Filtration confusion

[Kam]

I have been reading as much as I can on this topic and still find myself confused.

I have a 55 gal with a light bio-load. I have 100 lbs of live rock and cc bottom. There are three power heads in the tank for circulation.

My question is, I also have a HOB Penguin 330 filter. Do I use the carbon filter cartridges and bio-wheels or not? I have read that it is better to remove both and use some small pieces of LR. Do I need this filter at all?? It's a little noise.

Thanks!!

 

[lando]

Honestly, with 100lbs of LR in a 55gal tank you do not really need it. It will provide additional flow in your tank and is a great place to run chemical filtration like carbon. For SW it is a better choice to remove the biowheels and replace them with LR rubble. Biowheels do tend to produce NO3, however, with enough LR and other biofiltration it may not even be notiable. How are your water paramters?

 

[Kam]

Water parms seem to be good, except NO3 does not drop even after a large water change.

I turned off the pengiun. I will check water parms daily to see the effect.

Thanks!

 

[malkore]

Your CC substrate is likely your NO3 source. it's very difficult to fully vaccum, so you have a lot of trapped detris.

 

[Kam]

Thanks!

I am in the process of putting together a 120 Gal that will have a DSB. This project will not be done for several months so I was looking for something I could do in the mean time.