cannister vs wet dry

[DeathByYoda]

hello all.
i just started a salt water tank(55gal)that I purchased on craigs list.it came with tank, stand and a filter.oh...and a protein skimmer.sorry and lights...hehe. the lights were 65 watt coral life 4 prong compacts 50/50. ballast was blown on 1 of the 2 fixtures. so i went and bought a 4 foot light fixture from lowes and 2 t8 bulbs. lights done. i started the tank got it running and in 2 weeks i had brown algae with a mixture of green. the filter is a small hang on the back. the person i purchased it from wanted to fill the tank with live rock and use it as a filter as well.He never filled it with live rock(shocker) so now i have this undersized filter for a 55 gal tank.....so here is the question.Cannister or Wet Dry.....lol. i found a cannister filter on sale for a 100 gal. tank. im figuring...the hang on the back filter plus the canister filter plus the protein skimmer and more live rock will be a nice start for having a beautiful reef tank. do i need more filtration?i know i need more lights for sure but for now it is fish only till the cycle is done. which brings up another thing. i bought this bottle from the fish store that they say will cycle the tank in 24 hours with the right amount of the chemical i bought. has anyone ever heard of such a thing or was i suckered in.

thank you for your help

DeathByYoda

 

[Burto]

You wouldn't want a wet/dry, you'd want a sump full of live rock, maybe a deep sand bed and refugium. But plumbing that into a 55G tank that doesn't already have weirs installed isn't worth the hassle I don't think.
best choice is probably a large canister with relatively low flow full of live rock.
If you were to have a lightly stocked tank, you could probably just fill it with live rock and have powerheads circulating the water, and no external canister or sump filter, just the protein skimmer if it can be plumbed in as a HOB.

I would not trust any off-the-shelf bottled product to cycle a tank in 24 hours. It might speed the process or detoxify ammonia and nitrite, but I doubt it's actually going to cycle a tank overnight.

All in all, you'll probably get better replies if this thread is moved to the salt water section.

Posted on mobile.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

W/D or canister would only become nitrate factories. What you want is live rock, deep sand bed and a refugium to absorb all the nitrates. If you are into DIY, make an algae filter, your nitrate level will always be low!!

Cycling with live rocks is better than those chemicals. you get to see those diatoms and algae growing slowly and dying off.