Best Filter for Live Reef ?

[alizar185]

Going to set up a Live Reef tank, incorporating a Plenum. Information says to make sure to have excellent Protien Skimmer, and best possible Filtration, and of course lot's of water movement. Any input as to which "type" and or specific filters are working well for all of you out there would be greatly appreciated. I'm planning on a 100 gallon tank!

Thanx Steve

 

[wrightme43]

The best possible filtration is a protien skimmer in my mind. I have two filter sock holders I use every once in a while, a piece of foam that stops micro bubbles and a ASM G-3 on my 75 gallon. That is all the filtration I have except for live rock. HTH Steve

 

[Trenchsoul]

The information you found seems to be a bit misleading. You don't want super duper overfiltration in a reef tank since corals do get a good portion of their nutrition via filter feeding. If you overfilter you risk pulling those out of the water, making your life more difficult as then you'll have to be more adamant about adding live plankton to your tank.

I would reccomend a euroreef 2 or 3, I can't remember exactly, a sump system for your filtration, and shooting for about 1 lb of live rock per gallon of your tank.

 

[plack]

trenchsoul ? Wouldn't that depend on how much you feed your corals and or fish and the total bio-load placed on a tank. you reccomend one type of skimmer someonelse recommended another there is no such thing as the best skimmer I guess I don't understand what is misleading about what was previously stated some people use live rock in a wet dry some people use refegiums as well some use socks I don't see any harm I know some don't use a skimmer and have basically a huge refugium and very deep sandbeds some people don't want sand beds if you know the proas and cones thats all thats seems to matter to me I am just curious

 

[Trenchsoul]

I don't fully understand what you're trying to say plack. My brain has a hard time reading when you don't use any puncuation =P

If you could rephrase that I'll try to address it.

 

[wrightme43]

Well in just in case what I wrote was misleading in any way, these are my thoughts. I believe and have physical proof from many tanks that a good amount of live rock, and good quality protien skimmer and occasional micro filtration work well, for me. Notice I said for me, and I believe. LOL There are many ways to skin this cat. I think cannister filters are more hassle than they are worth because they must be frequently cleaned or they become nitrate factories, in my experince. Hang on the back filters the same thing. Protien skimming and live rock will keep a tank crystal clear, with no measurable Am, Ni, and Na. Proper feeding and maintence will combined with a skimmer will keep Phosphate low or undetecable. As a added benifit, it is actually cheaper to do it this way, and in my experince it works better. I hope this helps you in some way. Steve

 

[plack]

The information you found seems to be a bit misleading...

What is misleading about the advice wrightme43 gave ?

 

[Trenchsoul]

It seems we have confusion, my post was in response to the OP, not to wrightme43.

 

[plack]

I am sorry trenchsoul I assume OP is alizar185 I think now I understand now you were responding to the information he stated please excuse my confusion

 

[LakeEd]

Alizar,

I think, just from the few posts in respond to you here... you may be able to tell there are as many "Best Ways" to setup your reef, as there are people with tanks. *grinz*

From the sound of your original post... the "Plenum" sounds as if you are interested in doing one of GARF's Bullet Proof Reefs. I have read of some people using GARF's setup, and being happy with it. I would suggest if that is the way you are set on going, you try to follow their instructions there.

Many people now... depending on what types of corals they wish in their tanks... are going completely "BARE BOTTOM" in their tanks... to make removal of detrovus (crud) as easy as possible... before it has the chance to start decaying. Those same people would be against the Plenum idea, because of the likelyhood of that area under a substrate collecting all the nasties they are wishing to keep from happening in their tanks.

As for filtration... for the money, the ASM skimmers can be a very good investment. Get the largest skimmer you can afford... they really will help in the long run. Live Rock is another almost "MUST" for a successful reef. The rest... refugeum, Filter Socks, Canister filters... are a personal choice. Luckily, you will find people here on Reef Frontiers that have tried, or currently use just about everything, and more than willing to help you in your decission for you new tank.

Not to mention... WELCOMING you to our wonderful hobby! Hope to hear everything about your new setup in the future! *Big Smile*

 

[Sparks]

While I don't know exactly what it's called, I heard from pretty knowledgable friend that many corals, in their efforts to grow and expand themselves, occasionally put out "chemicals" that supposedly inhibit nearby corals from growing. If that's true, wouldn't using carbon really help remove some of these inhibiting chemicals stuff?

I've read articles on garf about people actually dosing phosphates to promote growth. so other than controlling unsightly algae blooms and cyno, are phosphates actually "bad" for corals? are they good?

 

[wrightme43]

Now you have brought up some good questions. Yes corals put out chemicals to inhibit each others growth. Yes using carbon will remove some of them. What else will carbon absorb? Lots of trace elements is what some people have shown me. Things I want in my tank. Its like this, the carbon does not know what it is absorbing and locking up inside. It takes the good with the bad. The skimmer on the other hand seems to leave most of the good and take out quite a bit of the bad. On the phosphates thing, if you can measure phosphates they are out of balance in the system. In a tank that has no measurable phos all available is locked up being used by living things in the system. Adding food keeps bringing the level up. It has to go somewhere. If it is in solution not being used the general consensus is that it inhibits the formation of the coral skeleton. It also seems to bind to rocks and sand and then when local area ph drops redissolve into the bulk water. Hope this helps. Steve

 

[cutndrag2]

I have found that protien skimming is a very good along with live rock in my tank. I also use some carbon but someone told me that that many cheap made activated carbons are a source of phosphates b/c of the way they are manufactured don't know how true it is? I know it's not filtration but regular water changes are good to out with the bad and in with the good. Patrick

 

[bradreef]

best filtration handsdown. water change with good salt and ro/di water.

 

[Skimmy]

i've always believed that there's no way to overskim,
i think that replentishing chemicals is a small price to pay for having a clean tank. but then i dont do sand , or feed my corals either.
considering that fish pass 90% of the nutrients they consume, i see no need to directly feed my corals. basically i want my tank as baron as possible, if there's nutrient in there, it's because i put it in there. keep in mind i also have sps, i know there's plenty of softies and lps that really benifit from being directly fed. i also run carbon 24-7, so alleopathy is kept to a minimum.
i realize that this is an extreme way to run a system, but this is how i get the best results.
i think that high flow, and purified water are probably most important though, with massive skimming and carbon being after that, imo.
there are so many ways to do this, be wary of anyone who says "this is the best way, everyone else is wrong"

 

[alizar185]

Wright, Just a quikie, do you emplore a plenum in your tank?

 

[alizar185]

Thanx a lot for the advice and the welcome Ed My thinking on my tank is this, go with the plenum, with the best Protien Skimmer I can find, (might be too expensive but I hear you get what you pay for,lol) and LOTS of water movement, whatever those are called,lol. Remember I'm brand new...I'd like to set those up with blowers? (not sure of that termanology) please go easy on me if it's wrong,lol. in 2 or possibly more directions and set on timers. 2 direction every 6 hours or maybe 3 directions every 8. The thought process on this is to not only simulate tidal movement but too also "stir up the tank" to dislodge any and all detrius that might be loooking for an out of the way place to hide and take hold in my soon to be beautiful reef.
The amount of information to be gathered is downright intimidating! I would like to keep it as "natural" and simple as possible. Might be an unattainable dream, but, what the hay,lol. Trying to learn as much as possible before starting, in hopes to avoid too many costly mistakes. I can see where patience will pay off.

Steve