Coming from reef aquarium

[Rivercats]

I absolutely would run at least 1 big filter. I run 3 on my 220.

 

[kdogg85]

Not being a jerk, just asking, but why not let the tank be the filter? Is it due to the lesser amount of surface area for bacteria to grow vs live rock in a sw tank? I'm used to hearing filters are nothing more than nitrate farms, please bear with me. There is going to be some driftwood and rocks in there if that counts for anything. And the tank is not going to be stocked right on the verge of destruction either.

I think I still have an emperor 400 that the pump is shot, I could have the mag 7 discharge into it and overflow into the tank if it were needed, plugging off the bio wheel ports of course. I will get some pics up of what I'm talking about.

 

[Rivercats]

Without a filter your not going to be pulling any detris out of the tank for starters. Plus most of your beneficial bacteria is located in the filter were it is constantly having oxygenated water (what BB has to have) and food supplied. Canister filters are only nitrate issues if people don't clean them. I clean mine every 3-4 weeks. I use the sponges, a lot of polyfill, and bio-media in mine and you should see how much gunk is caught by the sponges and polyfill. Without a filter all that would remain in the tank. I also do 50% WC's weekly, even on my 220g and get that much detris in the filters. If you don't want filters read up on the Walstad method. Your in the SW reef mind set which is different. I had my first reef in the early 80's when canisters were your main filters (even before wet/dry's came out) and when kept clean I ran a very successful reef. A lot of people think you can put a canister on and only clean it once every 6 months. That's when you have a nitrate monster to deal with.

 

[kdogg85]

I used a sump vs wet/dry on mine, not that it's relevant. In the reef setting, all that left over stuff is coral food(what the skimmer doesn't catch anyway) or it's food for the ats(turf scrubber) I just lightly vaccumed the sand off and went on with it. PWC's were every 2 weeks at 30g a pop. Never had to supplement, must have always got a good batch of salt.

If I have to run a filter, It'll be cleaned every week, but I would just slosh it around in old tank water to knock the junk off, then back in. It doesn't take 5 minutes to do. This is drastically different from a reef the more I read, I figured there would be some similarities.

Isn't detritus food for the plants, I just vaccum out what I can when I do a pwc? Weekly 50g should be fine I would think, I'm not going heavy on the stocking nor do I overfeed. Or am I just completely in left field here altogether?

If the head pressure calculator has any bearing, the mag 7 pump + koralia will give me around 1050gph total flow. I do have diffusers to spread that out on the koralia, the emperor box would take care of the mag 7.

 

[Rivercats]

For the most part you don't vacuum planted tanks unless you have an open section of substrate. Reason being is you don't want to risk damaging plant roots. I never vacuum my planted tanks. You can and every couple of weeks lightly brush your hand over and or through the plants to keep any detris from settling on leaves.

Now if you use a commercial plant substrate like Eco Complete it has what is called a high CEC, cation exchange capacity, which can absorb nurtients from detris and the water and hold them for plant use later on.

Small particles of detris in the water column in a planted tank is just waste for the most part. Plants use ammonia and nitrates along with phosphates that are produced by fish, plant waste, and some fish foods but mostly detris in the water is just pollution. A 50% WC weekly keeps water pristine.

Once you get the tank running and plants in you'll have to see how much flow there is in the tank. Remember you only want enough flow to make plants gently sway.

 

[kdogg85]

Well throw the emperor out the window, it's in the dump somewhere.

I got the 125 plus the 29 sump cleaned out finally, yuck.

I have a bunch of credit with a lfs and they had only one bag of eco,
Said it would be 2-3 weeks, I'll wait because I have about 2 months before that credit is gone. I got the bag and prime, big start I suppose, plus a Marlboro discus was checking me out, hmmm.

I have an eshopps overflow, the drawbox(in tank part is cracked) the drain box is fine. Could I stuff a couple sponges in the drain box and let that be my pump outlet, have to do a little acrylic surgery, but will save me money on a filter.

There's a pic on what I've got so far. Gotta start somewhere.

 

[Rivercats]

You know if you look on line you can often find a much cheaper price and free shipping on Eco. Last time I got it from Fosters and Smith when they had it on sale and got free shipping for an order over $49.

 

[Sillyfishies]

Well throw the emperor out the window, it's in the dump somewhere.

I got the 125 plus the 29 sump cleaned out finally, yuck.

I have a bunch of credit with a lfs and they had only one bag of eco,
Said it would be 2-3 weeks, I'll wait because I have about 2 months before that credit is gone. I got the bag and prime, big start I suppose, plus a Marlboro discus was checking me out, hmmm.

I have an eshopps overflow, the drawbox(in tank part is cracked) the drain box is fine. Could I stuff a couple sponges in the drain box and let that be my pump outlet, have to do a little acrylic surgery, but will save me money on a filter.

There's a pic on what I've got so far. Gotta start somewhere.

The overflow with some biomedia, sponges, and polyfill would be fine.

 

[kdogg85]

I would order if I didn't need to burn the store credit, one store is good for fish, I went to the one good for supplies.

It's a 900gph box so it's roughly the same size as a 400. I'll get to work on plumbing in the morning, and I'll start my build thread.

However, I think I may try an experiment with the 29, but that's another show.

 

[kdogg85]

Didn't get started yet, I broke down and ordered the rest of the eco, couldn't stand it.

I'm going to silicone the drawbox to the bottom back corner of the rank and use it for my inlet strainer. What silicone should I use, used to be ge1, but I can't find that anywhere anymore.

 

[Rivercats]

You can't find aquarium silicone?

 

[kdogg85]

Yes, but it's high for that small tube. I used GE-1 on my sump for the reef, but I can't find it anymore around here. Never had any trouble from it. I was just wondering if there was another brand, or is just any 100% pure silicone ok? It can't have any inhibitors obviously.

 

[Rivercats]

Either look for it online or start a new thread asking about it BECAUSE this came up awhile back and someone posted what type of silicone that is safe for aquarium use and can be gotten at most hardware stores on that thread. Wish I could be more help.

 

[kdogg85]

Reading around was a waste, just a bunch of useless arguing that answered nothing. For what I need to do, I guess I'll just break down and buy the aga stuff.

RC, thank you for the help as well as the others.