reef questions

[scuba_steve]

hello all !! new to this forum but like what i see and read !! for starters ive had a sw fish only system for over 7 years was not really all that serious with it but due to lvl 5 fish all was good !!! lol have made drastic changes the past few months to make their lives better and the fish cupid got me again!! heheh planning a trip to the keys in may and was planning on bring back some goodies for my first reef tank !! ive read so many books about diff set ups and some use bio filters on there reef and others dont ¿? why¿? i read that the LR will do my bio-filtering but isnt more better¿? i understand that mechanical filtering isnt ideal cause most critters are filter feeders right ¿? but most skimmers or at least mine has a sponge on it which would be doing this!!! also wondering why backpac skimmers are so popular?¿? mabe size but with all my reading that would be the last skimmer to buy¿?¿ due to most say the taller the better ?!¿! 2nd am curious if anyone uses miracle mud filtering in stead of wet/dry ?!?!? was doing some reading about the miracle mud filter and they stated that no skimmer would be needed ¿!¿ true / false ?¿? i like the eco system seams a better way to go cause it more natural?!?!?and would this work for a reef?? sound more like a refuim to me ?? also what is the ideal flow rate for a reef set up in a 55 gallon when my fish were in there one being a 12" spotted puffer i had close to 1348 gallons (2500 rio/2 550 powerheads 150 each / skimmer 150 guessing / wet dry filter 150 guessing)an hour pumping thru it heheheh but kept it very very cleen !!! now all fish are in a 70 gallon and doing good i built my own wet dry which leads to whats the best flow rate there(over the balls) ?? i set it up that my magnum 350 sucks water out the tank and into a trash can full of balls and the rio pump pumping water back to the tank !! NO BULK HEAD the mag pumps more water than the rio but if ya switch the intake and the exhaust lines the intake to the magnum will only be an inch or two below the surface!! so when the water starts to get low in the tank it starts a whirlpool and sucks a little bit of air which slows the flow till the rio catches up !!! been working great for 2 months now !!! worst thing i see happening is i burn up a impeller/pump right¿?¿ my sump is marked and the water stays at the line i want !! makes a bit of a slurping sound every now and then but so be it !! not an issue for me !!! read about people making theres and what now but for me this is working great if anyone sees any issues with this let me know please !!! sorry so long just reading and confused somewhat

[fishfreek]

Question. what do you mean when you say...

but due to lvl 5 fish

Now on to your post.

planning a trip to the keys in may and was planning on bring back some goodies for my first reef tank

Dont wanna burst your bubble but make sure your read up on the local laws if you plan on collecting stuff in the wild. I belive collection in the coral reefs off of FL is illegal unless you have approprate permits or go far enough off shore that your in international waters.

Sure more is better as far as filtration when your talking fish only. But since many corals are filter feeders then having to good of a filtration system will cause your corals to compete with your filters.

I dont use the miracle mud system but basicly its just a refugium from my understanding. I dont have one nor do I run a skimmer.

Taller is better for a skimmer because you want to prolong the contact time the water has with the air bubbles. The longer the contact time the more efficent the skimmer will be.

Flow rates should be at least 10 X the capacity of your tank in my book. Remember head height when factoring how much your pumps are flowing. If youhave a pump on a sump or filter under the tank then its flow rate will be lower than if you had it level with the tank.

Im very confused as to what you describe at the end about your 70. I think you need to redo your setup on it so you hve water going into an overflow at the tank and then down to your trashcan full of bioballs. Then have your return pump going back up to your tank. This way you will never have to worry about the pump taking water out of your tank being faster or slower than the pump putting water back in. Just make sure you size your overflow to accept the GPH that your return pump will put out.

FYI, would be easier to read if you could seperate teh items into paragraphs.

[scuba_steve]

sorry thought about that afterwards that i should of just wrote mabe 3 diff forums

anyway lvl 5 fish just very hardy ones most books i read show lvl of difficulty that all

as the keys go it all good there

am curious why ya dont run a skimmer??? are ya doing more water changes ?? i hadnt ran one for years but now that i have one like the results !!! but one issue is the amount that they need to be adjusted wondering if anyone has thought of adding some type of suction to the collection cup to help pull more foam out instead of watching it raise an half inch and then fall again?!?!?!? might work !! just a though

my 70 is running great with the two pumps know what ya saying but with out mulla it works !! attorneys suck hehehe enough said !!!

thanks for the responce but one final question for my new reef what in your opinion would be the ideal set up ?!?!? i would have thought a good protien skimmer in a sump and a few power heads and a refugium?!?!

[fishfreek]

I dont run a skimmer because in my own experence with my tanks i dont have enough bioload to cuase my skimmer to produce skim on any real frequent basis. It might take me over a week to get 1/2 cup of skim collected.

I ran my tanks skimmerless for 6 months then put a skimmer on them to see if my water had more DOC in it with out the skimmer and it still did not really produce much skim.

IF you have a larger bioload or feed more heavily than a skimmer woudl benifit.

I dont run a skimmer because in my own experence with my tanks i dont have enough bioload to cuase my skimmer to produce skim on any real frequent basis. It might take me over a week to get 1/2 cup of skim collected.

Mine is running about that every 2 weeks. I only feed once a day, and it is seeming senseless to keep running it. maybe I will stop running it for a while and turn t on and see what happens..

[Hara]

heh, I empty the cup twice a day ...that cheap ole seaclone must be doing some good.

I dont think this has anything to do with a faulty skimmer though...I just don't think there is that much garbage in the water...It is crystal clear, just like Mark told me it would be, some time ago. I guess that if you only feed once a day, and a treat once or twice a week, the DOC content isn't that high, providing you have enough creatures to eat the waste. It does spark an interesting theory. I think I might write an article on DOC.