i have the FLO configured correctly, i am getting about 2.6 turnover on the two Neptune wavemakers but it shows it as a combined of only 3.7. The Nero is at 90% power.

I have put multiple bottles of copepods in the tank and fuge. I have fuge set with chaeto macroalgea. I am noticing some what i guess is microalgea forming on the glass sides of the fuge so i put 2 or 3 of the snails in there to see if they will help remove it. Was also debating on adding a snail or two to each compartment of the sump to clean up any build up of detrum or whatever else debris is starting to buildup.

I wanted to give as much of a complete story as i could before asking my questions. With the above said, I have been finding out more and more, researching myself to craziness (thanks OCD). It seems like I have overstocked my tank no matter which stocking guide I find which. Which makes me mad at the LFS for not really being honest with me, with the amount of fish, amount of clowns, that my water samples were good/ok, etc..

1. If I had to guess it would be best to remove some of the clowns with the more aggressive ones being the first to go. That is first question.
2. Is there anything else I should do to help my setup? I am trying to get to point of the idea of little to no Water changes like natural method. Since i have the trident system i should be able to make sure the ALK, CA, and MG are all within ranges for coral, and with the fuge, and CUC, I think it is not a to crazy of an idea.
3. Was debating an auto filter roller but having trouble figuring out how to get it to fit since sump is setup for socks and only way i can see is removing the sock holders from that section. Also do not know if worth getting another reactor for say charcoal and or GFO, and maybe an ozone thing.
4. Will have to see if the stuff did past few days will help but trying to see how to lower the ALK but increase the PH?
5. Should I keep heater set to 80 or drop to lower like say 78?
6.anything I may Not of thought of? Like the old phrase, I don’t know what I don’t know to ask.

15	Clown Fish (2x black/white, 1x storm, 1x chocolate, 2x Picasso, 2x platinum, 7x false)
1	Blue Regal Tang
1	Flame Angel
1	Sailfish Tang
1	Tomini Tang
1	Pajama Cardinal
1	Mandarin Goby
1	Canary Wrasse
2	Serpentine Starfish
1	Sand Shifting Starfish
1	Urchin
2	Cleaner Shrimp
9	Peppermint Shrimp
25	Nassau RSUs Snail
10	Nerite Snails
10	Cerith Snails
15	Blue hermit Crabs

 

[TokenReefer]

Really nice tank man! Especially for your first saltwater setup. Awesome

 

[TokenReefer]

Quick question. How's your flow pressure with the overflow flex pipe going down then up again slightly? I cut mine (reluctantly) so it was more of a straight shot to the sump. Just wondering...

 

[AydenLincoln]

Before I get your questions. Know that you went way too fast in a brand new tank with your stocking levels that’s why your nitrates are so high.
1. Yes ideally you should but it depends on if they show aggression.
2. In that big of a tank with that much of a bio load that goal is not always realistic and typically takes years to get there or a tank packed with thriving corals.
3/4. I would stick with the filter sock just make sure you change it every other day to every few days. The more often the better especially with a high bio-load. Trying to chase/fix numbers is risky and hard especially in a new tank that’s heavily stocked. The best thing to do is 20-25% weekly water changes.
5. 78 is most common and what myself and others recommend unless you have a very specific reason to be higher or lower but anywhere from like 74-80ish is good.
6. Yes both the starfish especially the sand sifter need super big established tanks with enough food in the sand bed. It’s highly probably he will starve very slowly/fall apart. As they don’t hand high nitrates at all especially how high yours are and please feed them too most inverts don’t especially echinoderms which includes starfish, urchins, etc. They can’t fend very well for themselves in captivity. Carbon dosing has mixed reviews…I overdosed and killed my shrimp/urchin so be very very very careful and make sure you always have your skimmer/wave makers on when doing it.

 

[gallahadd]

Quick question. How's your flow pressure with the overflow flex pipe going down then up again slightly? I cut mine (reluctantly) so it was more of a straight shot to the sump. Just wondering...

So the LFS glued in 3/4 barb fittings to the tank return thing instead of using the screw sections. The pump I bought is rated at 2700 gph so it is getting a lot of head pressure to cap out at 810. I had to do 1.25” to 1” for flow sensor, then to the 1” T fitting and then another reducer down to 3/4”.

but just realized your question was the flex coming back down into sump. I guess ok. I just found out at the top in overflow, one pipe is lower than other. And if it wasn’t for the Maggie muffler, it pipes can handle all of the 811 gph flow without it getting to second pipe. With the muffler on it, it barely needs to use the second pipe.

 

[gallahadd]

Quick question. How's your flow pressure with the overflow flex pipe going down then up again slightly? I cut mine (reluctantly) so it was more of a straight shot to the sump. Just wondering...

Probably not bad idea though for me to do as well so it doesn’t have that bend and upward travel

 

[gallahadd]

Before I get your questions. Know that you went way too fast in a brand new tank with your stocking levels that’s why your nitrates are so high.
1. Yes ideally you should but it depends on if they show aggression.
2. In that big of a tank with that much of a bio load that goal is not always realistic and typically takes years to get there or a tank packed with thriving corals.
3/4. I would stick with the filter sock just make sure you change it every other day to every few days. The more often the better especially with a high bio-load. Trying to chase/fix numbers is risky and hard especially in a new tank that’s heavily stocked. The best thing to do is 20-25% weekly water changes.
5. 78 is most common and what myself and others recommend unless you have a very specific reason to be higher or lower but anywhere from like 74-80ish is good.
6. Yes both the starfish especially the sand sifter need super big established tanks with enough food in the sand bed. It’s highly probably he will starve very slowly/fall apart. As they don’t hand high nitrates at all especially how high yours are and please feed them too most inverts don’t especially echinoderms which includes starfish, urchins, etc. They can’t fend very well for themselves in captivity. Carbon dosing has mixed reviews…I overdosed and killed my shrimp/urchin so be very very very careful and make sure you always have your skimmer/wave makers on when doing it.

Thanks for the comments. I agree that it went too fast on adding the new fish. It was an established tank prior. I added 10 clowns, flame angel, and yellow thing, and more CUC. The rest was already there and think they had it running for about a year.

clowns are showing some aggression now. They did at first for a few days and calmed down. But now that established one or two are picking on the chocolate and the black and whites. So wife and I thinking based on feedback we do get about getting rid of at least 5 of the false clowns. So it would leave mainly pairs.

in regards to comment on no water change goal, I thought the bigger the tank to easier it would be to actually get to that point?

also, the nitrates were getting high prior to adding any new fish. And the LFS said they weren’t that bad but everything online was telling me otherwise. So was misguided on initial setup.

 

[AydenLincoln]

Thanks for the comments. I agree that it went too fast on adding the new fish. It was an established tank prior. I added 10 clowns, flame angel, and yellow thing, and more CUC. The rest was already there and think they had it running for about a year.

clowns are showing some aggression now. They did at first for a few days and calmed down. But now that established one or two are picking on the chocolate and the black and whites. So wife and I thinking based on feedback we do get about getting rid of at least 5 of the false clowns. So it would leave mainly pairs.

in regards to comment on no water change goal, I thought the bigger the tank to easier it would be to actually get to that point?

also, the nitrates were getting high prior to adding any new fish. And the LFS said they weren’t that bad but everything online was telling me otherwise. So was misguided on initial setup.

It is but you still want to have stability first and figure out your numbers before you do it plus most tanks do a lot better with them. There’s a reason why successful fish stores and even public aquariums don’t stop doing them.