Freedom Filter

[mncspradlin]

Hey, Been away for a while. My 55 reef is doing so well that all of my corals and anemone have gone wild and are growing too close to eachother so we have decided to upgrade. We are going to a 125gal reef. We just purchased a light system with 3 175watt MH, 2 130watt PCs and 8 lunar lights. Should be enough light (6 watts/gal).
We currently only have a hang-on biowheel filter and a Remora C skimmer in our 55 and were going to go with a sump for the new tank but found an ad for this Freedom Filter product.
It supposedly will filter and skim up to 300gal reef tanks with up to 1200gal/hr flows.
Has anyone used one and do they work?
It seems to be a great invention if it works, no more worry about overflowing and power outages....
Someone give me some good news please...

 

[Guest]

I have never heard about it but IMO I don't think it is worth it.

#1 Who knows how good the skimmer is
#2 That PH is not enough circulation at all
#3 LR and a good fuge is the best IMO for a reef
#4 There will not ever be a flood with a sump/fuge if it is balanced correclty
#5 If you are going to spend that much, may as well get a good sump/fuge skimmer, and not have more equip. hanging in the tank.

All this is just IMO.
#5 the price

 

[melosu58]

I dont know anything about the filter but your lighting should be OK. IMO that should be adequate lighting

 

[tecwzrd]

I don't have any personal experience with this unit but from looking at it on their website I would not purchase this unit.

Take a look at a cut-away of this unit.

Clearly, most of the water that the pump sucks in bypasses the protein skimmer altogether and goes right back into the tank. Even if the design of the protein skimmer was good (which it doesn't appear to be due to the undersized skimmer reaction area), this unit is sucking in water from the bottom of the tank instead of the surface of the water. Obviously, that's problematic because skimmable organics are hydrophobic. Therefore they are going to be located on the surface of the water and never get skimmed.

The sponges used for biological filtration could work but are on the small size for housing beneficial bacteria. However, there are problems there too. It looks nearly impossible to remove them for cleaning without disassembling the whole thing.

The way the carbon is situated is definately not ideal for chemical filtration. Running carbon passively is not the best way to use it and I can't think of a more passive way to run it as there is no possibility of flow through the carbon packet.

Lastly if you look at their testimonials doesn't it strike you as a bit odd that most of them are from their dealers (who of course want to sell it $$$) with the exception of two customers who didn't leave their last name

In tank skimmers are usually the worst of the bunch and you would be far better off spending that $300 on a quality sump skimmer like the AquaC EV 120 which is one of the best for the $$$.