Responses are in the red. Seemed easier this way. ( Stole your response technique nonstophoops
)Filtration Necessary?
- Thread starter Jon M
- Start date
Responses are in the red. Seemed easier this way. ( Stole your response technique nonstophoops
)Run SeaChem Purigen in your HOB rather than carbon. It's supposed to work better than carbon plus it's reusable because you can "recharge" it.
Sounds like a plan but that appears to be little granules. How do you propose I run it in the hob? Simply dump it on the bottom? Or maybe make panty hose bags of it and throw those in there?... Or maybe throw in the cartridges as a "blockade" w/o the carbon in them and just dump the purigen behind it?...
OK, time for me to be blasted.... all aquariums with any type of fish need filtration. There is no such thing as a filter-less aquarium. In a salt water setup, the live rock and live sand is the filtration. The power heads sending water into the live rock is also part of the filtration system. You can keep a successful saltwater many different ways. Some methods are more efficient than others while cost/space often plays a role in what type of filtration is chosen. A sump whether it be used in conjunction with or is the main filtration system is superior in many ways. The op has stated that a sump is not feasible. Is it possible to run a healthy setup without a sump? yes. you can add more live rock... this is in essence increasing your filtration system. Can you add a HOB protein skimmer? sure. is an HOB filter necessary? not necessarily. can you get away without using one. sure. add more live rock and make sure you have enough circulation. add live sand. add a skimmer if the bio load is a concern. rather than have a HOB filter, use a HOB refugium with plants. You can also add a reactor down the road.
I noticed you say you add prime to the tap water? Use RO water and add a good saltwater mix. A good saltwater mix will have (almost) all the necessary nutrients needed, etc. Once your tank is established and in equilibrium, you will only have to change water monthly at 10%!! almost nothing for a 40 gallon tank.
I noticed you say you add prime to the tap water? Use RO water and add a good saltwater mix. A good saltwater mix will have (almost) all the necessary nutrients needed, etc. Once your tank is established and in equilibrium, you will only have to change water monthly at 10%!! almost nothing for a 40 gallon tank.
I use ro water only. Do 10 gal/week water changes.
I use no equipment except for a T5 light fixture, 300 watt heater, and 4 powerheads of different makes and models. I chose not to purchase a skimmer for a tank that I was only going to have up for 6 months. I will most definitely use a sump and protein skimmer for my final system...
Stock consists of 6 fish 2" or smaller. This system was not meant to support them for life and when they get larger the system would likely fail...
I know that I did not go about setting up my first saltwater tank by the book but to be honest my final system is going to have all the bells and whistles. Contrary to what I did, I feel that skimping on the filtration system is bound to cause problems down the road and I personally would be extremely pissed if I lost $2,000 worth of stock because I didn't purchase a $200 skimmer.
you just have to decide weather or not it is worth the risk. In my opinion it isn't... for the long run. If you were in a similar situation to me I would recommend it but if your looking for a long term situation I wouldn't trust it.
I use no equipment except for a T5 light fixture, 300 watt heater, and 4 powerheads of different makes and models. I chose not to purchase a skimmer for a tank that I was only going to have up for 6 months. I will most definitely use a sump and protein skimmer for my final system...
Stock consists of 6 fish 2" or smaller. This system was not meant to support them for life and when they get larger the system would likely fail...
I know that I did not go about setting up my first saltwater tank by the book but to be honest my final system is going to have all the bells and whistles. Contrary to what I did, I feel that skimping on the filtration system is bound to cause problems down the road and I personally would be extremely pissed if I lost $2,000 worth of stock because I didn't purchase a $200 skimmer.
you just have to decide weather or not it is worth the risk. In my opinion it isn't... for the long run. If you were in a similar situation to me I would recommend it but if your looking for a long term situation I wouldn't trust it.
You could either use the panty hose bags that you mentioned, or you could buy a cheap draw string media bag from an LFS or chain pet store. I run my carbon in a media bag that I got at PetSmart for a few dollars, and it's been working pretty well thus far.
I would use a bag of the Purigen as well as a piece of bonded filter pad rather than the standard cartridge and the Purigen. The Purigen is pretty powerful stuff and is way more effective in conjunction with a piece of pad filter pad than a standard cartridge; you'll be able to fit more in there without the standard cartridge anyway. Be sure to have the bonded filter pad in the back of the filter and the bag of Purigen in the front in order to keep the Purigen from getting clogged with detritus that the pad will pick up.
Lots of good points going on here which just goes to show that you can do different things and be successful. Purigen is not a bad choice for in the HOB, I didn't really think of that.
One thing that I think is off base it ever being able to do one 10% water change a month on a stocked reef tank. There is just no way you will keep nitrates and phosphates down. You also won't be able to keep calcium, alk, mag, ph, and other elements high enough because your corals will be using them up. I would do at minimum 10 gallons every 2 weeks or 5 gallons once a week would be better. After establishing a solid schedule you can assess how it is doing and maybe dial up or down from there. Getting behind on water changes is a tough thing to overcome to get back to proper levels. It also sets a behavior by the aquarist that I believe is tough to overcome. People who are lazy with their tanks will frequently continue to be lazy. I guess I shouldn't speak for everyone, but at least in my case that is true.
One thing that I think is off base it ever being able to do one 10% water change a month on a stocked reef tank. There is just no way you will keep nitrates and phosphates down. You also won't be able to keep calcium, alk, mag, ph, and other elements high enough because your corals will be using them up. I would do at minimum 10 gallons every 2 weeks or 5 gallons once a week would be better. After establishing a solid schedule you can assess how it is doing and maybe dial up or down from there. Getting behind on water changes is a tough thing to overcome to get back to proper levels. It also sets a behavior by the aquarist that I believe is tough to overcome. People who are lazy with their tanks will frequently continue to be lazy. I guess I shouldn't speak for everyone, but at least in my case that is true.
Yeah. Of course all tanks need filtration. I'm just inquiring the sw filtration here since I'm new to sw. I've been researching a lot more on berlin yada yada etc. and taking in all the information on this thread and I believe my main course of action for this tank next will be a nice big skimmer and then possibly a RODI unit. I use instant ocean salt mix, but not on the water I top the tank off with every other day do to evaporation. The salt should still be in the water volume even w/ the evaporation. RODI water isn't an option to me at this point since I don't have a RODI unit but yes, I know of their glory and what they do and know I'll need one long term. One step at a time.
From what I'm reading there are a lot of successful tanks out there not running sump/canister/hob. Those same tanks have plenty of current, lr, ls, good skimmer, and sometimes even a reactor. I'm definitely getting the big picture as I research more and read this thread. I guess I don't see why you would setup a sw tank though with intentions of only having it up 6 months since from what I've been told from friends that also do sw, the tank doesn't start to really establish and get fun till you hit the 12 month mark at least.
Gotcha'. I'm still not sure I'll be running even the HOB. I might stick with heavy flow, lr, and a quality skimmer. On a side note does anyone know if such a thing exist as a CHEAPER budget friendly UV sterilizer? Do people use UV regularly on sw for nitrate reduction?...
I'm quite the opposite of lazy when it comes to my tank's water changes. In the past I've kept large tanks with heavy bioload fish (Oscar, Pbass, etc.) so I'm sort of a wc fanatic. I haven't done any wc on this sw tank yet because I don't want to disrupt whatever cycle I have going on. No livestock in there to worry about. I'd certainly be happy with 10% wc a week for this tank. That would be a breeze.
I'd say that these UV sterilizers are about as budget-friendly as they get. Sterilizers are more for irradiating bacteria, algae, and parasites rather than reducing nitrates by the way.
