[spazz]

what i would recomend is to get a small nano tank and get that up and runnng first. then once that is running and stocked with a couple of fish and a few corals they slowly work on your bigger system. it takes alot of time and alot of money to purchase all the equiptment needed for a 220 g system. your going to need a fish room if you have plans for all those tanks. you will also have to look into humidity control for your house. with all that water you will have to have an air exchanger in there to keep the humidity down or your house will rot from the moisture buildup.
by setting up a nano tank and then researching the equiptment needed for a 220 you will be alot better off. the nano will give you something to look at and work with and keep you from jumping into a huge system that might totaly crash if your not prepared for all the things that can and will happen with it. on that list you have 2 of the hardest animals to take care of in a tank. sea horses and octopuses. i have been in the hobby for over 5 years and have a pretty good grasp of what it takes house an octopus. our local fish store even has a mimic octopus in stock right now. but i know it takes so much more to take care of that animal and make him happy so i dont buy him for that reason. there escape artists so your entire tank has to be sealed so well that he cant escape. there beautiful creatures but 90% of the reefers here are not expert enough to care for an octopus. start small and work your way into the big tank. then work on adding to it, after it has been up and stable for a year or two. this hobby is about beauty not speed. there is too many tanks there on that list to be installing and maintaning for some one so new to the hobby. each tank has its little problems and nightmares to deal with. if you have 4-5 tanks all set up at once you ant deal with all of them and do research about the hobby too. im still learning about the hobby. every day im researching new and interesting things that happen with this hobby. i live this hobby every day.
don't be discouraged by this. we are trying to save you thousands of dollars in lost fish and corals. let alone the thousands of dollars in equiptment. to start that 220 properly you wil need a minimum of $4000-$5000 in equiptment. if you look through the different threads here on reef cnetral you will see alot of big tanks that have some of the best equiptment money can buy. they have that super expensive equiptment beause the cheap junk is just that. junk. you can expect to spend up to $1000 for good lighting, $1000-$1500 for the skimmer, and $1000-$1500 for the circulation pumps. and that is just 3 areas of the tank equipment. i hevent even gotten to the water quality equipment or maintaince equipment yet.
start by making a list of what you want in your tank for fish and corals. then research the proper equiptment you will need to house those corals and fish. then go on a buying spreee and be prepared to sleep in the dog house for a couple of weeks while your wife gets mad at you for spending her shopping fund.

this list below was started for another tank here on reef central and i just copied it over to your thread. its a good list to start with and when its filled in you will have a good list to start with for your project. every system is different and there for the equiptment will be different but the main list is still about the same.





Main tank return Pump -

Powerheads/circulation pumps -

Lighting -

Protein Skimmer -

Carbon filtration -

Phosphate Removal -

Calcium Reactor-

Kalk Reactor -

UV Sterilizer -

Ozonizer -

RO/DI unit -

auto top off -

Dosing Pump -

Controller -

Chiller -

Heater -

Misc/Other Suggestions -