75 gallon reef tank...and canister filter

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Lemonsong

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 19, 2006
Messages
74
Location
Canada
Hello everyone out there. I am a new member to this site and I decided to put it to some use. Im starting my first reef tank and im very excited. I was given a 75 gallon aquarium with stand.

Well I have a couple questions...but first let me stress to you that I have been reading for years about this hobby, I work at a fish store so I deal with the fish all the time, I take care of other peoples fish tanks while there away so im not new to this. Its just a couple tenical questions that I have.

Since it is hard for me to get the tank drilled and have a overflow put in and put a trickle filter in the stand (which is what I want) is it ok to go with a canister filter? Thats a huge question that I dont know the awnser to.


As of this point I was looking at any medications the people who owned the tank had put in...as far as I know they seem to be nothin to "harsh" thats stays a residue on the glass. It was just some ich cure, algea away, and some declorinator/fish helper. So I dont think none of those will have any effect on the fish as long as I scrub it down with boiling water, then a vinger water solution. I should be ok right?

Well as of this point I have no other questions but I will keep posted of anymore I have. So thanks a million in advance and happy fish keeping :)
 
Welcome aboard!!!!

You will get lots of great help and meet great SW people here!!!

1st, ***DO NOT USE BOILING WATER ON YOUR TANK*** ;)

2nd, I have only used a sump or wet dry system, so I do not know about the canisters... but I am sure I have seen members here mention them... edit your post title with Canister in it... bet you get some replies :)

What are you planning on keeping in there? FOWLR or REEF? I bet you are super excited!
 
its gonna be a reef tank and yes trust me I use boiling water all the time on my reptile tanks...it gets rid of alot of crap. but thanks for replying so fast and I will change my title to have canister in it :p
 
First off, Welcome to Aquarium Advice!!!!!!


Secondly,
Since you plan on going reef, I will offer what help I can.

Lighting will be the most important factor in a reef, but in order to help you figure out which lighting, what kind of budget are you working with? After knowing this, we can figure out if you would/could get halides, power compacts, VHOs, T5s, etc.

Protein Skimmer: I use a Coralife Superskimmer which I absolutely love. Its honestly a little sickening to see all the crap thats in the water. Ew. Just steer clear from Seaclones (they suck without heavy modding)

Live Rock, you could either buy a bunch of live rock. Or if you don't mind waiting, get maybe 40lbs dried reef bones (base rock) and 35-40lbs of LR. General rule is 1-1.5lbs of LR per gallon of water.

Substrate: Some will preach sand, some will preach crushed coral, and some rebels will tell you to go bare bottom. Honestly it's all what you want to look at. I like the look of the sand personally.

As for the canister filter, I'm not too well versed on these. On my tank I have a phosban reactor running the phos-ban media and carbon which returns through a spraybar. This set up seems to work well, all levels are zero.

You would be fine with just a skimmer and a good amount of live rock/sand. But I feel more comfortable having some type of mechanical filtration running which is why I have the phosban/carbon reactor running.



Hope this helps,

Matt
 
Hey you have the same name as me :p and dont worry I know all that stuff the only thing I found benifical was the brand of skimmer you use. Everything else I have a grasp on. Lighting will be metal halides and there will be 100+ pounds live rock. But if you have any other advice I would love to hear it.
 
Heh, just be patient. Don't rush into adding fish. And most importantly, have fun and keep us updated on your new tank!

Good luck,
Matt
 
I've had a canister filter for the past three years and hosted a number of corals, inverts and fish. It's a myth from (in my opinion) folks who don't have the experience with both canister filters and wet/dry.

A filter's purpose is to filter. The arguement of "bacteria levels" is utter fud if you have enough live rock.

In the three years I've had one I have made mistakes yes such as over feeding, insufficient light, etc but never have I ever had an amonia, nitrite or nitrate issue.

Phosphates YES I have had issue with but that was taken into check with appropritae knowledge on feeding and lighting. I say lighting because as my golfball died off bit by bit I had serious cyno issues (golfballs requires lot of light), high phosphate levels and so forth. By keeping appropriate corals for my lighting I haven't had any cyno issues anymore.

Anyways, I'm rambling... I was speaking to a LFS chain owner and he was saying the "current" thing is refrigums, and wet/dry is out.

In short, canister filters are fine. Keep up the filter pad changes (as you would in wet/dry) and ensure you have enough live rock (as you should anyways) and you'll be fine.
 
I use a Magnum 350 canister And it seems so far to work great :) It has dual capabilities. It can be a mechanical/chemical filter as well as a water polisher. (i used the water polisher to help with the sand cloudyness and it worked great)

HTH
 
If they have done “ich treatments” then it could have involved using copper sulfate. I’d run Cuprisorb for a couple of weeks in the filter before adding any lr or substrate to the tank to be on the safe side.

I couldn’t find any info on “Algae Away”. It could be a FW algae treatment which could lead to trouble also. I’d try to get the exact name for all products used to “treat” this tank.

That’s the big risk of getting a used tank unfortunately. There are so many inexperienced aquarists who inadvertently put all kinds of chemicals in the tank without understanding the root cause of why they might be getting algae/sickness. If it was FO then it wouldn’t be that big of a deal but with a reef it’s so much easier to start with a fresh tank or to buy a reef tank from someone you trust.

I have used the HOT Magnum 250 which does 250 gph for over 8 years (same one) without having to replace any parts and personally feel it’s one of the best. As Joester2k3 said it also comes with a micron filter which polishes the water quickly if needed.

6 months ago I bought the Magnum 350 which only costs about $10 more and love it even more. Unlike the HOT 250 it doesn’t hang on the back and can be kept below the stand. It also does 350 gph.

With any canister you have to be diligent about keeping it clean (every other week) or else it could build up excess waste on the filter material and raise your no3. I’ve never experienced a no3 reading above 5 ppm and clean it every 2-3 weeks. For the last 6 months my no3 has been <2.5 ppm or undetectable. I should also mention I do 10-20% weekly or every other week depending on my schedule.
 
O k well thanks for all your info guys and I will keep you posted on my tank :D But I took a step today and bought the fluval fX (because I work for a fish store I get all the new models) it does 960 gph and its good up to a tank for 400 us gallons so I went for it. Only set me back $300 with my discount, so I think I will be doing just fine. As of right now im gonna find so media to put it in. And in my log book I will remind myself to change the media every couple of weeks.
 
And what are the best media to put into the filter? do you guys have any preferneces?
 
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