My 220g 1 year update/journey

[Veinz]

Not going to get to crazy.. just wanted to show a 1 year update/journey on my 220g. Little background.. I bought everything on OfferUp for this setup. EVERYTHING! I was determined to set up my dream tank at a price I could afford and find awesome deals on OfferUp. (With a little/a lot of haggling on prices ) I traveled everywhere just to pick up pieces of equipment here and there… the distance didn’t matter to me. I was a little nuts but I was going to make this all work. Within a month I had pretty much everything I wanted and was ready to set it up.

The stand pre setup and plumbing

Tank placement and aquascaping (These 30” high tanks are a pain in the *ss

Up and running. Didn’t really like the aquascape so I was always messing around

Changed the T5 only fixture to a Metal Halide/T5 fixture. Metal Halides was always going to happen on this tank just had to find the fixture and OfferUp came through once again.

Canopy was built and rock was re aquascaped. Hated seeing the massive over box

For a couple months I didn’t really do too much with it was even thinking about just turning it into a FOWLR. Some personal life s*** happened and it sat around. Then I got back on my feet and I started to put corals in around Sept/October and this is where it’s at now.

Also 2 months after setting this up I decided I wanted a clownfish/anemone tank.. so I started looking on OfferUp and pieced together a system. (Wife was not on board with another tank in the living room ) but I made it happen anyways 2 tank setups within a year.

 

[mescobar]

Beautiful tank, thanks for sharing the build! You got a lot of sticks with great growth for only being a year, what's your dosing regime?

Also, how you re-fill the ATO? How do you know when its empty? Assuming its the large purple tank in the corner.

 

[Veinz]

Beautiful tank, thanks for sharing the build! You got a lot of sticks with great growth for only being a year, what's your dosing regime?

Also, how you re-fill the ATO? How do you know when it’s empty? Assuming it’s the large purple tank in the corner.

Thank you!
There’s a couple members on here that were very generous on giving me some chunky frags! Much appreciated to everyone that did! The sticks are doing great and very happy seeing growth already from them.

I dose Kalk on a 24hr cycle cause my doser can’t program night time only so I just a set the mgs for it to dose every hour. Which has been working well still. I also dose Cal Alk and Mag when needed. The kalk stabilizes the Cal and Alk pretty well for now. Also the basic trace elements from brightwell replenish.

yes that is a 20g drum it’s a pain filling it up until I can figure out a better way to fill it. So basically I get a 5 gallon water dispenser bottle (like the sparklets or arrowhead) with the long neck and dump it into the drum. It barely fits to do it but it works

 

[Sold4JC]

Nice set up. I like the tang gang. Great livestock selection.

 

[Veinz]

Nice set up. I like the tang gang. Great livestock selection.

Thank you. I just lost my clown tang unfortunately. The powder blue wanted nothing to do with him and the clown tang suffered. No more tangs will be added but more Anthias will be!

 

[joseserrano]

Thanks got sharing. Plumbing looks crazy

 

[ndrwater]

I like it!! Especially the OG (what appears to be) the Coralife Halide fixture. Those were the best ever IMO.
With that Halide setup, how are you addressing the heat issue? I used to run halide too, but it was so hot i needed to add a chiller... Being in the hood I would expect some heat issues. Especially in the summer. Nothing beats the look of halide/T5 IMO.
Great setup. Keep the updates coming!!!

 

[Veinz]

I like it!! Especially the OG (what appears to be) the Coralife Halide fixture. Those were the best ever IMO.
With that Halide setup, how are you addressing the heat issue? I used to run halide too, but it was so hot i needed to add a chiller... Being in the hood I would expect some heat issues. Especially in the summer. Nothing beats the look of halide/T5 IMO.
Great setup. Keep the updates coming!!!

The real OG one is 6 feet long which I couldn’t find especially where I was looking but I scored this on OfferUp. Exactly what I was looking for which is kinda crazy. It’s the Hamilton Cebu Sun fixture with reflectors. Wish it came with 3 MH bulbs but it’s only 2 250w. Already planning on upgrading it to 3 400w pendants with a retro fit T5 setup…. But that’s later down the road in 2026.
For the heat I ran my ac pretty much everyday. The ac vent is located on the wall inside the canopy which worked out perfect. Never went over 79 degrees all summer and now I have it set where it won’t go over 78 with a combination of fans and ac (when needed) a couple clip on fans can go a long way when placed right. No chiller needed.

 

[Jimbo327]

The plumbing was professionally done. I can see you are very organized and neat.

Looking forward to this tank growing in.

 

[Veinz]

The plumbing was professionally done. I can see you are very organized and neat.

Looking forward to this tank growing in.

I’m a swimming pool technician..I think that’s where all the plumbing skills came from. lol planned on having all the pvc purple with white fittings but why do they gotta charge so much for colored pipe! That idea went out the door real quick. Will definitely keep more updates with the tank!

 

[Jimbo327]

I’m a swimming pool technician..I think that’s where all the plumbing skills came from. lol planned on having all the pvc purple with white fittings but why do they gotta charge so much for colored pipe! That idea went out the door real quick. Will definitely keep more updates with the tank!

LOL. I also planned for red PVC piping. Then I saw the prices, and went straight to Home Depot to get some white PVC.

Plumbing was probably one of my least favorite things to do on the tank. I got it to work by putting unions everywhere and visiting Home Depot like 20 times.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

Great build - congrats! +1 on the plumbing - awesome job. I spent literally 2 weeks doing plumbing on my 450gal and originally bought red PVC pipes myself. After figuring that I needed 40ft+ of 1” & 1.5” pipes and schedule-80 gate valves & elbows, that changed my mind quickly. I ended up at HD as well - lol. I did have to fork out a few Benjamin’s on those stupid Spears gate valves — the 1.5” was $109 each!

Lighting - great selection and your acros will love you. I went all LEDs and can’t go back to MH since I can not afford those ridiculous SCE prices.

Flow: are those MP60s in the middle and Gyres on the side? This used to be my setup but moved to all 4xMP60s in the back. I hated cleaning the Gyres after awhile…

ATO: I would honestly go find an acrylic ATO or get one from Amazon. Not knowing where is the waterline would drive me nuts! You got more patience than me - that’s for sure.

Keep the updates coming…

 

[thresher]

Great capture of the shifting rockwork. Be careful, 1 turns into 2 then you have a harem of aquariums and no real wife

 

[Discotu]

Looking good!

 

[Tangwich]

Nice scape. 30" tall tanks are a pia but they are definitely show tanks.

 

[dansyr]

Looks good! I'm excited to watch it grow in. 2nd scape is definitely the look.

 

[Veinz]

Great build - congrats! +1 on the plumbing - awesome job. I spent literally 2 weeks doing plumbing on my 450gal and originally bought red PVC pipes myself. After figuring that I needed 40ft+ of 1” & 1.5” pipes and schedule-80 gate valves & elbows, that changed my mind quickly. I ended up at HD as well - lol. I did have to fork out a few Benjamin’s on those stupid Spears gate valves — the 1.5” was $109 each!

Lighting - great selection and your acros will love you. I went all LEDs and can’t go back to MH since I can not afford those ridiculous SCE prices.

Flow: are those MP60s in the middle and Gyres on the side? This used to be my setup but moved to all 4xMP60s in the back. I hated cleaning the Gyres after awhile…

ATO: I would honestly go find an acrylic ATO or get one from Amazon. Not knowing where is the waterline would drive me nuts! You got more patience than me - that’s for sure.

Keep the updates coming…

Crazy to think when we add up all the plumbing parts it gets pricey! I couldn’t afford all the gate valves I would need so I just went cheap ball valves. But after it was all done I think I spent like over $400 on plumbing parts. (the cheap parts)

I’ll forever be a Metal Halide guy. I first started with them 20 years ago and I’ll continue to run them now. Only draw back is I can’t fine tune spectrum like the LEDs can. I have to play around with T5s and get a spectrum for the corals to grow better.

They are mp40s on the back. Gen 1s which means they barely push water anymore lol only works on one speed the jebao in the middle pushes way more water than the gen 1 mp40 does. Maxspect gyre 350s cloud edition on the sides those things push a crazy amount of water. I have dead spots in the back corners so I’m trying to figure out something for that right now

haha ya with the ATO I just shake the drum and feel how much water is left in it. lol I only have to fill it up once every 5 days. It works for now.

 

[Veinz]

Nice scape. 30" tall tanks are a pia but they are definitely show tanks.

They are definitely nice for viewing I wouldn’t change that. I just don’t look forward to putting a coral at the bottom standing on a chair on my tippy toes full arm in face touching the water with the longest tongs I have lol

 

[Veinz]

Looks good! I'm excited to watch it grow in. 2nd scape is definitely the look.

Thank you! That Birdsnest you gave me has already like tripled its size! It’s going to be a nice piece once it grows to a colony

 

[jimmy007]

I was lucky enough to see his setup a few months ago and it's very nice setup. It's definitely the center piece in his living room, even the neighborhood can enjoyed it from the view through his front windows.