Need Help Starting Predator Tank

[Chago09]

Ok I currently have two salty tanks. One reef and one predator. When I started this hobby I was told that the berlin system was the best. Meaning no bioballs or any media what so ever. Just 1lb per gallon of live rock in the main display and in sump, with lots of flow. Plus a powerful skimmer. Thats it. But this way is very expensive and as you know lb per gallon of live rock is not cheap. I understand the need for this in a reef tank but is this really needed in a predator tank??? do any of you have set ups of 100gallons+ that run on something else then what I have described???

Could base rock be used and then just like 10 or 20 lbs of live rock to seed it, do the same job as using all like rock???

 

[philliptobin]

I started out with a lot of base rock and just a few pounds of live rock in a 125 gallon. I was using hob filters, about a year later I switched to Rena xp3's, then about 3 months ago I decided to try a 55 gallon refugium. I don't have a lot of plants in my refugium yet, but all my corals seem to be doing a lot better and are multiplying faster.

 

[Twitterbait]

if you do a bigger skimmer you can do less live rock. IME a skimmer is more important.