Filtration

[Ocicat]

I am reading The Conscientious Marine Aquarist as recommended. I am enjoying it very much and learning a lot, although Fenner isn't as specific on many points as I would like. (Or maybe I'm just slow and need my hand held. )

Am I to understand that if you have plentiful live rock & a protein skimmer, you don't need much -- if any -- other filtration?

The $360 sump an LFS recommended to me has a built-in wet/dry filtration system with bio-balls. Is that a bad idea if you also plan to have a lot of live rock?

 

[gfishguy56]

That book is a great read and he is right. All i use for filtration is live rock and a protein skimmer.
Also, do yourself and your wallet a favor, forego the $360 sump and go to Walmart or wherever and pick yourself up the biggest Rubbermaid tub($20 or less) that can fit in your space. I have 2 30gal ones underneath my 125gal and i have room for a 3rd. Skip the bioballs and fill one of the sumps with rubble/base/tufa rock, get yourself a good protein skimmer, I recommend Aqua C, and enjoy your new set up...

 

[HoopsGuru]

Agree 100%, but I prefer to place all of the liverock in the display tank if possible. Having it piled on the sump floor traps detritus where it is hard to remove and creates the same nitrates bioballs do. I try to keep as much suspended as possible to be utilized by filter feeders, removed through the skimmer, etc.

 

[Ocicat]

$20 vs $360 sounds great to me. The rubber doesn't cause any problems for the water, and the salt/water doesn't cause any problems for the rubber?

Do you have your heaters & the skimmer in the Rubbermaid?

Can you use part of this as a refugium or is that really a separate issue altogether? I don't want to spend money on a lot of unnecessary bells & whistles, but everyone seems to insist on quarantining new & sick fish, so I'm trying to work that into the equation, too.

 

[HoopsGuru]

The containers are made of thicker plastic, I've used regular trash cans to mix and hold water with no problems.

Heaters and skimmer can go in fine.

The only hard part with a fuge would be trying to partition an area to hold the sand/algae. Someone that has done this successfully will hopefully chime in with any tips.

 

[gfishguy56]

I have a hang on skimmer, so no skimmer in the sump for me.
The refugium is simple, you can do as Hoopsguru does and leave all your liverock in the display tank and use one of the Rubbermaid tubs as your refugium. Don't even trouble yourself with dividers and silicone.
Build a platform about 2 - 3 inches high for the Refugium tub to rest on, drill two holes as close to the top of the tub and insert bulkheads. Then using PVC elbows, have gravity naturally drain that water into your main sump where your pump will shoot the water back up to the tank. i hope i explained that right..

A small clarification on my sump set up.
The sump i use for all my base/rubble/tufa rock has a 3 inch sandbed. it looks much nicer than bare bottom, even though the only light it receives is when i'm nosying around with my flashlight searching for copepods and such critters...

 

[Ocicat]

Yesterday someone told me that the Rubbermaid tubs won't fit inside most stands, b/c most stands are at most 24" wide and the big tubs are 36". Do you have an unusually big stand, or do you keep the tub somewhere else, or is he mistaken?

The refugium is simple, you can do as Hoopsguru does and leave all your liverock in the display tank and use one of the Rubbermaid tubs as your refugium. Don't even trouble yourself with dividers and silicone.
Build a platform about 2 - 3 inches high for the Refugium tub to rest on, drill two holes as close to the top of the tub and insert bulkheads. Then using PVC elbows, have gravity naturally drain that water into your main sump where your pump will shoot the water back up to the tank. i hope i explained that right..

So the water drains down from the main tank into the refugium and from that into the sump? Sounds easy enough. I do want everything to fit in the cabinet below the tank, though-- I won't have anywhere else to keep it out of sight.

Do fish quarantined in a refugium need light?

 

[seaham358]

A refugium needs light for the micro algae or caluerpa. You do NOT want to QT fish in your fuge, becasue if there is anything wrong with them it will end up in the tank.
You QT fish in a small tank not attached to your system.
Is your tank drilled for over flows or are you going to use over flow boxes?
You can make your own sump if you dont want to use a rubbermaid tub, use a fish tank converted into a sump.
Like the others I run LR in the tank with a sump w/skimmer and NO bioballs or LR rubble in the sump for the reason Hoops states.

 

[gfishguy56]

sorry, i misspoke earlier. i use 2 20gal rubbermaid tubs in my sump, not 30gals. they fit down there just fine..

 

[gfishguy56]

sorry, i misspoke earlier. i use 2 20gal rubbermaid tubs in my sump, not 30gals. they fit down there just fine..

 

[greenmaji]

rubbermaid does make larger more rigid containers for livestock watering.. that have a bulkhead already intalled for an external pump but the options other then a prefab sump are quite alot.. building them out of glass or acrylic tanks are also options.. HTH

 

[Ocicat]

A refugium needs light for the micro algae or caluerpa. You do NOT want to QT fish in your fuge, becasue if there is anything wrong with them it will end up in the tank.
You QT fish in a small tank not attached to your system.

Yikes -- I wondered about that but since it seems like others do QT in their fugre, I decided most fish diseases must be passed by being in close proximity to each other or something...

How long do you QT for and how elaborate does that tank need to be? So I basically have to maintain two successful tanks & not just one? 8O I mean, I assume if I need to quarantine a new fish or invertebrate that isn't especially hardy, my QT tank needs to be tip-top...

Is your tank drilled for over flows or are you going to use over flow boxes?
You can make your own sump if you dont want to use a rubbermaid tub, use a fish tank converted into a sump.
Like the others I run LR in the tank with a sump w/skimmer and NO bioballs or LR rubble in the sump for the reason Hoops states.

I don't have anything yet! I'm still shopping around & researching what I need to look for in all the equipment. I have decided to get a tank w/built-in overflows, though -- probably the MegaFlow from All-Glass, either 125- or 180-gal. And I will definitely go for the LR/protein skimmer filtration method. That's about all I have figured out, though!

 

[Ocicat]

sorry, i misspoke earlier. i use 2 20gal rubbermaid tubs in my sump, not 30gals. they fit down there just fine..

Oh good -- I will plan to do that, then!