210g Reef Update and Questions

[tsharkey]

Hello Everyone!

This is my first update of my 210 gallon reef aquarium. I have several questions but before I ask any I will tell about some of the progress that I have made. I have added another marineland canister filter. I have also added an xl diatom filter, metal halides, two maroon clowns, two ocellaris clowns, a hatian anemone, electric flame scalop, horseshoe crab, and an algae eating blenny. The tank has progressed both in water quality and just overall how it looks. This brings me to my first question.

I mention that I added a metal halide. I had a 320 watt t5 ho system. This I found was not near enough. I added a 1,200 watt metal halide system and built a box for it with cooling fans. My question is, is this to much light? My corals are blooming with the added light but I just want to take precautions.

My filtration consist of a c-360 and a c-530 as well as an xl diatom filter, two protein skimmers, a phosphate reactor, two 1,300 gph sump pumps, a 55 gallon sump and bio balls that are in rotation in the sump. The canisters are used only for mechanical and chemical filtration. I let the sump and the live rock take care of the biological. Question being, is this filtration adequate for this aquarium? Do I need anything?

My next question being do my corals look healthy? I think they look fine but I am not avid in coral health knowledge. If they do not please let me know which coral(s) and what is wrong and what I can do about it. I want to add many corals to my aquarium but it is a bit overwhelming. Does anyone have so good ideas for corals that I should put in it? I like acropora a lot and just about anything unique and/or colorful. I do not care for a lot of brown. I have enough brown in there already. Green is fine but I have quite a bit of it too.

Continuing with the coral subject, I would like to reaqascape my tank. I want to expose more of the rock to light as well as make more room for corals. Is this a risky move for my tank? Will it cause shock to the tank ecosystem?

Please look at the pictures below and let me know what you think. I am very open to criticism and or thoughts or comments. Let me know of anything you like or that you think I should change! If you would like more pictures please let me know and I will do my best to get it.

Thank You for your time and your comments!

 

[oyf709]

1) If the pictures are taken after your upgrade of lighting then seems like your coral are use to it. All polyps are out and extending which is a good thing, especially your ricordea being that high in the water column and not reacting to the high lighting should be good indicator of your lighting is not that strong to cause issue. That being said, I do see the anemone on the right side of the tank looks like BTA, maybe I am wrong on this, but if it is BTA, it seems stretch to look for more light, are they right under your MH?

2) Why would you use 2 canister filter but no skimmer? Personally I would get a large skimmer and not use canister filter at all. Simply because I don't like the enclose design of canister filter in SW as it doesn't produce enough oxygen exchange to your water. Also the canister can be very easy collect wastes which will lead to nitrate factory at the end.

3) rework on your aqua scape is fine, but be careful with the waste that trapped under your current base rocks and within the deep sand bed. If you stir it too much, it will cause mini-cycle and can lead to algae bloom.

4)You didn't mention this but I think I should mention this, that 1200W MH really scares me lol, you either live somewhere really cold all year long or you have your air conditioner crank to very high year long. If that is not the case then a chiller might be needed, even for a large system like yours, 1200W is a lot of heat. The 2nd item is a auto top off system, with that much heat, you will need to replace all those water that is vapored, having a auto top off unit will really help you keep your system balance.