will this work?

[ididit1119]

I am shooting for a FOWLR tank. I don't plan on upgrading to coral or anything out of my league just yet I want to get the basics down first. I have two canister filters that came with the package I bought from the paper in the town I live in. I am planning on getting cured live rock from the LFS and thats it. No LS or CC because everyone said it is easier to keep clean with the other. You will be able to see when the tank needs vacuuming or cleaned without the guess work. I understand I need a skimmer for this setup, Can the skimmer be relocated to under the stand? I am wanting to keep this clean looking as possible since it will be center of living room piece. some one said here that just LR would be fine with no other filter system just the skimmer but that doesn't seem right does it don't you want some type of filter system? I am new so please bear with me with all the questions. Thanks 2 everyone who is willing to help the rookie!!!!

 

[Innovator]

I think you have much reading to do first;

Biological filtration: BioFiltration
Mechanical filtration: MarMechFilt
Chemical filtration: Chemical Filtrants
Liverock: Live Rock
Protein Skimmers: SkimrArt

These pages are all in layman's terms, geared towards beginners. Please do take the time to read thoroughly. The skimmer can be relocated under the stand IF your tank is drilled for some type of overflow. There are hang-on-back (hob) overflows, but I do not recommend them because of failure %'s. If your tank is not drilled then you would have to purchase an hob skimmer.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

No LS or CC because everyone said it is easier to keep clean with the other. You will be able to see when the tank needs vacuuming or cleaned without the guess work.

I am wanting to keep this clean looking as possible since it will be center of living room piece.

While it's true that it's easy to vacuum the bottom of a bare bottom tank (no sand, no substrate at all), it's also true that it will show everything as far as gunk. Fish poop, uneaten food, just general junk... it'll all be very visible unless you plan on vacuuming every other day or so. With substrate, you normally don't really vacuum it or disturb it anyway. Maybe a light vacuuming on the top layer, but that's it. There's many folks that never touch it at all and just let their cleanup crew (snails, crabs, some sand sifting fish) do their job.

I believe most folks that go bare bottom do so because they're keeping SPS corals and they can have a HUGE amount of flow in the tank and not worry about disturbing the sand. In addition, they do tend to vacuum all the time to keep their water parameters perfect. But they also loose out on the buffering ability of the sand - the ability to keep pH stable.

Going bare bottom is something you should do some reading up on before deciding that's the way you want to go. Just because some guy at a LFS said it's the way to go, doesn't mean it may be the way to go for you. If you're not interested in corals, I don't see the need to do it. Then again... it'd be easy to add it later down the road if you decide otherwise.

I understand I need a skimmer for this setup, Can the skimmer be relocated to under the stand?

Depends on if you have a sump. A skimmer will pull from a body of water, either your tank (a Hang-On-Back skimmer) or your sump (a sump model). You don't plumb them like a cannister filter where you have a intake line and a return line.

 

[melosu58]

Sounds like very good info so far. I would suggest going LR and LS. But ultimately the decision is yours. Bare bottom can be done and effectively but just read up on it.