Equipment questions

[pitlife79]

Hello all,

I am still in the process of completing my 46g bow front and I had a few questions on equipment, mainly filtration. In addition to 55lbs of live rock,I am currently running a 10 gallon sump with a 5 inch sand bed, I have medical grade filter socks on the overflows (2) and a Tunze nano skimmer. My wife bought me a coralife UV Sterilizer for Christmas, but I have read that it may actuallly be more beneficial not to run ozone or UV light as it can kill young copepods and the like in their early stages, thus limiting the food supply for my mandarin. I have a mixed tank, sps, lps, one softie (devils hand) and some zoo's and ric's. I want the best filtration that i can achieve, but my fears about the food supply for the mandarin and the possibility of running too many filtration units prompt me to hesistate hooking it up. Can any of you shed a little light on this subject for me? No pun inteneded!!

 

[jezzeaepi]

If you want to add additional filtration you are stuck with
A)Adding a fuge
B)Adding a second skimmer

A gravity fed fuge would be the most ideal for your situation but they are hard to set up cleanly. That way all the pods that live in the fuge can get to your display without having to go through an impeller.

I personally wouldnt run the UV sterilizer as I like most of the things in my water column. Many people have used them succesfully for a long time though.


The other often overlooked area for filtration is flow in your tank. For your filtration to work AT ALL you need to keep the detrius in suspension. If it settles down the bottom and gets trapped in the crevices of your rocks right away its going to rot before it gets pulled out by the skimmer. Most people on here recomend a 40x+ turnover inside your tank to keep things from settling to quickly. Many run their flow quite a bit higher at 60-100x, however they do almost exclusively sps.

 

[pitlife79]

Thanks for the input!!

 

[vwmoneypit]

I have to ask the same question I hae two rios pointing out from rocks and a mag 75 from the refuge I have a 55 gal 55 lbs of rock is this enuff ????the rios are 15s I think