55 gallon Tank Soft coral and fish under regular LED light

[BlueOcean168]

Hi all,

Been a while. Last time i have tried corals without much knowledge, surely did not end well. It has been at least 4 years ago since then. This 55 gallon tank has been fish only since the 1st attempt coral failure. This hippo tang was a baby 5 years ago, 1.5 inch baby hippo Tang. Now eats like a pig.

I will go slow this time, and start with hardy soft corals. A few guilty factors want to point out:

*I don't do RO/Di. In NYC, water quality is decent than many places. I just let the tap water sit overnight, then mix with reef salt.

*The LED light is not really a Reef certified light:
AQQA Aquarium Light,Multi-Function Fish Tank Led Light 24/7 DIY Auto On Off + Night Mode + Day Mode + Full Spectrum + 7 Colors,Adjustable Brightness Waterproof with Timer for Freshwater 44W


I will not be going for any SPS or LPS. So far, been over 5 weeks for most of the soft corals:
1) mushroom coral
2) green star polyps
3) zoe
4) midnight clove polyps
5) xenia

Invertebrates:
1)Hermit crabs
2) Flat tree oyster
3) snails (1 large turbo, many cerith and nerites)

Fish:
4 green chromis
1 clown fish
1 hippo tang
1 file fish
1 snowflake eel

I do a 5% water change every 1-2 weeks.
Salinity at 1.024
Alkalinity at 7

So far so good. Will update tank as we go.

Equipments:
*Instant Ocean Seaclone 100 gallons protein skimmer
*Tetra Whisper EX 70 Filter For 45 To 70 Gallon aquariums
* submerged heater
* 2 wave maker pump

Filefish was eating the xenia frag. Had to place xenia in a protective box.

 

[griss]

I think you did well picking out some of the easier to keep corals.

Just a couple things to mention.

St. Louis has some of the best quality tap water in the country and I wouldn’t think about keeping corals without using RO/DI. I’m not saying this won’t work for your easier to keep corals, I’d just rather err on the side of caution. In fact, I use a 7 stage RO/DI.

Do you have access to a PAR meter? I’d be interested in finding out the PAR reading from this light. Freshwater lights (like that) tend to run white/red. Your pics look pretty blue.

Here’s a recent thread about LEDs and PAR.

PAR!

Even old dogs can learn new tricks... In my 30 years in the hobby, I've had quite a bit of success with VHO, CF, and MH lighting. After retiring in 2018, I set up a new tank (Red Sea Reefer 425XL), and got a Kessil AP 700 LED lighting system. The store I purchased this from warned that LED...

forums.reefcentral.com

 

[shred5]

Griss is right.

As with the light it depends, a fresh water plant light certainly can keep corals. Matter of fact early on in the hobby we had plant grow lights and that was pretty much it, there were no dedicated reef lights. We supplemented with Philips TL-03 lamps which were a actinic lamp not made for the hobby. There are people ding planted saltwater tanks now with a few corals in using freshwater plant lights.
The question is does that light provide enough light/par like Griss said. You might want to supplement with a few blue strip lights.
Also since plant lights are higher in red/green spectrum they can promote algae.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Yeah, been thinking to get a par device early on. But the price cost like $500 plus. I will just monitor them as we go, give them space and further time to acclimate. Maybe regular LED light dont make them grow as crazy. Thats fine in my book, dont want the hassle of cutting and fragging lol. One thing i dont like the reef light is the intense heat. Would be hard for summer time especially. And they burn alot more electricity from what i heard. Ultimate goal is to find out if the current LED works or not. Will find out in 3-4 months. If the GSP or the zoes does expand their mat and get bigger. Then that is a win. If not, will do a different build. Maybe a Nano tank, corals only.

 

[shred5]

There are some cheaper ways to measure par now that are pretty accurate like the ITC Reefculture PARwise.
Still not exactly cheap but affordable. But then you could buy another fixture for the cost.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Daylight.

 

[griss]

Looks good. Reminds me of the Venture 5.5k and Iwasaki 6.5k metal halide bulbs we used in the 90’s.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Found this snail from shopping some seafood market. It got a weird attachment critter on its back. Any clue what is it? Theres like 3 tubes, closes up if any object too close to it.

 

[griss]

Found this snail from shopping some seafood market. It got a weird attachment critter on its back. Any clue what is it? Theres like 3 tubes, closes up if any object too close to it.

That it’s weird. Where is the seafood market? My first thought is barnacle in the snail but I haven’t seen one that looks like that.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Lol yeah. Local Asian super market. Seafood section sells live fish, live shrimps. But these mostly cold water habitat. I usually buy half pound to 1 lb live shrimps. 1LB is like $16.00. And plenty times, some critters come along. Sometimes hermit crabs and all.

 

[griss]

Lol yeah. Local Asian super market. Seafood section sells live fish, live shrimps. But these mostly cold water habitat. I usually buy half pound to 1 lb live shrimps. 1LB is like $16.00. And plenty times, some critters come along. Sometimes hermit crabs and all.

That’s cool. Being landlocked, my open water is limited to taking the boat out in the Mississippi River or down to the Lake of the Ozarks.

What country/state are you in?

 

[BlueOcean168]

New York State. And in New York City. Many local aquarium shops by subway commute.

 

[griss]

New York State. And in New York City. Many local aquarium shops by subway commute.

Ah, lots of NY people here. @Paul B gets his water and pods from Long Island Sound if I remember correctly.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Soft corals full open. This shell filter does release some sort of long tentacle. But still not sure what it is.

 

[griss]

This shell filter does release some sort of long tentacle. But still not sure what it is.

The shell looks like a barnacle, but the long tentacle makes me this that's not what it is. Where did it come from? Can you get a closer picture with the blue light turned down?

 

[BlueOcean168]

Will take more pic later. It came from shopping seafood market, it hitch hiked along the live shrimps.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Been over a month. I will say this light can sustain these easy soft corals.

 

[BlueOcean168]

Are these sponges 0_0?

 

[Misled]

Yep.

 

[griss]

Been over a month. I will say this light can sustain these easy soft corals.

Looking good.