Equipment article by M. Mota

wrote this in the hoping that I can help a new reefer not make the same mistakes I did when I started out, enjoy.

Buying Equipment

When I had made the plans for this reef tank (90 gallon reef) I decided to do things correctly without cutting corners. So I planned and bought everything I needed while at the same time keeping my start up costs within budget. This meant that I had to buy equipment, which was low in cost, like a plastic hydrometer, pumps, heaters, etc. All the time I was thinking that it’s all the same so why spend money on the more expensive equipment. All in all I did stay within my budget for this project but in the long run it turned out to be somewhat of a nightmare.

Well I got it all together, water was added and walla, my 90-gallon reef tank was born! I used my plastic hydrometer to set the salinity level (salt level) in the aquarium, set my heaters to 80* f, turned on the pumps and installed the lights. I was off to having the reef I always wanted and it was done correctly or so I thought. The tank had cycled and I was on my way to adding fish, corals, inverts and whatever it was that you add to the tank for animals.

For some reason my corals were losing color and bleaching and I could not figure why. I mean they would arrive with so much color on them and after being in my tank for a few months they would bleach. I was buying coral frags from people who had beautiful colonies in there own tanks so these should have been ok in my tank also considering that they were accustom to tank life but no matter what I did these were dieing. Fish were ok and snails did seem fine too. So off I went researching and looking to see if I could find the problem. When I talked to Roger a friend in Virginia that suggested I have someone else check my water parameters using different test kits. My test kits were all reading ok levels except for the nitrate level was off the charts. I was using liquid reagent kits, which were a bit cheaper, but after I had two different people check my water parameters I found out that my levels were off. The nitrate level was very low and nowhere close to what my kit was reading. Also a couple of the other kits were reading incorrectly not as bad as the nitrate kit but still was off. So here was the beginning of my mistakes, I tossed all of the kits in the trash and started talking to other hobbyists about what kind of test kits they were using. I rounded up all the responses I got and I went with the most popular kits used by reefers. It cost me quite a bit more for those kits but had I bought them in the first place I would have saved the money on the original kits. Then maybe I would not have had coral frags die on me. You will see why I say maybe as you read.

Now that my tanks calcium, alkalinity, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, magnesium, phosphate, silicate, and ph levels are all correct I was happy as a pig in the mud. Corals were not dieing but the colors were still a bit faded, nothing like what I would see in other peoples tanks so again I went on the hunt to figure out why. What could it possibly be, I have checked everything I can think of and it all looks good. Well upon talking to another reefer who has been in the hobby for a while, he suggested that the salinity might be off. I said to him nope I checked that and its right on 1.025 and he asked me what was I using to check that level. I told him I had a plastic hydrometer and he just paused for a second and then said got to the LFS and have them check it with a refractometer or have someone who has a refractometer check it and I think you will find it is out of whack. So off I went to get my salinity tested and guess what I had it tested by two people one using a glass hydrometer and a refractometer. Both said it was too low and I think it was reading 1.021 while all the time my plastic hydrometer was reading 1.025. Yep I went and bought a refractometer and when it came in I went right to the tank and I had the same reading 1.021 so off I was adding salt slowly to bring it up to 1.025. While doing this I lost a couple of coral frags and I think it was just too much stress for them but the ones that did make it were starting to turn into the nice coloration you see in other tanks. So again I did not save any money by buying the cheaper version and in actuality it may have cost me more up front but in the long run would have saved me money cause maybe I would not have had so many frags die due to bad readings on the test equipment.

I went with dual 175watt metal halides in my canopy because I received a used ballast for free thinking hey I was ahead of the game but I really wanted to use 250watt lighting. So after the lights were up and running everything was fine for a little while until the free ballast actually stopped working and I was told that it would not regulate the electricity like it should. The bottom line was I needed to replace that free ballast and I was looking at $80-120 dollars for a replacement ballast. Well I decide to change the whole setup to the dual 250-watt mh lamps with new electronic ballast. It cost quite a bit more to do it but I figured with the electronic ballast I would save on electricity, that was my way of coping with the knowledge of had I just gotten what others recommended and what I wanted the first time I would have been better off and cost less in the long run. I mean the 175-watt bulbs were ok but the 250 put out the amount of light I wanted in the reef tank and the corals seemed happier too.

Pumps was another area that I should have done more research on especially since I had set up a mostly sps (small polyp stony) coral tank. Not knowing at the time that these corals require a lot of water flow I thought the less expensive pumps would suffice. Well upon learning I needed more flow I added more power heads, which seems to suffice and produce the water movement needed. Then talking with a friend he brought to my attention that if I had compared some of the higher end pumps even though they are much more expensive I would have noticed two major things. 1. The initial cost would be greater but the substantial savings in electrical cost to operate since most of the higher end pumps use much less electricity and 2. The fact that I would have to use less of them cause they put out 4-10 times more flow depending on the model so there would be less clutter in the tank. That will be the next thing I upgrade but only as they fail. Just not enough money these days to get new pumps and the wife would hurt me if I said look Hun I spent $300.00 on pumps but we will get our money back in three years.

What have I learned from all this? Well considering the animals we keep in our reef tanks are totally dependent on water quality, lighting, water flow rates, etc. why not get the equipment that will best help us to keep the reef animals thriving. Before you buy equipment talk to other reefers, ask questions like what kind of pumps do you use and why, have you had any other experiences with different types of pumps and what are the pros and cons? And that goes for all types of equipment we use in the hobby from test kits, lights, tanks, cabinets and etc. Nothing worst than spending money on equipment only to find out that you need to replace it cause it does not perform the required task or breaks down prematurely due to a bad quality product. To sum this up learn from other peoples mistakes, bet you heard that before, me too. Buy quality equipment and look at all aspects of the product not just price. In the long run you may spend a pretty penny on the equipment but to lose your animals due to a bad pump or other piece of equipment is even more costly.

Happy Reefing,

Michael Mota