this might sound silly but im new to this do u need a protein skimmer and a filter or just a protein skimmer like i said this probably is a stupid question the tank is going to be a 29 gallon
protein skimmers
- Thread starter cjdad
- Start date
Yes, you need both. they do different things. if you have lots of live rock, corals etc... then you will need the skimmer. most things in salt release and grow and break down all types of things, protein is one of them, that the beauty of living crap!
Yeah, it would be a good idea to do both. If you're not doing any inverts then you may be able to get away without one but just keep up with those water changes because SW can get ugly quick in a 29g.
If you do decide to get a skimmer...make sure you go over the capacity of your tank because chances are whatever you are keeping in a 29 will out grow it and that way you will be ready for the upgrade and not have to buy all your stuff again. For example, everything on my 55 will handle my 125, and everything on my 125 will handle a 180.
Best of luck...do you know what you are going to do for fish/inverts?
If you do decide to get a skimmer...make sure you go over the capacity of your tank because chances are whatever you are keeping in a 29 will out grow it and that way you will be ready for the upgrade and not have to buy all your stuff again. For example, everything on my 55 will handle my 125, and everything on my 125 will handle a 180.
Best of luck...do you know what you are going to do for fish/inverts?
OK, here is the deal with salt tanks. A protein skimmer is needed. All the Biological filtration comes from the live rock and live sand. A "filter" is really not needed in salt tanks.
Mechanical filtration - Protein Skimmer
Biological filtration - Live Sand and Live Rock
Chemical filtration - I run two small bags of carbon. I change one bag every two weeks.
Flow - Tunze Power head
Mechanical filtration - Protein Skimmer
Biological filtration - Live Sand and Live Rock
Chemical filtration - I run two small bags of carbon. I change one bag every two weeks.
Flow - Tunze Power head
One thing I'm still confused about is mechanical filtration in SW tanks. In every FW tank I've had, The prefilters in my wetdry or the sponge inthe hob or canisters were an absolute neccessity to filter out particulate waste. Do we not need this in SW? What worries me is that a filter media like this would tend to be a huge ammonia pit in SW tanks that can't tolerate even the smallest bit of ammonia.